Warmer temperatures have put chinook salmon and a way of life in grave danger [Video]

At the home James MacDonald shares with his wife and their two kids, it’s approaching dinnertime. His five-year-old son, Sye, is helping MacDonald open a can of salmon.

As a citizen of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council — one of several First Nations known as “salmon people” — MacDonald’s ancestors have been fishing chinook salmon for millennia. 

But that way of life couldn’t feel further away than it does right now.

“My wife and I were down at Costco a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver … and we bought $300 worth of canned sockeye. And, you know, it’s the only way at this point that we can have salmon in our house,” said MacDonald, a member of the federally appointed Yukon salmon sub-committee.

In an effort to preserve dwindling chinook stocks, MacDonald says he hasn’t fished on the Yukon River since he was a young boy. 

“Culture doesn’t come from …