OUR GEOGRAPHY
The Southern Lakes is located within the Pacific coast mountainous
region called the Canadian Cordillera which separates the Yukon
from the Pacific Coastal region. The original travel routes were
made
through the Chilkat, White and Chikoot Passes from our bordering
Pacific Coast neighboring community of Skagway, Alaska to our south
west.
Our region boasts access to picturesque glacier pebbled mountain
peaks at 6,886 ft ‘Jubilee Mountain’ and Montana Mountain
at 7280 ft. The St. Elias mountain range northwest of us provided
the rain-shadow and prevent ice accumulation to the east of the
mountains thus providing the haven for the early people, plants
and animals.
Gold resulted as well because this area was not scraped by glacial
ice.
The Southern Lakes Region also boasts the actual headwaters of
the 2nd longest river in Canada, the Mighty Yukon. It runs 3,185
km,
from our Southern Lakes Region to the Bering Sea.
CLIMATE
The Southern Lakes Region is relatively dry year round with precipitation
ranging from 250 ml in the valleys to 600 ml up in the peaks. More
rain falls in the winter (50-70 cm) than the summer and we can
boast that our winters are probably the best in Canada for lack
of precipitation
and the benefits of cold dry snow providing magnificent outdoor
recreation. The wild flowers and gardens of the Yukon are truly
a sight to see.
OUR HISTORY
The Yukon began, as a haven during the ice age for peoples escaping
the cold from Asia to the “Great River” or “Yu-kun-ah” today’s
Yukon Territory.
Our elders have stories and legends of the creation of earth
and its first inhabitants.
10,000 to 25,000 years ago the land bridge from Asia to Northern
Canada during the ice age brought travelers to this land. They
came to find an ice-free warmer haven for survival and this included
animals
such as; woolly mammoth, bison, horse and caribou.
In 1789, almost 50 years after the Russians started to explore
the Pacific Coast; MacKenzie traveled the Mackenzie River to
the Arctic
coast and at that time heard about our Great Yukon River to
the south/west.
Our region was already trading furs for European goods. Our Tlingit
people were establishing relationships with the Russians, Americans
and British traders. Free Trade was the norm. By the mid-1800s
the British and Americans were setting up trading posts in this
lucrative natural resource area. The Fort Selkirk trading post
began trespassing on our regional monopoly and it took the Tlingit
almost four years to drive the Hudson Bay out of the Southern Lakes
Region.
The semi-nomadic subsistence lifestyle incorporated trapping
and trading. The Anglican Church entered the picture in the late
1800s.
By 1870, Gold became the lure in the Yukon and our Southern Lakes
families were at the front of the Rush. Tagish Charlie, Skookum
Jim and George Carmack discovered the Bonanza Creek pay streak
on August 17, 1896.
With the people, came need for fuel, food, services. Our game,
forests and people were in demand and this impact changed the lives
and the future of the Southern Lakes Region forever. Now the livelihood
of our original people turned from a semi-nomadic subsistence lifestyle
to a static monetary based lifestyle. Trapping and hunting continued.
In 1898 the Canadian Federal Government set up basic administrative
structures in the Yukon. The first significant Northwest Mounted
Police post was established just east of today’s Tagish community
to inspect and tariff travelers moving down our great river, the
Yukon. To move travelers and supplies north even faster, the Whitepass
and Yukon Railway was connected through the Southern Lakes region
to Whitehorse in 1900. Sternwheelers moved through our Lakes system
for business and pleasure. By 1942-43 war fears brought the Alaska
Highway and airstrips to our region and again communities and settlements
were moved to meet the needs of progress. When the Sternwheelers
were pulled from the waters, our people living along these rivers
and lakes moved to locations along the highways.
Today, we are an integrated people still faced with constant
change and, as in the past, we will together rely on our abilities
to
adapt, learn and remember who we were, how we evolved and hold
on to the best of what we have to offer the future as people
of the Southern Lakes Region. This will be our legacy.
We are hospitable people but no pushovers and we invite you to
learn and trade with us together.
OUR CULTURE & OUR
PRIDE
Our region is the traditional territory of the Tagish people
who follow the movements of moose, woodland caribou, sheep
and fish
within this very wealthy region.
In the 1800s, the fur trade created a new industry and the Tagish
people became the middlemen between the coastal Tlingit, inland
Kaska and Tutchone peoples. Many of the social customs of the Tlingit
people were adopted by the Tagish people.
The Tlingit people formed the base of the trade economy of the
late 19th century between the Alaskan Coast Tlingit and the Athapaskans
of the Southern Lakes Region.
Today these original people make our communities of Teslin, Carcross
and Atlin their home and continue to revive their languages, dance,
songs and regional place names.
Our region becomes whole with the inclusion of all of its jewels,
past and present.
The northern area of our region also include Southern Tutchone
people including the members of the Kwanlin Dun, Champagne Aishihik
First Nations and Ta’an Kwach’an and Kluane Tribal
Council with their traditional lands located in our Mount Lorne
and Marsh Lake communities.The Southern Lakes are rich in ancient
and recent history to whet the appetite of the least curious Canadian
and saturate the palette of international historians. |