The Yukon

• The Land
• The History
• The People
• The Economy

The Land

The Yukon Territory in Canada's northwest covers 483 450 km2. The perimeters of this mountainousterritory form a rough triangle bordered on the south by British Columbia, on the west by the U.S. state ofAlaska and on the east by the Northwest Territories. The northern tip of the triangle meets the chilly watersof the Beaufort Sea. Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak at 6 050 metres, is located in southwesternYukon.

The Yukon can be divided into two broad geographical regions: taiga and tundra. Taiga is the boreal forestbelt that circles the world in the subarctic zone, including most of the Yukon. Tundra is the vast, rocky plainin the Arctic regions, where the extreme climate has stunted vegetation.

The Yukon has a subarctic climate. The high altitude of much of the territory and the semi-arid climateprovide relatively warm summers with temperatures frequently reaching 25°C or more during the longsummer days. In winter the temperature ranges between plus 4 and minus 50°C in the south and slightlycolder farther north.

Above the Arctic Circle (latitude 66° north), the Yukon is known as "The Land of the midnight sun" becausefor three months in summer, sunlight is almost continuous. In winter, however, darkness sets in, and thelight of day is not seen for a quarter of the year.

The History

The name Yukon was first used in 1846 by the Hudson's Bay Company trader, John Bell. He called it"Yucon," derived from the Loucheux word "Yuchoo," meaning the greatest river. The Yukon River is the fifth-longest in North America.

The Yukon was the first area in Canada to be settled by people. Anthropologists believe the ancestors oftoday's Aboriginal peoples may have inhabited the Yukon 10 000 to 25 000 years ago when they migratedfrom Asia across a Bering Sea land bridge.

The first modern European visitors were Russian explorers who travelled along the coast in the 18th centuryand traded with the area's Aboriginal peoples. Sir John Franklin anchored off the Yukon's Arctic coastline in1825, and the Hudson's Bay Company moved into the interior in the 1840s.

U.S. traders arrived after the 1867 Russian sale of Alaska to the United States. With the discovery of goldnear Dawson City in 1896, the Klondike became one of the most populous regions in northwestern Canada.The sudden increase in population during the Klondike gold rush prompted the federal government to givethe Yukon more control over its affairs. In 1898, the Yukon Territory was officially established to ensureCanadian jurisdiction; the Yukon Act provided for a commissioner and an elected legislative assembly.

Some 40 years later, during the Second World War, the United States built the Alaska Highway, creating anew overland transportation route. In 1979, the Canadian government opened the Dempster Highway,Canada's first all-weather road to cross the Arctic Circle.

As a territory, the Yukon does not have full provincial status, although it achieved a style of governmentsimilar to that of the provinces in 1979. The Canadian government retains administrative control over water,land and forestry and the development of all non-renewable resources (i.e. minerals, oil and gas).

The 1970s saw the emergence of the Yukon land claims negotiations. In 1993, the Council for YukonIndians, the Government of Canada and the Yukon Territorial Government signed an Umbrella FinalAgreement that sets out the terms for final land claim settlements in the Territory. Final land claimagreements were also reached with the Vuntut Gwich'in First Nation, the Champagne and Aishihik FirstNation, the Teslin Tlingit Council and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun. These agreements contribute tocertainty of land title, and benefits include cash, land and participation on wildlife and other managementboards.

In addition to their land claim settlements, the four First Nations also negotiated self-governmentagreements that give them more control over land use on settlement lands and greater authority in areassuch as language, health care, social services and education.

The People

The Yukon's vast interior forests were occupied by the Athapaskans, whose cultural and linguistic traditionsgo back more than 1 000 years. Today, there are six distinct groups of Athapaskan Aboriginal peoples:Kutchin, Han, Tutchone, Inland Tlingit, Kaska and Tagish.

At present, approximately 30 700 people live in the Yukon; 21 percent of the population is Aboriginal. Over70 percent of the population lives in Whitehorse, Yukon's capital city.

The Economy

Mining, the Yukon's largest industry, accounts for more than 30 percent of The Economy. Tourism, offering awilderness experience in a unique and relatively unspoiled environment, provides a further base for jobs andservices. Efforts have recently been made to promote other sectors, such as the forest industry.

The fur trade continues to be important to the Aboriginal peoples of the Yukon. A small fishing industryoperates in Dawson City to export salmon, and other commercial fisheries supply local consumers.

Agriculture - expensive by North American standards - is a small but expanding industry. Although growthof the agricultural industry is limited by climate and the availability of productive land, new researchprograms hold promise for the future.