Kwanlin Dün First Nation
The Kwanlin Dun First Nation or First Nation Kwanlin fertilizer is the most numerous of the First Nations in the Yukon. Most of them live in Whitehorse, the capital of the territory. They belong to the Athabascan language family, more precisely to the Southern Tutchone. Many of them also have ancestors among the Tagish and Tlingit.
The name Kwanlin goes back to the name of the Miles Canyon and means " through the canyon flowing water".
Their traditional territory is located in the headwaters of the Yukon, they called Chu Nínkwän. It stretched between Marsh Lake and Lake Laberge and down river to Hootalinqua. Run back to the Tagish Kwan, who inhabit their traditional area for a long time.
To Kwanlin Dun First Nation, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development counted exactly 972 recognized Indians in December 2009.
History
Early History
Earliest livelihoods were the caribou herds, but also elk, sheep and marmots, hares and pikas Alaska. Then there were birds and fish, especially salmon. You create a nearly 4000 km long way over the Yukon River back. Again, live grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes and bobcats.
The harsh climate required a semi-nomadic life, where families in spring and summer camps for fishing came together, but also in the short autumn to hunt. The early groups lived in shelters made of twigs, branches and skins. The clothing was adapted to the climate.
Here were the relationships between the groups that moved as nomads in the southern Yukon and Alaska, extremely tight, even though they spoke different languages , such as Southern and Northern Tutchone, Upper Tanana, or Tagish Tlingit. These relationships they consolidated through regular trade contacts and joint celebrations, as well as by ties of blood. Also, their view of the world and their relationship was similar to their surroundings. Shamans did himself as a healer and were responsible for contacting with spiritual powers. They also helped in locating prey.
During less favorable times of the year attracted little family associations, with some variations followed their respective hiking cycle each year, through the entire traditional territory.
Finds from the Annie Lake and the Fish Lake indicate residents who already lived here around 8000 BC. Few people lived here only two major spearheads found in 1992 in an excavation. Fish there were in the just released by the ice landscape hardly. Characteristic of this period are tiny blades, which are called micro blades.
Around 4000 BC, the area was covered by sand dunes, but left behind a group of hunters traces of fire. The Northern Archaic could be assigned to an unusual spearhead that was first discovered at the Annie Lake, and is known as Annie Lake Point.
Forest fires blazed considerable erosion the way and sand dunes piled up again. Human traces missing. At the Annie Lake was a warehouse, from where the men hunted sheep, caribou and mountain goats. In 500 AD, the stock reached a peak intensity of use, the climate was more humid, dense forests.
To 750 is a huge volcanic eruption on the upper reaches of the White River, the large parts of the area occurred covered with ash. At the Annie Lake, however, there was only a thin layer of ash, which probably allowed to stay or to return at least a little later.
In 1994, Yukon Heritage Branch and Kwanlin fertilizer First Nation in collaboration with the Yukon Conservation Society and MacBride Museum an archaeological excavation in the ghost town of Canyon City in the Miles Canyon through. Probably also lived here after the end of the Ice Age people, but to prove they can be until 500 BC A projectile tip can indeed assign to the Agate Basin complex due to the processing way, so the time around 7000 BC, but was the tip in a charcoal layer, which could be dated to 600 BC.
The fur trade came shortly after 1800 by the Tlingit in the region, so that the local trade for the first time tied to global trade. Around 1880, large quantities already came here. This came European goods, such as guns, metal goods, axes, knives, as well as tobacco, tea, sugar and flour to the Kwanlin Dun and its neighbors. However, the procurement of food and social reasons for hikes continued to have priority. This also had to do with the fact that the Tlingit their fur trade monopoly defended up to the 80s.
George M. Dawson, who in 1887 commissioned by the government toured the region, registered trails and portages around Miles Canyon.
Klondike, Whitehorse
As in 1897, but especially in 1898 broke the Klondike Gold Rush on the sparsely populated region, some 100,000 people flocked to the gold fields. Most of them came from the Pacific Ocean over the only two passes to Lake Lindeman or Lake Bennett. There they built rafts and boats to overcome the 800 km to Dawson. The consumption of wood soared. Wintered in the winter of 1897/98 at both lakes 10,000 per men in tents. Entry in May 1898 drove around 7,000 boats down the Yukon. The trip led by numerous rapids as the Miles Canyon or the White Horse, Five Fingers, and The Rink.
A hotel, saloon, restaurant, shop, plus numerous huts and tents were erected in the early summer of 1898 each, but also with a station of the North West Mounted Police, as well as a blacksmith. 1899 tried John Hepburn, who also came from Victoria to make Macaulay competition by building a railway line on the other side of the river. Macaulay, in turn, also built one and could take over the competitor for $ 60,000 in June. Meanwhile, the White Pass and Yukon Railway was begun, which took its starting point from the Pacific Coast in Skagway. In August 1899 they bought the railway lines Macaulay for $ 185,000. In June 1900, the tramway Macaulay was redundant by the completion of the rail link. This also Canyon City disappeared within a short time, the Poli -time station was probably abandoned soon after October 1901. However, at least one Indian family moved to the ghost town.
In 1900, at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, requested Chief Jim Boss ( Kishxóot ) of the Ta'an Kwäch'än the Commissioner of the Yukon William Ogilvie, a 1,600 acre tract of reserve at Ta'an men. However, only 320 acres were granted to him. Therefore, the chief wrote in 1902 to the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa that the game will over hunting, and his people need a balance and compensation. He wrote: " Tell the King very hard we want something for our Indians, Because They take our land and our game. " But Ottawa said only the protection of the people and the minute reserve to. This exchange of letters is considered the first attempt to impose the Yukon land claims.
When the White Pass and Yukon Route ( WPYR ) company acquired the territory of the present town of White Horse, had the resident Indians to leave the area and move to the east bank of the Yukon - immediately north of the site of today's General Hospital. 1912, the group was moved again, this time to the point where there is the Robert Service Campground today. From there to Kishwoot Iceland resulted in several villages.
1915 called for Superintendent John Hawksley a reservation for the Indians. It took six years to its demand for a reserve north of Whitehorse was implemented. The area of 282.3 Acre area ( Lot 226 ) was in today's Marwell industrial area.
Alaska Highway, assimilation
1942 began the construction of the Alaska Highway. The population of Whitehorse jumped from 700 to 25,000 in 1953 was the place the territorial capital, sparking Dawson from. Until 1948, Ottawa withdrew after it was confiscated for road construction and military reasons the country, the Indian Reserve no. 8, the legal basis and therefore protected under the Indian Act. Thus, the tribe had no specific territory once again, yet all the Indians had to move from Whitehorse there.
Land claims and self-government, Kwanlin Dun First Nation
1956 forced the Department of Indian Affairs to merge several tribes, so that six strains, only three remained. The strains between Marsh Lake and Lake Laberge, especially Tagish Kwan and Ta'an Kwäch'än were amalgamated. Thus, the Whitehorse Indian Band, today's Kwanlin fertilizer First Nation was born. In 1962, the last Indian houses on the riverside trail from Whitehorse ( waterfront ), where now the SS Klondike is demolished, its inhabitants had to move to the reservation.
Only in 1987, the Ta'an Kwäch'än broke again from this association. They concluded in 2002 an agreement with the government that ensured them a self -governing reserve around Lake Laberge.
1972, a group of elders led by Elijah Smith, an Elder of the Kwanlin fertilizer, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau claims under the title Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow. The core of her message was that " without land Indians have no soul - no life, no identity - not a destination ". This conflict started at the land rights of the Indians in the Yukon.
Only in 1988 was the Kwanlin fertilizer First Nation to its present place of residence west pull of the Alaska Highway, on land that was earmarked for the construction of a pipeline that was never built ( McIntyre subdivision). In July 1998, the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council again separated from the Whitehorse tape. 2001 Lot 226 has been recognized as a reserve by the Supreme Court.
On 19 February 2005, the tribe signed the final contract on their land claims and self-government (self -government) with provisions which applied from 1 April validity. Thus, the Kwanlin Dun were the tenth nation in the area of the territory, which ruled themselves. The extremely lengthy negotiations hung together in the relatively densely populated region with their complicated situation. So part of Whitehorse, where two-thirds of the population of the territory live, the traditional territory.
The strain has a total area of 10,380 km ², and some points have been designated as Special Management Areas ( SMAs ), which are under special protection. They include the Kusawa Park and the Lewes Marsh Habitat Protection Area.
Current Situation
The Government consists of the General Assembly, from the chief and his seven counselors, who are elected every three years, the Council of Elders ( Elders Council), the youth and the legal advice. Seat of government is in 35 MacIntyre, Whitehorse. The transition from a government under the Indian Act to self- government needed financial support, because the budgets for programs for health, construction, economic development, environmental protection and cultural and historical projects were initially low. In Whitehorse Waterfront Cultural Centre also be built.
2011 Rick O'Brien has been elected as the new chief.