Klanott L’unáát (d. 1887)

L’unáát was a prominent L’ukaax.ádi headman of the Chilkoot Tlingit at Tlákw.aan (Klukwan) near present-day Haines, Alaska. L’unáát’s third wife, Aagé, was sent to the coast to marry his brother who died before she reached him. Aagé was sister to Shaaw Tláa (Kate Carmack).((Deb Vanasse, //Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2016: 28-29, 75.))

Klanott’s clan traditionally controlled passage through the Chilkoot Pass. John Healy and Edgar Wilson established a trading post at Dyea in 1886. Healy often negotiated with the Tlingit when prospectors needed packers to help them carry supplies over the pass and he annoyed Klanott by improving the trail. In 1888, Healy contracted some Stick Indians (Inland Tlingit) to pack for the miners. Violence erupted after Klanott and other Tlingit packers threatened the Sticks and Healy in front of his store. Klanott and Big Tom fought; Big Tom was wounded and Klanott was killed.((William R. Hunt, //Whiskey Peddler: Johnny Healy, North Frontier Trader.// Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press publishing Company, 1993: 115, 125.))

Aagé returned home to the Yukon after L’unáát died during the Packer War over the lucrative rights to control the business of packing prospectors’ supplies over the Chilkoot Pass.((Deb Vanasse, //Wealth Woman: Kate Carmack and the Klondike Race for Gold.// Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2016: 28-29, 75.))