Description
The Han, or Hwech'in / Han Hwech’in (meaning "People of the River, i.e. Yukon River", in English also Hankutchin) are a First Nations people of Canada and an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the United States. Their traditional lands centered on a heavily forested area around the Upper Yukon River, Klondike River, Bonanza Creek and Sixtymile River and straddling what is now the Alaska-Yukon Territory border. In later times, the Han population became centered in Dawson City, Yukon and Eagle, Alaska. The Han were one of the last Northern Athabascan groups to have contact with European peoples. In 1851 Robert Campbell from the Hudson's Bay Company was the first known white man to enter Han territory, when he traveled from Fort Selkirk to Fort Yukon. It was not until 1873 and 1874 (after the United States purchase of Alaska), that two trading posts were set up.
Language
They are part of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group.
Culture
Historically, fish, especially salmon, comprised the main part of the Hän diet. King salmon was caught along the Yukon River in June and chum salmon in August. Fishing tools included weirs, traps, gill nets, dip nets, spears, and harpoons. Salmon was dried and stored for winter consumption. Between the salmon runs from June–September, the river camps were abandoned. The Han men sought other fish, moose, caribou, birds, bears, and small game. Men hunted game (once after the salmon run and later for caribou in February and March) while women fished (for fish other than salmon.) The women traditionally cooked by stone boiling in woven spruce-root baskets. A square half-recessed house was made of wooden poles and moss insulation (called a moss house). This served as the main type of housing. The people erected temporary domed houses made of skin stretched over tied branches when they were traveling.