Editing Yukon River (section)

==Name==
The name ''Yukon'', or ''ųųg han'', is a [[Contraction (grammar)|contraction]] of the words in the [[Gwich'in language|Gwich'in]] phrase ''chųų gąįį han'', which means ''white water river'' and refers to "the pale colour" of [[Rock flour|glacial runoff]] in the Yukon River.<ref name=ObsoletePhrase>"Dear Sir, I have great pleasure in informing you that I have at length after much trouble and difficulties, succeed[ed] in reaching the 'Youcon', or white water River, so named by the ([[Gwich'in]]) natives from the pale colour of its water. ..., I have the honour to Remain Your ob<sup>t</sup> Serv<sup>t</sup>, [[John Bell (explorer)|John Bell]]" [[Hudson's Bay Company]] Correspondence to [[George Simpson (Pre-Confederation Canada politician and trader)|George Simpson]] from John Bell (August 1, 1845), [https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/ HBC Archives], D.5/14, fos. 212-215d, also quoted in, {{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pPLYUsb3gAQC&pg=PA21 |title=Land of the Midnight Sun: A History of the Yukon| page=21|author1=Coates, Kenneth S. |author2=William R. Morrison |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Hurtig Publishers|year=1988|isbn=0-88830-331-9|access-date=2017-10-16}}</ref><ref name=NotGreat>In Gwich'in, adjectives, such as ''choo'' [big] and ''gąįį'' [white], follow the nouns that they modify. Thus, ''white water'' is ''chųų gąįį'' [water white].  ''White water river'' is ''chųų gąįį han'' [water white river].  {{cite book|url= http://library.alaska.gov/hist/hist_docs/docs/anlm/24000656.pdf |title=Dinjii Zhuh Ginjik Nagwan Tr'iłtsąįį: Gwich'in Junior Dictionary| pages= ii (ą, į, ų are nasalized a, i, u), xii (adjectives follow nouns), 19 (''nitsii'' or ''choo'' [big]), 88 (''ocean'' = ''chųų choo'' [water big]), 105 (''han'' [river]), 142 (''chųų'' [water]), 144 (''gąįį'' [white])|author=Peter, Katherine|publisher=Univ. of Alaska|year=1979|access-date=2017-10-16}}</ref>  The contraction is ''Ųųg Han'', if the /ųų/ remains [[Nasal vowel|nasalized]], or ''Yuk Han'', if there is no vowel nasalization.<ref name=FiveLetters>Gwich'in vowels may or may not be nasalized. A hook under a vowel, as in "ų," indicates that the vowel is nasalized.  {{cite book|title=Dinjii Zhuh Ginjik Nagwan Tr'iłtsąįį|author=Peter|year=1979}}, at page ii (footnote). English, of course, has no nasalized vowels.</ref>  In the 1840s, the various [[Dene]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|nations]] had differing opinions as to the literal meaning of ''Yukon''. In 1843, the [[Holikachuk]]s had told the [[Russian-American Company]] that their name for the river was ''Yukkhana'' and that this name meant ''big river''.<ref name=RussiansNamed>"[The Yukon] in the language of the Kang-ulit ([[Central Alaskan Yup'ik people|Yup'ik]]) people is ''Kvikhpak''; in the dialect of the downriver Inkilik ([[Holikachuk]]), ''Yukkhana''; of those upriver ([[Koyukon]]), ''Yuna''. All these terms mean the same thing in translation–'Big River.'  I have kept the local names as a clearer indication of the different tribes along the river." [[Lavrenty Zagoskin|Lt. Zagoskin]]'s Note 63 (1848), translated in, {{cite book|title=Lieutenant Zagoskin's Travels in Russian America, 1842-1844: The First Ethnographic and Geographic Investigations in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Valleys of Alaska|editor=Zagoskin, Lavrenty A. |editor2=Henry N. Michael |publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1967}}, at page 295. Zagoskin did not come into contact with the [[Gwich'in|Gwich'in Indians]] and had no access to the information that ''Yukon'' means ''white water river'' in [[Gwich'in language|Gwich'in]] – the language from which the word came.</ref>  However, ''Yukkhana'' does not literally correspond to a [[Holikachuk language|Holikachuk]] phrase that means ''big river''.<ref name=NotDeg>In Holikachuk, ''big river'' or ''big water'' would be ''xinmiksekh'', ''xinchux'', ''toomiksekh'', or ''toochux''. {{cite book|url=https://uafanlc.alaska.edu/Online/HO975K1978c/HO975K1978c.pdf|title=Holikachuk Noun Dictionary| page=19 (''xin'' [river], ''too'' [water])|author=Kari, James |display-authors=et al.|publisher=Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks|year=1978|access-date=2017-10-16}}; {{cite book|title=Lieutenant Zagoskin's Travels|author=Zagoskin |author2=Michael|year=1967}}, at page 309 (Inkilik proper [Holikachuk] ''tu'' [water], ''miksekh'' [large]); {{cite book|url= http://faculty.washington.edu/sharon/Vowel_quality_and_duration_in_Deg_Xinag.pdf |title=Vowel quality and duration in Deg Xinag|page=29 (note 33: Holikachuk ''chux'' [big])|author=Hargus, Sharon|publisher=Univ. of Washington|year=2008|access-date=2017-10-16}} Adjectives followed the nouns that they modified in Holikachuk.</ref><ref name=NotActuallyConfirmed>Thirty-nine pages of cited "Sources," representing over a century of research, did not verify [[Lavrenty Zagoskin|Zagoskin]]'s report that ''Yukon'' means ''big river''.  {{cite book|title=Dictionary of Alaska Place Names|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_0y48AQAAMAAJ|author=Orth|year=1967}}, at pp. 6-44 ("Sources of Names"), 1069 ("The Eskimo ... descriptively called it 'Kuikpak' meaning 'big river.'  The Indian name 'Yukon' probably means the same thing."). Orth does not say "probably" when discussing ''Kuikpak''{{'s}} meaning. Orth's use of "probably" is limited to the discussion of ''Yukon''{{'s}} meaning, which indicates that Zagoskin's report that ''Yukon'' means ''big river'' was never verified. In addition, Orth's "Sources" do not even include the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] correspondence, which states that ''Yukon'' means ''white water river'' in [[Gwich'in language|Gwich'in]]. Nor do Orth's "Sources" include aboriginal dictionaries.</ref>  Then, two years later, the [[Gwich'in]]s told the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] that their name for the river was ''Yukon'' and that the name meant ''white water river''.<ref name="ObsoletePhrase"/>  ''White water river'' in fact corresponds to Gwich'in words that can be shortened to form ''Yukon''.<ref name="NotGreat"/>  Because the Holikachuks had been trading regularly with both the Gwich’ins and the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik people|Yup'iks]],<ref name=Borrowed>[[Lavrenty Zagoskin|Lt. Zagoskin]] reported that: "The ... Inkilit [Holikachuk] ... live along the routes of communication between the Yukon and the coast and are occupied almost exclusively with buying up furs from the natives living along the Yunnaka ([[Koyukuk River]], a Yukon tributary)."  Zagoskin also reported that: "The Inkalik [Holikachuk] ..., who are chiefly occupied in trading both with their fellow tribesmen and with the neighboring tribes of Kang-ulit (Yup'ik), have adopted the way of life of the latter ..."  {{cite book|title=Lieutenant Zagoskin's Travels|author=Zagoskin |author2=Michael|year=1967}}, at pp. 196-97, 244. Because they had adopted the Yup’ik (Eskimo) way of life, and because they were the ones trading upriver, the Holikachuk would have been "the Esquimaux" referred to in [[John Bell (explorer)|John Bell]]'s 1845 report: "The Esquimaux to the westwards likewise ascends the 'Youcon' and carry on a trade with the natives, as well as with the Musquash [Gwich'in] Indians ... I have seen a large camp of the latter tribe on the Rat River on my return, who, had about a doz: of beat [hammered] Iron Kettles of Russian Manufacture which they bartered from the Esquimaux."  ''See'', [[Hudson's Bay Company]] Correspondence to [[George Simpson (Pre-Confederation Canada politician and trader)|Simpson]] from Bell (1845), [https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/ HBC Archives], D.5/14, fos. 212, 213. For these reasons, the Holikachuk were in a position to conflate the meanings of the Gwich'in and Yup'ik names, and to furnish this conflated information to the Russian-American Company.</ref> the Holikachuks were in a position [[Loanword|to borrow]] the Gwich'in contraction and [[Conflation|to conflate]] its [[Definition|meaning]] with the meaning of ''Kuig-pak'' [River-big], which is the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Yup'ik]] name for the same river. For that reason, the [[documentary evidence]] suggests that the Holikachuks had borrowed the contraction ''Ųųg Han'' [White Water River] from Gwich'in, and erroneously assumed that this contraction had the same literal meaning as the corresponding Yup'ik name ''Kuig-pak'' [River-big].

The '''Lewes River''' is the former name of the upper course of the Yukon, from [[Marsh Lake]] to the confluence of the [[Pelly River]] at [[Fort Selkirk]].