Joseph Kunnizzi (correct spelling Ganiinzhii)
	
Joseph Ganiinzhii’s name, properly pronounced, comes from a saying which was the Dinjii Zhuh [Gwich’in] equivalent of //live long and prosper.// The full saying is //sriigwinaanch’uu dachan deetak gahoozhi’// // may you go between the perfect amount of trees.// In the old days, when people hunted caribou without the benefit of a caribou fence, they hunted near timber so they could flush the caribou into the trees. If you’ve walked between many trees, you’ve lived a long and prosperous life.((Notes from Vuntut Gwitch\in researcher Brandon Kyikavichik to Sally Robinson, January 2023.))

Joseph Kunnizzi lived in the upper Peel River area. He occasionally visited Fort McPherson, starting in 1869, and sometimes brought meat for Archdeacon McDonald. On 1 December 1889, McDonald baptized Joseph and Mary Jane Kunnizzi’s child Margaret. Another unnamed child was baptized on July 3, 1892. Joseph bought two hymn books from McDonald in September 1893 for half a Made Beaver each.((Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.)) [Made Beaver was the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) accounting system in the 1800s.]
	
Joseph was acting as a catechist by November 1895. He read part of a burial service and gave an address on John III.16. He was also teaching school, and Archdeacon McDonald gave him a five Made Beaver gratuity plus a few books for some of the children learning to read. McDonald appointed Kunnizzi a Christian Leader on 23 June 1896 and gave him goods worth 30 Made Beaver.((Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.)) This was probably the annual salary for a Christian Leader as on 28 June 1897 Stringer had a talk with Joseph and gave him an allowance of 30 M.B.((I.O. Stringer journal entry from Walter Van Ast, “From Abel to Zunluzzei.” //Acadamia,// 2023 website: https://www.academia.edu/23637732/Alphabetic_name_guide_prosopography_Gwichin_1859_1924?email_work_card=thumbnail.)) This arrangement would allow the Christian Leaders to receive goods from the HBC up to that amount.
In July 1898, Reverend Stringer was concerned that John Ttssielta was too ill to manage the ministry at Lapierre House, and Joseph Kunnizzi was installed there instead.((I.O. Stringer’s journal in Walter Vanast, “From Abel to Zunluzzi.” Primarily from the diaries of Rev. Isaac O. Stringer. //Academia,// online document, page 116.)) In June 1900, McDonald was worried about Kunnizzi and others from the head of the Peel River. They had visited Dawson twice, in February and April, to sell caribou meat. Their camp was only five days away from the town and they planned to go there again the next winter instead of visiting Fort McPherson. Joseph Kunnizzi and Simon Semple were keeping up with religious services and teaching school and McDonald prayed that they would not fall into mischief.((Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.))

Two catechists, Joseph Kunnizzi and Amos Njootli, were preparing for Deacon's orders in 1908.(("Diocese of Yukon." //The New Era,// Vol. VI, No. 4, April 1908.)) Archdeacon McDonald received a letter from Rev. Joseph Kunnizzi in Dawson in December 1909, and they continued to correspond through 1912.(( Robert McDonald journals from microfilm, Yukon Archives 85/97 mss 195.))