On a sunny afternoon in late September 2024, I joined a small group of travellers in Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon for a guided Indigenous medicinal plant walk offered by Amber Berard-Althouse, a member of the Kluane First Nation. As we stood at the edge of Kathleen Lake, Berard-Althouse explained that the Southern Tutchone name for the lake, Mät’àtäna Män, means “lake captured inside” referring to the way the Kluane Mountain Range seems to cradle the lake. As I gazed across the lake at the snow-capped mountains, I couldn’t think of a better name for such a beautiful and wild reservoir.
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