Keish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Quiche.

Keish
Skookum Jim Mason.png
Keish in 1898
Born
James Mason

c. 1855
near Bennett Lake, Yukon
DiedJuly 11, 1916(1916-07-11) (aged 60–61)
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
NationalityTahltan
Other namesSkookum Jim Mason; James Mason
OccupationPacker over the Chilkoot Pass carrying supplies for miners
Known forCredited with making the gold discovery at Discovery Claim that led to the Klondike Gold Rush

Keish (c. 1855 – July 11, 1916), also known as James Mason and by the nickname Skookum Jim Mason, was a member of the Tagish First Nation in what became the Yukon Territory of Canada. He was born near Bennett Lake[1] on what is now the British Columbia and Yukon border. He lived in Caribou Crossing, now Carcross, Yukon, Canada.[2]

Childhood[]

Keish was born around 1855 near Lake Bennett into the Daḵl'aweidi clan of Tagish.[3][4] His mother, Gus'duteen, was from Tahltan country around Telegraph Creek while his father was Kaachgaawáa, chief of the Tagish Deisheetaan.[5] His family was involved in trade between the coastal Tlingit and the inland Tagish.[3] The family had two sons and six daughters who reached adulthood.[3][5] The name Keish is a Tagish word meaning "wolf".[6][4]

Later life[]

In the mid-1880s, he worked as a packer over the Chilkoot Pass carrying supplies for miners, where he earned his Skookum nickname because of his extraordinary strength. Skookum means "strong", "big" and "reliable" in the Chinook Jargon and regional English as used in the Pacific Northwest.[7]

He assisted William Ogilvie in his explorations of the upper Yukon River. He also showed members of the expedition the way over the White Pass. Keish is today co-credited with making the gold discovery at Discovery Claim that led to the Klondike Gold Rush, although it was originally attributed solely to George Carmack, his brother-in-law. It is also possible that the discovery was made by Keish's sister Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack).

Carmack described Skookum Jim as:

straight as a gun barrel, powerfully built with strong sloping shoulders, tapering ... downwards to the waist, like a keystone. He was known as the best hunter and trapper on the river, in fact he was a super-specimen of the northern Indian

— Skookum Jim Oral History Project Archives[8]

He died in Whitehorse, Yukon in 1916, survived by a daughter, Daisy Mason, sister, Kate Carmack, and cousin, Tagish John.[2]

A fictionalized version of Skookum Jim appears in the TG4 series An Klondike, portrayed by Julian Black Antelope, where he is depicted as a Hän and is killed by the fictional character Pat Galvin in 1898.

References[]

  1. ^ KEISH - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Skookum Jim Mason's Last Will and Testament". Yukon Prospectors' Association. September 22, 1916. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Keish (Skookum Jim Mason) (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Wilkie, Rab and The Skookum Jim Friendship Centre (1992). Skookum Jim: Native and Non-Native Stories and Views About His Life and Times And the Klondike Gold Rush. Yukon Tourism Heritage Branch.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Cruikshank, Julie (August 1, 2000). The Social Life of Stories: Narrative and Knowledge in the Yukon Territory. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 74–82. ISBN 978-0-8032-6409-0.
  6. ^ "skookum jim packer and prospector extraordinaire". Yukon News. March 31, 2010. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  7. ^ Phillips, Walter Shelley (1913). The Chinook Book: A Descriptive Analysis of the Chinook Jargon in Plain Words, Giving Instructions for Pronunciation, Construction, Expression and Proper Speaking of Chinook with All the Various Shaded Meanings of the Words. Seattle: R. L. Davis Printing Co. pp. 86–87.
  8. ^ "Sample Interpretive Tour Program: Skookum Jim Tour". destinationcarcross.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2008.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""