Our History
“In Eagle Village, life continues, but the traditions can stay,
if we listen and learn.”
— William Silas, The Northland News, May 1988
The Hän or Hän Hwëch'in (meaning "People of the River, i.e. Yukon River", in English also Hankutchin) are a First Nations 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-Yukon Territory border. In later times, the Han population became centered in Dawson City, Yukon and Eagle, Alaska.*
Learn more about the Hän or Hän Hwëch'in people
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Hän Elder, Ruth Ridley, has written Hän Hwëch'in language books and worked to make sure the Hän language is documented and preserved for future generations.
Once spread out over hundreds of miles along the Yukon River, the Hän Hwëch'in people are now mostly located in Eagle Village, Alaska, and the Yukon Territory in Canada.
“It was still dark when all hands were awakened, the stars were shining brightly, the white aurora flashed feebly in the northern sky, the black domes of the village were dimly outlined against the snow and the black wall of spruce, and a few sparks and thin smoke were rising from the early fires.”
— Tappan Adney (1900)