The Hän, Han or Hwëch'in / Han Hwech’in (meaning "People of the River, i.e. Yukon River", in English also Hankutchin) are a

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people of Canada and an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the United States; they are part of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional lands centered on a heavily forested area around the Upper Yukon River (Chu Kon'Dëk), Klondike River (Tr'on'Dëk), Bonanza Creek (Gàh Dëk) and Sixtymile River (Khel Dëk) and straddling what is now the

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

Yukon Territory Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

border. In later times, the Han population became centered in Dawson City, Yukon and

Eagle, Alaska Eagle ( in Hän Athabascan) is a city on the south bank of the Yukon River near the Canada–US border in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. It includes the Eagle Historic District, a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Th ...

Chief Isaac of the Han in canoe near Dawson, ca 1898 (CURTIS 2000)

Etymology

The name ''Hän'' or ''Han'' is a shortening of their own name as ''Hwëch'in / Han Hwech’in'', and of the Gwich’in word ''Hangʷičʼin'' for the Hän, both literally meaning "People of the River, i.e. the Yukon River". This word has been spelled variously as ''Hankutchin'', ''Han-Kootchin'', ''Hun-koo-chin'', ''Hong-Kutchin'', ''An Kutchin'', ''Han Kutchin'', ''Han-Kutchín'', ''Hăn-Kŭtchin´'', ''Hän Hwëch'in'', and ''Hungwitchin''. The Hän were often mistaken for just another Gwich'in (Kutchin) band, especially as part of the Dagoo Gwich'in / Tukudh Gwich'in and Teetł'it Gwich'in / Teetl'it Zheh Gwich'in. The French traders called the Hän ''Gens du fou'', ''Gens de Fou'', ''Gens de Foux'', ''Gens des Foux'', or ''Gens-de-fine''. The name ''Gens de Foux'' (and variants) has also been used to refer to the Northern Tutchone (Dan or Huč’an). The Hankutchin were then known as ''Gens de Bois'' or ''Gens des Bois,'' in association with their forested territory.

History of the Hän

The Hän were one of the last Northern Athabascan groups to have contact with European peoples. In 1851 Robert Campbell from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

was the first known white man to enter Han territory, when he traveled from Fort Selkirk to

Fort Yukon Fort Yukon (''Gwichyaa Zheh'' in Gwich'in) is a city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska, straddling the Arctic Circle. The population, predominantly Gwich'in Alaska Natives, was 583 at the 2010 census, down from 595 ...

. It was not until 1873 and 1874 (after the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

purchase of

), that two trading posts were set up. One was established by Moses Mercier, a former employee of the

, in Belle Isle across the Eagle River. The other, Fort Reliance, was established on the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

, just below the mouth of the

Klondike River The Klondike River (Hän: ') is a tributary of the Yukon River in Canada that gave its name to the Klondike Gold Rush. The Klondike River rises in the Ogilvie Mountains and flows into the Yukon River at Dawson City. Its name comes from the H� ...

, near Dawson, by two Alaska Commercial Company traders, Leroy N. McQuesten and Frank Bonifield. Gradually trading with whites resulted in the Han shifting from their traditional fishing-hunting economy to a fur-trapping economy, as they grew increasingly reliant on such European goods as guns, clothing, and canvas from 1887 to 1895. Moosehide village

Bishop William Bompas established the first

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

mission in Hän territory, and gradually the people shifted away from traditional religion. They also combined it with Christianity in a syncretic fashion. The Han suffered high mortality during several epidemics of new infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity.

Culture

Food

Historically, fish, especially salmon, comprised the main part of the Hän diet.

King salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus '' Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other v ...

was caught along the Yukon River in June and chum salmon in August. Fishing tools included

weirs A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

, traps,

gill net Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...

s, dip nets, spears, and

harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal ...

s. Salmon was dried and stored for winter consumption. Between the

salmon run ''Salmon Run'' is a 1982 video game for the Atari 8-bit family created by Bill Williams and distributed via the Atari Program Exchange. ''Salmon Run'' was the first game in Williams's career, followed by a string of successes noted for their o ...

s from June–September, the river camps were abandoned. The Han men sought other fish, moose, caribou, birds, bears, and small game. Men hunted game (once after the salmon run and later for caribou in February and March) while women fished (for fish other than salmon.) The women traditionally cooked by stone boiling in woven spruce-root baskets.

Housing

A square half-recessed house was made of wooden poles and moss insulation (called a ''moss house''). This served as the main type of housing. The people erected temporary domed houses made of skin stretched over tied branches when they were traveling.

Language

The

Hän language The Hän language (alternatively spelled as Haen) (also known as Dawson, Han-Kutchin, Moosehide; ISO 639-3 haa) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Hän Hwëch'in (translated to ''people who live along the river'', sometimes anglic ...

is most similar to Gwich’in (Kutchin). It is more distantly related to

Upper Tanana Upper Tanana (also known as Tabesna, Nabesna or Nee'aanèegn') is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken in eastern Interior Alaska, United States, mainly in the villages of Northway, Tetlin, and Tok, and adjacent areas of the Canadian ter ...

and

Northern Tutchone The Northern Tutchone are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group living mainly in the central Yukon in Canada. Language and culture The Northern Tutchone language, originally spoken by the Northern Tutchone p ...

. The language was used as a lingua franca by Gwich’in, Tutchone,

Tagish The Tagish or Tagish Khwáan ( Tagish: ; tli, Taagish ḵwáan) are a First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group that lived around Tagish Lake and Marsh Lake, in Yukon of Canada. The Tagish intermarried heavily with ...

, and Upper Tanana peoples toward the end of the 19th century during the Gold Rush in the Yukon. The language is now the most

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

of Alaska, with only a few speakers (all are over 60 years of age). The language may have ancient, early Holocene origins in the region.

References

Bibliography

* Crow, John R.; & Obley, Philip R. (1981). "Han." In J. Helm (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic'' (Vol. 6, pp. 506–513). Washington: Smithsonian Institution. * McPhee, John. (1977). ''Coming into the Country''. New York: Farrat, Strauss, and Giroux. * Mishler, Craig and William E. Simeone. (2004). ''Han, People of the River: Hän Hwëch'in''. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. * Osgood, Cornelius. (1971). ''The Han Indians: A compilation of ethnographic and historical data on the Alaska-Yukon boundary area''. Yale University publications in anthropology (No. 74). New Haven, CT.

External links

Chief Isaac's people and history web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Han Hän