Heroine of the gold rush

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A Tlingit woman had a pivotal role in starting the Klondike Gold Rush.

But Shaaw Tla, also known as Kate Carmack, has been overlooked in historical accounts compared to the men she helped keep alive, according to her relatives.

Colleen James, Shaaw Tlaa's great-great-grand niece and member of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon and the Daklaweidi Clan, called her a "catalyst" in the gold rush.

"[She was] a beautiful woman who in our history blazed the trail through some pretty tough times and traumatic times for our people," James said.

"She wasn't properly acknowledged, or respected, nor was our culture and her ways at that time."

The discovery of gold along the Klondike River in 1896 drew a stampede of about 30,000 people, hoping to get rich. It led to Dawson City briefly becoming the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of Seattle, and the establishment of the Yukon territory in 1898.

The Tr'ondk Hwch'in who lived in the Dawson City area were displaced by the rush of miners and moved downriver to Moosehide.

For most of history an American prospector named George Carmack took the credit for finding the first gold nugget along what was later renamed Bonanza Creek.

He was married to Shaaw Tla, who became known as Kate Carmack.

George Carmack went looking for gold unsuccessfully for many years in the Yukon wilderness. His wife hunted and gathered food, she sewed and sold clothes to other miners, and she communicated with the First Nations in whose territory they were prospecting.

"I'm not sure how they would have lived, without her good cooking and knowledge about food," said James.

By the summer of 1896, the Carmacks had been gone for several years and Shaaw Tla's family became worried about whether they were still alive and went looking for them.

Shaaw Tla's brother Skookum Jim, nephews Dawson Charlie and Patsy Henderson and their families paddled north to the Klondike River, where the Han set up their fish camps, and here they found the Carmacks.

In the common telling of the story, Carmack, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie find gold at Bonanza Creek after getting a tip from prospector Robert Henderson.

But James and her mother Bessie Jim say it was Skookum Jim who found the gold. 

"Skookum Jim went down to the creek to drink some water, they were packing moose meat at the time, and saw gold or the colour of gold in the creek, and picked it up and took it back up to George and said, Is this what we're looking for?'" said James.

Deb Vanasse, author of Wealth Woman, a book about Shaaw Tla, said she found accounts where Carmack admitted it was Skookum Jim who found the gold.

"It was Kate's brother who found the gold and it was Kate who made it possible for George to be there at all," said Vanasse.

Carmack, Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie all staked claims along the river and the group worked them together.

But Shaaw Tla would end up with almost nothing from the claims, which yielded about $1 million worth of gold equivalent to $37 million today.

In 1898, the Carmacks went to California. Shaaw Tla stayed with Carmack's sister while George went back to the Yukon to check on the claim.

In Dawson City, Carmack met another woman and married her in 1900. He never saw Shaaw Tla again.

"He left with the booty and we got the shaft," said James.

Shaaw Tla tried to fight Carmack for part of the proceeds from the claim but their traditional marriage in Tagish wasn't recognized by the courts in California.  

"At the time, it wouldn't be acknowledged that our ways of knowing and being actually meant something to anybody. I think they would today in a court of law," said James.

Shaaw Tla went back home to Carcross and was taken care of by her brother, who was wealthy from his part of the gold claim.

"Even after her husband took her away and took the gold and all the resources, her clan and her family still took care of her," said James.

But her family was further divided when Shaaw Tla and Carmack's daughter Graphie Grace Carmack went to visit her father and new wife in Seattle.

Graphie Grace would marry her stepmother's brother after she became pregnant with his baby and never returned to the Yukon. Shaaw Tla never met her grandson, who was named after Skookum Jim. She died in the influenza pandemic in Carcross in 1920.

"I'm hoping that Gracie's children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are benefiting from that investment of her and the gold taken from this land," said James, who added that she would welcome her lost relatives if they were to meet.

Skookum Jim put his money into a trust and willed that the interest be used to assist Indigenous people in Yukon. The Skookum Jim Friendship Centre in Whitehorse was founded with money from the trust.

"It's a place where you can go to get help and support, whether it's for school, for employment, for cultural reconnection, for friendship, for a ride, even a hot meal," said Desirae Anderson, the centre's cultural program manager, and a member of the Kwanlin Dn First Nation.