Description of Historic Place

T'äw Tà'är National Historic Site of Canada is an old camp and village site situated on the west bank of the Teslin River, next to Open Creek, about 30 kilometres east of Lake Laberge and north-east of Whitehorse, in Yukon. The site is known as T’äw Tà’är, or “grayling run up” in the Southern Tutchone language, after the abundance of spawning grayling fish that brought Indigenous peoples to this site. This landscape includes a meadow that facilitated settlement and exchange, an intersecting network of trails, and two twentieth century cabins. The southern portion is bordered by a hill known as Äsu Shentth’än, or “Grandma’s Backbone”, while trails extend westward linking the designated site with Lake Laberge. T’äw Tà’är is considered a representative example of a Tutchone cultural landscape. Official recognition refers to the cultural and physical landscapes, evidence of human habitation and travel, and built remains.

Heritage Value

T'äw Tà'är was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2012. It is recognized because:
— located at the intersection of many regional travel routes, it is an Aboriginal cultural landscape that represents the interconnected web of seasonal food gathering activities, family relations, travel and trade of the Southern Tutchone people of Ta’an Kwäch’än;
— the trails and waterways that lead out from T’äw Tà’är illustrate the sustained relationship between the Ta’an Kwäch’än and their traditional territory, through which the Ta’an Kwäch’än travelled each year to harvest animals, plants and fish;
— the travel routes that met at T’äw Tà’är fostered a network of marriages and resulting family lineages, as well as cooperation, travel, and the maintenance of good relations with neighbours such as the Northern Tutchone, Tagish, Tlingit and Kaska peoples, culturally connecting the southern Yukon Athapaskan peoples to each other.

T’äw Tà’är is an Indigenous cultural landscape that sits along the Teslin River home of the Southern Tutchone people of Ta’an Kwäch’än, “the people of the flat lake place.” It has been chosen by the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council as a landscape that speaks to their traditional way of life. From T’äw Tà’är, trails lead west to Tàa’an Män (Lake Laberge), which is now where most members of the Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation live. Another trail heads east to Livingstone Creek and the Big Salmon River. River routes lead north and south from T’äw Tà’är along the Teslin River. Another trail leads south to Marsh Lake on the Yukon River. In autumn, people passed through the camp on their way to hunt moose, bighorn sheep or caribou in the mountains, or to fish for whitefish in the rivers and lakes. At all seasons, people passed through the area to trade and visit with neighbours and relatives. At the turn of the 20th century, it was also a small settlement for a number of families who ran traplines in the area. For the Ta’an Kwäch’än, T’äw Tà’är is a cultural landscape that illustrates their world, and the connections that sustained it.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, July 2011.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements contributing to the heritage value of this site include:

— the site’s location along the Teslin River at the confluence of Hutamya Chù (Open Creek), in Yukon;
— the site’s location as a hub for historically significant travel and trading routes;
— the largely unimpaired natural landscape including the natural meadow, hill and network of trails, associated with the long-standing patterns of use (settlement, trade, and social gathering);
— the practical associations of the site that provided subsistence in a landscape that supported hunting, fishing, curing, and exchange;
— continuous use of the site, defined by seasonal variations and river levels, for an indeterminate period, to 1970;
— the site’s ongoing connection to the South Tutchone People;
— the stories, memories, oral tradition, and moral framework of the Southern Tutchone community, which remain alive and continue to be transmitted, because of the continuing connection to this landscape;
— the presence of the remains of Charlie Smith’s trapping cabin, built in 1907, and a second, newer cabin;
— the connection of the site to Kashxoot (Jim Boss), Chief of the Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nation in the early 20th century and designated National Historic Person (2001).