UBC LIBRARY BLOGGERS

In our last post, we introduced the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people and the important role they played during the Klondike Gold Rush era, guided by photos from the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection. This week, we examine the impacts the Gold Rush migration had on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and their traditional territory, and meet ever-revered Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in chief Chief Isaac.

For important contextual information about 19^th– and 20^th-century photographic representations of Indigenous people, and the outdated language present in the Phil Lind Collection, please visit our previous blog post.

Impact on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in & the land

Settler descriptions of the landscape during the Klondike Gold Rush era painted an image of a hostile territory, portraying the land as “treacherous [and] empty”, despite the fact that it was inhabited by around 200 Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people at the time.

Though many prospectors did not intend to settle permanently, historian Charlotte Gray nonetheless describes the migration as one of conquest. Photos in the Phil Lind Collection show sprawls of tents around the Yukon and Klondike Rivers, offering a visual representation of the magnitude of the migration.

“Klondike City, and the mouth of Klondike R.” (1898)

As plots of land in Dawson City were too expensive for many prospectors, they began to occupy Tr’ochëk, a traditional Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in fishing settlement along the Yukon River, even erecting their tents between Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in homes.

Tr’ochëk after settler occupation, labelled “Klondyke City” (1899)

They renamed the settlement Klondike City, an English corruption of “Tr’ondëk”, which translates to “hammer river”.

This photo’s caption gives credit to the origin of the river’s name, though mistranslates it (sometime after 1896)

This occupation had drastic impacts on the natural landscape upon which the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in relied for centuries, forcing them to change their traditional survival patterns. Settlers chopped down trees, ripped up creeks, and overhunted, which resulted in a major decrease in moose and caribou.

Settlers were not only generally careless about the damage they caused to the land, but were also apathetic or even hostile toward the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people.

Chief Isaac

The lasting legacy of Chief Isaac, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in chief during the Klondike era, is one of strength and resilience for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people. A skilled negotiator and vocal advocate for his people, he was respected by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and settlers of Dawson City alike.

While few settlers attempted to learn the Hän language, Chief Isaac (whose traditional name is not known) learned English, giving public speeches and advocating for his people in local newspapers, including the Klondike Nugget and the Dawson Daily News.

Dawson Daily News (1909), one of the newspapers in the Phil Lind Collection

Chief Isaac worked hard to maintain diplomatic relations with the settlers, but was unafraid of criticizing their indifference toward their dispossession of his people. In a local newspaper, he wrote:

“Million white man come and cut down Indian’s wood, kill Indian’s game, take Indian’s gold out of the ground,

give Indian nothing. Game all gone, wood all gone, Indian cold and hungry, white man no care.”

As the stampeders’ incursion on Tr’ochëk became increasingly invasive, Chief Isaac decided to relocate his people. They set their sights on Moosehide Village, a traditional fishing camp south of Dawson City. Despite friction from the Northwest Mounted Police, who had unofficially laid claim on the site for their new compound, Chief Isaac was resolute. In 1900, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in moved to Moosehide Village, where they built a thriving community.

“Chief Isaac’s Salmon-Racks” (published in book in 1900)

 Legacy of the Klondike Gold Rush 

The Klondike Gold Rush had lasting impacts on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and their territory. Their rivers’ gold held the promise of great prosperity for the nation, however, the descent of 100,000 prospectors decimated their land, displaced them, and as former Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in chief Chief Roberta Joseph states, “left [them] with nothing”.

Cultural portrayals of the Klondike Gold Rush have historically been recounted from a settler perspective, obscuring the experiences of First Nations peoples. As Kaska Dene artist Joseph Tisiga notes, the cultural identity of the Yukon Territory hinges upon a romanticization of the Gold Rush era, negating the rich cultures of Indigenous communities that have inhabited the region for millennia.

Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in territory, in a book about the Yukon (1898)

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in today

The mass settler migration of the Klondike Gold Rush era had deeply damaging impacts on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and their territory. Despite having to adapt their traditional ways, they maintained many cultural practices, and the nation thrives today. Like all First Nations in the Yukon Territory, they are self-governing, enabling them to guide the law that governs their land.

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in are committed to preserving and practicing their culture and teaching it to future generations. They hold biennial gatherings at Moosehide Village, have established the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, and teach Hän in schools.

View of the Yukon River from Moosehide Trail, which leads to Moosehide Village (1908)

Tr’ochëk was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2002, emphasizing it as a core component of Hän, Yukon, and Canadian heritage. During the Klondike Gold Rush, settler occupation may have rendered the location one of great turmoil. But today, Tr’ochëk is a tranquil place where Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in citizens and others can reflect on the land’s expansive Indigenous history, which began long before the Klondike Gold Rush.

In last month’s blog post, we took you on an introductory tour of the realities of the Klondike Gold Rush era alongside the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection. We continue this tour with Part 1 of a two-part series about Indigenous stories of the Klondike Gold Rush, namely that of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people.

In Part 1, we identify the Indigenous people central to the Gold Rush’s discovery narrative. We also explore the history of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people, and the crucial role they played during the Klondike Gold Rush era.

Portraits of Indigenous people (nations unknown; between 1897 and 1924)

A note on historical photographs of Indigenous people

It is difficult to ascertain the context or intent behind the photographs of Indigenous people in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection. 19^th and 20^th century settler photography of Indigenous people was sometimes shot under exploitative circumstances, or misidentified its subjects. However, many photographs from this time were produced with full control and consent from their Indigenous subjects.

For more information, refer to Looks Can Be Deceiving: Issues Regarding 19th-Century Native American Photographs, which guided the above statement.

Indigenous people, who have inhabited the land now known as the Yukon Territory for millennia, have long been excluded from Gold Rush narratives. While photographs of Indigenous people in this collection may have been produced from a colonial or voyeuristic perspective, they are visual evidence of the presence and impact of Indigenous people during the Klondike Gold Rush era. These photos have been included in this post as a means of revising Eurocentric Gold Rush narratives that invisibilize both the labour and the existence of Indigenous communities during this period.

A note on outdated language in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection

Outdated terms for Indigenous people exist in this collection, and are present in two photographs in this post. Inclusion of these materials is not an endorsement of this language. In addition to the above noted purpose, these documents also preserve “historical evidence of social conditions and attitudes” of the era.

These photos are intended to be viewed through a critical lens, keeping in mind their historical context.

Indigenous Icons of the Gold Rush

For decades after its end, the lore of the Klondike Gold Rush primarily credited George Cormack, a white settler, with spotting the first traces of gold in the Yukon River. While it was often noted that Tagish men Skookum Jim (Keish) and Tagish Charlie (K̲áa Goox̱) were by his side, cultural representations portrayed them as just that: sidekicks.

A group of white prospectors pan for gold in the Klondike (1899)

It is now understood that it was just as likely that Skookum Jim, Tagish Charlie, or Cormack’s wife, a Tagish woman named Kate (Shaaw Tláa) had first made the fateful discovery, but that Cormack had registered the official claim because he was white.

While decades of retellings of the Klondike Gold Rush era have centered the stories of white prospectors, the Indigenous communities of the Yukon not only played a pivotal role in the Klondike Gold Rush, but were also profoundly affected by the mass migration.

A group of Indigenous boys and men stand in front of a tent (1908)

History of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in

The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people, or the People of the Hammer-Rock River, are descendants of the Hän, who have inhabited the Yukon Territory for thousands of years. For centuries, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in traversed their territory as the seasons shifted, gathering berries in the fall and hunting in the winters.

Photos in the Phil Lind Collection show the vastness of the Yukon River, where the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in spent summers fishing for salmon.

“Telephoto view down Yukon from Dawson” (between 1895 and 1900)

Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Territory

The territory of Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people extends from the Yukon River valley through to the Blackstone Uplands.

The Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection features many photos of the landscape surrounding the Yukon River, where the traditional Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in territory is located.

Postcard depicting Forty Mile Town, a traditional harvest and hunting area for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in (1898)

The “heart” of their territory is Tr’ochëk, the land between the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in fished, hunted, and held cultural events on this land for hundreds of years before the Gold Rush. In the late 1800s, stampeders would occupy this area, displacing the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in.

This photo from the Phil Lind Collection shows Tr’ochëk:

“Mouth of the Klondyke, showing lower town and Yukon River, Alaska” (1899)

Role of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in in the Gold Rush Era  

During the Klondike Gold Rush, the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in worked as hunters, porters, and traders, as well as on paddlewheelers, at building sites, and on claims.

A group of Indigenous men and boys rest on the Dyea trail (1897)

Their expertise was invaluable to prospectors who were unfamiliar with the territory, and their skills were often preferred over those of settlers. The meat supplied by Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in hunters was at some points crucial to the survival of Dawson City residents.

While they tried to coexist harmoniously with stampeders, the Gold Rush had dire social and environmental implications for the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. Despite this, their culture and tradition has endured, and they remain a strong, self-governing nation to this day.

Stay tuned…

… for Part 2, where we delve into the impacts of the Klondike Gold Rush on the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and explore the nation’s contemporary history. We also meet Chief Isaac, the revered chief of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in during the Klondike Gold Rush.