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From Canada to Colombia: Birds, Belonging, and Big Flight Lessons
Written by Paula Gomez Villalba | May 8, 2025
This spring migration season, TROPICOS Colombia counted 458,031 raptors from 10 species migrating through Ibague, Colombia.
My grandmother has a farm in Colombia, where many Yukon birds migrate for winter. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend time here, lying in a hammock, with binoculars lifted towards the front garden. I remember one time a small warbler, nudging its beak into peeling bark over and over, until it emerged with the biggest grub I’d seen on the farm. This place is special. It has shaped much of who I am, how I think about my identity, and my commitment to conservation. Every time I fly back to Canada, I feel connected to the birds and my journey, both of us call these countries home.
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- The front garden in Santander, Colombia, Muisca traditional territory.
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- A Blackburnian Warbler on the farm, Muisca traditional territory.
These shared journeys create a story that’s not singular in the North. Almost 90% of Yukon birds are migratory and rely on healthy, connected ecosystems across continents. They travel thousands of kilometres around mountain ranges, over rivers, and through borders to return here to breed. Migration is written into their DNA, etched through generations, through the shape of landscapes, and through the progression of seasons.
I’m always in awe of how they’re able to make those trips. To fly non-stop to New Zealand, Bar-tailed Godwits absorb a quarter of the tissue that makes up their liver, kidneys, and digestive tract into their body through a process called autophagy that lets the body recycle its cells. It’s similar to what bears do to hibernate, except that at the same time Godwits increase the size of their heart and flight muscles to pump more oxygen and have more energy for the 100,000 km flight.
Blackpoll Warblers lay on the fat, altering their digestive tract and gut bacteria so they can process more food and double in weight. They re-absorb and shrink body parts throughout migration, as they burn fat and load up on calories at stop-over sites in Florida and Georgia, USA.
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- A Blackpoll Warbler singing at Chasàn Chùa (McIntyre Creek), Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council traditional territory. Photo by Malkolm Boorthroyd.
Even with all their incredible adaptations, migratory birds face many challenges. In the Yukon there’s a small bird, a Yellow Warbler; let’s call them Wally. Weighing less than a handful of berries, Wally travels 5,000 km mostly at night from the wetlands of South America to the Yukon. They make it. They flit and flap, searching for the perfect tree to start a nest — when BAM.
“The sky has never hurt before,” Wally thinks.
Dazed and confused, they fall to the ground with a big headache. Someone spots Wally, and takes them to a wildlife rehab where medications help with the pain and swelling. After recovering for a few days, Wally is released on-site where bird dots line the windows to prevent them from colliding. Whenever I see buildings with bird dots, I always think of birds like Wally and reflect on how something so subtle protects a journey thousands of kilometres long. Wally the Yellow Warbler was fortunate; one billion birds die every year from window collisions, mistaking reflections in the glass for the real deal and flying into them.
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- Bird dots on the CPAWS Yukon office windows, Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council traditional territory. Photo by Paula Gomez Villalba.
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- Puffy yellow warbler in Chasàn Chuà (McIntyre Creek), Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council traditional territory. Photo by Alex Oberg.
Window collisions aren’t the only challenge Wally and other birds face. Earlier springs due to climate change are confusing and lead many birds to migrate earlier and struggle to find food along the way. Light pollution, outdoor cats, habitat loss, and more add up to have long-term impacts on birds.
This year’s World Migratory Bird Day theme is Shared Spaces: Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities. Like so many wildlife, birds don’t see the borders we’ve drawn around cities and countries. Each migrating bird embodies the history passed down through generations and the deep ties between the world’s ecosystems. The sky is one sky. Their migrations linking tropical wetlands, temperate forests, and northern rivers.
There’s a lot we can learn from migratory birds as we all face the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. So many birds from the north gather in South America for winter. When food availability is low and risk is high, mixed-species flocks form. Groups of birds come together not to compete, but to cooperate. Some might sound the alarm, others bring the flock together, and some are leaders. Each species contributes something unique to increase their own (and each other’s) chances of survival. In a time of growing division, birds remind us of our shared responsibility.
I’ll be returning to the family farm in Colombia in the fall, excited to see which birds have made it back and wondering how many of them made the journey for the first time. For me, learning about birds helps me better understand and be a part of the ecosystems I live in, and it underscores the need to make choices that honour them. Conservation isn’t just about increasing species numbers or minimizing our presence on the land. It is also about preserving memory, a sense of belonging, and the interactions between plants, waters, and wildlife. Each bird we see highlights not only what is at risk but also what’s still possible.
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Join CPAWS Yukon and the Yukon Bird Club for a guided walk at Chasàn Chùa (McIntyre Creek) on Thursday May 29th at 6pm. We’ll be looking in the creek and marshes, and walk through the adjacent forest to spot everything from flycatchers to swallows to warblers! We will also be sharing an update in the process for a protected Chasàn Chùa, and how you can advocate for the birds. More details at marshforestflight.eventbrite.com.
Panel Discussion: Indigenous Governance and Salmon
Indigenous Governance and Salmon
Transformative Mining and Alternatives Panel
The fourth and final panel on mining in the Yukon, focused on how salmon advocacy, governance, and relationships intersect with extractive industries.
This panel was held on April 24th, 2025 with panelists Dawna Hope (Chief, First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun), Nicole Rondeau (former Chief, Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation), and Nuri Frame (Managing Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP). The information shared in this panel remains the intellectual property of the knowledge holder and is being shared graciously for this panel session. You may not reshare or use this information without express consent by the knowledge holder. For inquires to share this information, please email jared.gonet@gmail.com.
“Ultimately, we have cars, we have computers, we’re a part of society and the future. Our kids go to schools and we have modern lives. We also know that things can be done in a better way, and we should really start respecting our resources for the true value that they are and not just for a small handful to make millions upon millions to leave us and our future generations with the cleanup and the cost of those cleanups. Those are toxic generational legacies that we need to [stop], leave behind.”
— Dawna Hope, Chief of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun
“I work with Indigenous governments across the country and in my experience, Indigenous governments are never anti-development as a bottom-line position. It’s always about development done in a responsible way.”
— Nuri Frame, Managing Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP
““[UNDRIP] is something that should be celebrated across the world, UNDRIP and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and here we are in the Yukon and it doesn’t seem like a celebration. It doesn’t seem embraced. You wouldn’t hear about it and that again has brought disappointment to me on what is occurring.”
— Nicole Rondeau, former Chief of Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation
“There’s government and there’s governance. As Indigenous Peoples we have our traditional governance and it comes with original agreements. And these original agreements are various across all the different peoples. Us, as Little Salmon/Carmacks, we have original agreements with the salmon in which we were given the direction and responsibilities to follow. If all of these responsibilities were followed by other cultures, we wouldn’t be in the state that we are with the salmon.”
— Nicole Rondeau, former Chief of Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation
“The Final Agreements that we have today, they were a collaboration to make sure that all Yukoners on a whole have the ability to contribute to what the Yukon means to [them] and develop it the way that local people need and want to see within those areas.”
— Dawna Hope, Chief of the First Nation of First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun
“So much of the discourse you hear in this country from people who are resistant to reconciliation, who are resistant to seeing Indigenous governments be empowered stewards seems to presume that when Indigenous people are given real stewardship and jurisdiction over their lands, development will grind to a halt. And I think that’s such an unfortunate misunderstanding.”
— Nuri Frame, Managing Partner, Pape Salter Teillet LLP
Transformative Mining and Alternatives is a series of four public, virtual panels with thinkers and leaders from across the Yukon and beyond to ask: How can we transform mining to ensure disasters such as the Eagle Mine failure never happen again? What are the alternatives to resource economies?
Supported by CPAWS Yukon, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, and Research from the Front Lines. Organized by Jared Gonet (Director, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, Faculty in Indigenous Governance and Science at Yukon University and PhD candidate at University of Alberta), Caitlynn Beckett (PhD Candidate at Memorial University), and Krystal Isbister (PhD candidate at University of Alberta and Yukon University); all of whom do research on mining or land relations in the Yukon.
Quotes edited for length and clarity.
2025 Federal Election Questionnaire
This election, Canadians will head to the polls with many different priorities for the next four years. Most Yukoners believe that the environment and climate change should be one of those priorities for the federal government.
We asked each candidate four questions to highlight their vision around conservation and climate change.
In the Yukon riding, candidates for Member of Parliament are Dr. Brendan Hanley (Liberal Party), Ryan Leef (Conservative Party), Katherine McCallum (New Democratic Party), and Gabrielle Dupont (Green Party). The candidate with the most votes in the riding will become Yukon’s MP. The party that wins the most ridings across Canada (out of 343 total) will form the next federal government.
You can read each candidate’s answers below.
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The Yukon is rich in the critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition – but with opportunity comes responsibility. Yukoners have seen the impacts of failed projects in our territory. This is why I have worked with federal colleagues to push for a review and strengthening of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Act (YESAA). We need a collaborative approach to mine approval, oversights, and reclamation that ensures companies, not communities, bear the costs.
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We support the Yukon Environmental Socio-Economic Assessment Board—a made-in-Yukon process that ensures project assessments respect local authority. Yukon and Yukon First Nations can benefit from resource development while protecting the Territory’s pristine wilderness. We’re committed to improving development that creates jobs and growth, while empowering Yukoners to pursue economic opportunity and safeguard their environmental heritage.
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The federal government has an important role to play in regulating water and fish habitat and that must be maintained and strengthened. Other parties are promising fast tracking of projects which is the opposite of what we need. We need sustained federal support for Indigenous-led monitoring and decision-making so Yukon communities aren’t left holding the bill when mines walk away. The remediation cost of every failed mine is stolen from the health and education budget of the Yukon government.
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As a Yukon business owner impacted by the Eagle mine disaster, this issue resonates strongly with me. Such devastating environmental degradation shows that we can’t hold economic considerations above environmental ones.
The extraction of minerals is crucial for a green economy. Still, we must hold polluters accountable. The Green Party is committed to co-developing federal legislation with First Nations to ensure strong environmental protection and rehabilitation.
Want to read more? CPAWS National posed environmental questions to each party leader.
Panel Discussion: Future of Mining in the Yukon
Future of Mining in the Yukon
Transformative Mining and Alternatives Panel
Explore how Indigenous Nations can direct how mining happens on their traditional territories and how mining fits within other land-use and land-relationship priorities.
This panel was held on April 10th, 2025 with panelists Jamie Kneen (Co-Manager, MiningWatch Canada), Gùdia MJ Johnson, (Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder), and Keyshawn Sawyer (Youth Counsellor, Selkirk First Nation). It was moderated by Jared Gonet and Caitlynn Beckett. The information shared in this panel remains the intellectual property of the knowledge holder and is being shared graciously for this panel session. You may not reshare or use this information without express consent by the knowledge holder. For inquires to share this information, please email jared.gonet@gmail.com.
“One week after Kluane First Nation signed their land claim and final agreements for self-government, this area was full of helicopters. We had helicopters flying from in the morning until it was dark at night. Everywhere you went out on the land, there was a peg and a red flag everywhere, right up to any protected areas boundaries. This was right through this whole landscape that is a homeland, not only homeland for the 2-legged, but the 4-legged, the finned, the winged, the rooted. We have seen mining in this area here [since] 1907.”
— Gùdia MJ Johnson, Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder
“In our final agreements it states [under current legislation] that these claims are put forward and will prevail over the rights and interests of Indigenous people in the Yukon. That’s why with the chiefs and workshop that we’ve had there was a lot of good discussions of how we should carry this forward, implement rights into this new legislation, and really give more power to the indigenous people that are affected by these claims.”
— Keyshawn Sawyer, Selkirk First Nation
“I think one of the only ways that mining really does benefit people is if it creates that secondary layer of expertise, knowledge, and training so that people have skills that are transferable, that help build the whole community. Not just operate a mine, [but] go beyond machinery operators [so] you start getting engineers and tradespeople that can do other things that are helpful.”
— Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada
“Mining needs to fit into land relationship. Not only the relationship of people and the value that people place on the land, but you need to look at the value that caribou place on the land. Where are they raising their young? Where are they wintering. Where is the salmon coming from? How far do the salmon? All the different species of salmon that come up into the water system right up and through to the headwaters, where are there significant areas that we just can’t touch?”
— Gùdia MJ Johnson, Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder
“If land use planning is built from the community level, then it responds to those [on the ground] priorities. It responds to those concerns. It’s not responding to outside demands. It’s not responding to international trade pressures. It’s following the land. It’s following the flow of the water and the animals . I think that’s really the key. People have to be working on those decisions from a position of strength. We can talk about free, prior informed consent, but to make to make decisions in your own best interest… [mining] has to be only one of the choices. It can’t be the only escape from poverty, the only escape for development in a region or in a community before we can start making those decisions properly. ”
— Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada
“First Nations young people need to be engaged. They need to be the land monitors. They need to have indigenous monitoring for fisheries, for the rivers turning orange because of the mineralization of [melting] permafrost. The young people do not have to be the workers — they need to be cared for and looked after because they are the future stewards on this land. It is our generation that has to make sure [of] the ability of the next generation to care for the land with the same kind of magnitude of generational care, rather than [being] only one generation that strips this land and all we leave is reclamation for the next two or three decades, for generations to pay for one generation to benefit from that land”
— Gùdia MJ Johnson, Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder
“I’m doing my duty as a First Nations leader to really push forward and try to create better mining because we do need mining. Even citizens and Yukoners we can all contribute to these things just by being involved and getting to know the company, trying to understand what mining is. Just you as an individual can make a lot of change just by knowing more about what’s going on in your traditional territory, being at those community meetings, the engagement sessions to put your input in to the company so that they can possibly change their ways of thinking in the long term.”
— Keyshawn Sawyer, Selkirk First Nation
“Each Nation has to pursue legal controls in its own territory, apparently because governments won’t just do what the Supreme Court says needs to be done. That’s with respect to Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution [which is] about consulting and accommodating Indigenous peoples [but] not about free, prior, informed consent or honouring Canada’s commitment to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples… For communities it’s kind of a struggle to regain any semblance of control over what happens within the territory, because legal interest has already been given away by the government.”
— Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada
“First Nations have to do that continually. We’re always having to go to court about something. We’re taking our knowledge systems and getting them tested in colonial laws that don’t even have an understanding of the depth and the magnitude of that law in caring for that land”
— Gùdia MJ Johnson, Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder
“With Minto this bigger mining company Capstone came in, took the back strap and the most valuable copper out of out of that mountain, and then sold it to another, a junior mining company [Pembridge] that just started up… Company greed that can really get to these companies, especially small junior mining companies. In my perspective, they should not be able to hold a major mine like that. They don’t have the deep pockets to adequately fund a project. They’re kind of in there just to take what they can get out and go find the next new project.”
— Keyshawn Sawyer, Selkirk First Nation
“There are some [mining companies] who are starting from a position of real collaboration with communities and with nations. [But] the system as it is doesn’t work for that because they can’t compete with the cowboys. While they’re sitting down with the leadership of the Nation and talking about what areas are suitable for mining, where they should be staking their claims, and where they should do their exploration, someone else has already gone in and staked the claim.”
— Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada
“[Mining] could be harmful to our people if we’re not in a right or the right space. If we’re being thrown all these types of dollars for royalty, but we have a drug crisis going on right now, we have a housing crisis. We have all these issues that are arising and depleting the mental health of our people. What’s that money gonna do for us? To put a company forward to consider those things, yeah they’re going to fall off their chair. They’re not going to be able to really understand what that means in the long-term”
— Keyshawn Sawyer, Selkirk First Nation
“Sharing knowledge between communities, between First Nations, between governments is what will enrich the sustainability of the mining businesses, mining sectors, and the mining economy that much of the Yukon continues to base itself on. This kind of sharing is essential, not just for our decision-making right now, but for the generations ahead. We need to continue to look to seven generations ahead and their abilities to be able to sustain themselves within that kind of economy. We need to make sure that we share these kinds of challenges, these kinds of potential solutions. If we don’t share, then continually each one of us is going to try it and fail. Try it and fail. Rather, we [should] bring it all together and strengthen our way forward.
— Gùdia MJ Johnson, Lhù’ààn Mân Ku Dan Elder
“Maybe mining isn’t an all or nothing game but more of a question of where and when and how, and being able to say, ‘No.’”
— Caitlynn Beckett, Memorial University
Transformative Mining and Alternatives is a series of four public, virtual panels with thinkers and leaders from across the Yukon and beyond to ask: How can we transform mining to ensure disasters such as the Eagle Mine failure never happen again? What are the alternatives to resource economies?
Supported by CPAWS Yukon, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, and Research from the Front Lines. Organized by Jared Gonet (Director, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, Faculty in Indigenous Governance and Science at Yukon University and PhD candidate at University of Alberta), Caitlynn Beckett (PhD Candidate at Memorial University), and Krystal Isbister (PhD candidate at University of Alberta and Yukon University); all of whom do research on mining or land relations in the Yukon.
Quotes edited for length and clarity.
Cyanide in the Environment: A webinar on the Eagle Mine disaster
Cyanide in the Environment
A webinar on the Eagle Mine disaster
Compiled by Paula Gomez Villalba | March 31, 2025
In the wake of the Eagle Mine disaster, Yukon Seed & Restoration hosted a webinar with updates on the disaster response and ongoing risks from the toxic cyanide solution. Mark O’Donoghue, retired Biologist and advisor to the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun, explained the initial heap leach failure and outlined the response so far, including water treatment, storage capacity, groundwater contamination, and ongoing monitoring. Cyanide, cobalt and mercury are three major contaminants of concern. Dr. Laurie Chan, Canada Research Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health and University of Ottawa professor, spoke about their chemistry, toxicity, and environmental health risks. These conversations are especially important as the Eagle Mine disaster continues to unfold, with toxic water still seeping into the land.
Mark O’Donoghue on Eagle Mine
“It’s been damage control and it’s been triage… This is all happening very quickly. The emphasis has been on avoiding a catastrophe… If nothing was done to contain the water, we would have had a surface spill of cyanide water and that could still be the case because their ponds are quite full there. It would flow from the creek and the toxins out there would have certainly killed everything down the McQuesten River and it would likely have done so down part of the Stewart River as well.”
“There’s massive contamination that’s gone into the groundwater, both in terms of when it first slid and now it’s been leaking since then… But it is estimated that there’s several hundred thousand cubic meters of contaminated solution in the groundwater. So that’s several hundred million liters. It’s a huge amount of contaminated groundwater in the lower Dublin Gulch area.”
“The plume of contaminated groundwater from the mine site has reached Haggart Creek and is having an increasing effect on water quality in the creek. There’s lots of uncertainties about where the water’s going and whether it’s even reasonable to intercept it.”
“Haggart Creek has huge value biologically and culturally. It’s known as a salmon-spawning stream and a salmon-rearing stream. It also has a hugely important grayling run. This is the most important grayling fishery in the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun traditional territory, right where the Haggart Creek comes into the South McQuesten River. The grayling congregate there in March/April, and people go there and fish through the ice. It is a big community event every year.”
“One of the big problems is that [Victoria Gold’s] water treatment plant was never designed to take cyanide out. It was designed to deal with other water that’s coming out of the mine area where they’re mining [with] high turbidity, other metals in it. This water treatment plant had to be repurposed and basically jury-rigged to try and make it so it could remove the cyanide. Getting this right has taken a lot longer than I expected.”
“Each of these dots is a different water monitoring station within the first four kilometers south of where Dublin Gulch flows into the creek. Water quality stayed quite safe all the way through September and then cyanide started increasing and has increased pretty steadily since then… That’s the case with some other contaminants.
— Mark O’Donoghue with the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun
Dr Laurie Chan on Cyanide
“It’s fairly uncommon to have high levels of cyanide in the environment so there is relatively few data and very few studies looking at the impact of cyanide in the environment.”
“Cyanide is a very well-known poison. It’s very toxic, but at low doses, our bodies can handle it. Moose and caribou, all animals have some capacity to detoxify the cyanide and then excrete it. It doesn’t stay in the body for long. It doesn’t bioaccumulate in the body.”
“Cyanide in water does not bioaccumulate in tissues or fish because it gets transformed and released. [When] eating fish the risk of contaminative cyanide is low… If there’s a dead fish, there may be some residual cyanide in the fish, but if the fish is alive and kicking, it shouldn’t be a major risk of cyanide.”
“Fish and plankton, those little animals or plants that fish eat, are very sensitive to cyanide…The Canadian drinking water guideline is 0.2 milligram per litre. The guideline for fish is .005 milligram per litre. So, humans are more resistant to cyanide than fish.”
“Cyanide actually inhibits respiration in the cell and it doesn’t discriminate what cell. So that’s why cyanide has got systemic toxicity. It affects the whole body.”
“We get cyanide usually through breathing in, eating, drinking water, or even contacts from skin absorption. The concern is not just ingesting water. If the creek or the river is contaminated, if kids are swimming there, then we need to worry about thermal absorption as a route as well, not just drinking.”
Dr Laurie Chan on Other Contaminants
“Organic mercury can bioaccumulate unlike cyanide and cobalt. It will accumulate in the body of fish and animals. The bigger the fish is and the older the fish is, the more mercury it will have in the body… Mercury attacks the brain and the heart… If there’s consistent release of mercury in the environment, the sediment will have high levels of mercury in the river or the creek, and if there is the right bacteria it will become organic mercury that goes into fish. The fish will have high mercury and not be fit for human consumption. It’s a long-term effect, the mercury doesn’t go away easily.”
“Cobalt is 50 times less toxic than cyanide. Since it’s a nutrient and not very toxic, we don’t have any drinking water guidelines for cobalt. But in the environment, cobalt released in soil, water, plants and cannot be created or destroyed. Cobalt in water has two different forms, one that binds to particles and one that dissolves. The dissolved cobalt is more bioavailable and toxic.”
“We are still in the early stage of understanding what are the impacts of these chemicals in the environment and to people in the area. So we need, definitely, more monitoring…and then we need to do risk assessment, looking at this information and having a better understanding of what do people use, where do people hang out to actually estimate the dose, to answer the question of what might be the effects.”
There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty surrounding the Eagle Mine disaster and the decades of cleanup ahead. The impacts aren’t just technical, they’re deeply personal too. This disaster will continue to affect life-sustaining waters and how people connect with the land. It threatens health, culture, and future generations—but this isn’t something we simply have to accept. There are ways to push for accountability, protect communities, and stand in solidarity with the First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun.
“Go to the emergency response webpage and fill out the letter to send to your local MP/MLA demanding that we get a public inquiry on this so we get to the bottom of it and it never happens again. ”
— Chief Dawna Hope, First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun
The webinar was hosted by Yukon Seed and Restoration on Monday, March 10th, 2025 with in-person showings at Ihdzí’ in Mayo and the NNDDC office in Whitehorse, Yukon. Quotes edited for length and clarity. The full webinar recording can be found here.
Panel Discussion: Alternatives to Mining
Alternatives to Mining
Transformative Mining and Alternatives Panel
There’s a lot of focus on the economic need for mining in the Yukon, with little attention paid to alternative economies and investment opportunities. Hear more about alternatives to extraction in the Yukon.
This panel was held on March 25th, 2025 as part of a series of four public, virtual panels with thinkers and leaders from across the Yukon and beyond to ask: How can we transform mining to ensure disasters such as the Eagle Mine failure never happen again? What are the alternatives to resource economies?
Panelists included Helaina Moses (First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun), Steve Ellis (MakeWay), Teri-Lee Issac (Tutchone Tours), Jani Djokic (Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation). Moderated by Jared Gonet (To Swim and Speak with Salmon).
“If more money was invested in renewable energy, this could be promoting ecotourism and supporting sustainable industries in the Yukon. It could really reduce its reliance on the mining resources economy”
— Teri-Lee Issac, Tutchone Tours
“I get to look at everything as an economic ecosystem, as a whole — taking a lot of those principles of circular economies and from a community resilience standpoint [to ask], how does each opportunity feed into each other? I think that is a path forward for a lot more sustainability if we are going to reduce our dependence on the mineral resource economy, knowing that there’s still a lot of volatility in some of the other alternative economic models and opportunities.”
— Jani Djokic, Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation
“We see this trend in the Yukon of abandoned mines and companies just leaving their projects… It feels like it’s almost left to our responsibility. It feels like Indigenous governments are the ones pushing Yukon government for help, pushing Yukon government for more things to do the reclamation work. I see economic opportunities [there], maybe tree planting or even starting a native seed bank in the Yukon because mining companies do reclamation with out of province sourced seeds… As you look at project timelines, you don’t do reclamation until after the mine is closed, which I think is wrong, and a little backwards. We could be doing things a lot better when we talk about sustainable mining.”
— Helaina Moses, First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Citizen
“My friend mused that actually northern Indigenous communities do a whole bunch of stuff really well, don’t need to build their capacity because they already do this stuff inherently well, extremely strong. Let’s build an economic model that suits what Indigenous Northern communities want to do, what they aspire to do and what they’re already really damn good at. It totally flips the script around. It’s our responsibility to build an economic model that suits the strengths and the assets that are already in our communities in the North.”
— Steve Ellis, MakeWay
“There’s an [extractive] economic model that’s ‘inherently’ good and ‘inherently’ right and northern Indigenous peoples and their communities are [treated] at a deficit to participate effectively. So, all the investment that’s made in the North is about capacity-building, training, and bringing especially Indigenous peoples from remote communities into that workforce. It’s certainly generated some wealth for some individuals and families, but it’s created also environmental problems, social problems, and so on.”
— Steve Ellis, MakeWay
“It’s very important to teach our youth the traditional lifestyle, and if they’re not Indigenous, just having them there. We live in the North, they gotta learn some survival skills on the land in case they have to turn back to the land if anything were to happen in this crazy world that we live in”
— Teri-Lee Issac, Tutchone Tours
“Bringing people together to do the reclamation, the work to heal the land is so important. It brings more healing in communities, because you bring back that reconnection to planting a tree or picking seeds. I feel like there’s a lot of interconnected things that could [arise] if we started a seeding project in the Yukon. We could also focus on medicines or berries. We would be improving food sovereignty for communities. It doesn’t just necessarily need to be trees and grass, we can Indigenize it and make it fun and build relationships with communities”
— Helaina Moses, First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Citizen
“When we talk about ecotourism, that is an economy in itself. When we talk about restoration, that is an economy in itself. In our current overarching financial systems, at least here in Canada, those aren’t valued as economies. Those aren’t valued as assets. It has been very difficult for me in my role, working in a corporate structure where you have to go to the banks for financing, and you’re constantly having to fight against: But where’s the building? How much is the building worth? How much is the equipment worth? And that’s not what we’re talking about…there are so many other indicators that we need to start developing. We’re only going to do that through partnership and at the local level, to figure out what is it on a very local level that matters and have that feed up into the financial systems that exist.”
— Jani Djokic, Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation
“There’s programs and services in tourism that you could really look up [as an] entrepreneur. That’s what really triggered me to start my business, although I had that idea in the back of my mind for 10 years. After taking a 10 month training in tourism, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do this…’ Yukon First Nations also just came out with a land-based grant to do on the land-based camp. So I was able to tap into that… I just feel like there’s a lot of support for especially Indigenous tourism”
— Teri-Lee Issac, Tutchone Tours
Supported by CPAWS Yukon, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, and Research from the Front Lines. Organized by Jared Gonet (Director, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, Faculty in Indigenous Governance and Science at Yukon University and PhD candidate at University of Alberta), Caitlynn Beckett (PhD Candidate at Memorial University), and Krystal Isbister (PhD candidate at University of Alberta and Yukon University); all of whom do research on mining or land relations in the Yukon.
Quotes edited for length and clarity.
CPAWS Yukon Stands with the Gwich’in in Renewed Call to Protect the Arctic Refuge from Oil and Gas Exploitation
CPAWS Yukon Stands with the Gwich’in in Renewed Call to Protect the Arctic Refuge from Oil and Gas Exploitation
Whitehorse, Yukon—CPAWS Yukon is deeply disappointed—and angered—by the U.S. government’s assertion that it will open the entirety of the coastal plains of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing and development. As an environmental organization, Canadians, and long-time allies with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, we at CPAWS Yukon stand with the Gwich’in people in strong opposition to this decision, which was announced last week by U.S. Secretary of the Interior and long-time oil-and-gas advocate Doug Burgum.
This announcement is a slap in the face to the inherent rights and sovereignty of the Gwich’in, for whom the Arctic Refuge and the Porcupine caribou calving grounds it contains are sacred. For decades, they have proudly, tirelessly, and honourably led the fight to protect the lands, waters, and animals of the Arctic Refuge against the indisputable destruction oil and gas development would bring to this irreplaceable, ecologically abundant landscape. The decision insults the will of the American people, violates both the domestic treaty right of the Gwich’in and the broader human rights of Indigenous people laid out in Article 25 of UNDRIP, and disregards America’s accepted duties to the Canada-US Porcupine Caribou Agreement, further disrespecting the sovereignty and independence of Canada as a nation and longstanding trading partner.
We find the U.S. decision to unilaterally decree the Arctic Refuge open to oil and gas leasing at a time of collapsing international esteem, free-falling markets, and accelerating climate crisis—and to do so the heels of the embarrassing failures of two previous lease sales—to be a complete and total departure from economic, political, and environmental common sense.
Nevertheless, CPAWS Yukon remains committed to standing beside the Gwich’in in the fierce and unwavering defense of the Arctic Refuge and the sacred calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou. The only acceptable oil and gas extraction on the coastal plain is none, and we won’t stop fighting until the Refuge is protected. Now and forever.
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Contact
Laurence Fox, Campaigns Coordinator, CPAWS Yukon
lfox@CPAWSYukon.org| 867-393-8080 x 3
Yukon court dismisses case that threatened the Peel Plan
Written by Joti Overduin, rally photos by Adil Darvesh | March 13, 2025
After rallying together in the cold in Whitehorse and across the Yukon and NWT last November, the ruling from the judge to dismiss the Yukon government’s case was very much welcome. It was a decision that reflected the reactions of many from the outset of this confusing and disappointing court action on YESAB’s recommendation that the Michelle Creek mining project not proceed.
The Yukon Supreme Court judge determined that bringing this court action forward was both not legally permissible, and out of step with the constitutionally protected process. The judge didn’t touch on the specifics of the YESAB recommendation or how YESAB went about creating it, as that is meant to be discussed between the Yukon government, Trondëk Hwëch’in, and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun.
At CPAWS Yukon we all shared feelings of deep gratitude to Trondëk Hwëch’in and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun for all the energy, time, and work dedicated to defending the integrity of the Peel Plan and the Final Agreements. There was also a strong focus on the importance of baseline data (information about an area before exploration or mining) to evaluate potential impacts and the effectiveness of mitigation efforts on the land, waters, and wildlife—critical not only for the Peel but for development proposals throughout the Yukon.
![Heard in the Courtroom... Consultation was at the “lowest” level of priority, and not needed until only before mining development, not exploration in any case (Yukon government). If this is how the Peel Plan is to be interpreted and applied in the future, it represents “something much less than [we] bargained for” (Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in). The judicial review itself represents a “failure of reconciliation” (First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun). Lawyers cited numerous legal cases which suggested the precedent that provincial and territorial governments do have a treaty obligation to consult before doing something like this (First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun). Note ruling is expected relatively soon, around Feb 2025; stay tuned for more updates!](https://cpawsyukon.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Michelle-Creek-Court-Case-Update-8-819x1024.png "Heard in the Courtroom... Consultation was at the “lowest” level of priority, and not needed until only before mining development, not exploration in any case (Yukon government). If this is how the Peel Plan is to be interpreted and applied in the future, it represents “something much less than [we] bargained for” (Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in). The judicial review itself represents a “failure of reconciliation” (First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun). Lawyers cited numerous legal cases which suggested the precedent that provincial and territorial governments do have a treaty obligation to consult before doing something like this (First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun). Note ruling is expected relatively soon, around Feb 2025; stay tuned for more updates!")
Peel Watershed court case update from December 2024. This isn’t a comprehensive summary of the court proceedings, but rather a glimpse into some key points that stood out to us.
Now that the court action has been dismissed, it is time for the Yukon government to go back to the process of consulting Trondëk Hwëch’in and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun on YESAB’s recommendation for the proposed exploration project. We remain curious and hopeful that the Yukon government will work together with both First Nations to ensure the Peel Plan is upheld, and that it follows YESAB’s thorough recommendation that this first application to develop in the Peel not go ahead. We must ensure that development in the Peel and throughout the Yukon is done in a way the reflects not just the needs of our generation, but many generations from now too.
“It took many years of work and many court challenges before the Peel Plan was finally approved, and yesterday’s Court decision builds on the significant effort of Yukon First Nations and all Yukoners to ensure that the Peel Plan is properly and honourably implemented. This is a win for TH and for land use planning under our treaty.”
— Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Deputy Chief Erin McQuaig
“We are pleased to see Chief Justice Duncan rightfully recognize that Yukon’s case was inappropriate and should never have been brought. We hope Yukon will reconsider its approach to the Michelle Creek project and recognize the project should not proceed—as YESAB determined.”
— First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Chief Dawna Hope
Protect the Peel rally across the Yukon and NWT
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- Dawson, YT (photo by Sharon Vittrekwa)
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- Whitehorse, YT (photo by Adil Darvesh)
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- Tsiigehtchic, NWT (photo by Fredrick Sonny Blake)
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- Whitehorse, YT (photo by Adil Darvesh)
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- Fort McPherson, NWT (photo by Laura Nerysoo)
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- Mayo, YT (photo by Erin Holm)
Panel Discussion: Mining on Unceded Territories
Mining on Unceded Territories
Transformative Mining and Alternatives Panel
As Yukon mineral legislation is being re-written, explore the history and future of mining on unceded Indigenous Lands in the Yukon.
This panel was held on March 6th, 2025 as part of a series of four public, virtual panels with thinkers and leaders from across the Yukon and beyond to ask: How can we transform mining to ensure disasters such as the Eagle Mine failure never happen again? What are the alternatives to resource economies?
Panelists included Testloa Smith (Kaska Elder), Josh Barichello (Ross River Dena Council Lands Department), Ann Maje Raider (Kaska Elder, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society), Linda McDonald (Liard First Nation, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society), and Hammond Dick (Kaska Elder). Moderated by Caitlynn Beckett (Memorial University) and Jared Gonet (Yukon University).
“Our land, we say, is unceded. It means no treaty, and we still maintain that today. [This] does bring the government to our table. It does bring industry to our table. But they have a process, YESAB, which is legislated to look at how projects are being developed and permitted to become a mine. Because of the time they have slotted to do their assessment there seems to be a big gap [in] what our nation understands about the land, about the animals, about the water, and about all the plants. Traditional knowledge has to be incorporated into these discussions. They’ve tried to, but still they’re not getting [it in] the ways that we wanted to see.”
— Testloa Smith, Kaska Elder
“Back in 2014, the Kaska Nation challenged Yukon government’s free entry into their mining claims and the claims [that] were staked by exploration companies without consultation, because it was adversely affecting aboriginal rights and titles and interests. To date, we’re pushing hard to make sure that any mining companies that have an interest in setting up shop in our traditional territory [are] going to be faced with that prospect of consultation and accommodation. We’re out there, and we’re quite observant about what’s going on.”
— Hammond Dick, Kaska Elder
“For the most part [the people who are there developing the land], they’re from all over the world, or from other parts of the world, whereas Kaska people and other people are living there. The word Kēyeh, for example, I believe comes from the word ‘foot’ or ‘boot’. We’ve walked on the land, we know the land, our ancestors knew the land, and that’s the relationship to the land. There’s a huge difference just in the perspective and the respect for the land.”
— Linda McDonald, Liard First Nation, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society
“If you’re being compensated for something, is that, in a way, just an easy way for the mining companies and governments to [get] a green light to do the damage in the first place… How are you going to compensate for a caribou herd? What kind of dollar figure are you going to put on that?”
— Linda McDonald, Liard First Nation, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society
“The mining companies and legislation do not allow looking at the gender-based analysis when it comes to mining and looking at perpetrators of violence coming into these mining camps. What’s not factored in YESAB is the cultural relevance, the social relevance of mining, what happens to our community, the addictions. None of that is factored. It’s time we look at YESAB and we look at mining legislation that really does protect our lands and our rights to the land.”
— Ann Maje Raider, Kaska Elder, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society
“I think what has been happening in our territory is that they’ve been stomping on our aboriginal rights and title because they know we don’t have the money. They come and stomp more, [like] the most recent decision with a mine in our backyard. You know our people are saying no. But they don’t want to listen because it means money in the back pockets of government… Our people still live in poverty. The mines come and go, and who’s left with the toxins? We are. Our land is precious to us as it was to our ancestors, but they don’t want to hear [that], so our only recourse is always courts.”
— Ann Maje Raider, Kaska Elder, Liard Aboriginal Women’s Society
“When I listen to many stories of what happened during the land claims discussions, [there’s] rationale for that powerful decision that Kaska made. There were many reasons, but one thing that I hear again and again, is that dividing the land, putting boundaries and borders, and treating different lands differently, was a challenging thing to reconcile for those elders who had a responsibility to all of their territory, to all of their land. Cede, release, and surrender became part of crown lands, the lands that were not chosen to be settlement lands, [and that] was hard to reconcile.”
— Josh Barichello, Ross River Dena Council Lands Department
“They have applications to go and make their trail, to go and drill further on the same area as the [proposed BMC mine]. Now we say the same thing as [with] the mine. We say we got concerns about the caribou, about the water, about our plants, and our gophers, our small animals that we harvest. Yet [they] say you guys are talking about mine permitting, we’re talking about drilling. But it’s the same area, the same concept, the same thing. That’s what really frustrates us. That’s why you hear about colonialism, of things that they try to separate… Our people understand water goes out past the footprint; the animals go past the footprint of the mine.”
— Testloa Smith, Kaska Elder
“The Lands Department, especially in the context without a final agreement, are so underfunded and don’t have the mechanisms that came from the UFA to really get involved in the same way, and so everybody else sort of has a leg up in terms of their ability to engage. At the same time, we’ve been bombarded, absolutely suffocated with all these outside interests. If you look at a map of mineral claims in the Ross River part of the Kaska Nation, I think it’s about 16% of the area has been staked, the rocks have been given away with no treaty on unceded land, with no Kaska consent, or very little consultation in many cases.”
— Josh Barichello, Ross River Dena Council Lands Department
Supported by CPAWS Yukon, To Swim and Speak with Salmon, and Research from the Front Lines. Organized by Jared Gonet (Faculty in Indigenous Governance and Science at Yukon University and PhD candidate at University of Alberta), Caitlynn Beckett (PhD Candidate at Memorial University), and Krystal Isbister (PhD candidate at University of Alberta and Yukon University); all of whom do research on mining or land relations in the Yukon.
Quotes edited for length and clarity.