Introduction

Information Sources

Precontact History of the Vuntut Gwitchin

History of Contact

International Boundary Survey 1909-1912 

Community of Old Crow

Non-Gwitchin Trapping

Inuvialuit Use

Euro-Canadian Exploration and Research

History of Conservation

Resource Evaluation

Table of Place Names

Bibliography

HISTORY OF CONTACT BETWEEN VUNTUT GWITCHIN AND EURO-CANADIANS

First Historic Contacts

The northern Yukon was one of the first regions of the Yukon to experience contact with Euro-Canadians as the Mackenzie River channelled the early explorers through the eastern edge of Gwitchin territory. Alexander Mackenzie explored to the mouth of the Mackenzie River (1789-1801) and became the "first European that we can be reasonably sure saw members of the Kutchin nation" (Osgood 1936). In 1804-1805, Fort Good Hope was established by the Northwest Company as its most northerly post (Slobodin 1962). Following the amalgamation of Northwest and the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, the post was moved north to the Lower Ramparts of the Mackenzie River in 1823 in a bid for the Mackenzie River delta trade (Slobodin 1962).

On the basis of these dates Morlan suggests that the introduction of historic trade goods to Klo-kut did not begin before Murray's 1847 construction of Fort Yukon. Murray (1910) found little evidence of Euro-Canadian practices and artifacts. The marginal nature of these early historic influences must have been due simply to the long distances which separated Klo-kut from any of the new trading centres.

Elders in Old Crow told Morlan of the long journeys made by a prominent hunter or chief for the purpose of acquiring Euro-Canadian trade goods which he could distribute upon his return, and such patterns are also described by Murray (1910). The native trade networks which had flourished prior to the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company had worked to the benefit of the Gwitchin on the middle part of the Porcupine River as they found themselves in superior trading positions with respect to their northern Inuit or Inuvialuit neighbours (Morlan 1973). The appearance on the Mackenzie River of a series of parties connected with John Franklin’s expeditions (1825-1827) jeopardized this relationship because the explorers were well-equipped to supply the Inuit and Indians along their route with items of European manufacture (Morlan 1973).

European goods had probably been first introduced to the Gwitchin by aboriginal trade along a network between the southern Alaskan coast and the northern interior (McKennan 1969). English and Russian items may have both been available in this way, and the activity of the Russians on the lower third of the Yukon River, in the early to middle 1800s, probably influenced the Gwitchin as well.

The explorers John Franklin, Thomas Simpson, and John Richardson briefly mention the Gwitchin from contacts at the easternmost part of Gwitchin country after 1825. In 1840 John Bell of the Hudson's Bay Company established the first permanent trading post within the Gwitchin homelands at Fort McPherson (Osgoode 1936). Bell followed the Porcupine River as far as the junction with the Yukon River in 1844. Another HBC employee, Alexander Murray, travelled down the Porcupine in 1847 and established Fort Yukon near the mouth. Murray traded there for several years and started the first direct contact with the western Gwitchin. Murray's drawings of the Gwitchin and his journal (Murray 1910) provide the first major source of information on the western Gwitchin.

The arrival of missionaries and white trappers soon followed the establishment of trading posts. The numbers of newcomers increased steadily throughout the remainder of the 1800s and well into the beginning of the 1900s. The fur trade was well established by 1850 and quickly brought major changes to the local subsistence economy as well as to other aspects of Gwitchin culture.

The relatively remote areas of southern and central Yukon, on the other hand, did not experience this intensive and direct contact until the Klondike and Alaskan gold rushes of the late 1800s.

HBC Trading Posts on the Porcupine River (Rampart House and Lapierre House)

Rampart House

After the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, the HBC left Fort Yukon and established a new post farther up the Porcupine River. When new surveys of the boundary showed the location was within United States territory, the post was moved to Old Rampart House. Once again the location was found to be just within the U.S.A. A satisfactory location was found in 1890 and "New" Rampart House was built in 1891 (International Boundary Commission 1918), just east of the 141st meridian. This final location proved economically unfeasible however and the Hudson's Bay Company abandoned Rampart House in 1894.

The establishment of Rampart House may have influenced the numbers of Vuntut Gwitchin using Klo-kut, a fishing and hunting camp on the Porcupine River upstream from Old Crow. According to archaeological research, Klo-kut was occupied during the post-contact period between 1850 and 1880 A.D. (Morlan 1973). There may have been a shift of people to New Rampart House after it was established on the Alaskan border. There may have been a second post-contact occupation of Klo-kut around 1894, following the abandonment of New Rampart House by the Hudson's Bay Company.

After Rampart House was abandoned by the HBC, it didn't take long for an independent trader to make use of the opportunity. Daniel Cadzow, who arrived in the Yukon in about 1896, took over the post at Rampart House in 1904. According to Morlan (1973), the opening of Cadzow's store at New Rampart House in 1904 improved the supply of ammunition and led to the abandonment of the caribou fences, which had continued to be operated for fifty years after the first rifles were acquired. Cadzow built an elaborate new house at Rampart House about 1911 (Cadzow 1913, McEwan 1986). Figure 2.3 shows scenes and people at Rampart House in 1911.


Figures 2.3 a and b.  Click photos to enlarge and see more photos.

The life of the Gwitchin at and near Rampart House was severely disrupted when the American physician attached to the International Boundary Survey, Dr. Gilbert Smith, discovered a girl at Rampart House with what Dr. Smith diagnosed as smallpox on 23 July 1911. Craig notified the authorities in Dawson and a male nurse (Harry Anthony) and an RNWMP officer (Constable Fyfe) arrived in early August (Craig 1911). The Commissioner of the Yukon placed the American doctor in charge, and instructed that a strict quarantine be maintained. All residents, whites and natives, were vaccinated (Figure 2.3). A camp for the infected Gwitchin was set up on Edmond's Island or "Willow Island" in the Porcupine River below Rampart House, and a "detention camp" for those not infected was maintained behind Rampart House. A temporary hospital was built on the Island. Local cabins were fumigated and some possessions and cabins were burned in an attempt to halt the epidemic. Over 90 people had acquired smallpox by December of 1911, but only one death was reported, a child named Moses Decitoron (RNWMP 1911).

In 1912 there were very few white men in the area around Rampart House (Acland 1912). Seven were legally married to Gwitchin women and "five or six" were scattered around the country prospecting. About 200 Indians (Gwitchin) were "more or less tributary to Rampart House."


Figures 2.3d and e.  Click on photos to enlarge and see more photos.
Although the RNWMP were at Rampart House in 1911 and 1912, the first RNWMP post was not established at Rampart House until 1913 (Dobrowolsky 1995).

After 1911 and the burning of cabins in an attempt to halt the smallpox epidemic the number of people living at Rampart House declined. Daniel Cadzow stayed there up to the time of his death in 1929 and his wife Rachel and her family continued to spend time there during the summers for many years (Te'sek Gehtr'oonatun Zzeh College 1993). By about 1927 there were only four or five families living at Rampart House.

Stephen Frost and Hannah Netro, interviewed at Rampart House in 1993 (Te'sek Gehtr'oonatun Zzeh College 1993) suggest that people left Rampart House for Old Crow for a number of reasons, including problems of hunting and trapping around the newly marked border, the proximity to the Old Crow Flats, and the presence of the store at Old Crow, as well as the desire to avoid the parties of the Boundary Survey which some saw as the source of the smallpox (International Boundary Commission 1918).

Lapierre House

The original Lapierre House (probably named after the guide Louis Lapierre) was constructed as a small outpost by McPherson of the HBC in 1846 (Coates 1979). In 1851 it was moved to the junction of the Bell and Water Rivers. When this post, along with Rampart House, was abandoned in 1893, the Anglican Church purchased one of the buildings from the HBC. Lapierre House continued to be an important stop on the route between Fort McPherson and Fort Yukon as did Rampart House. A number of families lived there for at least part of the year up to the 1930s (Njootli 1994). The Jackson brothers operated a store at Lapierre House between 1925 and 1935 before moving to Old Crow (Balikci 1963). Morlan's (1973) excavations at Lapierre House (MiVd-l) produced a substantial collection of Euro-Canadian trade goods but very little in the way of aboriginal artifacts. Test pits in a nearby moss house, which was abandoned in 1936, produced a profile containing four buried soils, each one of which yielded post-contact materials.

 

Contact with Whalers at Herschel Island

After the Hudson’s Bay Company left New Rampart House in 1892 the Vuntut Gwitchin increased their trading with the whalers who had begun to winter over to the north at Herschel Island. Elders of Old Crow (principally Lazarus Charlie and Charlie Peter Charlie) told Morlan (1973) that the introduction of the 44-cal. rifle occurred after the Hudson’s Bay Company abandoned New Rampart House and numerous Gwitchin sought trading contacts at Herschel Island.

The First Missionaries

In 1862 William Kirkby of the Anglican Church Missionary Society visited Fort Yukon and first introduced the local people to Christianity (Wootten 1996). The Reverend Robert McDonald arrived from Red River soon after and established headquarters at Fort McPherson in 1868. The Anglican mission at New Rampart House was formally established in 1869. Between 1862 and 1900 McDonald travelled extensively between Fort Yukon and Fort McPherson.