Traditional Way of Life
The First Nations people originally settled at Fort Yukon at the mouth of the Porcupine River in 1840. When the Canada/U.S. Border was established in 1867, the First Nations People moved to Rampart House ( a trading post inside the border). Old Crow was chosen because of its unique hunting and fishing location near major spring caribou crossing places.
The existence of the Vuntut Gwitchin people has been traced back 30,000 years. Archaeological information proves it may be the earliest civilization in North America.
The community was a gathering spot for families going down the Porcupine River to trade. The people wintered in small camps along the river. When a store and public school were built, the community became a year- round settlement.
" ...immediately behind the village lie the Old Crow Hills which, like the river and the village, took their name from a chief, now long dead, whose name meant "Crow-May-I-Walk", which was rendered "Old Crow" by the first white men in the area. The word "crow" actually refers to the raven, the true crow not being known as far north as this.
...The immediate neighbors of the Vanta Kutchin to the north are the Eskimo. To the west live the Natsit Kutchin who occupy the basin of the Chandalar(Gens-du-large)River. To the south of them are the Tranjik Kutchin in the Black River basin, and to the east the Tukkuth Kutchin who occupy the basin of the Upper Porcupine.
...The first white man to visit these people was Alexander MacKenzie near Fort McPherson in 1789, but contact with Europeans was rare and sporadic until the 1840`s when the Hudson`s Bay Company established posts at Fort Good Hope in 1804, Fort McPherson in 1840, and Fort Yukon in 1847 La Pierre`s House was founded in the same year(1847)
...The Vanta Kutchin were dependent for their food almost entirely on hunting and fishing, though large quantities of berries and other vegetable foods were used on occasion. Caribou, moose, bear, beaver, muskrat, lynx, rabbits, porcupines, groundhogs, squirrels, all were eaten. Hunting and fishing techniques divide themselves into two principal groups: those in which the animal is killed directly by the hunter, as with an arrow, spear, or club; and those in which the game is caught or killed in the absence of the hunter by means of traps, snares, and nets....In earlier days, caribou supplied a large part of the native food.(Vanta Kutchin, Pp.4-6)
Traditional Transportation
Boat in summer from Fort Yukon, Alaska
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Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation
