Exquisite pelts from various native animals attracted, in the 19th century, the first outsiders to the subarctic north. Russian fur traders made their way from Western Siberia across the Bering Sea to Sitka, Alaska and points south along the Alaska Panhandle. Link to another story “A Sailor Named Bering” From the south the North West …
Category Archives: First Nations
Viciously Inhospitable
Viciously inhospitable, unique in the world, the remote, austere, breathtakingly beautiful area spanned by the intended route for the Alaska Highway made clear that in the subarctic north nature is a dictator, not a ‘mother’. Link to another story “The Subarctic North Lay in Wait” To this day the region is a vast expanse of …
Skookum Jim, Kate Carmack’s Brother
Skookum in Tagish means enormously strong, and the young man named Keish earned the new name Skookum Jim, hauling hundred-pound packs up the infamous trail over Chilkoot Pass. In 1892, near Dyea at the foot of the Chilkoot trail he killed a bear with his bare hands. Skookum packed supplies up the rugged Chilkoot with …
Outsiders Inevitably Came to the Far North
Outsiders inevitably made their way further and further north. Europeans found their way to every part of the world that offered anything of value to them. When Europeans decided they liked clothing made from fur, European traders went north looking for the exquisite pelts of the native animals. Furs attracted the First White Men to …
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Rugged, Remote and Austere
The Only Possible Route Rugged, remote, austere, breathtakingly beautiful and viciously inhospitable, the area spanned by the route of the Alcan Highway is unique in the world. Nature is a dictator, not a ‘mother’ in the North Country. The Highway threads through a vast expanse of raw nature with virtually no population. Alaska, alone, encompasses …
The Only Possible Route
How on earth did they find the only possible route? Canada Used the Route Before the Corps Drive the Alaska Highway, look left or right virtually anywhere along it. You look down steep mountainsides, you look up steep mountainsides, you look out across trackless swamps, you look out into hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles of …
Sickness from Outsiders
Indians, First Nations, In the North Country Sickness from outsiders, nothing new to the people of the Great Subarctic North. Outsiders who came to the North Country always brought sickness. The first Nations suffered infectious diseases brought by white missionaries and trappers throughout the 19th century. Myriad bugs and germs rode north in the bodies …
Kidnap the Kids
Meeting the Inland Tlingits Kidnap the kids for their own good, government policy in the early 20th Century. At the biannual Inland Tlingit Celebration Chris and I have horned in at the head table—and got away with it. We came to meet Ida Calmegane, but two other elders share the head table with her. …
Meeting the Inland Tlingits
We met and got to experience the Inland Tlingits by luck, and by the grace of our friends Bonner and Bess Cooley. Preparing for a publicity trip to Canada and Alaska to coincide with the release of our book, We Fought the Road, we knew we would get to visit Teslin again and we called …
John Hajdukovich
Hajdukovich captured Judy Ferguson. I’ve recently shared the stories of two remarkable ladies of the far north—Mary Hansen of Alaska and Martha Black of Yukon. The North Country attracts and produces people like these ladies—resilient, independent, incredibly tough. Researcher recently discovered a writer named Judy Ferguson who has made a specialty of documenting the lives …