Yukon who is who

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Catseah (Gah Ts’yat)
	
Catseah (Gah Ts’yat, meaning rabbit skin hat, a hunting leader) the chief of the Trondick [Klondike] people, was at Fort Yukon in 1873. Jack McQuesten had planned to establish a trading post either on the Porcupine or Yukon rivers. Catseah was insistent that the trading company build a post near his house. They started up the Yukon on 18 August. It was slow work as the river was low and it was the first time the steamer //Yukon// had been above Fort Yukon. On 27 August 1874, they arrived five miles below the present town of Dawson.((Copy of letter from McQuesten to Albert McKay, July 1, 1905. Alaska State Library, MS 13, Box 5, #5.)) On board was F. Mercier, the agent in charge, Mr. Forbes the engineer, Mr. Williams the pilot, McIntyre the cook. Al Mayo, Frank Barnfield, and Jack McQuesten were passengers. They had old chief Catseah on board with ten of his men. They had only about forty-three tons of merchandise aboard and a whole whaleboat load in tow.((McQuesten letter, Snow Collection. AHC; Yukon Archives, George Snow 80/89 reel #47.)) Once the goods were landed, the steamer returned to St. Michael. McQuesten was in charge with the young F. Bernfield.((Copy of letter from McQuesten to Albert McKay, July 1, 1905. Alaska State Library, MS 13, Box 5, #5.)) 

Archaeologist Donald Clark thinks that Catseah may be the same man who was with Robert Campbell when Fort Selkirk was abandoned in 1852.((Donald W. Clark, //Fort Reliance, Yukon: An Archaeological Assessment.// Mercury Series Archaeological Survey of Canada. Paper 150. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilisation, 1995: 33.)) [It could also be that this was another man with the Gah Ts’yat (Rabbit Hat) status.] Gah Ts’yat’s daughter, Eliza Harper, married Chief Isaac of Moosehide.((Craig Mishler and William E. Simone. //Han Hwech'in: people of the river.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. 2004: 111, 260.))
	
The Ketsa River in central Yukon is named after this Gah Ts’yat.((Notes to Sally Robinson from VGFN researcher Brandon Kyikavichik, January 2024.))