The Yukon River has many stories to tell, from the tales of the stampeders who rushed down the river on their way to the Klondike, to the accounts of the riverboat crews who worked on the river. These stories tend to be told from one point of view, the perspective of a person using the river in a particular way.

Now efforts are being made to show a more complete picture of the upper Yukon River, the stretch of water between Whitehorse and Circle, Alaska. Sparked in part by the land claim settlement of the Tr'on dek Hwech'in First Nation, a number of projects will focus on the role that the river has played in the life of the First Nations living along it.

Other projects will focus on the river's environment, and how the various people who have used the river have changed it. According to David Neufeld, the Parks Canada historian for the Yukon and western Arctic, this part of the river's story should not be overlooked.

"It is hard to separate environment and culture," says Neufeld. "You really have three perspectives on the river. One is the First Nations perspective, the people whose homeland it is. The second is an understanding of the newcomers through their letters and diaries. And finally we wanted to see if there was a way that we could get the perspective of the environment itself.

"Environmental history has progressed to the point that it can address this question, so rather than always making humans the center of the discussion, we can look at the environment and try to give it a voice. Nothing is culturally neutral, but by looking at the river from the environment's point of view, the perspective of different cultures can be brought together."

A 1995 river symposium held in Dawson helped set the tone for the research efforts on the upper river. Elders from seven First Nations along the river spoke there, and they had a very similar message. "The most important theme was the flow of clean water. This was more important than particular sites or anything else. They all agreed that if there was clean water, everything else would take care of itself," says Neufeld.

Neufeld is working on a history of transportation along the upper Yukon River. He is looking at how environmental and climatic factors have shaped river transport, the role of First Nations along the river, and a social history of the upper Yukon River. His research has pointed out that preserving clean water was not a major concern during the riverboat era.

In the early 1990s, researchers with the Environmental Protection Branch of Environment Canada found deposits of black sludge at the bottom of Lake Laberge. They had found that burbot fish caught in the lake had diseased livers, and were investigating whether there was a connection between the sludge and the contaminated fish.

It turned out that the sludge could be traced back to the riverboat era. When the United Keno Hill mine opened outside of Mayo in the 1920s, the Yukon River was still the main transportation route in the territory. The existing fleet of riverboats was not big enough to handle the shipments of ore from the mine, and the British Yukon Navigation Company was reluctant to invest in more steamers because of concerns about fluctuating mineral prices. Instead the company took two steps to lengthen the shipping season.

The ice goes out on Lake Laberge later than on other sections of river, so the company looked for ways to hasten the opening of the lake in the spring. In 1925 the company built the Marsh Lake dam so that the water contained behind the dam could be released in the spring to flush the ice out of Lake Laberge more quickly.

In 1928, the company initiated a practice that continues to haunt the Yukon today. In late spring a truck drove down the middle of the ice on the lake, spraying on it a suspect blend of lampblack, old crankcase oil and diesel oil. The blackened ice, if not covered by a later snowfall, helped speed the rotting of the ice so that the first riverboat of the season could push its way downstream. This practice was continued annually until the mid-1940s, so for nearly 20 years this sludge settled into the bottom of the northern half of the lake after the ice melted.

Neufeld is also researching the impacts of woodcutting along the river and the efforts to maintain navigable channels. He says that in 1938 alone, records indicate that 7-8,000 cords of wood were sitting by the river, ready for use by the steam-powered riverboats.

But the impacts of woodcutting and blasting rock in the river channels were benign compared to some of the proposals on the drawing boards. Between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, several huge hydroelectric projects were proposed for the Yukon River. One called for flooding the river upsteam of Hootalinqua, while another proposed reversing the flow of the Alsek River.

Neufeld said that these plans were designed both for mineral extraction and as part of the effort to industrialize the north. During the Cold War, there were concerns that Canada should be following the Soviet model, and making greater efforts to industrialize its northern territories.

In addition to Neufeld's work, other projects on the upper Yukon River include a description of the region's natural history, a literature review of environmental histories on riparian ecosystems around the world, and the archaeological work taking place at Tr'o-ju-wech'in, the traditional fish camp at the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers.

Neufeld says that all of these efforts will help the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in interpret their culture. For Parks Canada it means they will be able to broaden the interpretive information that they give at their historic sites at the S.S. Klondike in Whitehorse and the S.S. Keno in Dawson City.

At some point this information will be brought together at a conference. The plan is to have natural scientists, cultural researchers and First Nations elders all contribute information at each of the sessions. It is hoped that by listening to each other, everyone will be better able to communicate their findings.

For more information on these projects, contact Parks Canada at 667-3910.