Canada

Yukon Ice Patches

WHS Score 0.0 Votes 1
Throughout the millennia, woodland caribou have congregated on snow and ice during summer months, making Yukon’s ice patches a vital resource areas for Indigenous hunters. Hunting weapons that missed their marks became incorporated into the snow and ice. Fragile, organic objects, seldom seen at archaeological sites, are recovered, provide exceptional evidence for an enduring Indigenous cultural tradition of seasonal hunting. Persistent seasonal hunting demonstrates an outstanding and enduring use of a cultural landscape centred on alpine hunting and the evolved symbiotic relationships between ice, animals, insects and people for 7500 years.
>

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Yukon Ice Patches (ID: 6343)
Country
Canada
Status
On tentative list 2018 Site history
History of Yukon Ice Patches
Criteria
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org

Community Information

Travel Information
No travel information
Recent Connections
No connections… yet. Propose a connection.
News

No news.

Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.

Community Reviews

Show full reviews
First published: 20/08/18.

Zoë Sheng

Yukon Ice Patches

Yukon Ice Patches (On tentative list)

Yukon Ice Patches by Zoë Sheng

When I first read Canada wants to inscribe ice patches I already figured something crazy must be behind this site, or let’s call it “sites”. Ice patches are not unique to the Yukon at all. That is for me the first problem. Of this is a pioneer inscription that would later expand to other areas I find it the wrong approach. Secondly, the ice patches in the Yukon are not just in the Carcross/Tagish First Nation hunting grounds. Thirdly this would also extend the sites into the US side which again means for me the entire area should be considered before attempting this inscription. Lastly, and for the most worrisome of all, ice patches are disappearing due to environment changes. That would essentially leave the hunting ground artifacts and possibly keep that as a worthy inscription. Lake Mungo in Australia is a similar example of such a cultural site.

As for the actual ice patches, they were only discovered in the 90s and what went down was the caribou use the ice fields to cool down in summer, not bothering to leave the patch even if pesky insects or those pesky hunters would come to bite/slay them with their arrowheads. The hunting artifacts are not accessible in the wild but you can see it at several visitor center: Kluane, Haynes Junction and Carcross. On a side note I always find a bit of luck involved who of Parks Canada is in the office with knowledge about certain things, and …

Keep reading 0 comments