The White River people historically spoke Upper Tanana, an Athabaskan language.
The Upper Tanana territory once extended from the Donjek River into neighbouring Alaska.
Closely related through marriages between various local bands, these two language groups were merged by the Canadian government into a single White River Indian Band in the early 1950s for administrative convenience.
The White River First Nation participated in negotiations for a land claims agreement and had reached a memorandum of understanding on most issues, but the parties were not able to reach a final agreement to put forward to ratification by WRFN citizens.
The Federal Government mandate to negotiate land claims in the Yukon[1] expired on March 31, 2005 and on April 1 the Federal Government announced that discussions with the WRFN "will no longer involve the possibility of concluding land claim and self-government agreements" and will instead focus "on how best to advance the interest of White River under the provisions of the Indian Act.