Copper Chief, Äsì Shäw (d. ~1907)

Copper Chief was an Ahtna man from the Copper River area in Alaska. He was a Crow Clan and his wife, Ná-Thyá-Thée-a, was Wolf Clan. She came from Fort Selkirk. Copper Chief came into the Yukon watershed in the late 1800s and he and his wife established hunting and fishing grounds near the Generc and White rivers at Kletsan Hill, an area rich in copper nuggets.¹⁾ Copper Chief worked with the placer copper he found, making a lance out of copper and using it with a string tied to one end. He had a knife made of copper as well as pounded arrow points.²⁾

Copper Chief and Ná-Thyá-Thée-a’s two daughters died young. All five sons married Northern or Southern Tutchone women and went to live in Yukon communities: Copper Joe at Fort Selkirk, Copper Jack at Snag, Copper Jim and Copper Charlie at Carmacks, and Copper George Joe at Burwash Landing.³⁾