For generations, people of the Kwanlin Dün and Ta'än Kwäch'än have lived along the Yukon River in the area of present-day Whitehorse. Stone tools tell of ancestors who were here just after the last ice age, harvesting salmon and hunting caribou and buffalo. The banks of the river were lined with fish camps, lookout points, hunting trails, burial sites and meeting places.
The Kwanlin Dün First Nation is home to over a thousand aboriginal people who belong to the Northern and Southern Tutchone, the Tagish as well as an amalgamation of many Yukon First Nation culture groups. Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) is the largest in the Yukon. In the Southern Tutchone language, Kwanlin Dün means people of the rapids.
The traditional territory of the Ta'än Kwäch'än people is concentrated around Lake Laberge, Lower Takhini River and Fox Lake, and the Ta'än frequented areas around Whitehorse and north along the Yukon River as far as Hootalinqua. The Ta'än Kwäch'än Council has members who are Southern Tutchone and Tagish. In Southern Tutchone, Ta'än Kwäch'än means head of the lake people.
The two Whitehorse-area First Nations were combined to form the Kwanlin Dün Indian Band in 1956 to provide for ease of administration, and gained back their identity in 1998.
Ta'än Chief Jim Boss was the first Yukon First Nation leader to ask the Canadian government to protect the land of his people from the invasion of newcomers following the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1902, he hired a Whitehorse lawyer to ask the government for compensation for the hardships his people suffered as a result of the influx of so many strangers. His petition resulted in one of the first reserves at the traditional village site at Lake Laberge.