View source for Tr'ochëk

{{Short description|Hän settlement in Yukon, Canada}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2013}}
[[Image:Yukon dawson.JPG|thumb|Tr'ochëk, shown just above Dawson City]]
'''Tr'ochëk''' is the site of a traditional [[Han (North American people)|Hän]] fishing camp at the confluence of the [[Klondike River]] and [[Yukon River]]. Tr'ochëk lies on the upstream flat, an [[Alluvium|alluvial]] deposition of the Klondike River, at the river confluence. [[Dawson City, Yukon|Dawson City]] is directly north of the site, just across the Klondike. The site is owned and managed by the [[Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation]], and is operated by the First Nation's Department of Heritage. Tr'ochëk became part of the [[Klondike, Yukon|Tr’ondëk-Klondike UNESCO World Heritage Site]] in 2023 because of its unique testimony to the transformation of the Klondike landscape from Indigenous to colonial use.<ref name = "unesco"/>

Tr'ochëk was used as a fishing ground at several different times, with the oldest archaeological evidence dating from 1500-1700 CE.<ref name = "nominate"/> In the late 19th century Tr'ochëk was the camp of Chief Isaac, the leader of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in during the [[Klondike Gold Rush]].<ref name = "nominate">{{cite report |title = Tr’ondëk-Klondike World Heritage Site |publisher = United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization |date = December 2020 |url = https://whc.unesco.org/document/186497}}</ref> The Tr'onëek people used this site primarily in the summer, hunting [[moose]] in the flats across the Klondike and fishing for [[salmon]] during their migration up the Yukon.

The river flat has a mixture of [[Populus|poplar]] trees, [[alder]] and [[willow]] bushes, with open grassy meadows. The steep hillside behind the site is covered with vegetation typical of a northern exposure [[Taiga|boreal forest]] - thick [[moss]], [[spruce]], and small [[birch]] groves. On the bench above the flat, mining activity has stripped away both vegetation and soil, leaving a fringe of the original spruce forest along the edge of the river bluffs.

[[File:Trochek.jpg|thumb|Brush shelters at Tr'ochëk, 1895]]
The gold rush was a period of great disruption for the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in.<ref name = "unesco">{{cite web |author1=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |title=Tr'ondëk-Klondike |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1564/ |access-date=20 September 2023 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |language=en}}</ref> Thousands of stampeders overwhelmed them at their summer camp. To avoid the worst excesses of this time, the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in made arrangements, with the assistance of the [[Anglican Church of Canada|Anglican Church]] and the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]], to move a few kilometres downriver to a site known as [[Moosehide]].<ref name = "nominate"/>

After the Tr'ondëk Hän relocation to [[Moosehide]] ({{coord|64|05|40|N|139|26|12|W|display=inline|scale:5000}}), Tr'ochëk was used by the non-native newcomers for a series of urban and industrial activities. Several bridges connected the site to Dawson City and until the 1910s, Klondike City, as the site became known, remained a fairly active part of the Dawson urban area. Later, as the newcomer population dwindled, the site was used for a time for market gardening. First Nation people began resettling the site in the 1950s.<ref name = "nominate"/>

In the early 1990s mining activity on the site instigated a lawsuit by the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in challenging [[Government of Canada|Canada's]] right to issue [[Mineral rights|mining claims]] on unsurrendered Indian lands. The Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in reaffirmed their ownership of the site in their [[Aboriginal land claim|land claim]] final agreement in 1998, and designated it as a heritage site. It was subsequently designated as a [[List of national historic sites of Canada|National Historic Site of Canada]] on July 19, 2002.<ref>{{CRHP|14661|Tr'ochëk|6 September 2013}}</ref>



==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081007023959/http://www.tc.gov.yk.ca/988.html Tr'ochëk - The Archaeology and History of a Hän Fish Camp]
* [http://www.newparksnorth.org/regions/Trochek.htm Tr’ochëk National Historic Site]

{{NHSC}}
{{Yukon parks}}

{{coord|64|03|04|N|139|26|27|W|display=title|scale:5000}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tr'ochek}}
[[Category:Hän]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Yukon]]
[[Category:Klondike Gold Rush]]
[[Category:First Nations in Yukon]]
[[Category:National Historic Sites in Yukon]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Yukon]]
[[Category:Fishing communities in Canada]]
[[Category:Unincorporated communities in Yukon]]
[[Category:Aboriginal National Historic Sites of Canada]]