Freeze-up, Break-up, and Colonial Circulation

Ice and snow played pivotal roles in shaping the dynamics of Euro-Canadian colonization in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, particularly along the Mackenzie and Yukon rivers. This study reveals how freeze-up and break-up patterns influenced colonial geographies, trade rhythms, and knowledge systems between Indigenous northerners and their environment during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By analyzing oral histories and accounts of Indigenous life experiences, the research demonstrates that these seasonal transitions were central to social and cultural relationships with other-than-human nature. Additionally, it traces how ice transformations facilitated the movement of pathogens, such as during the scarlet fever epidemic in 1865 and the influenza epidemic in 1928, thereby shaping emerging northern colonial ecologies between 1860 and 1930.

Piper, L. (2020). Freeze-up, Break-up, and Colonial Circulation. Journal of Northern Studies, 13(2), 17–41. https://doi.org/10.36368/jns.v13i2.948