Indigenous peoples of Yukon

The Indigenous peoples of Yukon refer to the inhabitants of Canada's Yukon territory whose descendants lived in the region before the arrival of European settlers. The Canadian government considers Indigenous peoples to be members of First Nations bands, Métis, and Inuit. Métis are mixed-race descendants of First Nations people and Europeans while the Inuit are Indigenous residents of the northernmost regions of North America. Through centuries of interaction, the lines between many of the Yukon's Indigenous peoples have been blurred as many groups share geographical and cultural ties. As of the 2021 Canadian Census, the Indigenous population of Yukon was 8,815, more than one-fifth of the territory's total population.

Demographics

Yukon is a 186,000-square-mile territory located in the most northwestern section of Canada. Under Canadian law, a territory is an administrative division operating under the authority of the central government in Ottawa. Yukon borders the Canadian Northwest Territories to the east, British Columbia to the south, and Alaska to the west. The territory is mountainous and mostly covered in wilderness. It is home to Canada's largest peak, the 19,850-foot Mount Logan located in the territory's southwest corner. Yukon's temperature ranges from an average high of 61.1 degrees Fahrenheit in July to an average low of -16.8 degrees Fahrenheit in January. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was -81 degrees Fahrenheit, measured in 1947 in the village of Snag, Yukon.

In 2024, Yukon was one of the least populated of Canada's fourteen provinces and territories with a population of 45,750 people. Nearly three-quarters of the territory's population lived in the district capital of Whitehorse, a city of 34,467 located in the southern part of the territory. About 3,000 people lived in the two next-largest towns—Watson Lake and Dawson City. The remainder of the population is rural with only two communities reporting more than 1,500 residents. According to the 2021 Census, the latest available source for Indigenous population figures, Yukon was home to 8,805 Indigenous people. Of those, 6,935 were First Nations people, 1,285 were Métis, 260 were Inuit, and the remainder reported being another Indigenous identity. More than half of the Indigenous population lived in Whitehorse.

Background

The first people to migrate to North America are believed to have crossed into modern-day Alaska and Northern Canada over a land bridge in the Bering Strait at least 13,000 to 15,500 years ago. Hints of human habitation in the Yukon region date back about 16,000 years, but the earliest definitive proof humans had settled in the area is about 12,000 years old. The first inhabitants of Yukon were most likely the ancestors of the Inuit. The ancestors of the First Nations people are believed to have settled in the region about 10,000 years ago. These early groups were hunter-gatherer societies who relied primarily on bison, caribou, and fish for their food and clothing.

The Indigenous peoples of Yukon joined together in their seasonal hunts and searched for food, defining their own territories and forming social bonds among families. The various First Nations groups adopted similar social structures, languages, and spiritual beliefs. Their societies were communal with few divisions in status and an informal leadership structure. Traditional religion was based on animism, the belief that spirits inhabited the animals and objects of the natural world. The only way to communicate with the spirits was through a shaman, a religious leader believed to be able to cure illness, wield mystical spells, and bring good luck to the group. While the Inuit shared similar spiritual beliefs, they developed a distinct language and different lifestyle more adapted to the frozen climate of the Arctic regions. Inuit societies became hunting-based and relied on the resources of the sea for survival.

These Indigenous cultures maintained their traditional ways of life for centuries until the arrival of Russian and European explorers in the eighteenth century. The Inuit and First Nations groups of Yukon—at the time named Tlingit, Tagish, Tutchone, Kutchin, Hän, and Kaska by the Europeans—were initially happy to become trade partners with the newcomers. European-made goods such as knives, axes, and pots were in high demand. The foreigners, however, also unwittingly brought diseases such as smallpox with them, and within a few years the Indigenous population had been decimated.

By the 1840s, fur traders began advancing into the Yukon territory and half a century later, the discovery of gold brought thousands of outsiders to the region. Spurred on by the gold rush, towns such as Whitehouse and Dawson City sprang into existence and Yukon was incorporated into the Confederation of Canada as a territory in 1898. Some Indigenous people turned to fur tapping to make a living; others found work as guides and porters for the influx of prospectors. In 1901, the population of the territory had grown to 27,219; less than a decade later the gold boom went bust, however, and by 1921 the population had fallen to 4,157. The native people made up the majority of Yukon's population until the 1940s. When a new highway opened up the territory to mineral exploration, the non-Indigenous population surpassed that of the natives for the first time.

After decades of being exploited by outsiders and pushed off of their lands, several First Nations peoples joined together in 1968 to form the Yukon Native Brotherhood, an advocacy group seeking recognition of Indigenous rights. In 1993, the group reached an agreement with the Canadian government granting self-governing status and millions of dollars in investment funding to the First Nations bands that signed the pact. By 2021, eleven of the fourteen First Nations bands in Yukon had signed the agreement.

Overview

The First Nations people of Yukon speak eight major languages. Seven of those—Gwitchin, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, Upper Tanana, Northern and Southern Tutchone, Tagish, and Kaska—belong to the Athabaskan language family, one of the largest groupings in North America. The eighth, Tlingit, is a distant relative of Athabaskan and is often included with the Athabaskan languages under the umbrella term Na-Dene. At one time, the name of the Indigenous language was also used to refer to the First Nations group. Over the years, however, interactions and intermarriages have merged some group identities, making a definition of cultural boundaries difficult. In the 1950s, the Canadian government attempted to reduce the number of First Nations bands in the country by consolidating several groups. Decades later, some bands reclaimed their cultural identity and re-established themselves as singular units. In 2021, the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada listed fourteen registered First Nations bands in Yukon.

The traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation runs along the Yukon River from Lake Laberge north of Whitehorse to Marsh Lake south of the city. The Kwanlin Dun First Nation is estimated to be the largest in Yukon, with about one thousand registered members. They are descended from the Tagish and also incorporate members of the Tutchone and Tlingit. Kwanlin Dun means "people of the rapids" in the Southern Tutchone language. Like many peoples of the region, Kwanlin Dun society is clan-based, with people split into two units, Wolf and Crow.

The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, formerly known as the Hän, reside along the Klondike River near Dawson City on the Alaska-Yukon border. Their name means "people of the Klondike region." The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in were skilled at spearing and trapping fish during the summers and hunting caribou and moose in winter. During the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, many Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in were forced from their homeland and onto a reserve. In 1998, the Canadian government granted them the right of self-governance and 1,000-square-miles (2,590 sq km) of land in their traditional territory. In the twenty-first century, the Tr'ondek Hwech'in were developing a farming and greenhouse system to grow healthy food to share with other communities in central Yukon.

The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation live in the remote northern reaches of Yukon near the village of Old Crow. The language of the Gwitchin, or Kutchin, people gave the territory its name. Yukon is derived from the Gwitchin word Yu-kun-ah, or "great river." The community can only be accessed by aircraft or by traveling down the Porcupine River by canoe. The Vuntut Gwitchin, or "people of the lakes," rely on caribou hunting as their main source of food, clothing, and other resources. They are also accomplished trappers, traveling to the region north of Old Crow for three months during muskrat trapping season. The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations is part owner of Air North, a Whitehorse-based airline that services Yukon and Western Canada.

In 1902, Chief Jim Boss of the Ta'an Kwach'an was the first of Yukon's native peoples to petition the Canadian government seeking the right of self-governance and compensation for lost ancestral land. While Boss did not get the response he desired, his effort is viewed as the beginning of lands-claims negotiations with the government. The Ta'an Kwach'an are descended from the Southern Tutchone and reside near Whitehorse.

The Teslin Tlingit Council

The majority of the more than twenty-one thousand members of the Teslin Tlingit Council live across the United States border in the coastal regions of southern Alaska. In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of Tlingit traders moved inland and settled near Teslin Lake in southern Yukon. While the Tlingit population in Yukon is relatively small—about 850 registered in 2021—the Tlingit have had a great impact on other First Nations people in the region. The Tlingit clan system of the Raven and Eagle influenced that of the Tutchone and Tagish, who refer to theirs as the Wolf and Crow. Many Tagish, such as the Kwanlin Dun, have also adopted the Tlingit language.

The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations are Southern Tutchone people named after two traditional settlements in southwestern Yukon: Champagne Landing on the Dezadeash River and Aishihik Lake. The Champagne and Aishihik are one of the largest First Nations bands in Yukon and have forged a strong trading relationship with the Tlingit.

Based in Carcross, a village south of Whitehorse near the British Columbia border, the Carcross-Tagish First Nation are closely related to the Tlingit and share the dual-clan system of Wolf and Crow. The Carcross-Tagish practice the potlach ceremony, a traditional community feast marked by the giving of gifts and redistribution of goods.

The Liard First Nation at Watson Lake near the British Columbia border and the Ross River Dena Council at Ross River in central Yukon are both members of the Kaska First Nation. The Kaska have yet to sign a land treaty with the Canadian government. The Selkirk First Nation in Pelly Crossing, the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun in Mayo, and the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation in Carmacks, inhabit lands in central Yukon and are members of the Northern Tutchone. The Kluane First Nation is Southern Tutchone and is located in Burwash Landing, southwestern Yukon. The White River First Nation is a small community of Upper Tanana people in Beaver Creek near the Alaskan border.

The mixed-race Métis have long been caught in a legal grey area between Canadians of French and English descent and First Nations people. While they have been recognized by the government as Indigenous peoples, the Métis were not granted the same rights as the First Nations and Inuit. In 2016, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the Métis and non-status Indians—First Nations people not registered with the government—will receive the same federal protections as other Indigenous peoples.

The 260 Inuit in Yukon are part of a population of about 155,792 that stretches across the Arctic regions from Greenland to Siberia. Living in a frozen, treeless climate, the Inuit rely on the seas for their livelihoods, fishing and hunting aquatic mammals such as seals, walrus, and whales. The Inuit language is distinct from the other Indigenous languages of Yukon. Yukon's Inuit speak a dialect known as Inupiaq, a member of the Eskimo-Aleut language family also spoken by the Inuit of Alaska.

Bibliography

"Aboriginal Peoples: Fact Sheet for Yukon." Statistics Canada, 29 Mar. 2016, www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-656-x/89-656-x2016012-eng.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

Clark, Annette McFadyen. "Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in (Han)." Canadian Encyclopedia, 4 Mar. 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/han/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017.

Census Profile, 2016 Census: Yukon [Territory] and Canada [Country]" Statstics Canada, 9 Aug. 2019, www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E. Accessed 20 Jan. 2021.

Coates, Ken, and William Morrison. Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005.

Coates, Ken, and Amanda Graham. "Yukon." State of Rural Canada, sorc.crrf.ca/yukon/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

"History." Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, www.oldcrow.ca/history.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

"Nations." Council of Yukon First Nations, www.cyfn.ca/nations/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

"Our First Nation." Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, www.kwanlindunculturalcentre.com/about-us/ourfirst-nation/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017.

"A Short History of the Ta'an Kwäch'än." Ta'an Kwäch'än Council, taan.ca/history/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2017.

"Statistics of Indigenous People." Statistics Canada, 21 Nov. 2024, www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/indigenous‗peoples. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

Tobin, Chuck. "Métis Decision 'Very, Very Exciting News.'" Whitehorse Daily Star, 20 April 2016, www.whitehorsestar.com/News/m-tis-decision-very-very-exciting-news. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

Wonders, William C. "Yukon." Canadian Encyclopedia, 8 Nov. 2016, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/yukon/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.