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Yukon, meaning "Big River" in Athabaskan, starts in Canada and empties into Alaska's Bering Sea (view map). The Yukon ties as the 2nd longest river in North America (2,300 miles / 3,185 km) behind the Mississippi and Missouri River. The Yukon valley that runs horizontally thru Alaska is believed by some anthropologists to have been the main immigration route for North America's first human inhabitants.
Every year, the Yukon River hosts the longest upstream migration of Pacific salmon stocks in the world. The people of the Yukon River drainage have been utilizing these returning salmon for over 10,000 years.
For Alaska Native groups who have, and are still residing in the drainage, fish resources provide the foundation for their survival and livelihood. Following tradition, annual fish camps are set up with nets and fish wheels to harvest the plentiful salmon resource.
Fish were exchanged for beaver, marten, mink and other marine resources such as seal oil. Fish skins were used to make waterproof parkas and boots. Native Alaskans and others who reside along the Yukon River drainage still rely on the fish and wildlife that surround their area.
The Yukon River through times
The Yukon River was one of the principal means of transportation during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800's. Paddle-wheel riverboats continued to ply the river until the 1950s when the Klondike Highway was completed.
Commercial fishing on the river dates back to the turn of the last century and has provided hundreds of jobs each summer. Commercial fisheries also help to fund subsistence fishing for Alaska Natives. Revenues are used to buy nets, gear and other equipment needed in their remote locations.
Today, close to 900 local residents catch Yukon salmon along the river. Many of their techniques have been used for hundreds of years and the Yukon is the only area of Alaska where salmon are commercially harvested by fish wheels. Whatever the method, fishing binds Yukon River people and communities together.