Yukon ( ), (or The
Yukon), is the westernmost and smallest of Canada
's three
federal territories.
It was
named after the Yukon
River
, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in.
The territory was created in 1898 as the
Yukon
Territory. The federal government's most recent update of
the
Yukon Act in 2003 confirmed "Yukon", rather than
"Yukon Territory", as the current usage standard.
At 5,959
metres (19,551 ft), Yukon's Mount Logan
, in Kluane National Park and
Reserve
, is the highest mountain in Canada and the second
highest of North America (after
Mount
McKinley
in the
U.S. state of Alaska
).
Geography and ecology
Map of the Yukon.
The sparsely populated Yukon abounds with snow-melt lakes and
perennial snow-capped mountains. Although the climate is Arctic and
subarctic and very dry, with long, cold winters, the long sunshine
hours in short summer allow hardy crops and vegetables, along with
a profusion of flowers and fruit to blossom.
The
territory is the approximate shape of a right triangle, bordering the U.S. state of Alaska to the west
for 1,210 km (752 miles) mostly along longitude 141° W, the
Northwest
Territories
to the east and British Columbia
to the south. Its northern coast is
on the Beaufort
Sea
. Its ragged eastern boundary mostly follows
the divide between the Yukon Basin
and the Mackenzie
River
drainage basin to the
east in the Mackenzie mountains. Its capital is
Whitehorse
.
Canada's highest point, Mount Logan ( ), is found in the
territory's southwest.
Mount Logan and a large part of the Yukon's
southwest are in Kluane National Park and
Reserve, a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Other national parks include Ivvavik
National Park
and Vuntut National Park
in the north.
Most of the territory is in the watershed of its namesake, the
Yukon River. The southern Yukon is dotted with a large number of
large, long and narrow glacier-fed alpine lakes, most of which flow
into the Yukon River system.
The larger lakes include Teslin Lake
, Atlin
Lake
, Tagish
Lake
, Marsh
Lake
, Lake
Laberge
, Kusawa
Lake
and Kluane
Lake
. Bennett Lake
on the Klondike Gold Rush trail is a lake flowing into Nares Lake,
with the greater part of its area within the Yukon.
Other
watersheds include the Mackenzie River and the Alsek
–Tatshenshini
, as well as a number of rivers flowing directly
into the Beaufort Sea. The two main Yukon rivers flowing into the
Mackenzie in the Northwest Territories are the Liard River
in the southeast and the Peel
River
and its tributaries in the northeast.
Notable widespread tree species within the Yukon are the
Black Spruce and
White
Spruce. Many trees are stunted because of the short growing
season and severe climate.
The
capital, Whitehorse, is also the largest city, with about two-thirds of
the population; the second largest is Dawson City
, (pop. 1,250) which was the capital until
1952.
History
Richardson Mountains in the
background
Long before the arrival of
Europeans, central
and northern Yukon escaped
glaciation as it
was part of Beringia (
Bering land
bridge).
The volcanic eruption
of Mount
Churchill
near the
Alaska border blanketed southern Yukon with a layer of
ash which can still be seen along the
Klondike Highway. Coastal
and inland
First Nations already had
extensive trading networks and European incursions into the area
only began early in the
19th century
with the
fur trade, followed by
missionaries and the
Western Union Telegraph
Expedition.
By the end of the 19th century gold miners were trickling in on
rumours of gold, driving a population increase justifying the
setting up of a police force, just in time for the start of the
Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. The
increased population coming with the gold rush led to the
separation of the Yukon district from the Northwest Territories and
the formation of the separate Yukon Territory in 1898.
Demographics
Ethnicity
According to the
2001 Canadian
census, the largest ethnic group in Yukon is
English (27.1%), followed by
First Nations (22.3%),
Scottish (21.9%),
Irish (19.1%),
German (14.3%), and
French (13.4%) – although over a quarter of
all respondents also identified their ethnicity as
"Canadian."
Yukon's eight First Nations linguistic groupings and 14
tribes/clans
| Linguistic Grouping |
Tribe |
| Gwich’in |
Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation,
Old
Crow |
| Han |
Tr’ondëk
Hwëch’in First Nation, Dawson City |
| Upper Tanana |
White
River First Nation, Beaver Creek Small communities near Tok ( Alaska) |
| Northern Tutchone |
Selkirk First
NationLittle
Salmon/Carmacks First Nation
First Nation of Nacho Nyak
Dun, Mayo |
| Southern Tutchone |
Champagne and Aishihik
First Nations, Haines Junction
Kluane First
Nation, Burwash Landing
Ta'an
Kwach'an Council, Lake Laberge
Kwanlin Dün First Nation,
Whitehorse |
| Kaska |
Ross
River Dena Council, Ross River Liard
River First Nation, Watson Lake |
| Inland Tlingit |
Teslin Tlingit
Council |
| Tagish |
Carcross/Tagish First
Nation |
Language
The
2006 Canadian census showed a
population of 30,372.
Of the 29,940 singular responses to the census question concerning
'mother tongue' the most commonly reported languages were:
| 1. |
English |
25,655 |
85.69% |
| 2. |
French |
1,105 |
3.69% |
| 3. |
German |
775 |
2.59% |
| 4. |
Chinese |
260 |
0.87% |
| 5. |
Tagalog |
145 |
0.48% |
| 6. |
Dutch |
140 |
0.47% |
| 7. |
Spanish |
130 |
0.43% |
| 8. |
Vietnamese |
105 |
0.35% |
| 9. |
Hungarian |
80 |
0.27% |
| 10. |
Punjabi |
80 |
0.27% |
| 11. |
Gwich'in |
75 |
0.25% |
| 12. |
Tlingit |
70 |
0.11% |
| 13. |
Yakuts (Sakha) |
65 |
0.11% |
There were also 130 responses of both English and a 'non-official
language'; 10 of both French and a 'non-official language'; 110 of
both English and French; and about 175 people who either did not
respond to the question, or reported multiple non-official
languages, or else gave some other unenumerated response. Yukon's
official languages are shown in bold. Figures shown are for the
number of single-language responses and the percentage of total
single-language responses.
The Language Act of Yukon "recognises the significance" of
aboriginal languages in Yukon; however, only English and French are
available for laws, court proceedings, and legislative assembly
proceedings.
Religion
Yukon's population is highly secularized. The largest denominations
by number of adherents according to the 2001 census were the
Roman Catholic Church with
5,985 (21 %); the
Anglican
Church of Canada with 3,795 (13 %); and the
United Church of Canada with 2,105
(7 %).
Economy
Yukon's historical major industry has been
mining (
lead,
zinc,
silver,
gold,
asbestos and
copper).
The government acquired the land from the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1870
and split it from the Northwest Territories in 1898 to fill the need for local government
created by the population influx of the gold rush.
Thousands of these prospectors flooded the territory, creating a
colourful period recorded by authors such as
Robert W. Service and
Jack
London.
The memory of this period and the early days
of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
, as well as the territory's scenic wonders and
outdoor recreation opportunities, makes tourism the second most important
industry.
Manufacturing, including furniture, clothing, and handicrafts,
follows in importance, along with
hydroelectricity. The traditional
industries of
trapping and
fishing have declined. Today, the government sector
is by far the biggest employer in the territory, directly employing
approximately 5,000 out of a labour force of 12,500.
Tourism
The Yukon Sign
Yukon's tourism motto is "Larger than life". The Yukon's major
appeal is its nearly pristine nature. Tourism relies heavily on
this, and there are many organised
outfitters and
guides
available to
hunters and
anglers and nature lovers of all sorts. Sports
enthusiasts can paddle lakes and rivers with
canoes and
kayaks, ride or walk
trails,
ski or
snowboard in an organized setting or access the
backcountry by air or
snowmobile, climb the highest peaks of
North America or take a family hike up smaller
mountains, or try
ice climbing and
dog sledding. Yukon also has a wide array
of cultural and sporting events and infrastructures that attract
artists, participants and tourists from all
parts of the world (
Yukon International
Storytelling Festival, Frostbite Music Festival, Dawson Music
Festival,
Yukon Quest, Sourdough
Rendezvous, the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, Northern Lights
Centre, Klondike Gold Rush memorials and activities, "Takhini Hot
Springs", and the Whitehorse fish ladder.
There are many opportunities to experience pre-colonial lifestyles
by learning about Yukon's First Nations.
Wildlife and nature
observation is exceptional and a wide variety of large mammals, birds, and fish are easily accessible, whether or not within
Yukon's many territorial parks (Herschel Island
Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, Tombstone Territorial Park, Fishing
Branch Ni'iinlii'njik Park, Coal River Springs Territorial Park)
and national parks
(Kluane
National Park and Reserve, Vuntut National Park, Ivvavik National Park) and reserves, or
nearby Liard River Hot Springs Provincial
Park
in British Columbia.
On the long, cold, and clear nights of winter, nature provides the
ultimate natural spectacle in the form of
aurora borealis.
Transportation
Before
modern forms of transportation, the rivers and mountain passes were
the main transportation routes for the coastal Tlingit people trading with the Athabascans of which
the Chilkoot
Pass
and Dalton Trail, as
well as the first Europeans.
From the
Gold Rush until the 1950s, riverboats plied the Yukon River, mostly
between Whitehorse and Dawson City, with some making their way
further to Alaska and over to the Bering Sea
, and other tributaries of Yukon River such as the
Stewart
River
. Most of the riverboats were owned by the
British-Yukon Navigation Company, an arm of the White Pass and Yukon Route, which
also operated a narrow gauge
railway between Skagway, Alaska
, and Whitehorse. The railway ceased
operation in the 1980s with the first closure of the Faro
mine. It is now run during the summer months for
the tourism season, with operations as far as Carcross
.
Today,
major land routes include the Alaska
Highway, the Klondike Highway
(between Skagway and Dawson City), the Haines Highway (between Haines,
Alaska
, and Haines Junction), and the Dempster
Highway (linking Inuvik, Northwest Territories
to the Klondike Highway), all paved except for the
Dempster. Other highways with less traffic include the
"Robert Campbell Highway"
link ing Carmacks
(on the Klondike Highway) to Watson
Lake (Alaska Highway) via Faro and Ross
River, and the "Silver Trail"
linking the old silver mining communities of Mayo, Elsa
and Keno City
to the Klondike Highway at the Stewart River
bridge. Air travel is the only way to reach the far north
community of Old Crow.
Whitehorse
International Airport
serves as the air transport infrastructure hub,
with direct flights to Vancouver
, Calgary
, Edmonton
, Fairbanks
, and Frankfurt
(summer months). Every Yukon community is
served by an
airport.
The communities of Dawson City, Old Crow, and Inuvik, have regular
passenger service through
Air North. Air
charter businesses exist primarily to serve the tourism and mining
exploration industries.
Government and politics
Chief Isaac of the Han, Yukon
Territory, ca. 1898
In the 19th century, Yukon was a segment of the
Hudson's Bay Company-administered
North-Western Territory and
then the Canadian-administered Northwest Territories. It only
obtained a recognizable local government in 1895 when it became a
separate
district
of the Northwest Territories. In 1898, it was made a separate
territory with its own commissioner and appointed Territorial
Council.
Prior to 1979, the territory was administered by the
commissioner who was
appointed by the federal
Minister
of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The commissioner
used to chair and had a role in appointing the territory's
Executive Council and had a day to day role in governing
the territory. The elected
Territorial Council had a
purely advisory role. In 1979, a significant degree of power was
devolved from the federal government and
commissioner to the territorial legislature which, in that year,
adopted a party system of
responsible government. This was done
through a letter from
Jake Epp, the
Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development rather than
through formal legislation.
In preparation for
responsible
government, political parties were organised and ran candidates
to the
Yukon Legislative
Assembly for the first time in 1978. The
Progressive Conservatives won these elections
and formed the first party government of Yukon in January 1979. The
Yukon New Democratic
Party (NDP) formed the government from 1985 to 1992 under
Tony Penikett and again from 1996
under
Piers McDonald until being
defeated in 2000. The conservatives returned to power in 1992 under
John Ostashek after having renamed
themselves the
Yukon Party. The
Liberal government of
Pat Duncan was defeated in elections in November
2002, with
Dennis Fentie of the Yukon
Party forming the government as
Premier.
The
Yukon Act, passed on April 1, 2003, formalised the
powers of the Yukon government and devolved additional powers to
the territorial government (e.g., control over land and natural
resources). As of 2003, other than criminal prosecutions, the Yukon
government has much of the same powers as provincial governments,
and the other two territories are looking to obtaining the same
powers. Today the role of commissioner is analogous to that of a
provincial
lieutenant governor;
however, unlike lieutenant-governors, commissioners are not formal
representatives of the
Queen but
are employees of the federal government.
Although there has been discussion in the past about Yukon becoming
Canada's 11th province, it is generally felt that its population
base is too sparse for this to occur at present.
At the
federal level, the territory is presently represented in the
Parliament
of Canada
by a single Member
of Parliament and one senator. Canadian territories'
members of Parliament are full and equal voting representatives and
residents of the territory enjoy the same rights as other Canadian
citizens. One Yukon Member of Parliament —
Erik Nielsen — was the
Deputy Prime Minister under
the government of
Brian Mulroney,
while another —
Audrey McLaughlin
— was the leader of the federal
New
Democratic Party.
Yukon was one of nine jurisdictions in Canada to offer
same-sex marriage before the
passage of Canada's
Civil Marriage
Act.
Federal government representation
In the
Canadian House of
Commons, Yukon is represented by
Larry
Bagnell, representing the
Liberal Party. Mr. Bagnell was first
elected to the House of Commons in 2000. Previous Members of
Parliament include
Louise Hardy (NDP,
1997–2000),
Audrey McLaughlin
(NDP, 1987–1997), Erik Nielsen (
Progressive
Conservative Party of Canada, 1957–1987),
James Aubrey Simmons (Liberal,
1949–1957).
Yukon has been represented by two Senators since the position was
created in 1975. The
Senate of
Canada position is currently held by
Daniel Lang, who was
appointed on 22 December 2008. It was previously filled by
Ione Christensen, representing the Liberal
Party. Appointed to the Senate in 1999 by Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien, Mrs. Christensen resigned
in December 2006 to help her ailing husband. From 1975 to 1999,
Paul Lucier (Liberal) served as Senator
for the Yukon. Lucier was appointed by Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau.
First Nations governments
Much of the population of the territory is
First Nations. An
umbrella land claim agreement representing
7,000 members of fourteen different First Nations was signed with
the federal government in 1992. Each of the individual First
Nations then has to negotiate a specific land claim and a
self-government agreement. As of December 2005, eleven of the 14
First Nations had a signed agreement. The fourteen First Nation
governments are:
The
territory once had an Inuit settlement,
located on Herschel
Island
off the Arctic
coast. This settlement was dismantled in 1987 and its
inhabitants relocated to the neighboring Northwest Territories. As
a result of the
Inuvialuit Final Agreement, the island is
now a territorial park and is known officially as
Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park,
Qikiqtaruk being the name of the island in
Inuvialuktun. There are also 14 First Nations
that speak 8 different languages.
Communities
Ten largest communities by population
1 Part of "Metro" Whitehorse
Census Agglomeration
See also
Notes
References
- Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison (1988). Land of the
Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon. Hurtig Publishers,
Edmonton. ISBN 0-88830-331-9
External links
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