Taissumani: Sept. 24, 1896 – Skookum Jim Stakes His Claim

KENN HARPER

Prospectors were searching for gold in the Yukon long before the famous Gold Rush of 1898. Many of them were Americans, some fleeing desperate lives in the United States, others simply eking out a meagre living in the north while hoping for the find that would make them rich.

On of those was George Washington Carmack. In the 1880s he was working as a packer, transporting supplies over the rugged Chilkoot Pass from the Alaskan coast to northern British Columbia and the Yukon. Carmack formed a partnership with two Indian men, Skookum Jim and Jim’s nephew, Dawson Charlie, also known as Tagish Charlie.

Jim’s native name was Keish and he was the son of a Tlingit father and a Tagish mother. He had been born about 1855 near what would later become Bennett Lake on the British Columbia-Yukon border. He adopted the white name James Mason, but was generally known as Skookum Jim.

“Skookum” was a word from the Chinook jargon, a lingua franca that had developed to facilitate communication between the numerous Indian tribes on the west coast and white traders. It meant “big” or “strong.” In other contexts it could mean, “tough,” “good,” “first rate.”

Together, the three partners worked the pass. But gold fever was in the air and in 1888 they made a prospecting trip on the Yukon River. About this time, Carmack married Jim’s sister, which served to cement the bonds between the men.

In 1889 Carmack and his wife headed north to prospect and did not return. After several years, Skookum Jim decided to go and look for them. He, Charlie, and another nephew known as Patsy Henderson found the couple, now with a three-year-old daughter, living on the Klondike River. The three former partners decided to prospect together again.

In August 1896 they discovered gold on Bonanza Creek, sometimes known as Rabbit Creek. One of the men found a nugget the size of a dime. There has always been controversy over who saw it first. Carmack claimed that he did, but Jim and Charlie always maintained that Jim saw it first. On September 24, Carmack staked the “discovery claim.” Jim staked his own claim on one side of Carmack’s, Charlie on the other.

News of their discovery sparked the Klondike Gold Rush, which lured thousands of men, both gold seekers and camp-following swindlers, to the Yukon. Many never even made it to the gold fields, dying in the Chilkoot and White passes, or on the rugged trails between the passes and the Klondike.

Skookum Jim and his partners persevered. For four years they worked their claims. Between them they took out nearly one million dollars in gold.

Success was not kind to them. Carmack abandoned Jim’s sister, leaving her penniless. Tagish Charlie drank and gambled away his money. He drowned in 1908 when he fell off the railway bridge in Carcross.

Jim, who was married to a Tlingit woman from Alaska, built a large house for his family in Carcross. He spent the winters there, hunting and fishing, but in the spring he would go back to the Klondike. He became a familiar sight on the streets of Dawson, “wearing a tailor-made suit and a white shirt, a heavy nugget watch-chain draped across his vest and a large nugget stickpin in his tie.” Unfortunately, he also became a familiar sight in the numerous bars in that frontier town. Jim became an alcoholic. He and his wife separated many times and she returned permanently to Alaska in 1905.

Perhaps that was Jim’s wake-up call. For whatever reason, that same year he made an unusual decision. He placed what remained of his fortune in a trust so that he wouldn’t squander it on booze or give it away. He made arrangements that some of his money would be used for the support of his sister, his daughter, and his nephew.

Skookum Jim died in Carcross in 1916, aged about 61. Money from the Skookum Jim Indian Fund was to be used “towards furnishing medical attendance, supplying necessities and comforts to Indians in the Yukon Territory and towards assisting needy and deserving Indians…”

In 1965, a portion of the money was used to construct the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre in Whitehorse, a drop-in centre for local Indians and the community as a whole. That centre is still open today. A sign on the door says simply, “Welcome to Skookie’s.”

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.