The Yukon River has been the main travel route connecting Southern Tutchone with the First Nations to the north, such as the Northern Tutchone, Hän and Gwich’in. Many subsistence activities—hunting, fishing, trapping—are governed by the freeze-up and break-up of the river. The Yukon River has always provided food for the native people, and its salmon and other fish continue to form an important part of the diet of First Nations peoples.