As the great influx of prospectors deluged the region, Chief Isaac of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, whose traditional territory encompasses the Klondike region, spoke out about the impact of the Gold Rush on his people. The land had been filled with game, and his people were happy and well fed. And when the white man arrived, Chief Isaac noted, his people helped feed and clothe the newcomers. In return, these strangers killed the game, chopped down the forests and took away the gold. His people were left cold and hungry, and the white man, he said, didn’t care.

Chief Jim Boss of the Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation from the Lake Laberge region echoed Chief Isaac’s concerns and, in 1902, suggested settling the issue through negotiation with the government in Ottawa. This offer, which was ignored, was the first time settlement of land claims was brought to the federal government.

Not long after came residential schools — the first one in the territory was established in 1911 at Carcross — and the very means of First Nations people’s subsistence, hunting, fishing and trapping, were increasingly displaced by poverty, disease, trauma and marginalization. First Nations people were neither consulted nor involved in the creation or administration of the new territory.

The impact of the newcomers was compounded during the wartime construction of the Alaska Highway starting in 1942. The Yukon, which had settled into a quiet economic recession, was reshaped by this highway that connected it to the rest of North America. The demographic and economic centre of the Yukon shifted from Dawson City to Whitehorse, which became the capital in 1953. The highway led to further disruption and hardship for the original stewards of this land.

Spurred by shared discontent, Elijah Smith from the Kwanlin Dün First Nation founded the Yukon Native Brotherhood in 1969. Four years later, he helped establish the Council for Yukon Indians. Under his leadership, the council created the document “Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow,” a blueprint for Indigenous Peoples of the Yukon, their children and their grandchildren to play an equal role in the future of the territory.