North of Sixty: U.S. Virtual Presence Posts in Canada

ASK THE CONSULATE

September 2008

Ask the Consulate - Issues of Interest

A JOURNEY TO WHITEHORSE

Whitehorse has a population of 24,000 and the Yukon about 32,000. «The federal government pumps in about a billion dollars every year into this territory,» according to a local newsman. «We are well taken care of,» he says «and it’s because the government wants to make sure that the world knows that the Yukon is Canadian.»

Yet, despite the federal infusions, visible also in the infrastructure of First Nations headquarters (I visited two of Yukon’s 14 First Nations), there are economic worries even when manpower is hard to find and further development seems inevitable. AYukon College official told me over dinner on the day of my arrival: «There are young people coming up here who can’t afford the huge jump in housing prices. Mining, which has been the source of growth for decades went into a tailspin but is just now starting to revive (driven by the high price of gold). «

REASONS FOR VISIT

I went to Whitehorse from August 19th to 22nd to establish contacts for Consulate General Vancouver, to promote www.canadanorth.usvpp.gov and to tell Yukoners that we want to engage with them in programs that highlight the US/Canada relationship.I distributed scarves and knapsacks with the website logo and met or talked by phone with a couple of potential local partners for the site. Sonny Voyageur, Executive Director of the Society for Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry (SYANA) was not in the city during my visit. However, he gave me useful tips in a telephone conversation and he and his organization work hard to further mutual understanding between the US and Canada.

The Yukon website will reflect more local material in the months ahead. That material can be visually pleasing and stir the heart….something a little more gladdening than access to dry articles about resource issues from some university economist study of the Yukon. This leads me to comment on perhaps my greatest discovery on this trip: just as BC shares a common cultural, ecological, social and familial space with Washington, the same applies to the Yukon and Alaska. So as we develop programs for the Yukon we should see how we can draw on Alaska resources and highlight the ties that bind our 49th state to the Yukon.

Of course, many people know of the Klondike Gold Rush and a smaller number about how prospectors came to Skagway and hiked up hill to meet the RCMP who insisted that they carry 2,000 pounds of provisions and gear so that they would not starve to death in the inhospitable winters near Dawson City. We would do well to focus on that kind of good neighborliness as we develop programs.

One practical idea would be to feature art by Yukoners on the website. I visited Yukon Artists At Work (Y.A.W.), an artists’ collective and shop on the outskirts of Whitehorse. I met Nicole Bauberger, a dual national, who showed me her magnificent landscapes, many of them painted out of the back of her all terrain vehicle on the Dempster Highway, the dirt road northeast of Dawson City. I also met another member of the collective Heather Hehne. We would be well served featuring some of their images on the website in the future.

A related idea would be to encourage collaboration between Alaska and Yukon-based artists, a joint show that can highlight the ties that bind Alaskans and Yukoners.

FIRST NATIONS AND MIGRANTS

I found the Yukon to be full of migrants from elsewhere in Canada and certainly from various countries throughout the globe. Whitehorse has Japanese and Mexican food and of course the ubiquitous Starbucks. But it does not compare to Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal in its diversity and it closes down except for its bars by 10 p.m. However, it has become more cosmopolitan in recent years and boasts a strong First Nations presence.

I visited Carcross which is about an hour from Whitehorse. I went there to meet Mark Wedge, the Chief of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. I happened to arrive when the Carcross/Skagway narrow gauge train was about to set off for Skagway. So while passengers boarded the train I spoke with its conductor about the fabled history of the goldrush and the heroics and foolhardiness of the people who climbed, first on foot, and then later on board the train (built in 1900) to head into the Yukon and satisfy their moneybag hungers.

Wedge impressed me with his easy command of both “Western” and First Nations approaches to organizing productive, peaceful societies. He told me that he travels and explains his nation’s approaches to government and NGO groups in various US states, most recently in Washington and Massachusetts. He gave me a photocopy of Book Two of the Statutes of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, devoted to traditional family beliefs and practices. Leafing through the extensive document I was struck by the emphasis given to knowing your place and the responsibilities therein coupled with the respect for elders which some of us in North America dream wistfully about for our own children. I will not attempt here to present an analysis of this document but would, at least, like to give you a flavor of its style. Here are some lines from Part Five: Community Process: Caring and Nurturing Children.

“In our recent history we began to lose our identity, our culture and the central importance of family when we lost our children to residential schools. For us, today, losing our children to government child protection agencies has chilling similarities…. There are differences, but the similarities are real, painful and the source of both anger and despair; anger that it is happening again; despair that once again we were not able to stop our children from leaving our families and communities. With our new laws, we are building a way to stop removing our children.”

The Carcross/Tagish First Nation is a self-governing body, as are most of the Yukon’s First Nations. I was reminded in various conversations about the advances made by Yukon First Nations in this regard. All of them appear to have signed and implemented treaties with the Canadian federal government. As a result, there are no festering land claims as in the provinces. So Carcross/Tagish and the others can serve as models for other First Nations seeking to resolve their claims.

I also met Chief Ruth Massie of the Ta’an Kwach’an and Ed Schultz, Executive Director of the Council of Yukon’s First Nations while in Whitehorse. I made a special effort to meet Ruth Massie, curious to know how a woman had obtained that post. In the end, it turned out she was elected and is serving currently a three year term. The T’an have a hereditary chief as well, a man, who did not want to engage in the day-to-day administration of his people. So the T’an set up an electoral system as part of their self-governing model.

Ed John has just returned to the Council after a number of years running a restaurant in Whitehorse. The Council lobbies for its members which include all but two of the Yukon’s First Nations. I was struck by his international experience. He told me had helped negotiate Kyoto for the Canadian government and that he maintains close links with First Nations in Alaska and Russia and is engaged in the Arctic Council.

This experience struck me as odd in the surroundings in which we spoke, on a grey morning, on the outskirts of what is still a small town despite the presence of WalMart and Canadian Tire outside the city center. The Council occupies what was formerly the principal residential school in Whitehorse. John told me that the building is slated for demolition and new headquarters will be built in a year.

For the moment, its transformation into the offices of the Council, seems a clever twist on the part of the First Nations. They rewrite their history every day on the very grounds of their humiliation.

But perhaps the most compelling discovery I made about the First Nations was the 49 percent ownership of Air North by the Old Crow nation. The Canadian government builds an ice road to Old Crow once every two years. Otherwise, the only access is by small plane. Yet, this community is now a major owner of the airline that is transforming air travel to Whitehorse.

THE ARTS

I referred earlier to visual artists in the Yukon. The territory’s landscapes and the minor human presence serve as powerful beacons for their easels. Theatre performers, poets, dancers, on the contrary, depend on a stable community audience to support their work. I met Al Cushing, the director of the Yukon Arts Centre and was impressed by the range and depth of their programming, featuring work from throughout Canada, from a symphony orchestra to modern dance and theatre. The Yukon Arts Centre also has a 4,200 square foot public art gallery for temporary exhibitions and an additional space for community artists.

I am sure that federal and territorial funding provide a fair portion of their operating budget but they fill their 424 seats on a regular basis. The bitter winters do not preclude Whitehorse residents from driving up the hill to enjoy high quality performances. We would do well to collaborate with the Centre in developing a performance program that can highlight US cooperation with the North.

I also stopped by to hear and participate in “Brave New Words,” a monthly spoken word and performance program at the Baked Café. I heard a varied selection of songs and poetry often presenting frontier themes. I recited from memory a few poems and was asked back for an encore. (I had forgotten to bring any books). I made some useful contacts there with young Yukoners, including the son of a Sri Lankan who had left the island in 1958. Immigrant Canada, as I mentioned earlier, thrives also in Whitehorse, along with First Nations, who crossed the Bering Straight before chroniclers started to write history and develop the concept of timeless, indigenous, rooted peoples.

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ASK THE CONSULATE September 2008 A JOURNEY TO WHITEHORSE Whitehorse has a population of 24,000 and the Yukon about 32,000. «The federal government pumps in about a billion dollars every year into this territory,» according to a local newsman. «We are well taken care of,» he says «and it’s because the government wants to make sure that the world knows that the Yukon is Canadian.» Yet, despite the federal infusions, visible also in the infrastructure of First Nations headquarters (I visited two of Yukon’s 14 First Nations), there are economic worries even when manpower is hard to find and further development seems inevitable. AYukon College official told me over dinner on the day of my arrival: «There are young people coming up here who can’t afford the huge jump in housing prices. Mining, which has been the source of growth for decades went into a tailspin but is just now starting to revive (driven by the high price of gold). « REASONS FOR VISIT I went to Whitehorse from August 19th to 22nd to establish contacts for Consulate General Vancouver, to promote www.canadanorth.usvpp.gov and to tell Yukoners that we want to engage with them in programs that highlight the US/Canada relationship.I distributed scarves and knapsacks with the website logo and met or talked by phone with a couple of potential local partners for the site. Sonny Voyageur, Executive Director of the Society for Yukon Artists of Native Ancestry (SYANA) was not in the city during my visit. However, he gave me useful tips in a telephone conversation and he and his organization work hard to further mutual understanding between the US and Canada. The Yukon website will reflect more local material in the months ahead. That material can be visually pleasing and stir the heart….something a little more gladdening than access to dry articles about resource issues from some university economist study of the Yukon. This leads me to comment on perhaps my greatest discovery on this trip: just as BC shares a common cultural, ecological, social and familial space with Washington, the same applies to the Yukon and Alaska. So as we develop programs for the Yukon we should see how we can draw on Alaska resources and highlight the ties that bind our 49th state to the Yukon. Of course, many people know of the Klondike Gold Rush and a smaller number about how prospectors came to Skagway and hiked up hill to meet the RCMP who insisted that they carry 2,000 pounds of provisions and gear so that they would not starve to death in the inhospitable winters near Dawson City. We would do well to focus on that kind of good neighborliness as we develop programs. One practical idea would be to feature art by Yukoners on the website. I visited Yukon Artists At Work (Y.A.W.), an artists’ collective and shop on the outskirts of Whitehorse. I met Nicole Bauberger, a dual national, who showed me her magnificent landscapes, many of them painted out of the back of her all terrain vehicle on the Dempster Highway, the dirt road northeast of Dawson City. I also met another member of the collective Heather Hehne. We would be well served featuring some of their images on the website in the future. A related idea would be to encourage collaboration between Alaska and Yukon-based artists, a joint show that can highlight the ties that bind Alaskans and Yukoners. FIRST NATIONS AND MIGRANTS I found the Yukon to be full of migrants from elsewhere in Canada and certainly from various countries throughout the globe. Whitehorse has Japanese and Mexican food and of course the ubiquitous Starbucks. But it does not compare to Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal in its diversity and it closes down except for its bars by 10 p.m. However, it has become more cosmopolitan in recent years and boasts a strong First Nations presence. I visited Carcross which is about an hour from Whitehorse. I went there to meet Mark Wedge, the Chief of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. I happened to arrive when the Carcross/Skagway narrow gauge train was about to set off for Skagway. So while passengers boarded the train I spoke with its conductor about the fabled history of the goldrush and the heroics and foolhardiness of the people who climbed, first on foot, and then later on board the train (built in 1900) to head into the Yukon and satisfy their moneybag hungers. Wedge impressed me with his easy command of both “Western” and First Nations approaches to organizing productive, peaceful societies. He told me that he travels and explains his nation’s approaches to government and NGO groups in various US states, most recently in Washington and Massachusetts. He gave me a photocopy of Book Two of the Statutes of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, devoted to traditional family beliefs and practices. Leafing through the extensive document I was struck by the emphasis given to knowing your place and the responsibilities therein coupled with the respect for elders which some of us in North America dream wistfully about for our own children. I will not attempt here to present an analysis of this document but would, at least, like to give you a flavor of its style. Here are some lines from Part Five: Community Process: Caring and Nurturing Children. “In our recent history we began to lose our identity, our culture and the central importance of family when we lost our children to residential schools. For us, today, losing our children to government child protection agencies has chilling similarities…. There are differences, but the similarities are real, painful and the source of both anger and despair; anger that it is happening again; despair that once again we were not able to stop our children from leaving our families and communities. With our new laws, we are building a way to stop removing our children.” The Carcross/Tagish First Nation is a self-governing body, as are most of the Yukon’s First Nations. I was reminded in various conversations about the advances made by Yukon First Nations in this regard. All of them appear to have signed and implemented treaties with the Canadian federal government. As a result, there are no festering land claims as in the provinces. So Carcross/Tagish and the others can serve as models for other First Nations seeking to resolve their claims. I also met Chief Ruth Massie of the Ta’an Kwach’an and Ed Schultz, Executive Director of the Council of Yukon’s First Nations while in Whitehorse. I made a special effort to meet Ruth Massie, curious to know how a woman had obtained that post. In the end, it turned out she was elected and is serving currently a three year term. The T’an have a hereditary chief as well, a man, who did not want to engage in the day-to-day administration of his people. So the T’an set up an electoral system as part of their self-governing model. Ed John has just returned to the Council after a number of years running a restaurant in Whitehorse. The Council lobbies for its members which include all but two of the Yukon’s First Nations. I was struck by his international experience. He told me had helped negotiate Kyoto for the Canadian government and that he maintains close links with First Nations in Alaska and Russia and is engaged in the Arctic Council. This experience struck me as odd in the surroundings in which we spoke, on a grey morning, on the outskirts of what is still a small town despite the presence of WalMart and Canadian Tire outside the city center. The Council occupies what was formerly the principal residential school in Whitehorse. John told me that the building is slated for demolition and new headquarters will be built in a year. For the moment, its transformation into the offices of the Council, seems a clever twist on the part of the First Nations. They rewrite their history every day on the very grounds of their humiliation. But perhaps the most compelling discovery I made about the First Nations was the 49 percent ownership of Air North by the Old Crow nation. The Canadian government builds an ice road to Old Crow once every two years. Otherwise, the only access is by small plane. Yet, this community is now a major owner of the airline that is transforming air travel to Whitehorse. THE ARTS I referred earlier to visual artists in the Yukon. The territory’s landscapes and the minor human presence serve as powerful beacons for their easels. Theatre performers, poets, dancers, on the contrary, depend on a stable community audience to support their work. I met Al Cushing, the director of the Yukon Arts Centre and was impressed by the range and depth of their programming, featuring work from throughout Canada, from a symphony orchestra to modern dance and theatre. The Yukon Arts Centre also has a 4,200 square foot public art gallery for temporary exhibitions and an additional space for community artists. I am sure that federal and territorial funding provide a fair portion of their operating budget but they fill their 424 seats on a regular basis. The bitter winters do not preclude Whitehorse residents from driving up the hill to enjoy high quality performances. We would do well to collaborate with the Centre in developing a performance program that can highlight US cooperation with the North. I also stopped by to hear and participate in “Brave New Words,” a monthly spoken word and performance program at the Baked Café. I heard a varied selection of songs and poetry often presenting frontier themes. I recited from memory a few poems and was asked back for an encore. (I had forgotten to bring any books). I made some useful contacts there with young Yukoners, including the son of a Sri Lankan who had left the island in 1958. Immigrant Canada, as I mentioned earlier, thrives also in Whitehorse, along with First Nations, who crossed the Bering Straight before chroniclers started to write history and develop the concept of timeless, indigenous, rooted peoples.
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