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| j:c_joe [2024/09/27 17:52] – created sallyr | j:c_joe [2024/10/26 15:16] (current) – sallyr |
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| Copper Joe, //Dhaldata// (d. ~1950) | Copper Joe (d. ~1953) |
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| Copper Joe's father was Copper Chief from the White River area. Mary Copper Joe was born in 1900 at Lynx City, near the mouth of the Nisling River. Her siblings were Jessie Joe, Jimmy Joe, and Copper Lily Johnson. Two sisters, Kitty and Bertha, died at a young age. After Mary's mother died, Copper Joe took Mary, Jessie, and Jimmy Joe to live with their aunt at Lynx City and then took Mary, Kitty and Copper Lily Johnson back to the White River area to the Copper Chief's house. Mary married Louis Jacquot.((Margaret Workman, ed. //Kwaday Kwandur: Traditional Southern Tutchone Stories.// Yukon Native Language Centre, 2000: 11.)) \\ | Copper Joe was born to parents Copper Chief (Ahtna from Copper River, Alaska) and Ná-Thyá-Thée-a’ (Northern Tutchone from Fort Selkirk).((Kluane First Nation, //Kluane Lake Country People Speak Strong,// Figure 1 Publishing Inc., 2023: 47.)) |
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| Copper Joe took care of Eliza (Van Bibber) and her mother after Chief Jackson’s wives forced her to leave the Juneau area. He supported them by hunting and trapping. They travelled around and settled at Fort Selkirk.((JJ Van Bibber and Naill Fink, ed., //I was born under a spruce tree//. Vancouver: Talus Publishing Group, 2012: 9.)) // | Copper Joe took care of Eliza (Van Bibber) and her mother after Chief Jackson’s wives forced her to leave the Juneau area. He supported them by hunting and trapping. They travelled around and settled at Fort Selkirk.((JJ Van Bibber and Naill Fink, ed., //I was born under a spruce tree//. Vancouver: Talus Publishing Group, 2012: 9.)) |
| | Copper Joe married Laura [from Fort Selkirk?] At first they had no children and then they had two, Copper Peter and Copper Charlie, raised at Fort Selkirk. Copper Chalie is buried at Fort Selkirk and Copper Peter is buried at Carmacks.((Charlie Johnson interviewed by Helene Dobrowolsky, 21 July 1985. Fort Selkirk Elders Oral History Project – 1985, Yukon Government, Heritage Branch, Department of Tourism, 1985: 152.)) |
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| In 1938, Copper Joe was a highly respected elder who remembered seeing the first white men and horses at the time the Yukon/Alaska border was cut. There is a beautiful photo of him at Duke Meadows.((Yukon Archives, Nicholas Balke fonds 2013/46R #3 photo caption.)) \\ | In the early 1950s, Copper Joe was about 110, the oldest person living at Fort Selkirk, and a powerful medicine man. He died around 1953, when the North Klondike Highway was being built and the community at Fort Selkirk moved to Minto Landing where the men found work on the road construction.((JJ Van Bibber and Naill Fink, ed., //I was born under a spruce tree.// Vancouver: Talus Publishing Group, 2012: 124.)) Old Copper Joe went to Burwash Landing as he wanted to be buried in his old home country by his brother Copper George Joe.((Edward Simon interviewed by Julie Cruikshank, 21 July 1985. Fort Selkirk Elders Oral History Project – 1985, Yukon Government, Heritage Branch, Department of Tourism, 1985: 71.)) |
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| In the early 1950s, Copper Joe was about 110, the oldest person living at Fort Selkirk. He was a medicine man. He died when the North Klondike Highway was being built. Taylor and Drury closed their store, and everyone left Fort Selkirk.((JJ Van Bibber and Naill Fink, ed., //I was born under a spruce tree.// Vancouver: Talus Publishing Group, 2012: 124.)) | |
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