Birch Creek
The village is located along Birch Creek,
approximately 26 miles southwest of Fort Yukon. It lies at approximately
66° 15' N Latitude, 145° 48' W Longitude (Sec. 28, T017N, R009E,
Fairbanks Meridian). The community is located in the Fairbanks Recording
District. The area encompasses 10 sq. miles of land and 0 sq. miles of
water.
The
Dendu Gwich'in traditionally occupied much of the Yukon Flats south of
the Yukon River, including portions of the Crazy and White Mountains.
Semi-permanent camps existed near the present village. The first written
reference to a settlement in the Birch Creek area was in 1862 by a Fort
Yukon clergyman who visited a camp established to provide fish for the
Hudson's Bay Company in Ft. Yukon. Some anthropologists believe that
this band was annihilated by scarlet fever in the 1880s, but there are
ethnographic accounts of the use of this area from 1867 onwards. Birch
Creek Jimmy was the founder of Birch Creek, and was Great Chief among
the Chiefs in his days. He built a cabin in 1898 at the site of the
Hudson's Bay fish camp. Several years later, he was joined by other
extended family members. In about 1916, the group moved three miles
upstream to the site of the present village. It was used as a seasonal
base for harvest activities until the early 1950s, when the
establishment of a school encouraged village residents to adopt a less
nomadic way of life. The first airstrip was constructed in 1973.
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