Shaaw Tláa, also known as Kate Carmack ( – 29 March 1920), was a Tagish First Nation woman who was one of the party that first found gold in the Klondike River in 1896, and is sometimes credited with being the person who made the actual discovery.

Early years

Born near

Bennett Lake Bennett Lake is a lake in the Province of British Columbia and Yukon Territory in northwestern Canada, at an elevation of 2602 ft. (642 m.) . It is just north of the border with the United States state of Alaska, near the Alaskan port of Sk ...

, she lived with her parents, and seven sisters and brothers, near

Carcross, Yukon Carcross, originally known as Caribou Crossing, ( tli, Nadashaa Héeni) is an unincorporated community in Yukon, Canada, on Bennett Lake and Nares Lake. It is home to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. It is south-southeast by the Alaska Highway ...

. Her father, Kaachgaawáa, was the head of the Tlingit crow clan, while her mother, Gus’dutéen, was a member of the Tagish wolf clan.SHAAW TLÁA Her name in Tlingit means "

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mother". As a young woman, she married her first cousin, Kult’ús. In the early 1880s, her husband and their infant daughter died of influenza in Alaska, at which time Shaaw Tláa returned to her village. It was here, in 1887, that Shaaw Tláa's brother,

Keish Keish ( – 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 on what is now the British Col ...

(Skookum Jim Mason), and nephew, Dawson Charlie (K̲áa Goox̱) started a packing, hunting, and prospecting partnership with George Washington Carmack, an American. She became Carmack's

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wife within the year. She took the name Kate Carmack. Beginning in 1889, and for the next six years, the couple lived in the Forty Mile region. Carmack prospected, trapped, and traded, while Shaaw Tláa made winter clothing that she sold to miners. They had one daughter, Graphie Grace Carmack (born 1893,

Fort Selkirk Fort Selkirk is a former trading post on the Yukon River at the confluence of the Pelly River in Canada's Yukon. For many years it was home to the Selkirk First Nation (Northern Tutchone). History Archaeological evidence shows that the site h ...

Gold discovery

Kate and her husband were fishing for

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...

at the mouth of the Klondike River in August 1896, when a party led by her brother, including two nephews, came looking for her. The party then discovered gold in Rabbit Creek (later renamed

Bonanza Creek Bonanza Creek (Hän: ''Ch'ö`chozhù' ndek'') is a watercourse in Yukon Territory, Canada. It runs for about from King Solomon's Dome to the Klondike River. In the last years of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Bonanza Creek was the c ...

), setting in motion the Klondike Gold Rush. Some accounts claim that Kate made the actual discovery. After becoming wealthy, the Carmacks moved to

Hollister, California Hollister is a city in and the county seat of San Benito County, located in the Central Coast region of California. With a 2020 United States census population of 41,678, Hollister is one of the largest cities in the Monterey Bay Area and a ...

, to live with Carmack's sister, Rose Watson (later known as Rose Curtis). Subsequently, Carmack left California, Kate, Graphie, and his former partners. Kate and Graphie stayed with Rose.Guide George Carmack married Marguerite Laimee in 1900 in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

. Kate, unable to prove she was George's lawful wife and deemed ineligible for alimony, returned to Carcross in July.

Later years

built her a cabin near his, and daughter, Graphie attended mission and residential schools in Carcross and

Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's Downtown Whitehorse, downtown ...

that were run by Bishop William Carpenter Bompas, before Graphie moved to

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

. Kate Carmack died of influenza during the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918-1920 in Carcross.Biography - SHAAW TLÁA - Volume XIV (1911-1920)
Dictionary of Canadian Biography

References

Sources

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External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmack, Kate 19th-century births 1920 deaths 19th-century First Nations people 20th-century First Nations people Deaths from Spanish flu Infectious disease deaths in Yukon People from Carcross, Yukon People of the Klondike Gold Rush Tagish people First Nations women