Points North

Last week we spent a few days heading further North, into the communities to meet with First Nations and other people along the way.





We had a few places that we wanted to visit to do some water quality monitoring, as well, Maya was going to meet with Lands departments staff to discuss some of the key issues around contaminated sites and issues for discussion at the Summit. It was also a way for us to get a better idea of what the communities, River and people were like outside of Whitehorse.

We drove up to Dawson City the first day and camped overnight. The next morning we went in to the Tr'ondek Hwechin office for a meeting. We discussed a few issues around Dawson...a long history of mining (placer gold mining) and human settlement (historic landfills) has left a few spots that may be impacting the river and/or Settlement land (FN land). With some help we identified a few sites that would be good to stop at and have a look at some preliminary water quality measurements...downstream of old mines and landfills mostly. We also looked at the water in the River itself.

Dawson City is a great little town on the banks of the Yukon River. Like most of the Yukon, it's got a rich history from the Klondike days that were preceeded by the First Nations people living there. It is now a vital stop on the modern stampede of motorhomes cruising up to Alaska from all over...my how our adventures have changed! It is also well known for its annual music festival, coming up this weekend.



After Dawson we drove back down south to Mayo. Where they have a sign on the highway "Mayo-Heart of the Yukon" and stencilled underneath, as an afterthought, yet important consideration..."Good Fishing". We sayed at a glorious lake where, for the first time this summer we could actually enjoy the water long enough to put our whole selves in, to swim around and enjoy being submersed! The Yukon has a lot of lakes and rivers, but most are painfully cold to try to swim in (see a later entry about Atlin Lake). In the morning we went up to Keno City, an old mining town in the mountains. Like most communities built on a single resource, it had its heydey and is now a few homes, a museum and of course the leftover fortune seekers. We had coffee with the old boys at the Keno Cafe and then went out to monitor a nearby creek while we waited for the Mining Museum to open up. Keno is an absolutley beautiful setting, up in the back of a valley so close to the alpine. In the old days they lived up closer to the mines, in tents at the top of the mountain. View was great but can't imagine the winters. We toured the museum, which is very well kept and has some great exhibits by the way, and I imagined the generations of my family living in mining towns in the Kootenays...much the same way the Kenoites seeking the fortunes of mining had. The crisp photos of everyday life in the 50's in Keno really brought that to my mind.

Anyway, so here we are in Keno and we run across this spunky lady out walking her little dog. She started to tell us about the proposed mine and how the community (not an anti-development communtiy by any means) had been trying to have thier voice heard about concerns they had regarding the tailings, the mill site and the pollution that would be coming from the mine. It is a story that is common, about a small, rural community that wants to be part of the decision making process that is going to impact the water they drink, the food they eat and the livlihoods they make. This isn't even getting into any First Nations issues. At any rate, I think it's so important for rural communties whether Native or not, to be meaningfully involved in the decision making process and for people to have the capacity to engage in these processes. We ran around to a few places in Keno to monitor water and then we headed down the road to see if we could walk in and meet with somebody from Na-cho Nyuk Dun. Alas, the people we wanted to see were out, and the office was a bit busy as it looked like they were just moving in to a new building.

We continued driving South to Carmacks (stopping at Five Finger Rapids on the way). The Village of Carmacks had invited us to attend a Council meeting to discuss them signing on as an affiliated organization with the Watershed Council. On the drive Maya asked something about coffee and cookies at the meeting...I said no way, you never get food at a council meeting! Well, low and behold, the Village of Carmacks knows what is what and had a bag of cookies for their guests. I was proven wrong. They agreed to sign on as an affiliated organization, essentially saying that they support protection of the Yukon River. Our first Yukon non-Indigenous government signer!

The next day, after camping out roadside, we went to meet with the Little Salmon/Carmacks Land Manager. We spent a while discussing mining operations in the area, proposed mines and what Little Salmon/Carmacks was concerned about. It was good to get an idea of the scale of the development and what is proposed, as well as to put it into a landscape context.

I was also trying to meet with Youth Co-ordinators to do some outreach to youth to attend the Summit...met with mild success on that front as there were new co-ordinators and had trouble getting in touch before I went up (hey, it's summer and there are better things to do up here right now!).

Our little trip up North came to a close. Many, many kilometers, 3 nights in Maya's camper and some new friendships formed...well worth it!