The Ross River Dena Council: Kaska People of the Upper Pelly

The Ross River Dena Council are the Kaska-speaking Dene people of the upper Pelly River drainage in central Yukon. Their community is centred at Ross River, a small community accessible via the Robert Campbell Highway — one of the most remote all-season road communities in the Yukon. The name "Dena" means "people" in Kaska, and it is used with pride as a marker of cultural identity across the Kaska-speaking world. ## Language and the Dene Identity The Ross River Dena people speak Kaska, a Dene language of the great Athapascan family. They share linguistic and cultural ties with the Liard First Nation in the Watson Lake area and with Kaska-speaking First Nations in northern British Columbia. Kaska is part of the broader Dene cultural world that extends across the northern boreal from the Yukon to Hudson Bay — a world connected by shared language roots, ceremonial traditions, and a common understanding of relationships between people and the land. The term "Dena" — people — expresses a philosophy of relatedness: all living things, not just humans, participate in a web of relationships that carry obligations and protocols. ## Traditional Territory and the Pelly River The upper Pelly River drainage is a remote and productive landscape — boreal forest, alpine meadows, and river systems that support moose, caribou, Dall sheep, fish, and a full suite of fur-bearing animals. The Ross River Dena people followed the seasonal rhythms of this landscape: moving to fish camps in summer, hunting moose and caribou in fall, trapping in winter, and gathering plant foods as the snow retreated. The Pelly River — flowing west to join the Yukon River near Fort Selkirk — was the main highway through the territory. River travel, by birchbark canoe in summer and on the ice in winter, connected communities and allowed access to the full range of the territory. ## The Faro Mine The Anvil Mine — later known as the Faro Mine — opened near Ross River in 1969 and became one of the largest open-pit lead-zinc mines in the world. The mine brought hundreds of workers to the area, the town of Faro was built to house them, and the landscape around the mine was dramatically altered. The tailings pond and waste rock facilities left behind when the mine closed in 1998 remain one of the largest contaminated sites in Canada, still undergoing a decades-long remediation process at massive public expense. The mine's impacts on the Ross River Dena were significant: disruption of traditional land use, changes to wildlife patterns, and the social pressures that come with industrial development on traditional territory without meaningful consent. ## Self-Government As of the mid-2020s, the Ross River Dena Council had not concluded their Final Agreement — one of four Yukon First Nations still negotiating under the Umbrella Final Agreement framework. The unresolved negotiations reflect longstanding disagreements between the Ross River Dena and the federal and territorial governments over land quantum and other matters. The community continues to maintain its language and cultural practices, and the Dena Council operates programs in health, education, and community development in Ross River. --- ## See Also on TheKlondike.net - [The Liard First Nation: Kaska People of the Southeast](/blog/liard-first-nation) — the other Kaska-speaking Dene First Nation in the Yukon - [Displacement and Survival: How the Gold Rush Changed Yukon First Nations](/blog/gold-rush-impact-first-nations) - [The 1993 Umbrella Final Agreement](/blog/yukon-umbrella-final-agreement-1993) — RRDC negotiations ongoing