This title expires March 31st, 2024
Subject(s): Canadian Social Studies, Documentary, Environmental Studies, First Nations Studies, Geography, Guidance, Health and Medicine, Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Peoples
Grade Level: 6 - 8, 9 - 12, Post Secondary
SHIFT is a short documentary about Indigenous youth from Carcross, Yukon who have spent the past 10 years converting their traditional trade route trails on Montana Mountain into a world-class mountain biking destination, and transforming their community and themselves along the way. A great uplifting story about healing, reconciliation, economics and community spirit.
The film presents a modern twist on integrating the Indigenous community with their tribal lands. Instead of hunting, fishing and trapping, they are building world class bike trails, which are successfully attracting adventure tourists. This is where healing begins with meaningful work, connection to their tribal lands, having fun with other young people and contributing to the economic development of the community.
Running Time: 28:25
Country of Origin: Canada
Captions:
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Producer: Shot in the Dark Productions
Copyright Date: 2016
Language: English
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TRANSCRIPT
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- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- The land has kept us alive for thousands of years. We made a living here one way or the other, but things change. Something always does-- it's a matter of how do we want to be a part of it, how do we have say in the change. The only thing I know for sure, we can't sit here and do nothing. You can be a part of it or change, it will just run you over.
- We've been here for thousands of years. If you look at [INAUDIBLE] [? land, ?] I mean, it's a pretty big area. And it wasn't, you know, just a little over 100 years ago. We ended up settling down in some of these communities and staying in them.
- Then we had the gold rush come in, Alaska Highway that went in through here, the mission schools. There was some mining up around here. No active mining right now, there really is no economy.
- When you first started seeing the influx at the time settlers of non-natives come in, first nations got pushed off traditional territory. And so all the communities got together and said, we need to negotiate for our own rights.
- [FIRST NATION CHANTING]
- And so for the next roughly 30 or 40 years, Yukon First Nations negotiated for self-government and final agreements.
- When our people talked quite a while ago and we were looking at different pieces of land, the significant pieces that we wanted to pick out, some of them were tourism, some that we just wanted control over just because how special and important it is. And that's one of those mountains, there. The elders would talk about Montana Mountain, traditionally, has been our medicine basket or our bread basket. And today it continues to be a sacred area for us.
- Game mother, that was where she sat up on that mountain there. You can see the marks on it. You can see where the, kind of, seed is. In our culture, it's a pretty significant mountain. We want to have control over that mountain with the resources in it. I mean, there's tourism, or there's mining, or what is it? How do we make a living here? If we're going to create an economy here, something will change a bit. It's a matter of how do we control that. And with the land claims agreement, that's what that was all about. It is a choice, but if you do nothing, you can't expect a whole lot.
- When you start looking at change in the community, a number of horrific things happen, one being just losing our worldview. And our worldview has always been of traders, of entrepreneurs, of self-sufficiency, not dependency. And I think that was broken.
- With self-government, a lot of First Nations created development corporations. It's commendable to make a profit, but it'll be exceptional if you can do so in a way that raises socioeconomic levels. And so we said to ourselves, let's try and build a private-sector economy in Carcross. We sat down with the community and created a vision. And we call it bikers, hikers, and boarders-- people who are coming here as a destination to stay for a longer period of time.
- I've been a long-time mountain biker, really passionate about trails, passion about the Yukon. And I was finishing up this report on Yukon mountain bike tourism potential. And some folks here in Carcross got in touch with me and said, you know, these mountain biker types kind of sounds like our target market. What could we do to attract them to Carcross? And I said, well, you're going to need trails.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- The whole idea was a challenging one at first for people to wrap their heads around, the idea of building trails and encouraging people to come on to Montana Mountain, which the First Nation had just gotten back. So it was all so new. I think the timing, in a way, was the best and it was the worst.
- To get the initial support on where the trails could be or shouldn't be led to quite a few challenges, because we had to get a whole of community, a whole a government, a whole of clan system look back and say this is the most cultural of things to do.
- The idea got rolling with a summer spent exploring the mountain. I hired a young First Nation fellow, David Gatsby. And we spent basically the better part of two months looking for these historic trails that we knew were there. And we mapped out what could become.
- The original network of it started with actually going back to the historical routes we used to trade on. And that ultimately ended up becoming a mentorship program.
- The Carcross Single Track To Success project really is a collective effort. We're trying to build a mountain bike destination here in Carcross, but we're doing it in a really community-based grassroots way, using the youth, getting them back on the land. And so that was the seed of the idea.
- 2006, that was the first year of construction. We hired a crew, mostly CTFN youth. And we just started by clearing out some of those old trails close to Carcross. That first year, there were lots of highs and lows, I'll be honest. Some of them thrived. And some of the kids just weren't quite ready for the demands that were being placed on them on the mountain.
- People were worried, because we sent a whole bunch of kids up there. And I thought, really, in essence, the safest thing for them to do is go in the bush, because that's where they're from. And immediately, as they went up there, they self-organized. And they just took an incredible amount of responsibility.
- In that first year, one of our youngest members was a fellow by the name of Shane Wally. He was this really warm, wonderful, but painfully shy kid. And he's been part of the crew every single year. And he assumed leadership responsibilities three seasons ago.
- I was 16 years old when I started with the trail crew. I just was excited about mountain biking. And I thought it would be a cool opportunity to get up on to the mountains, start making mountain bike trails, and just having fun on the mountain.
- Yeah, keep moving that dirt as you're doing with your feet there, [? McKenzie, ?] and pack it as you're going. SO it's like you're forming it and packing it at the same time, all in one.
- I like my crew that I have right now. They all like to work and everything. They all push each other. They know when to help each other out. It's real groovy.
- Everyone knows that the trail crew in Carcross and Tagish. I just thought it'd be pretty cool to help them build the trails that everyone wants to come ride.
- I like building trails because it's just fun to ride them afterwards and working instead of doing nothing at home.
- This is my first year working up here. It's really fun. It gets you in shape.
- I wanted to be on the trial crew because I like being outside. And it's better than just sitting at home all day.
- The reason why I wanted to be on a trial crew was because I like to work hard and make money. And all my buddies are on the trial crew.
- I've lived here my whole life. I really like mountain biking and working on the trails.
- Well, it was pretty interesting being the only female up on this mountain here with all these boys and everything. And I'm like the Wendy the Lost Boys up here.
- For a bunch of teenagers, we work pretty hard.
- Being a member of the Montana Mountain Trail Crew is hard work. When we start off the year, we'll have people that haven't really spent a lot of time outside or worked hard for nine hours. And that can be quite daunting when you're 15 years old. A person on trail crew really needs to pack all the things that they need to survive a day in the wilderness.
- It has its ups and downs here and there, you know? You have kids that don't want to work, and saying they're all tired and everything. Well, you've just got to give them a little boost, basically encourage them--
- There you go, OK.
- --give them that extra push.
- [INAUDIBLE] yeah, easy.
- In the early years, it was a real challenge finding ways to motivate them at times, and to give them the support that they needed. And we didn't always succeed.
- All righty then, well--
- OK.
- --we'll see you guys.
- Yeah, we'll see you later. So--
- What are we doing?
- [? --Kiona ?] and [? Dom ?] are going to get--
- Building trust was a challenge, for sure. The biggest challenge perhaps is just those differing ideas about the value that the land has for First Nation people, and the youth having different ideas about that at times.
- People don't seem to like change too much. And with these bike trails coming in, a lot more people are coming in.
- The city [? has been ?] moving forward. We need to look at our economy, but we need to look at what's on the line. What do we have? How does that get managed? How do we make sure the tourism doesn't destroy something that we have?
- The benefit is that a younger generation-- the elders, who make decisions, are not going to build trails, so at times there is different opinions and different worldviews on that. I think when everyone gets together in the circle, history has shown we've always come to the right answer. How we got there? Yeah,k it was a bumpy road.
- Inside the berms and that, and just make it, like, super strong. In there.
- They all seem to be having fun up there. I see them come down. And they're all dirty and grubby. And they come into the office for water or a shot of coffee. And you know, they're all smiling and laughing. And it's great.
- It's kind of funny how your ideas about what matter changes along the way. The part that excited me most in the beginning was the idea of seeing if we could turn Carcross into, you know, a little bit of a mountain biking destination. Is it possible?
- And when the kids got involved, and we started to see what was happening with them, we kind of forgot about that original idea. We were so focused on the next 50 meters of boggy ground, and figuring out how to get through that rock garden, and just these very micro-focused things that we kind of looked up a few years later and realized that people were coming.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- When we first started building trails on Montana Mountain, there were no mountain bikes in Carcross. And now you can't move downtown without seeing a mountain bike almost in every direction.
- We're estimating that there's probably 3,000 sets of tires on that mountain every summer. But for a very small community, they're very visible. Like, this is a very visible change.
- I never thought, when they first started talking about the single track, the successes-- like, single track, what are you talking about? They said, well, we want to put some bicycle trails on the mountain. And you know, a number of years later, we've got world-class mountain bike trails. And they're in magazines around the world.
- I think that all of the riders who come up here are appreciative of the fact that the Carcross/Tagish First Nation has invited us to be on their land. That's significant.
- Montana Mountain in Carcross, for us, is a little gem. And everybody that we bring here are always so amazed with the quality of the trail is just, like, world-class.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- These kids now are growing up seeing people ride mountain bikes. And what's happening is that they're becoming amazing mountain bikers.
- It was really important to us that the crew not only were out there on the mountain, and building trails, and working hard, but that they started to develop some appreciation for what the customer was seeking. So we would take the bikes out. And that was always this great reward for them, to finish a trail and then get to ride it. And that tradition has continued.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- Riding is most of the reason why I went on this job.
- I get to play on what I work on. And I get paid pretty good for it.
- What I like about riding is the adrenaline you get before you hit a big jump or something. It makes you want to keep riding.
- Oh, I love riding. I love it when we come up here on the bikes. It's like just in your nature to start biking when you have a mountain this close to you.
- It gives them the opportunity to do something with their summer. And they come up here. They're building their own parks up here. With the bike trails, you get to, like, enjoy it. And it's not like it's there for one minute and then gone the next.
- Boreal Mountain Biking, they asked me to come do some coaching and guiding with local youth all around Carcross.
- There you go. That's perfect. Nice.
- We take a bunch of kids up the mountain. And we just teach them mountain bike technique and skill, and let them go have some fun on some mountain bikes and ride our trails.
- I think it's awesome that people are coming here. I like them riding our trails-- didn't know I could build something so cool.
- It feels great, because Carcross is becoming more and more popular, more people to talk to.
- I think that's pretty cool, just watching people having fun riding what we build.
- I love it. I love seeing people coming to my community to ride my trails that I helped build with local youth around town, and hearing people biking up the trails, and giving us compliments-- right on, guys, good trails, I love the trails. You guys are doing epic trails here. And we love it. That's what just keeps us going. And I love that feeling.
- The history for this mountain, I guess, as a First Nation, we just grew up with it being as, like, a life source. It was a life giver. It provided us with food, and shelter, and harvesting, and stuff like that. But there's so much development going on in the world and everything, so I guess it wasn't going to be too long before they started coming up here and trying to figure out what they can do with this mountain and everything, and what they can take from it, or how they can make money off of it.
- Some people don't want change. Downtown Carcross has changed just by nothing happening. There's some people that, you know, oh, we don't want-- to you can't touch any part of the land. Well, we have an impact no matter what we do.
- Sometimes we have those naysayers that think we're going out there destroying the land, and doing whatever we want up there. That's where you have the meetings with the whole community. And you're like, hey, this is what we're doing this year. And this is how we're going to do it. We are all trying to come together now as one whole team. Land-use team, trail crew, and the economic development team as well, we're all working together now better than we were at the start.
- I hear a lot of folks speak to the value of that mountain, and that some of what's happening runs contrary to those values. I've reflected on that a lot. And I think for those kids, mountain biking, like, even though it's different, it's still being out on the land. It's just there's a bit of a modern different twist on them.
- What a difference when you're working on your own land. They should be proud of what they're doing. When you're out there wandering around on those trail, you become intimate with the land. You go to a place enough, it's just like going back home.
- Just like you're connecting back with where we came from. And we get to experience it and understand why we are the way that we are and why we got to give thanks, and because it does give back to us in the end.
- Putting the kids back into the mountain, the idea is, as they develop a relationship with land, and particularly themselves, and their clan responsibility, they will learn to love the mountain. They will learn to protect it, because they're taught it. And so as they come of age and the role of responsibility in their clan and decision making, they will be incredible advocates for our traditional territory.
- Since that inaugural year in 2006, the Single Track to Success project has created over 60 summer jobs. Over 40 kids have gone through the program. And they all bring something unique, but there has been a trend that the kids each year show up at the start of the year more ready, more wide-eyed, and more motivated than the year before.
- I love the people I work with.
- We all know each other, grew up together.
- A lot of the trial crew is my family. That's what I like about it.
- It's pretty awesome working with those young boys and stuff like that. Like, seeing them starting to grow up and everything is pretty cool.
- I've learned self-discipline. I've learned how to build jumps and berms and how to dump a wheelbarrow right, little things that you wouldn't think it's that hard, but there's always a technique to everything.
- Working on Montana Mountain being a member of the trail crew, it teaches the importance of showing up every day because other people are depending on you. And what ends up happening because of that responsibility is that they start off building trails, and by the end of the season, they've built themselves into stronger people, more confident people, and people that are able to succeed in other parts of their life.
- So it's been a real stepping stone of people who are youth moving into early adulthood, transitioning to actual employment and careers, that's because of Single Track. This is not just cutting trails. This is you moving into adulthood in a productive way, and in essence, breaking cycles of poverty that have existed.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
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- People around the world know where Carcross is now. I never thought it would be where it is. But now that it is, I mean, these shops, some of the jobs the youth are up there working, those jobs weren't there before. We've got gelato ice cream in Carcross. Where we will get to in 10 years, I don't know. But it's all there.
- [FIRST NATION CHANTING]
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- [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
- [DRUMMING AND CHANTING]
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- I hope the question mark that's sort of hung around this project every year, is there going to be a trail crew, when's it going to start? I hope that that uncertainty fades over time and that the opportunity to work on that mountain on that network that these kids have created just becomes a rite of passage for Carcross/Tagish youth long into the future.
- I'm praying I'm going to be trial crew next year. I really love this job.
- I'd love to be on the trial crew again next year. Hopefully I'm bigger next year so I get stuff done fast and carry a lot of stuff.
- I have a feeling that there is going to be a trial crew in five years, because someone needs to maintain these trails and keep them awesome.
- As long as the bikers keep coming, there will be a trail crew up here.
- I think Carcross has a long and promising future ahead of it as a trails destination. And it will always be unique. It will never be like any other trail destination. And the kids made that possible.
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