Lù’àn Män Keyi

Radiating from the shores of the Kluane Lake in all directions is Ä sì Keyi, "My Grandfather’s Country". Ä sì Keyi is made up of Boreal forest, hemmed in by the Ruby and Nisling mountain ranges to the northeast and the St. Elias Mountains to the southwest. It is the Traditional Territory of the Lù’àn Män Ku Dän, the "Kluane Lake People". The majority of the First Nation people from this area identify themselves as descendants of Southern Tutchone speakers and follow a matriarchal moiety system of two clans, Khanjet (Crow Clan) or Ägunda (Wolf Clan); however many ancestors of the Lù’àn Män Ku Dän came from nations such as the Tlingit, Upper Tanana and Northern Tutchone. Today many Kluane First Nation members primarily identify themselves as either Tlingit or Southern Tutchone.

The Lù’àn Män Ku Dän were primarily nomadic people. They traveled, traded and intermarried with other groups and followed fish and wildlife through the seasons. They held potlatches to celebrate life, grieve a passing of loved ones, and to remember those gone to the spirit world. There was no written language until the twentieth century and the Southern Tutchone people have practiced an oral tradition of passing history through the generations.

The people of this region have been traveling the trails, creeks, rivers and crossing the lakes for several thousand years. In the past 150 years or so the Kluane people have had increasing contact with Europeans and other people brought closer together by the fur trade, gold rushes, roads and then the opening of the Alaska Highway in 1942. In the early 1900’s, the first trading post in the area was established by Louis and Gene Jacquot, two brothers from France. Soon after, some First Nation families began to settle the area on a more permanent basis.

 

 

History Kluane First Nation

The way of life of the Lù’àn Män Ku Dän had not changed in drastic measure until the completion of the Alaska Highway. The opening of the highway created access for road travel between the Lower 48 and Alaska, and it also served as an opening for the Territorial and Federal Governments to access to the people of the Kluane region in a way that had been impossible before. The economy of the area changed with Burwash becoming a permanent settlement for the families that had previously lived nomadic lifestyles, more and more depending on wage subsistence rather than the nomadic lifestyle.

The contact with foreign disease took a heavy toll on the First Nations population, not only in the Kluane region, but in most of the southern Yukon. During the construction of the Highway many military and highway personnel were granted hunting licenses and as a direct result the populations of big game disseminated drastically. In direct response to this over hunting the Yukon Government imposed a ban on hunting with the establishment the Kluane Game Sanctuary in 1943, much of this land ran along the Alaska highway and was in the traditional hunting grounds of the Lù’àn Män Ku Dän.

Also during this time the Roman Catholic Church, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary was built in Burwash and a day school was run by the Church. Many of the children who were present in the village attended the classes. However, in 1951 a residential school built in Lower Post, BC made it mandatory that all children, not already enrolled in mission or residential schools, from the Kluane region attend that school. Over a period of two generations many of those who attended mission and residential schools lost most of the Southern Tutchone language, culture and much of the knowledge of the land.

Towards the end of the 1950s the Federal Government began to organize native communities into “bands” with elected “Chief and Councils” and with that came the establishment of the Burwash Band. A few years later the Burwash and White River bands were joined and were renamed the Kluane Indian Band, existing as one Band until 1990 when the two separated into two distinct First Nations.

During the 1960s many small First Nations groups in southern Yukon began to petition the Government for land and rights, but it wasn’t until 1973 that a formal document of land claims, entitled “Together Today for our Children Tomorrow" was presented by the newly formed Yukon Native Brotherhood to the Federal Government. Thus began the first movement towards Self Government in the Yukon.

Prior to 1970, the Kluane Indian Band became The Kluane Tribal Brotherhood (KTB). Many people in the Kluane area became increasingly involved in the Native politics of the territory and North America. In the late 1970s KTB opened Kats’ädän Ku (Burwash tribal school) as an effort to integrate traditional learning with the Canadian curriculum. However, the school closed some years later due to low attendance.

The KTB again changed its name to Kluane Tribal Council in 1982. During these years the infrastructure of Burwash changed dramatically with the standardization of running water, the administering of social programs and new technologies introduced as part of mainstream operations. In 1990, Kluane Tribal Council separated into White River First Nation in Beaver Creek and Kluane First Nation (KFN) in Burwash Landing. During this time KFN began to actively move towards settling their land claims and towards Self Government. The 1990’s in Burwash saw many changes in population and Government.

On October 18, 2003 Kluane First Nation formally signed their Final Agreement with the Government of Canada and the Yukon Government. The Self Government and Final Agreements took effect on February 2, 2004. Finally, after more than 50 years of being an Indian Affairs band, the Lù’àn Män Ku Dän achieved Self Government.

 

 

Kluane First Nation Today

Kluane First Nation is in the beginning stages of implementing their Final Agreement. This is a small but growing First Nation with its Citizens not only living in Burwash, but also in other parts of the Yukon, Canada and the USA. Kluane First Nation is embracing new technologies making it easier to connect with Citizens living outside the Territory. For the first time in many years the beginnings of a balance between traditional living and modern lifestyles is being struck. As Kluane First Nation moves through the first years of the millennium there is a growing sense of hope and understanding of what it is to live like their ancestors by become a self-governing people again.