History of the Old Crow Basin

In the days when the earth was all covered with water, the animals lived on a large raft. The Crow said, "Had I any earth, even so little, I would make it grow large enough for all the animals to live upon." Muskrat, Otter, and many other divers went down under the waters and tried to bring up some earth, but they were all drowned. Last of all, Beaver dived with a line attached to his body. He went so deep that he was almost drowned when he reached the bottom. In his death-struggle he clutched some mud in his paws, and the mud was still there when he was drawn up lifeless by the line. Taking it and running his walking stick through it, the Crow planted the stick in the water in such a way that the bit of earth rested at the surface of the water. The earth grew larger and larger. When it was big enough to hold all the animals, they stepped from the raft. Crow's walking stick is still supporting the land; and, as it has never rotted, it is still to be seen somewhere about the junction of the Old Crow and Porcupine Rivers. (Barbeau and Camsell 1915).

INTRODUCTION

History is usually defined as the study of the past through written records. For the area of the Old Crow Basin, the focus of this chapter, history by this standard definition only extends back to the first contact of the local people with Euro-Canadians in the early 1800s. Prior to this time of inter-cultural contact, the story of the Vuntut Gwitchin ("those who dwell among the lakes") was not recorded in written form. However there is a rich "history" preserved in the form of stories and legends that extends back into time before memory. An example of oral history, the story quoted above, written for the first time only in 1915, indicates how far back the oral history of the people can take us.

This history chapter is presented as a document complimentary to the Vuntut Gwitchin Oral History Project which is currently being conducted on behalf of Parks Canada and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. This chapter focuses on published accounts of historical events and activities that have taken place in the homeland of the Vuntut Gwitchin, the Old Crow Basin area, mostly from a Euro-Canadian perspective and from non-Gwitchin sources. It does not and is not intended to provide a definitive history of the Vuntut Gwitchin, but rather a survey of mostly published sources that provides a framework for events and activities within the area of interest. In contrast, the Oral History Project will concentrate on the collection of information from Vuntut Gwitchin oral history sources, including existing interview tapes and their transcripts, and through new original interviews (Smith and Nagy 1999).

It is important to realize that recorded history is only one of several types of research or information sources that can contribute to our knowledge of a particular event, or period of time in the past. Other important sources are oral history and archaeological excavations and analysis.

In summarising reports on geographical and scientific exploration, government surveys, and RCMP patrols, an effort has been made to include information on the Vuntut Gwitchin and to acknowledge the Vuntut Gwitchin contribution to all of these activities.

There will be some overlap in this chapter with material presented in Chapter 13, Archaeology, as these two subjects are complementary. Archaeology may be defined as the study of the human past through material remains, with the aim of ordering and describing the events of the past and explaining their meaning. Much of the archaeological work carried out in the northern Yukon may be considered historic archaeology, as it deals with sites for which there are written (historical) sources. Morlan (1973) and others use the term "historic period" for the period from about 1870 to the present (i.e., after Euro-Canadian contact), although "post-contact" is sometimes used, and "prehistoric period" for the period from about 700 A.D. to 1870 (before Euro-Canadian contact), now usually called "precontact".

The geographical coverage of this chapter focuses mainly on the Old Crow River and the Old Crow Flats, the area of Vuntut National Park and the Old Crow Flats Special Management Area (Figure 2.1). This chapter does include some information on the history of Rampart House, since there is a direct connection to the use of the Old Crow Flats, but only limited reference to Lapierre House. Since the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) is co-operating in specific studies of those two areas, this RDA history chapter does not include new archival research on Lapierre House and only limited new research for information on Rampart House.