Volume 24-25, 1976-7 - The Arctic Circle - Home

PACiii ILOSS OF AI\ HIST'ORIC SIIE IN ITIE] YUI(ON bv ltichael GatesTtre historic site complex of Daltorr PostAesketalr-in is l-ocated in thesouthwest Yukon near the Haines road, ofl the northernnost point of theTatshenshini River. Tb the west is Kluane National- Park and the frontranges of tkre St. Elias }tlct:ntains rvhich contain sone of the rnostpicturesque scenery in lilcrth Anerica.Tkris region, r:rurnppecl and unoplored until the end of the 19th centurlz ,has a history rvhich reflects the, cor.rage and enterprise of those peoplewho first settl-ed there.Prior to the crcrning of the first white IIErn, Nesketerlrin was inqnrtarrt asa settlement and trading rendezvous in the e>ctensirre native trade networkbetween the interior Athabasca speaking Indians ancl the Chilkat Tlingitof eoastal Alaska. At this tirre , the crrastal Indiarrs ef fectively oontrolledaccess to tlte passes to tht: interior, and Lreld a trading nonopolyover the inland groups.Tlre earliest knovm reference to Neske.tahrin dates berck to L852. Ttre firstdoctrrented white excursion into this region occurreld in 1890, whenE.J. Gl-ave, a noted African e>