Yukon who is who

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Frederick Schwatka (1849 – 1892)
	
Frederick Schwatka and his family moved from the mid-west to Salem, Oregon where he attended Williamette University. He apprenticed as a printer; attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Calvary; fought at postings in the west; studied law and medicine; was admitted to the Nebraska bar in 1875; and received his medical degree from the prestigious Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York in 1876. Despite his lack of experience in the north, he was given command of an expedition sponsored by the American Geographical Society of New York to search for evidence of the Franklin Expedition. He sailed in 1878 and completed a 3,251-mile trek to and around King William Island. He found relics from Franklin’s party, identified several graves, and buried a number of corpses. His expedition adopted the hunting techniques of the Inuvialuit, and ate what they ate, proving that travel in the Arctic was safe if one was adaptable. Schwatka was promoted to first lieutenant in the United States Army in 1879.((Richard C. Davis, “Frederick Schwatka.” //Dictionary of Canadian Biography,// 2018 website: www.biographi.ca/en/bio/schwatka_frederick_12E.html))
	
Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles commanded the Department of the Columbia (1881 – 1885).((“Nelson A. Miles.” //Wikipedia,// 2019 website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_A._Miles)) He applied for an appropriation from the US Congress of $68,000 to explore Alaska. A bill was introduced to Congress but never passed. Military troops had been withdrawn from Alaska in 1877.((Elva Scott, //Northern Army: Army Activities in the Upper Yukon.// Eagle Historical Society, 1986: 3-4.)) When Miles heard that the First Nations trappers on the Yukon River were unhappy with the low fur prices, he decided to fund his own investigation.((Joan M. Antonson and William S. Hanable, Alaska's Heritage: Unit 4 - Human History: 1867 to Present. //Alaska Historical Commission Studies in History No. 133.// The Alaska Historical Society. 1992: 234.)) 

In April 1883, Miles sent one of his aides-de-camp, Lt. Schwatka, with Ass. Surgeon Wilson, Topographical Ass. Homan, and three enlisted men to explore the Alaskan interior. Schwatka was to gather military information regarding reported disturbances between whites and Alaskan First Nation people. Schwatka was to obtain the number and character of the First Nations, record their territory and their relationship to one-another, their feelings about the Russians, and their feelings about the Americans. He was to describe transportation routes and methods and describe weapons of war and any other information useful to military men.((Elva Scott, //Northern Army: Army Activities in the Upper Yukon.// Eagle Historical Society, 1986: 3-4.)) Schwatka travelled the Yukon River with his small party 1,300 miles from the head to the mouth, completing the longest raft time of the time.((Richard C. Davis, “Frederick Schwatka.” //Dictionary of Canadian Biography,// 2018 website: www.biographi.ca/en/bio/schwatka_frederick_12E.html)) His topographer, Pte. Charles A. Homan, made a rough survey of the course of the river. The work was incorporated into a map issued in 1885 by the USCGS. This was the best map of the area until the GSC issued those made by Dawson and Ogilvie in 1888.((R. C. Coutts, //Yukon: Places & Names.// Sidney, B. C.: Gray’s Publishing Ltd. 1980.)) Schwatka resigned from the military shortly after his return south.((Richard C. Davis, “Frederick Schwatka.” //Dictionary of Canadian Biography,// 2018 website: www.biographi.ca/en/bio/schwatka_frederick_12E.html)) 

In 1886, Schwatka led an expedition sponsored by the //New York Times// to carry out geographical research near the St. Elias range and attempt to climb Mount St. Elias, the highest known peak. They failed to reach the summit but did see the icefields and unexplored peaks ahead. He entered the country again in 1891 from the south. This time his goal, sponsored by another newspaper, was to cross the mountains from the Canadian side by boating up the White River and travelling through a pass the White River people called Scolai. This name they also gave to the chief of the Copper River people in Alaska, with whom they traded.((Allen A. Wright, //Prelude to Bonanza.// Sidney, B.C.: Gray's Publishing Ltd., 1976: 221-22, 226-28.))

Schwatka abandoned his plan to use the White River route at Fort Selkirk and instead decided to go overland. With the help pf a prospector, Frank Bowker, Schwatka hired some packers and, with Bowker, travelled overland to the mountains. Bowker and the packers travelled to the head of the Kletsan, about 200 miles from Fort Selkirk. Schwatka, Hayes and Russell continued on over the pass at the head of the White and travelled down the Copper River into Alaska. They drew a careful sketch map of the area. The Copper River had been surveyed by Lieut. H.T. Allen in 1885. Within a year of completing this expedition, Schwatka died in Portland from an overdose of laudanum that he was taking for chronic stomach problems.((Allen A. Wright, //Prelude to Bonanza.// Sidney, B.C.: Gray's Publishing Ltd., 1976: 221-22, 226-28.))