RECORDED HISTORY OF THE VUNTUT GWITCHIN

i) Vuntut Gwitchin Homelands

The homelands of the Vuntut Gwitchin ("those who dwell among the lakes") are centred on the drainage of the Old Crow River, notably including Old Crow Flats, and extends west through the Coleen River drainage and east to the Berry Creek drainage, north to the divide of the British Mountains, south (locally) to the divide of the Keele Range, in both Alaska and the Yukon (Osgood 1934 and 1936, Leechman 1954, Balikci 1963, and Morlan 1973).

The area occupied formerly by the "Tukudh" (Upper Porcupine River) Gwitchin is the headwaters of Porcupine River and downstream to the drainage of Berry Creek, the entire Bell River and Eagle River drainages, east to the divide of the Richardson Mountains (Osgood 1934, Morlan 1973, based on personal communication in 1970 with A. Charlie).

Among the chiefs of the Vuntut Gwitchin recorded in historical accounts is the great chief, Zzhe Gitlit, for whom the Old Crow River was named around the turn of the century (Leechman 1954, C.P. Charlie, personal communication to Morlan in 1970). Old Crow is an adaptation of the Gwitchin Te-Tshim-Gevtik, which means "Walking Crow" and was the name given by the local people to the region, after the revered chief who died in the 1870s (Old Crow web site, 1999). Osgoode (1936) refers to the great chief's son, Charlie Old Crow, who was one of Osgoode's chief informants.

ii) Annual Round of Activities

Anthropologists and archaeologists have described the annual round of Vuntut Gwitchin traditional activities of the late precontact and early post-contact periods based on interviews with Elders and archaeological research. The following summary is based largely on a summary by the archaeologist Morlan (1973), and draws also on the original ethnographical sources of Osgood (1934, 1936), Leechman (1954), and Balikci (1963).

Morlan (1973) reconstructed the annual cycle in general terms from his archaeological work and from accounts obtained from Elders of Old Crow. Balikci's (1963) discussion of the annual cycle begins with the period of post-contact change and does not include a description of the traditional pattern. Osgood (1936) simply remarks that the "cycle of the seasons is almost identical with that of the Peel River tribe." The general pattern can most easily traced from the communal techniques practiced in hunting and fishing (Morlan 1973).

Spring

The spring season was the time of community caribou hunts at crossing places along the Porcupine River to intercept the northbound caribou migration. Hunting took place at several localities along the Porcupine River, between the Bell River to the east and Coleen River in Alaska to the west. Major camps are said to have been located on the river bank a few miles below high bedrock outcrops which afforded good lookout localities. Klo-kut, a major hunting camp and meeting place 10 km upstream from the village of Old Crow, on the north bank of the Porcupine River, was excavated by Morlan (1973) and is described in more detail in Archaeology. Muskrat and bird hunting probably began in the late spring, both along the Porcupine River and in Old Crow Flats.

Summer

Major summer camps were located along tributary streams of the Porcupine and Old Crow Rivers where fish traps were set for salmon and other fish. Other summer activities included egg and berry gathering, rabbit snaring, and, in late summer, the capture of moulting birds.

Morlan was informed that the fish traps were owned, in a similar way to the caribou fences, by a wealthy man who organized the labour for their construction and "ran'' the camp associated with their operation, but this is not mentioned by Balikci or Osgood. Balikci (1963) reports that the last traps "were seen along Old Crow River about 40 years ago (about 1920)." Morlan was unable to find any signs of a trap and associated camp that are said to have been located near the mouth of Old Crow River. The fish trap, which spanned the Old Crow, was operated under the leadership of the great chief, Zzhe Gitlit, around the turn of the century (Leechman 1954, C.P. Charlie, personal communication to Morlan in 1970). River ice and water erosion may have destroyed or removed any evidence of the camp.

Morlan (1973) investigated the sites of two fish trap sites in Old Crow Flats and found the remains of both the trap and the camp at one of them. John Tizya, a former chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin, organized the construction of a fish trap at Tsdu-ho-ko in the late 1800s, and in 1899 a large group of people stayed at the site to run the trap. Thereafter only one family occupied the site pretty regularly until 1929 when Tizya operated the trap for the last time (Morlan 1973).

Another site along the Porcupine River that has a historical reference is the outlet stream from Cadzow Lake. The outlet is the stream called Fishing River by McConnell (1891) and the lake was noted by Murray (1910) as a place "in which the Indians say there are plenty of excellent white fish."

Fall

By late August or early September it was time to move to the northern edge of Old Crow Flats to construct or to mend the caribou fences or caribou surrounds used to trap and kill large numbers of caribou and, presumably, to establish nearby camps. The entire fall season, at least in the early post-contact period, was devoted to the operation of the caribou fences and the butchering and storing of the meat.

The caribou fences found in the Vuntut National Park area are described and illustrated in both Ecology and Archaeology. The major fences are located at Thomas Creek at its headwaters, on Thomas Creek at part way down to Crow Flats, on Timber Creek, and on Black Fox Creek (Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, Yukon, Canada, 1993, Part Two, maps). General locations are shown on the map of historic sites and heritage routes (Figure 2.2).

The caribou fence complexes were used by particular family groups, and are tied to the history of families and the community of Old Crow. The fences represent an economic pattern and type of technology that was once common throughout the western subarctic, of which today few traces now remain (Greer 1991).

A description of the annual activities of Elias (Kwatlachi) around 1900, recorded by Balikci (1963:58), includes the following description of the use of this caribou fence. "Elias... moved south across the mountains (from Herschel Island) to the caribou corral of Thomas, where some people had been hunting caribou. Soon after breakup he descended to Crow Flats, where he spent the summer fishing with fish traps set across creeks. In September he moved north again to the caribou corral owned by Thomas. About a dozen families had camped together there and hunted caribou with snares. They did this even though they had guns, in order to save ammunition. Elias spent the winter in the mountains, trapping foxes, wolverine and wolves."

Winter

Little is known of winter activities, but it is certain that the winter season would have been a difficult one. According to Old Crow Elders, the people did not split up into small, one or two-family units, but remained together through the winter in groups, to help one another and to take advantage of the guidance of a strong leader (Morlan 1973). Such groups were probably clustered around the hunters who led the operation of the caribou fences in the fall. The groups are said to have sought shelter from the high winds and extreme cold of the open Old Crow Flats in the protected valleys in the hills along the south flank of Old Crow Flats. Important wintering grounds mentioned by Elders were the upper reaches of Surprise and Potato Creeks. Sizeable numbers of Gwitchin are said to have spent the winter months at Potato Hill (Morlan 1973).

Individuals or families would also have hunted and fished in particular areas at various seasons. For example, a family or two may have travelled north to the Firth River to fish for arctic char after leaving the fall camp at the caribou fence. Hunters may have crossed the Old Crow Range in search of moose along the lower Bluefish River, and others may have visited the winter range of the caribou near Lone Mountain. The Lone Mountain area south of the Porcupine River is said to have been an important place to find caribou in winter (Balikci 1963).

Presumably the summer and winter camps were somewhat smaller than those of spring and fall, if only because the large-scale communal effort required to operate a caribou fence or surround or effectively intercept a herd at a river crossing would require more people than the operation of a fish trap or the exploitation of scanty winter resources and stored provisions. The Vuntut Gwitchin may have been dispersed into smaller bands during summer and winter, and several such bands might have recombined to form a larger community in spring and fall (Morlan 1973).

iii) Vuntut Gwitchin Heritage Routes

In travelling north from the Porcupine River to and beyond the Old Crow Flats, the Vuntut Gwitchin used two main routes that pass through the Old Crow Flats Special Management Area and Vuntut National Park. One route (Route # 8) goes from Old Crow to Herschel Island via the Firth River, and the second (Route # 9) from Old Crow to the fishing hole on Fish Hole Creek (Canoe River). These and other heritage routes are shown in Figure 2.2 and are identified in Schedule A of the VGFN Final Agreement (Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, Yukon, Canada, 1993). Other heritage routes in the area are the routes from Rampart House to the Old Crow Flats (and on to Herschel Island), and Rampart House to Old Crow.

Stuck (1920) in discussing the original names of the Firth River refers to British explorer John Franklin first naming it the Mountain Indian River, "because it was by this river, as the Eskimos told him, that the Indians came down to the coast from the interior to trade." Later the river was known locally as the Herschel Island River.

In March and April of 1957 RCMP Constable R. R. Gordon, guided by Peter Moses of Old Crow, then 75 years of age, and accompanied by Special Constable Peter Benjamin, travelled from Old Crow to Herschel Island following a heritage route that "was widely used, both in the winter by dog teams and the summer by pack dogs, up until the early 1920's, at which time it is believed, the Old Crow Indians discontinued travelling to Hershel Island to trade" (Godden 1957). Peter Moses was the only living Old Crow resident who was thoroughly familiar with the trail. This route followed the regular trail from Old Crow into the Flats, passing Maggie Lake, Peter Moses camp (on Chief Peter Moses Lake), NNE to the mouth of Timber Creek, then north to Victor Peterson's camp. From Peterson's camp they travelled across the head of Timber Creek, north to the last timber at the head of Timber Creek, and over the divide into the Babbage River. They reached the arctic coast on the east side of Kay Point, then travelled NW to Stoke's Point, and on to Herschel Island. It required four days to travel the distance from the Timber Creek/Babbage River divide to Old Crow in both directions (Godden 1957). (see Map of heritage routes and sites Figure 2.2, and photographs of the trip in Ecology Stop # 6).