Keish

Keish (Skookum Jim Mason)

Keish (* around 1855; † July 11, 1916 in Whitehorse ), better known as Skookum Jim Mason or Skookum Jim , was a member of the Tagish First Nation in the Canadian Yukon . He or his sister are considered to be the ones whose gold discovery sparked the Klondike gold rush . Keish made sizable fortune after working as a porter, expedition scout, and prospector, but, like many prospectors, he nearly squandered it. He signed a contract with one of the railway companies so that they could lay their rails across his country. The authorization for this gave him the affiliation and the positions of his parents within the clan systems: On the one hand his father was head of the Tlingit crow clan, on the other hand his mother was head of the Tahltan wolf clan .

Life

Keish was born not far from Lake Bennett to a Tahltan woman near Telegraph Creek . Since the Tahltan are matrilineal , he was a member of this tribe. His father was Kaachgaawáa, head of the Tlingit crow clan, his mother Gus'dutéen of the wolf clan. Keish married a Tlingit named Daakuxda.éit, with whom he had a daughter. The marriage between his parents was not accidental, as the Tlingit living on the coast had close trade ties with the Tahltan and Tagish of the hinterland.

Keish's family initially lived near Carcross . In the 1880s he worked as a porter at Chilkoot Pass , where he was noticed because of his enormous physical strength. This earned him the nickname Skookum , which in the local Chinook means something like 'strong', 'large' or 'reliable'. He was one of the best hunters and trappers in the region.

When William Ogilvie toured the Upper Yukon , Keish supported him. He also showed members of the expedition the way over the White Pass , one of the two connections to the Pacific .

His sister Shaaw Tláa lived with George Carmack from the end of 1888 , which was recognized as a marriage at that time. Carmack worked as a packer in Dyea on the Alaskan Pacific coast. His wife took the name Kate Carmack. Keish, Carmack and his nephew Káa Goox, better known as Dawson Charlie or Tagish Charlie , formed a society and worked as porters at Chilkoot Pass. In 1888 they looked for gold together for the first time, and in 1889 they went to the region around Forty Mile.

Keish led his nephew Káa Goox and his niece Koołseen (Patsy Henderson) down the Yukon from Carcross in August 1896 . At the mouth of the Klondike, they met George Carmack and Kate catching salmon. They had their three year old daughter with them. On the way they met Robert Henderson, who had looked for gold south of the Klondike on the Indian River. However, Henderson made it clear that he would not tolerate Indians near him and refused to sell them tobacco. He missed the opportunity to participate in the decisive gold discovery, because on August 16, 1896, the Tagish group found gold at Bonanza Creek, which at that time was still called Rabbit Creek.

But she could not make a claim in view of the racism that prevailed here. This task fell to Kate's husband, George. Twenty-five prospectors from the Fortymile River and the Stewart River rushed to claim the Bonanza, Eldorado and Hunker Creek claims before Carmack could claim his claim, which he received from Commissioner Charles Constantine on September 24, 1896 by filing his application from Forty Mile 80 km away. The three men found large amounts of the coveted precious metal and ended up dividing around a million dollars .

The gold rush brought tens of thousands of gold prospectors and adventurers to the Yukon, soon well over 100 ships were carrying people and goods on the rivers, and rail connections were established. Keish negotiated a contract with the White Pass Railway that would allow the railroad company to lay rails over his land if they gave work to the Carcross and Tagish , the Indians who lived around them. This contract is considered a society's first acknowledgment of land claims.

Keish tried to assimilate as Jim Mason and in 1898 built a large house for himself, his wife and his daughter in Carcross, which at that time was still called Caribou Crossing. He spent the winters in this largest house in the village, while still hunting and trapping on Tagish Lake during the warmer times . He soon began to go to Dawson frequently, where he got into the company of drinkers and drunkards and became alcoholic himself. To protect the rest of his fortune from wasting, he put it in safe custody in 1905. His wife Daakuxda.éit left him after several attempts at reconciliation and returned to her village. His sister Kate felt the same way. George Carmack left her without a fortune and married another woman in California . Keish built his sister a little house in Carcross.

In 1912, Keish and the Daklaweidi clan hosted the last traditional potlatch - for Dawson Charlie. This was already illegal because the government banned the grand celebrations in 1884, a ban that lasted until 1951.

Keish died in Whitehorse in 1916 after a long illness . Of his family, his daughter Saayna.aat (Daisy Mason), as well as Patsy Henderson, his sister Kate Carmack and a cousin named Tagish John survived him. He was buried in the Carcross cemetery, as was his sister.

While the fact that he triggered the Klondike gold rush and became extremely wealthy is considered to be particularly significant in Euro-American historiography, the oral tradition of the Tahltan and Tlingit emphasizes his strong clan and family ties and especially the care for his sister and his daughter.

See also

• Yukon International Storytelling Festival

literature

• Patsy Henderson: Early days at Caribou Crossing and the discovery of gold on the Klondike. Jennie Mae Moyer, sl 1950.
• Julie Cruikshank: Images of Society in Klondike Gold Rush Narratives: Skookum Jim and the Discovery of Gold. In: Ethnohistory. Vol. 39, No. 1, 1992, ISSN  0014-1801 , pp. 20-41, JSTOR 482563 .

Web links

• Entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Discovery , archives page of the Department of Tourism and Culture of the Yukon

Remarks

1. ↑ Skookum Jim Oral History Project Archives ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
2. ↑ Skookum Jim Mason's last will and testament ( September 5, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ), Yukon Prospectors' Association.