Unemployed prospectors lured by Klondike gold lust file up the steep summit of the Chilkoot Pass in 1898 in a famous photograpg by Eric Hegg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Klondike & Yukon Both Stem from Gwich’in Word for River The place names Klondike and Yukon both contain a Gwich’in word for river. The Gwich’in, formerly spelled Kutchin or Gwitchin in English, are an Athapaskan people living today in 15 small villages in Canada ’s Yukon and in northern Alaska. About 7,000 Gwich’in people remain, but only about 800 speak their native Athapaskan tongue. Klondike derives from the name of a local river in the Gwich’in language where thron-dyuk means Hammer River. The Gwich’in people hammered stakes into the river shallows to trap salmon. And of course we know the creeks and streams of this tributary of the Yukon River, particularly Bonanza Creek, carried gold that was discovered on August 17, 1896, thus setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. The popular poems of Robert W. Service helped make the word Klondike famous wherever English was read.
Established on June 13, 1898, Canada’s Yukon Territory also takes it name from a local river, a mighty river. Now we already know a Gwich’in word for river, dyuk. Dyukun-ah means ‘great river.’ English ears heard this as Yukon.
Some Other Gwich’in Words: shih 'grizzly' -- shìh 'food' zhoh 'snow' -- zhòh 'wolf' khah 'packsack' -- khàh 'club'
Some Local Gwich’in Place Names
Aerial view of Wm. Kush viteetshik (East Seela Creek). Photo taken during the 1999 Tombstone Oral History Project, a partnership between GSCI, Teetl'it Gwich'in Council, Tr'ondek Hwech'in and Yukon Heritage. Photo credit: Ingrid Kritsch, GSCI.
Ch'injik gwagaih ‘dried saltlick for sheep,’ a place used by Dall sheep in the Brooks Range near Arctic Village, a Gwich’in settlement. Teetsaih t'it ‘ochre bluff,’ refers to a large bluff along the Black River upstream from Chalkyitsik where red ochre used for coloring locally made items is found. Ochre is used for colouring snowshoes, sleds, and toboggans. Jak ddhaa ‘blueberries mountain,’ near Chalkyitsik. Kiithaataa ‘ birch-bark portage’ near Chalkyitsik, describes an overland portage trail across a major "oxbow" bend on the Black River. Khaalii 'qq ‘fish-spring-creek’ refers to a small creek near Venetie where whitefish are seasonally abundant.
Srehtadhadlaii (Point Separation) where the Mackenzie River divides and the Mackenzie Delta starts. Photo credit: Ingrid Kritsch, GSCI.
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The fascinating origins of more Canadian place names await the reader in my book. Click cover below to sample it. This book is in print and available to order at any book store in Canada, no matter what misinformation may be presented on book store computers. All my books are in print.
ISBN 1-55278-034-1 224 pages, illustrated, cost approx. $ 20.00 CDN. published by McArthur & Company, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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