The Burwash Landing/Destruction Bay area is the home of the Southern Tutchone people of the Kluane First Nation (KFN). The Southern Tutchone belong to the Athapaskan language family. For thousands of years, the Southern Tutchone people have lived throughout the Kluane region, hunting, fishing and gathering food. The present location of Burwash Landing was used as a summer camp. After a trading post was built in the early 1900s, the First Nations people settled closer to the trading post and began to live a less nomadic life. The site was made the administrative centre for the Kluane First Nation after the Alaska Highway was built.
The establishment of Kluane National Park and Tachal Region in the southwest corner of the Yukon Territory, bordered by Kluane Lake and the Alaska and Haines highways, prohibited the hunting and fishing rights of the First Nations people. Left with only a narrow margin along the western shores of Kluane Lake, the people lost much of their hunting and trapping livelihood. They were forced to turn to other areas and to rely increasingly on fishing to make a living.
Today, the Kluane First Nation people of Burwash Landing carry on much of the traditional way of life of their ancestors. They have been active in reviving their language, culture, and traditions, and in passing this knowledge on to their children. Education has been a priority of the First Nation. Secondary and post-secondary education for members of the First Nation is actively supported and promoted. The KFN has a number of university graduates, and Burwash Landing was the site of the first First-Nation-run school in the Yukon. The Kluane First Nation provides services to its membership through its health and social department, as well as education, economic development, lands, culture, resources, and capital projects programs. The Kluane First Nation also provides housing and municipal services to its membership.
In 2004 the Kluane First Nation reported a membership of 206, close to 120 of whom live in other communities.
The Kluane First Nation has signed their land claims and self-government agreements, which came into effect in February 2004. The First Nation is working on implementing their Final Agreement as they increasingly take on the responsibilities of a self-governing nation. The leadership of the First Nation has been active in the Council of Yukon First Nations and other Yukon-wide and national bodies.
