C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

IntroductionXXIIIdivide or to go by water from sea to sea" ("Rat-Bell" 37). However, Morse, thedoyen of recreational canoeing in Canada, who made the trip in r965 (Freshwaterr6r-80), also allowed that "[df anyone is looking for the most physically challengingsection of old fur-trade routes to retrace today, the Rat-Porcupine tripover the mountains should satisfy him" (Fur Trade r08). At the very least, it is whatseasoned arctic traveller Geoffrey Peake has called "an exercise in patience" (7).The nearest settlement on the eastern slope is Fort McPherson (Teetl'it Zfteh) ,NWT, which lies on the east bank of the Peel River, about thirty-eight kilometres(Benyk 7) upstream from Point Separation. That name was given to the junctionof the Peel and Mackenzie rivers in I826, a century before the women's journey,by Sir John Franklin (Franklin 93). Running across the alluvial plain that formspart of the Peel-Mackenzie Delta, the Rat River enters the Peel about fourteenkilometres below Fort McPherson (McConnell II5). Meanwhile, on the PacincSlope lies Old Crow, at the confluence of the Old Crow and Porcupine rivers.One of only two permanent settlements in the northern Yukon Territory, thesettlement dates from I9Il; yet evidence of human habitation found in itsvicinity is arguably the oldest in North America (Morrison and Wilson 34;Dickason 423 n26). Although the Dempster Highway passes through FortMcPherson today, McDougall Pass remains wilderness, thanks in large measureto Justice Thomas R. Berger's recommendation in the I970s that none of thepipelines planned for the shipment of oil and gas from the Arctic Ocean tosouthern Canada be constructed. One of these, proposed by a consortiumknown as Arctic Gas, was destined to go through McDougall Pass (Berger 32).The Rat River route, unknown to explorer Alexander Mackenzie in r789, wasfamiliar to native people long before Europeans began to explore the Arctic.Indeed, Old Crow and Fort McPherson, on opposite sides of the mountains, arecommunities of the same people, spelled "Gwich'in" in the NorthwestTerritories and Alaska, and "Gwitchin" in the Yukon. Mackenzie called them"Quarrellers" [r95]; French-speaking employees of the North West and XYcompanies who were on the Mackenzie in r804 called them "Loucheux" [Massonr:lIO]; and "Kutchin" was an earlier spelling of the modern name. "Takhudh"was a name given them by Robert (Gik~i)McDonald, the Ojibwa Anglicanmissionary from Red River who went to Fort Yukon in 1863 and ministered tothem from Fort McPherson beginning in 1873; but, according to VuntutGwitchin Charlie Peter Charlie, this name most properly belonged only to thosewho dwelled around the head of the Porcupine River (LaPierre 93; Rampart 46).