Skookum Jim and the Discovery of Gold

Skookum Jim, Keish, is my husband’s uncle. Dawson “Charlie, that’s my old man’s own brother. Billy was too young, he was too young to stake when they found Dawson. Patsy went and Billy wanted to go, but he got left. Nobody knows that time what is gold anyway-Skookum Jim didn’t know either. But his brother in law, George Carmack- he knows.

George Carmack, he comes from outside, from California. But he came to Yukon-he wanted to see Yukon, you know. They went to Fortymile [River], near Dawson. That’s the place that George Carmack’s partner quit him. What do you think of that? George Carmack came back, walked all the way from Fortymile. He’s sure doing good! He came back, and that’s how far he made it to Carcross, Tagish.

In Tagish, there were lots of people –Indians. They knew some white men. Skookum Jim’s sister was young girl, that time. George Carmack said to Skookim Jim, “How about I’m going to marry your sister? Then I’m going to be like Indian.” Well, it’s all right. “You’re going to teach me trapping. You’re going to teach me everything.” He doesn’t go back anymore to Skagway, nothing.

Well, they live there, they’re doing good. Somebody comes to him: “I’m going to pay you. You come down [river] with me.” That’s good luck, that one! His wife went with him-Kate Carmack. They go down river , way down to Dawson, way down to Fortymile. They work there. That other man broke his leg. They took him to doctor. Well, he can’t do anything now; he gave George Carmack money, about five hundred.

So…they live one winter, Kate Carmack and him, her husband. He’s got wife. He’s all right! She does everything, that Indian woman, you know-hunts, just like nothing, sets snares for rabbits. That’s what they eat. I know her: that’s my auntie, Kate Carmack, my old man’s mother’s sister.

Skookum Jim worries about his sister, you know. “Oh, my. Going to get lost. Don’t want to get lost, my sister.” That’s what he says; he talks about it all winter.

Dawson Charlie tells him: “I guess we go down to look for her. We’re going to bring her back,” he tells his uncle.

Billy, though, Dawson Charlie’s brother, he’s the same size as that grandchild who looks after me: “Billy, I want him to look after me here.” His mother, Jikaak’w, ways that. He kills game already, Billy, does everything. “You can’t take them all to Dawson, that way. It’s good enough that Patsy goes,” his mother says. She’s Dawson Charlies’s mother, too.

They fixed their boat. As soon as the ice goes out, they go down. They take lots of grub from Skagway-they were going to go back, talk about it. “We’re going to go back, all of us, in this little boat. Easy, we make it.”

Here, the same time, George Carmack tells his wife the same thing: “We’re going to go back.”

One lady, Dawson people, gave them fish. She cut it up, Kate Carmack-that’s how they lived there all winter. They got sugar, I guess, down there at Fortymile store. Kate Carmack kills rabbits, lynx, does that way. She’s got one little girl now, Graffie.

Spring time now. They’re staying at narrow place. You can see boats from there: “August, we’re going to try it-we’ll make it back.” They fix some dry fish-everything. They’re going to go back. Kate Carmack sews, she looks around: “Gee, boat coming...new boat, too…coming this way.” They’ve got a little camp, you know. She tells me about that, Kate Carmack. There’s a bed right there…fixed it just that way. Somebody gives them moose skin-they put it underneath. They’re even got stove. “They’re coming onto shore.”

George is cutting a little wood. He gets up.

“Ha!” Patsy sees his auntie.

Kate hollers for her husband, George Carmack. “Come quick!” she says.

Skookum Jim is there-Dawson Charlie-Patsy Henderson. George runs down, grabs Skookum Jim. Gee, it’s his people! Yeah! They’re going to go back now. Going to go back. Going to look first for bull moose. They got lots of grub-I don’t know how long they stayed there.

Patsy nearly got shot there, too. He’s working on that gun: he’s going to go back now. Going to go back. Going to look first for bull moose. They got lots of grub-I don’t know how long they stayed there.

Patsy nearly got shot there, too. He’s working on that gun: he’s going to clean it, but a shell is in it. He doesn’t know it! This time everybody knows everything, but that time, not much. It doesn’t go through, though, just on top. Fortymile doctor was there. They’re going to go back pretty soon now.

Dawson Charlie says, “We want to kill moose here, to make it dried. Then we’ll go back. That way is good. Some hungry people tell me that way is good.”

George said, “One man he killed us moose. That way we’re pretty good.” His wife is kind woman. Dawson Indian, I guess.

They hunt now. Night time, they came back. It’s dark, too, they said. Skookum Jim, he’s got a light-a candle. He got a can, put it in-that’s the kind they’ve got. Dawson Charlie, he shot a bull moose, so they cook meat-big eat! They fall asleep-they eat too much!

Skookum Jim wakes up: “Carmack is sleeping, Dawson Charlie too, Patsy too. He wants a drink of water…He tells me this, you know… He’s got hat: he wants to drink with that one. The teapot is full of tea. That’s why he goes down, puts his hat in the river that way. He see something up there…”Is that copper?” He drinks water, looks again. Same big as beans, you know-bigger than beans…heavy.

He takes off. He doesn’t know gold much, Skookum Jim. Nobody knows much gold. But George, he knows! He goes back. Dawson Charlie wakes up. “I found something, “ Jim tells him, Indian way. “Don’t know what is that. What does it look like?”

“Copper,” he [Charlie] says.

“Make George wake up now-it doesn’t look like copper. Heavy, too.” George wakes up.

“You wake up good.”

“Yeah.”

“What is that, this one? That creek I found it.”

“That’s gold!” Where’s their sleep now! That tea is still there. They don’t drink much, though! “You see now gold!” George tells them-runs down to creek.

Kate Carmack tells me all that. They just go look for her. They’re not looking for gold!

When they got back to Carcross, George got another girl. She made him crazy-a white lady. He quit his wife, Kate. George Carmack has got sister. That sister’s husband tells my auntie, Kate Carmack, “Your husband got another woman. If you want to use your money, you can stay with us.” Some days he comes back, stays two or three days. Then…gone. That little girl Graffie [their daughter], he gets grub for her. Then he goes again. She knows something is wrong, his wife. Her brother in law tells her.

George put his clothes in suitcase. He took that little girl, his daughter. One man tells him, “I’m going to help you if you want to go back. Go in a boat form Carcross.” Dawson Charlie stays there. Skookum Jim stays there. They look for gold again. George wants to go back [to Seattle]. “You go down to that place in the morning. I’ll meet you at that place, “ man tells him. He does that. Goes down, drinks coffee…takes his suitcase and puts it in the boat. Then the boat goes-I don’t know how many days it gets to Skagway….They never came back.

My auntie, Kate Carmack, stayed in Carcross till she died, flu. She didn’t get her money, her share, though. She can’t know-can’t read.

Billy, my husband, used to be Skookum Jim’s bodyguard. He’s got a gun and he guards the boat for Jim when he’s got gold. He got crazy, Skookum Jim, you know-shouldn’t be like that. His wife quit him…If same like that-married white man-Shorty Austin. Mrs. Patsy [Henderson] told me, “You fellows are crazy. What you want to change your husband for?” Lots of women did that, run off with white man.

Source: Julie Cruickshank, "Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders" (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1990)

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