Yukon or Yukon Territory or (usually) The Yukon is one of Canada's northern territories, in the country's extreme northwest. It has a population of about 31,000, and its capital is Whitehorse, with a population of 23,272. People from Yukon are known as Yukoners.

The territory is named after the Yukon River, which means "great river" in Gwich'in.

History
Disputed evidence of the oldest remains of human inhabitation in North America have been found in the Yukon. A large number of apparently human modified animal bones were discovered in the Old Crow area in the northern Yukon that have been dated to 25,000 - 40,000 years ago by carbon dating. The central and northern Yukon were not glaciated, as they were part of Beringia.

At about 800 AD, a large volcanic eruption in Mount Churchill near the Alaska border blanketed the southern Yukon with ash. That layer of ash can still be seen along the Klondike Highway. Yukon First Nations stories speak of all the animal and fish dying as a result. Similar stories are told among the Athabaskan-speaking Navaho and Apache, leading to the conclusion by some anthropologists that the migration of Athabaskan peoples into what is now the southwestern United States could have been due to the eruption. After that, the hunting technology saw the replacement of Atlatls with bows and arrows.

History links :
* The 1898 Yukon Act
* The 2002 Yukon Act

EXTERNAL LINKS

* Yukon Government
* Yukon Romance: Virtual exhibit
* Tall Tales and True Stories of the Yukon
* Attraction & Service Guides

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