George Dawson K’alazhaw (1902 – 1989)
	
George Dawson was born into the Dakl’awedi Clan at Long Lake camp, on the road to Livingstone Creek, to Jennie Boss Tusáxal and Dawson Jim of Lake Laberge. His maternal grandparents were Lhande and old Chief Mundessa, and his maternal uncle was Chief Jim Boss Kashxóot.((//Kwanlin Dün: Out Story in Our Words.// Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 2020: 135.)) George lived in a village a half mile up Lake Laberge where there were ten to twelve cabins all belonging to Jim Boss's family.((Yukon Archives, Acc 81/32. George Dawson interviewed by Cal Waddington for Parks and Historic Sites, July - September 1978. Yukon River Aural History Project, tape 1.)) He spent a lot of his time growing up in the wood camps where his father worked cutting wood for the Yukon River sternwheelers.((Matthew Bossons, “Yukoner George Dawson was more than a titan of transport.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 June 2023.)) George travelled with his parents, trapping and fishing. He also worked at his uncle Jim Boss's roadhouse near the present Ta'an village at Lake Laberge.((Sweeny Scurvey, "Chiefs & Leaders of the Whitehorse Indian Band and Kwanlin Dün First Nation." Prepared for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 31-32.))

George went out on his own when he was fifteen years old.((Sweeny Scurvey, "Chiefs & Leaders of the Whitehorse Indian Band and Kwanlin Dün First Nation." Prepared for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 31-32.)) Dawson moved to Whitehorse when he was able to work and got a job on a section crew for six months. In about 1918, at age sixteen, he began working on the steamer //Selkirk// for a trip or two, running to Dawson and back. Then he worked for Taylor and Drury on their little boat, the //Thistle//. In 1919 they ran out of water and got stuck up the Pelly River for a month or more. He worked as a deckhand on the //Selkirk//, loading wood with the hand trucks, half a cord at a time. Then he worked as a deck boy on the steamer //Dawson,// where he cleaned upstairs on the deck and pilot house.((Yukon Archives, Acc 81/32. George Dawson interviewed by Cal Waddington for Parks and Historic Sites, July - September 1978. Yukon River Aural History Project, tape 1.))

Some First Nation people families downriver and then came upriver on the steamers. George says that heard a captain insult an old Indigenous man, and that old medicine man made medicine so that the boat had trouble, the boiler blew up or something. White Pass used to bring up crews from Vancouver for all the boats except for the //Dawson//, which had an all First Nation crew. ((Yukon Archives, Acc 81/32. George Dawson interviewed by Cal Waddington for Parks and Historic Sites, July - September 1978. Yukon River Aural History Project, tape 1.)) In the early 1920s Dawson worked on the British Yukon Navigation (BYN) steamer //Aksala// and earned a reputation as a competent navigator.((Matthew Bossons, “Yukoner George Dawson was more than a titan of transport.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 June 2023.))\\

George met Rachel Baum in 1923.((Matthew Bossons, “Yukoner George Dawson was more than a titan of transport.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 June 2023.)) She was a passenger on the boat he was working on, and they were married [at Fort Selkirk] soon after. They had nine children: Hilda, Kathleen, Edna, Arthur, Reggie, Harold, Malcom, Gerald, and Matthew.((Sweeny Scurvey, "Chiefs & Leaders of the Whitehorse Indian Band and Kwanlin Dün First Nation." Prepared for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 31-32.)) George had to give up his First Nation status to get his children out of residential school where they were being mistreated. He later regained his status after Bill C-31 was passed. Some of his grandchildren had to go to residential school.((Matthew Bossons, “Yukoner George Dawson was more than a titan of transport.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 June 2023.))

George and Rachel trapped in the Golden Horn/Alligator Lake area and near Calzas Lake. George later worked as a long-shoreman and a fireman in Whitehorse and Mayo. He devised a derrick that could lift eight tons.((Sweeny Scurvey, "Chiefs & Leaders of the Whitehorse Indian Band and Kwanlin Dün First Nation." Prepared for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 31-32.))

In 1941, George Dawson recruited and oversaw an all-First Nation crew to help surveyors from the U.S. Army scout potential routes for the pioneer Alaska Highway.((Matthew Bossons, “Yukoner George Dawson was more than a titan of transport.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 9 June 2023.)) After the riverboats stopped running, he worked for White Pass and later in the post office. He believed in saving First Nation historic sites and also worked at restoring the First Nation Cemetery in Whitehorse.((Sweeny Scurvey, "Chiefs & Leaders of the Whitehorse Indian Band and Kwanlin Dün First Nation." Prepared for the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 31-32.))

In 1956, the federal government’s Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) united the Ta’an Dun Band, two villages on Lake Laberge, with the Kwanlin Dun Band of Whitehorse.((Alistair Taylor, “Dawson formally recognized as Ta’an chief.” //The Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 18 May 1988.)) In 1978 a group of Kwanlin Dün First Nation members who were descendants from the Lake Laberge area took steps to form the Ta'an Kwäch’än First Nation. George Dawson served as their honorary hereditary chief during this time.(("Whitehorse Chiefs: 1898 to 1998.” Whitehorse: Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 1997: 20, 28.)) In 1987, the Council for Yukon First Nations recognized the Ta’an Dün as an independent band, but band members were slow to gain DIA’s recognition, so they decided to work on a land claim in conjunction with the Kwanlin Dün.((Alistair Taylor, “Dawson formally recognized as Ta’an chief.” //The Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 18 May 1988.)) 

In 1988, The Ta’an Dün Council officially recognized Elder George Dawson as its hereditary chief and spiritual leader. Dawson chose Glen Grady as the second hereditary chief to deal with the political and administrative duties of the council. The Council and Grady were governed by a consensus of the leaders of the families within the council as is the traditional First Nation custom. Dawson explained that he succeeded Chief Jim Boss as the next member of the Wolf Clan in line for chief. He said consensus was better than the democratic election practice introduced by the DIA because it did not produce bad feelings and divisions.((Chuck Tobin, “Elder recognized as Ta’an Dun chief.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 16 May 1988.)) Dawson’s official recognition as chief gave the Ta’an Dun Band a legitimate symbol of its existence.((Alistair Taylor, “Dawson formally recognized as Ta’an chief.” //The Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 18 May 1988.)) The Ta’an Kwach’an Council signed its final land claims agreement in 2002. The Council was represented by Glen Grady, its hereditary chief at the time. \\
In the 1970s, George Dawson shared his knowledge at conferences and with Yukon Archives. He organized the Chief Mundessa Club and obtained a grant to work with Elders and youth on maintaining the graveyards at Whitehorse, Marsh Lake and Lake Laberge. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1979, received heritage awards from the Yukon Historical and Museums Association and the Council for Yukon Indians in 1983, and received the Commissioners’ Award in 1988.((//Kwanlin Dün: Out Story in Our Words.// Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 2020: 137.)) George Dawson is buried in the Whitehorse Grey Mountain Cemetery.