Thomas Ch’eeghwalti’

Ch’eeghwalti’, Shahnuuti’, and Shahvyah were three brothers who were important Gwich’in leaders with shamanistic skills in the early to mid-1800s. The three leaders were described by early traders, explorers, and missionaries including Alexander Murray, Frederic Whymper, and Anglican Archdeacon Robert McDonald. Ch’eeghwalti’ lived in the Vuntut Gwitch’in territory, Shahnuuti’ lived in the Fort Yukon area, and Shahvyah lived in the Circle City area.  Ch’eeghwalti’ dreamed of caribou and could find them so the people followed him to hunt.((Richard Martin as told to Bill Pfisterer, //K’aiiroondak: Behind the Willows.// Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1993: 269.)) He was a “rabbit hat”, a skilled hunter who controlled a caribou fence and portioned out meat to his people.((November 11, 1869 in 
Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.))
	
Archdeacon Robert McDonald christened Ch’eeghwalti’ Thomas Jones and made him a Christian Leader (catechist). Catechists Ch’eeghwalti’, William Sekut, and Henry Venn Geh ts’eh [another Rabbit Hat] took turns leading the evening worship when they people gathered at Lapierre House.((Lee Sax and Effie Linklater, //Gikhyi: The True and Remarkable Story of the Arctic Kutchin.// Diocese of Yukon, November 1990: 33-34.)) In late June 1868, Rev. McDonald heard that Ch’eeghwalti’ had conjured and when he asked him, Ch’eeghwalti’ confessed that he had yielded to the pleas of others.  A few days later he talked to McDonald about his anxiety over eternal welfare and expressed an earnest desire to do right and give up all sin. McDonald commented that Ch’eeghwalti’s address at evening prayers on 10 December 1876 “was rather better than Geh ts’eh’s.”((Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.))

Thomas Ch’eeghwalti’ was an ancestor of many who live in Old Crow and Fort McPherson.((Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation & Shirleen Smith, //People of the Lakes: Stories of Our Van Tat Gwich’in Elders.// University of Alberta Press, 2009: 109, 111.)) He was Reverend Richard Martin’s great grandfather.((Richard Martin as told to Bill Pfisterer, //K’aiiroondak: Behind the Willows.// Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1993: 193-197.))