I am researching the watershed of yukon river Which is very long – it is about 300 kilometers. It begins in northwestern Canada and flows through Alaska before reaching Bering Sea And the North Pacific. I’m thinking about how a variety of legal traditions have shaped the way we interact with this huge group of people ecological niche.There is great cultural diversity along the river, with indigenous legal practices dating back thousands of years – it is also a place that both the British and Russian empires tried to colonize in the 19th century and, now, a bridge between the United States and Canada Have shared relationship are on the border here and still negotiating their relationship indigenous people And the form of law.
What is the cultural fabric of the Yukon Territory – who lives there?
There are many different indigenous societies including the Tlingit people, Northern and Southern Tuchon, Han, Yup’ik, and Gwich’in. It is a very complex and rich place culturally. Many indigenous groups are part of the river, the ecosystem in which they live is linked together by these waters, from open tundra to boreal forest below the sea, rising to some of the largest glaciers in North America, making it a A very diverse ecosystem is formed.
A key species that makes this river a central destination for both people and animals is the salmon – these mature in the ocean and migrate upstream to spawn. After spawning, the adult fish are destroyed while the eggs hatch into fresh water, sometimes up to 3,000 kilometers out to sea, and the young fish swim back out and begin the cycle again. This two-way movement of salmon is very important for the entire ecosystem.
Lunch: Bears, residents of the Yukon watershed, benefit from its salmon (Photo: iStock)
When I started writing, I realized that usually when historians write about a river, history moves in one direction – it follows the direction the water takes, traveling downstream. Does it, tracks gravity and goes into the ocean. So, it is a one-way movement. But in the Yukon watershed, partly because salmon migrationWe are not only seeing fish traveling back and forth, but also seeing them carrying huge amounts of nutrients from the ocean. They bring these back upstream, which in biogeochemical terms means that salmon are extremely important to the nitrogen cycle throughout the boreal forest – salmon act like a fertilizer pulse, moving up and down the river. , enrich the entire ecosystem.
Running deep: Flowing 300 kilometers into the Arctic, the Yukon Territory has an extraordinary history of salmon runs, gold mining, colonial exploitation and indigenous beliefs (Photo: Bathsheba Demuth)
They also become food for bears, eagles, wolves, lynxes and of course people. So, when the river is healthy, it is actually moving in two directions – it moves water downstream and carries fish and nutrients upstream. The river is also connected to the ocean in a way that creates weather over the Bering Sea and carries that water back inland – it becomes rain and snow. So, the Yukon River is almost like a lung that inhales and exhales.
Why was the Yukon a subject of such interest to many colonial powers?
The region was certainly far from the centers of such power, be it Moscow or London – but basically, colonial interest was in fur. In the early 19th century, the Yukon watershed was one of the last areas in the far Northern Hemisphere where highly valuable fur animals were not caught in shortages. Both the British and Russian empires came because they wanted marmot, beaver, and fox fur.
Map: Wikimedia Commons
By the end of the 19th century, gold was discovered on a large scale along the river gold Rush The Klondike – a tributary of the Yukon – brought there a huge wave of people numbering in the thousands. It spread into the Yukon, deeply impacting local people and the river. This continues to this day as gold is one of the major elements mined from the watershed.
Hello, stranger… As the Yukon Territory warms and plants grow, moose begin to appear (Photo: Bathsheba Demuth)
As you outline, why are legal practices so important here?
It is a place where the ideals we have in society about how we should live, secure the future and learn from the past, meet present circumstances – the ideal and the real meet each other under legal circumstances in the Yukon. Here, various forms of legal traditions consider how we should live in the environment we live in – the larger cosmological thinking behind those practices influences this ecology.
Let’s say you’re an indigenous person and your idea of validity is linked to fish – you actually negotiate your relationship with them through your actions. Contrast this with if you view fish as a resource to be managed to enable commercial fishing on a certain scale. Then you’re just thinking about trying to avoid extinction as your goal for fish that are larger and far more widespread. The Yukon is where all these legal ideas co-exist – the question is who has the state power behind it?
How it is Climate change Now impacting Yukon Territory?
Some of the impacts we are feeling in more temperate parts of the world are already being felt by a few decades in the far north, because the warming is occurring most intensely there. The Yukon flows through much of the land with permafrost – which is beginning to melt. This is causing changes in the river’s erosion, its depth and the pattern of dirt or sediment. In some tributaries, thawing of permafrost Releasing metals – This water is turning bright orange due to the high amount of metals.
Other victims of the empire: Furry Yukon foxes were hunted relentlessly (Photo: iStock)
There are other effects of warming, too. The Yukon is defined by salmon which are cold water fish – they are having a very hard time as the waters have now warmed up. Meanwhile, new species are emerging. Below the mouth of the Yukon, an open tundra historically with little vegetation, climate change has meant more development – instead of the landscape being wide open, willow bushes are now blooming. At the same time, the moose are suddenly moving inward – higher up, mountain lions are becoming visible. Locals learned to live with bears here – but they are completely shocked by mountain lions. Additionally, there are continuing concerns over declining salmon numbers.
How should we imagine the Yukon River as a symbol in the Anthropocene?
The Yukon is imagined as a remote wilderness that remains far from politics, environmental change, and many symbols of modernity. It’s thought to be irreversible – but it’s actually deeply connected to the kinds of changes we’re all starting to see in our daily lives. Yet, despite a century of intensive mining and climate change, the Yukon still largely maintains deep ecological integrity – showing how this is related to the choices we make in our own lives. The Yukon’s future and ours are intertwined.
