INFORMATION SOURCES

General sources on the history of the northern Yukon include The Northern Yukon: A History (Coates 1979), prepared for Parks Canada. The history of the Yukon First Nations is well-presented in McClellan's 1987 book: Part of the Land, Part of the Water. A compendium of travellers on the Yukon, Porcupine, and Old Crow River from the 1850s to 1974 provides an annotated list of visitors to the Old Crow area (Hodgins and Hoyle 1994).

One of the earliest sources of information on the Vuntut Gwitchin and their life in the area around Old Crow is the journal of the Reverend Robert McDonald. McDonald's journals have been transcribed and a copy is available in office of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow. A very useful Index to the Journals of Reverend McDonald was prepared by Linda R. Johnson, for the Yukon Native Language Centre, Whitehorse (1985). Although there are not yet any publications available, archaeologist Ray Le Blanc is currently researching these journals (Le Blanc pers. comm. 1999).

The history and annual round of the Vuntut Gwitchin is described in the original sources of Osgood (1934, 1936), Leechman (1954), and Balikci (1963). Morlan (1973) summarizes these sources and gives a wealth of information on many subjects relating to the history of the Old Crow area based on his own archaeological research and information gathered from Old Crow Elders; particularly his guides, helpers, and friends, Abraham Peter and Lazarus Charlie. Other Elders who provided information to Morlan were Charlie Peter Charlie Sr., Alfred Charlie, and Peter Lord. Leechman also produced a fine collection of photographs of Old Crow in the late 1940s which are held at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Some aspects of the history of Old Crow, Rampart House, and Lapierre House, based on stories and recollection of the Elders of Old Crow, have been published in recent years, e.g., Rampart House (Te'sek Gehtr'oonatun Zzeh College 1993), The Story of Lapierre House (Njootli 1994), Recollections (1997), and The Land Still Speaks (Sherry and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation 1999).

The story of the International Boundary Survey of 1910 to 1912 is found in the official government report (International Boundary Survey 1918), and various field reports from 1911 and 1912 (e.g., Riggs 1911, 1912 and King 1912, 1913).

Records of the RNWMP and the RCMP at Rampart House and Old Crow, including patrol reports and correspondence, are available through the Government document archives (RG 18) at the National Archives of Canada. A summary of the role of the RCMP in the Yukon, including the contribution of officers and special constables serving at Old Crow, is available in book form in Law of the Yukon by Dobrowolsky (1995).

A very informative documentary film on life in Old Crow and the surrounding area was prepared by Jim Wake, RCMP officer in Old Crow in the late 1940s, and deposited in the National Archives of Canada. His notes and film have been made available for this project by his widow, Mrs. Anne Wake of Ottawa. Some of Wake's footage of the Old Crow area has been used in a video, "Jim Wake Diary, RCMP Detachment, Old Crow, Yukon," produced in 1999 by Northern Native Broadcasting,Yukon.

For a month in 1952 Otto Geist (University of Alaska palaeontologist), with Peter Lord and Charlie Linklater from Old Crow, explored the Old Crow River from its mouth to its headwaters at Ammerman Mountain in a river boat (Geist 1955, 1956?). Their "expedition", partially sponsored by the Explorers Club of New York, also included a trip to Bear Mountain, south of Old Crow on the tributaries of the Porcupine. Maps prepared by Geist and his assistants show the location of many cabins and International Boundary Commission camps and caches along the Old Crow River.

Some information on non-Gwitchin trappers is found in RCMP reports (e.g., RCMP 1939) and in the accounts of various visitors or the trappers themselves, e.g., Nieman (1934?), Carroll (1957), and Ederer (1954).

The research connected with the proposed pipeline through the Old Crow area in the 1970s produced a number of specialized reports on wildlife etc., with an important paper by Stager (1974) documenting several aspects of the history of Old Crow in relation to land use. One of Stager’s assistants, Robert McSkimming, spent a summer interviewing village residents about their contemporary and 1960s land use patterns and their sense of territory. McSkimming’s thesis (1973) includes a major collection of aboriginal place name data for the Old Crow area.

Geographical names used in the map accompanying this chapter (Figure 2.1) are from two main sources, a map prepared by Stager and McSkimming in 1974, and the 1997-1998 Annual Report of the Yukon Geographical Place Names Board (YGPNB). The 1974 map was prepared with the assistance of Charlie Abel, Johnny Abel, Charlie Peter Charlie, Randall Charlie, Norma Kassi, Peter Lord, Neil McDonald, and George Moses (Stager 1974). The more recent source, the Yukon Geographical Place Names Board (YGPNB 1998), describes (with photographs) 39 localities in the Old Crow Basin area with Gwitchin place names that were approved by the territorial Minister of Tourism. These names were reviewed by Charlie Peter Charlie Sr. of Old Crow who also provided historical and cultural information about the sites named (YGPNB 1998). The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Heritage office is in the process of compiling and verifying more place names for the area.

Among the graduate student research projects supervised by William Irving (Irving and Beebe 1984) as part of the Northern Yukon Research Programme (NYRP), 1975-1980, were several that have had an impact on our knowledge of the history of the area. E. Roth (1982) studied the historical demography of the Old Crow community, R. Le Blanc (1983) excavated the late precontact Rat Indian Creek site, and R. McFee conducted research on the caribou fences which included interviews with Old Crow Elders (McFee n.d.). Unfortunately, with the death of Irving, much of the Irving's early material remains unpublished and now not accessible (Greer 1991).

The Yukon Refugium Project (1975-1979), a coalition of researchers from different institutions, (National Museum of Man, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Geological Survey of Canada, and University of Alberta), was based on palaeontological and archaeological research along the Old Crow River (Morlan 1980). Most publications report on archaeological or palaeontological research along the Porcupine and Old Crow Rivers or in the highlands around the Old Crow Flats (e.g., Cinq-Mars 1973, 1974). Studies of the relatively recent sites that relate to the post-contact use of the Flats by the Vuntut Gwitchin, including the caribou fences and a post-contact period Inuvialuit site provide some historical information, e.g., Morlan (1972, 1973), Irving and Cinq-Mars (1974) and McFee (1981).

In the early 1970’s, the Council for Yukon Indians undertook research with the Old Crow residents to collect traditional land use data for use in land claims negotiations. Information was compiled on cabin and campsite locations, cache locations, important wildlife areas and fishing places, gathering places, gravesites, place names and other places of historical interest. The data was compiled and organized in text form and plotted by overlay on 1:250,000 scale topographic map sheets (Council for Yukon Indians n.d.). Little detail is provided on each site, and site locations are approximate only. This information is restricted and permission of the Vuntut Gwitchin Band Council is needed for access (Greer 1991). Although some of this original material was seen in the VGFN office in Old Crow, a thorough review of it is beyond the scope of this document.

Recent summaries of research in history and archaeology, prepared for Parks Canada by Greer (1991) and Greer and Le Blanc (1992) provide a very useful overview of the heritage resources of Vuntut National Park and the Old Crow Flats Special Management Area. Archaeological research by one of Le Blanc's students, Melanie Fafard, includes interviews with Elders which contribute to our knowledge of the history of the Old Crow Flats (Fafard 1997, 1999).

The well-known writings of Old Crow Elder, Edith Josie, have not only made a long-term contribution to recording elements of the recent history of Old Crow, but also to spreading that history across North America (Josie 1966).