Canada, in response to the rush of…

Canada, in response to the rush of gold-seeking prospectors (mostly American) to the Klondike valley two years earlier, separates the Yukon Territory from the Northwest Territories on June 13, 1898.

Coastal and inland First Nations have extensive trading networks.

European incursions into the area began early in the nineteenth century with the fur trade, followed by missionaries.

By the 1870s and 1880s, gold miners began to arrive.

This drove a population increase that justified the establishment of a police force, just in time for the start of the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897.