14

Northern Tutchone puberty hood
Date not available

15

Brush camp (Män Ku) outside Tagé Cho Hudän Interpretive Centre
10 October 2005
Carmacks, Yukon


Credits:
(Courtesy LSCFN)

16

Traditional Housing

Prior to the arrival of the K'uch'an, people did not build permanent houses or cabins because they rarely stayed in once place long enough. As they moved around their territory, they built smaller, simpler dwellings, such as brush camps and willow-pole tents covered with hide. Spruce pole houses also made a good winter home, especially when covered with ice for insulation.

17

Pole house outside Tagé Cho Hudän Interpretive Centre
10 October 2005
Carmacks, Yukon


Credits:
(Courtesy LSCFN)

18

Transportation: First Dog Team Story

The Hudé Hudän of course relied a lot on their feet to get around, both in summer and winter. But they also made various traditional "vehicles", such as the dugout canoe and moose-hide canoe. In the winter, people used sleds made of animal hide to pull their belongings.

While the Hudé Hudän often used dogs to pack their goods, dog teams weren't used until the modern trapping era. Wilfred Charlie tells the story of the first dog team used by a Northern Tutchone:

Taylor McGundy told me this story. Little Salmon Lake, they were coming back to Little Salmon village, my grandpa Shratthegan Billy and some others, when he was young man. They were all way ahead, Shratthegan was pulling his stuff on that toboggan. They got five puppies, that time, all about six months. My grandpa, he was sitting down taking a rest, he made a rope harness. Hitched those dogs up to the sled. He caught up with those people, passed them. After that, he never pulled that sled no more. I don't know what year, Taylor said he was a pretty young man, that time. That was the first time, people pulled their toboggans before that.

19

Dugout canoe from the Tagé Cho Hudän Interpretive Centre
10 October 2005
Carmacks, Yukon


Credits:
(Courtesy LSCFN)

20

Kohklux Map, 1860.
1860
Fort Selkirk, Yukon

21

Trading & Conflict with the Chilkat Tlingit

Before K'uch'an traders reached the Yukon interior, Northern Tutchone people had been trading with other First Nation people for generations. The coastal Chilkat Tlingit had access to European goods by the mid-1700's through their trade with the Russians. The Chilkat were eager to trade these goods to the interior peoples, and made long trading trips into the Yukon. They also brought important prestige items, like dentalia shells and mother of pearl, which are not found in the Yukon. The Chilkat in turn took home furs to trade back to the Russians.

In 1860, the Chilkat Cheif Kohklux and his wives drew a map of their people's route from the coast to the interior for the American astronomer Davidson. The map is impressive not only becasue of it's detail and accuracy, but becasue it was the first time they used a pencil and paper!

According to LSCFN Elders, sometime in the recent past a conlflict arose between the Tatchun people and the Chilkat. The fight started due to the Chilkat's disrespectful behavior towards the Tatchun people. All the Chilkats died except for one boy, who escaped back to the coast where his people lived. At the time the Tatchun Chief Kwänatäk ordered the people to prepare for the retaliation of the Chilkat. The Tatchun people built a fort for protection, which had no openings except for small holes to aim weapons. When the Chilkat returned and saw the fort the people had built, they left rather than fighting, returning later to negotiate peace.