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 …
Tag Archives: Indians
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 …
Ada Blackjack—The Toughest Woman You’ve Never Heard About
Ada Blackjack travelled with four inexperienced young men on an ill-advised expedition to Wrangell Island in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. Stuck there for two years, the four young men died, leaving Ada to survive on her own. Link to another story “Badass Women” Ada, born Ada Deletuk, hailed from Spruce Creek just a …
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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 …
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 …
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. …