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Han


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The Han are the people who live where the Yukon and Klondike Rivers merge. They lived through the greatest impact of change when the Klondike Gold Rush marked their lives with great social upheaval and displacement. Back during the Goldrush the Han people in the Dawson City area, who are also referred to as the Tr'ondek Hwech'in, were relocated from their traditional village site at the mouth of the Klondike River to a mile down river where Moosehide is located. At the turn of the century, Chief Isaac foresaw great disruption of his people, so he took some songs and the dance stick to a Potlatch in Mansfield, Alaska. Here he entrusted the people to hold on to these songs until such a time when the Tr'ondek Hwech'in were able to relearn and bring the dance stick, known as the Gunhawk, back to the their homeland. Today the people are in the process of learning these songs once again.