Today, Old Crow is the home community for the Vuntut Gwitchin – People of the Lakes. We have strong family ties connecting all our communities, including other Gwich’in nations in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. This has been so for centuries.
We love to meet and connect for trade and celebration, and to seek harmony with one another. This is called Gwiyiinji’ ihłak meaning “one mind.” Long ago people congregated in times of plenty to travel and work together, singing their beautiful songs to make their work less toilsome. They worked together in almost telepathic unison.
We use our connection to the animals, the environment and celestial regions to follow game, make good decisions, and make predictions. This is the land where our families operated caribou fences until the mid 1800s, totally reliant on the land and its bounty. Our Gwich’in oral traditions say that humans and the caribou were once relatives and could easily communicate with each other. However, separation was inevitable and when the split happened, the Gwich’in and the caribou exchanged pieces of their hearts. Many times, when a kill occurs, the successful hunt is attributed to the fact that the caribou was a relative that gave its life to provide sustenance to the community.
If we share when possible, if we help people in need, if we find ways to work and coexist together, we will increase our likelihood for prosperity as a nation. This is the Gwich’in way. Come see our world as we see it and hear our stories first hand.
For thousands of years we have prospered here – trading, dancing and singing through the challenges of our Arctic existence. Juk gweendoo (today), we are doing our best, not just to preserve, but to bring back our language and to evolve with it into the future. Language is the key to all. Eventually, it will be language that allows the human race to accomplish things we can’t even dream of today. This will only happen if we preserve our remaining endangered Indigenous languages. The more we learn our language, the more we begin to see things in a different light.Brandon Kyikavichik, Interpreter at the John Tizya Centre
Yukon First Nations Culture and Tourism Association
1-1109 Front Street (White Pass Building)
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A-5G4
Phone 867.667.7698
Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)