Indigenous peoples in Yukon

Traditionally hunter-gatherers, indigenous peoples and their associated nations retain close connections to the land, the rivers and the seasons of their respective countries or homelands.

European contact and invasion brought many changes to the native cultures of Yukon including land loss and non-traditional governance and education.

However, indigenous people in Yukon continue to foster their connections with the land in seasonal wage labour such as fishing and trapping.

[6] Relatives of the Gwichʼin, the Hän, live at the middle reach of the Yukon River at the border with Alaska.

Missionaries of many Christian denominations wrote dictionaries, grammars and religious texts in the indigenous languages, often with the assistance of translators.

[4]: 5 Knowledge about many aspects of pre contact tradition such as animal behaviour, land use, subsistence, textiles, language and spirituality comes from the oral history of indigenous people and from the work of scientists such as archeologists and anthropologists.

[4]: 3 Through the 1800s, indigenous people, such as the Hän, along the Alaska-Yukon border trapped for furs to trade for European manufactured items.

[11] The Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 was a seminal moment in post contact history of the indigenous people of the Yukon.

[13][14] In 1973, the Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow petition was presented by Elijah Smith to the prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

[18] In the 2012 Youth identities, localities, and visual material Culture, K. Eglinton said only twelve percent were fluent in the language of their nation.

Chief Isaac, (pictured top right) of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation had a camp here during the Klondike Gold Rush.

[52] Other territorial parks that reflect First Nations heritage are: [59] Although the Inuvialuit no longer reside in Yukon they did traditionally.