PLACE NAMES AND PEOPLE

All that whole area just full of trails, all got their own names too. Fort Selkirk not that before, same with Seventeen Mlle.
-Grace Johnson, 1993

My grandfather told me stories and I'm sixty something. Those stories come back clear.
-Johnson Edwards, 1993.

Throughout my letter I have retained the native names of geographical points wherever I could learn them. In my opinion, this should always be studied. The Indian names of the mountains, lakes and rivers are natural landmarks for the traveller, whoever he may be; to destroy these by substituting words of a foreign tongue is to destroy the natural guides... Another very good reason why these names should be preserved is that some tradition of tribal importance is always connected with them. These people have no written language, but the retention of their native names is an excellent medium through which to learn their history.
-E. J. Glave, 1890, quoted in Reading Voices.

Place Names as Memories

The intimate relationship between Northern Tutchone people and the land is reflected in their use of place names. They have a name for every trail, hill, lake, river, and mountain. Names are often descriptive and evoke legends, stories of people who spent time at that place, and memories of things that have happened there. Anthropologist Julie Cruikshank has suggested that First Nations people use places instead of dates as a way to organize and focus their memories of the past.

Place Names as Stories

Appendix 1 in this manual lists traditional place names within the Selkirk First Nation traditional territory. Northern Tutchone people call the Yukon River, Tagé Cho, meaning "big river." Sè ké nek is one name for the Pelly River. It means "poling boat all the time" (E. Simon, FSEOP 1985). (The Selkirk Noun Dictionary gives Ts’éki’ Netú as the name for Pelly River, possibly a different pronunciation or spelling.)

The Northern Tutchone name for Victoria Rock is Tthi Ts'et 'yan or T'thi Ts'ach'an. According to one story, the rock is the figure of a young woman in a puberty hood who didn't follow the proper rituals and turned to stone. Another story, told by Harry Baum and Johnson Edwards, says that Victoria Rock is the figure of a Han woman from the Eagle River who could turn herself into animals. This was one of the places where she rested.

The basalt wall across from Fort Selkirk is called Melú and the hill visible from Fort Selkirk to the northeast is called Eté cho meaning "oldest people" (T. McGinty, FSEOHP, p. 2).

Nju Yen Tlek meaning "it (the river) cuts through here", is also known as Three-way Channel, an important traditional fishing site about 39 km downriver of Fort Selkirk. During an archaeology project sponsored by the Heritage Branch and the Selkirk First Nation, a number of artefacts were found here including five fish baskets, three hammerstones, and a bow.

Sedzuan Tagé, or Willow Creek, is named after an old Selkirk chief. Hed dá nek or McGregor Creek, means "muddy water."

Renaming the Landscape

Many newcomers who came to the territory in the 19th and earlier 20th century didn't realize that most features already had names or else they found the First Nations names hard to pronounce. They renamed many of the places they visited and wrote these names on early maps. Robert Campbell named the Pelly River in 1840 after Sir John Henry Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Co. In 1848, Campbell christened his trading post at the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers, Fort Selkirk, after Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk. Mount Pitts (Ddhaw Tsawa), behind Fort Selkirk, is named after Harold 'Buffalo' Pitts, who for many years ran Harper's Trading Post at Fort Selkirk. In 1909, Pitts requested that this name be officially recorded, stating that "he was somewhat like a mule, without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity." Five other mountains in the area are named after the commanding officer of the Yukon Field Force, Col. T.D.B. Evans, and the four soldiers who died in the Yukon. Victoria Rock got its name because the shape of the rock reminded steamboat crews of the dumpy figure of Queen Victoria.

A few early visitors, such as the geologist George Dawson and Selkirk's first missionary, Archdeacon Thomas Henry Canham, made an effort to learn and record the local names. The anthropologists and linguists of today owe much to the work of these people.

Reclaiming the Traditional Names

During land claims research in the 1970s and 1980s, First Nations people began mapping their traditional territories. Elders worked with researchers to document the traditional trails, fish camps, hunting areas, etc. as well as the traditional place names. About 1975, the Northern Native Language Centre (now the Yukon Native Language Centre) began working with Yukon First Nations people to put their languages into written form. An important part of this work was recording place names. John Ritter of the Yukon Native Language Centre worked with Selkirk elders Tommy McGinty and Johnson Edwards to prepare a Fort Selkirk Noun Dictionary with the Northern Tutchone names for many features in the Fort Selkirk area. Since 1986, the Yukon Geographical Names Board has worked with First Nations people to officially recognize many traditional names. For example, two of the Von Wilczek Lakes south of Pelly Crossing are now known as Lutsäw Tú Lake (Jackfish Lake) and T'the Ndu Lake (Rock Island Lake).

Further Reading:

T.H. Canham, 1898. Vocabulary English-Wood Indian. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 18 p. YA Pam 1898-08

R. Coutts, 1980. Yukon Places & Names.

Julie Cruikshank, 1991. Dän dhá Ts'edenintth'é - Reading Voices.

R. Gotthardt, 1987. Selkirk Indian Band. Culture and Land Use Study.

C. McClellan et al, 1987. Part of the Land, Part of the Water.

John Ritter, Johnson Edwards, Tommy McGinty, 1977. Fort Selkirk Noun Dictionary.