Beyond the gold rush: Totem poles at the Chilkoot Trail mark route's long history

Two newly installed totem poles, shown in this undated handout photo, stand on either side of the Canadian end of the Chilkoot Trail in Bennett, B.C. The cedar poles represent the raven and the wolf, the two groups that encompass the six traditional clans of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Max Leighton (Mandatory Credit)

Two carved cedar totems now flank either side of the Canadian end of the Chilkoot Trail, a permanent reminder that the route best known as the path to the Yukon gold fields during the 1890s gold rush has a history that stretches back much further.

The 53-kilometre Chilkoot Trail runs between Dyea, Alaska, and Bennett, B.C., and was the treacherous route taken by prospectors looking to strike it rich in the Klondike. It’s now used by thousands of hikers each year.

Sean McDougall, the acting executive director for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in the Yukon said talk about installing the poles with Parks Canada has been going on for years.

“(We) started talking about rebranding and telling the complete history of the trail, instead of what was done at that time, which was focused primarily on the whole gold rush,” he said in an interview.

“It’s an important thing for us to recognize that the trail has a much longer and much deeper history than what was being told.”

The Chilkoot Trail is a Canadian national historic site because of the role it played in the mass movement of prospectors during the gold rush.

The poles represent the raven and the wolf, the two groups that encompass the six traditional clans of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.

It took six months for the artist with the help of a team to carve the poles, which were later transported by train before being installed at the foot of the trail in Bennett.

The poles came up to Bennett in May on a flatbed section of the train that’s commonly used by tourists and were unveiled to the public on Friday.

Historical photos show long lines of men waist-deep in muddy snow making their way over the nearly vertical “golden staircase” as part of the final push to the gold fields.

But for eons, First Nations communities used the trail to move between the Interior and the coast for survival.

“If we go back in our clan stories, stories that have been passed down through generations in our oratory way, these trails can date back at the time of the last ice age” McDougall said.

“We have clan stories that have talked about the different times that we would go from the coast to the Interior.”

McDougall describes the Chilkoot Trail as “one of the main bloodlines” that connected First Nations, used for migration by the Tlingit and Tagish people, who primarily live in the Yukon, northern B.C., and Alaska.

“The trail was originally used for trade because there was a number of food items and medicines that we would have in the Interior that they wouldn’t have on the coast, and vice versa. So, we set up and established these trade routes,” he said.

He said the focus of those trips was survival in times of need, like food shortages and smallpox, as well as for trade and marriages between communities.

“It was really a lifeline that really brought our coastal relatives and our Interior relatives together,” he said.

McDougall’s great uncle was Keish, also known as Skookum Jim, who was part of the group to first discover the gold that would set off the Klondike rush.

Renowned carver Keith Wolfe Smarch, whose work has been displayed around the world and is in the private collection of King Charles, worked on the poles with his team for months and said it’s the first time one of his poles has travelled by train.

He said he decided to carve the wolf and the raven to represent First Nations people.

“What I think people will get when they walk by them is, they’ll recognize that we have a presence here, and we’re still here, it’s not all gold rush,” he said.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press