Paddy Duncan (b. 1877)

Paddy Duncan was born near Dalton Post and spent much of his youth at Klukwan near Haines, Alaska. His mother was Canadian, and his father was Alaskan. In 1897, he was hired as a guide over the Dalton Trail to Dalton Post by Stan Cameron, who was bringing fifty-four head of cattle and fifteen horses into the Yukon. Before the First World War, he worked as a guide for the surveyors marking the international border in the area.¹⁾

Paddy Duncan and Big Jim [Fred] were the co-discoverers of gold on Dollis Creek in the Kluane Lake region. They arrived in Whitehorse in June 1928 with fifty-three ounces of coarse heavy gold that was placed on display in the window of W. A. Puckett's store. The Yukon Council was subsequently asked to provide funding for construction of a road to the region from Whitehorse.²⁾ A stampede ensued and by mid-June some fifty claims had been staked on Dollis Creek, and about twenty-five on Goat Creek, Rainbow Gulch, and Bonnie Gulch.³⁾ In August, Bobby Kane discovered the largest nugget to date on No. 3 Above Discovery Dollis Creek. It had a value at the time of $134.⁴⁾

Duncan worked his claim into the 1930s and became a wealthy man in his community.⁵⁾ During the 1930s, twenty to forty-five miners worked each summer on Dollis Creek. A large nugget, over forty-six oz., was found on the creek in 1937.⁶⁾ This was the last gold strike in the Kluane area before the Second World War. The creek continued to yield gold for many years.⁷⁾

Duncan visited Champagne in September 1936, and in October he was staying with Joe Kane, a relative through marriage. He borrowed a rifle to hunt and when he returned, he put the rifle at the head of his bed. That evening the Kanes (Joe, wife Lily, and sons Harton and Parton) brought out some liquor. At that time, it was illegal for Yukon First Nations people to drink. When they finished the Kanes’ supply, they bought more from the local bootlegger, Reginald Lowe, who was a Taylor and Drury store clerk. No one remembers an argument, and everyone went to sleep. The next morning, 30 October, Harton and Grace Kane were walking toward Parton Kane’s house to check on Parton’s sick child. Grace heard a shot as she reached Parton’s door and looked back to see her husband Harton lying on the ground and Duncan behind him with a gun. Lily Kane took the gun from Duncan and pulled him across the yard into her house where she told her husband to restrain him. They reported the shooting to RCMP Constable D.A. Dunlop who found Harton shot in the back and through the stomach. Harton told Dunlop that Duncan had shot him. Dunlop arrested Duncan who remembered being woken up by somebody who told him that he had shot their son. The alleged assault weapon was found in a meat cache and Duncan was placed in a make-shift cell under the supervision of Reginald Lowe and another local man, John Carroll. Dunlop found eight rifle shells on Duncan and one spent shell in front of Parton’s house. Harton Kane died of his wounds and Paddy Duncan was charged with murder.⁸⁾

The Department of Justice hired Willard Phelps as Duncan’s lawyer. The trial began on 2 December 1936 with George Chambers acting as an interpreter for the older people. Reginald Lowe testified to his sale of liquor to Duncan and the Kanes and was later sentenced to six months in prison. George Joe, from Champagne, testified that Duncan wanted to buy a rifle to kill either himself or one of the Kane boys. Duncan testified that he was too drunk to remember anything and denied that he had previously threatened the lives of the Kane brothers. He was not provided with an interpreter although he asked for one. Judge MacAulay made it clear to the jury that Duncan had killed Harton in an incident caused by abuse of alcohol. He did not want the jury to consider a verdict of manslaughter as drunkenness would not reduce a charge of murder unless there were extenuating circumstances. The jury took forty minutes to return with a verdict of guilty with a strong recommendation for mercy. The judge sentenced Duncan to hang, as the law required. The vast majority of those sentenced to hang in those days were not, and the recommendation from the judge and jury for mercy virtually guaranteed that Duncan would not be hung.⁹⁾

A petition went around Whitehorse and collected names from almost all the white population in town in support of commutation. Even the jurors sent a note to the federal cabinet saying they would have brought a verdict of manslaughter but were influenced by the judge’s direction. The federal government complied with the wishes of the community, and three weeks before his scheduled execution Duncan’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was sent to Okalla, the infamous British Columbia prison in Westminster. Duncan asked for parole over the next ten years.¹⁰⁾

In 1947, Andrew Paull, president of the North American Indian Brotherhood, a leading activist in British Columbia became interested in the case of an aging man, protesting his innocence, who only wanted to return to the north before he died. He pointed out that Duncan had not been in trouble before the murder and had been a model prisoner since. Inquiries in the Yukon revealed that Champagne, where three brothers of the murdered man lived, did not want Duncan to return to the community. R. J. Meek, the Indian agent, recommended that Duncan be returned to Dalton Post, or to Haines, Alaska to live with his brother. Duncan was over seventy and in uncertain health. Andrew Paull wrote to the Department of Justice and volunteered to be responsible for Duncan in British Columbia if he was released. Duncan was granted a “ticket of Leave” in July 1948. He was to live under the supervision of Andrew Paull, he had to refrain from drinking alcohol, and he could not return to the Yukon.¹¹⁾

Duncan was not happy about having to live in North Vancouver and he refused to leave the prison. Andrew Paull arranged for reporters to interview Duncan, and the newspapers ran some dramatic stories. The Department of Indian Affairs were afraid that elderly Duncan might be subject to a revenge attack and did not relent on the conditions. On 22 July 1948, Duncan left the penitentiary but continued to ask the government for permission to return home. The Yukon Indian agent, R.J. Meek, determined that Chief Johnny Fraser and members of the Kane family would welcome Duncan if he followed traditional customs by hosting a big party and inviting all the local members of the Wolf and Crow clan. There is no evidence that this ever happened. On 20 December Duncan was permitted to return to the Yukon as long as he abstained from alcohol and reported to the territory’s Indian agent on a regular basis. Duncan arrived in Whitehorse on 3 January 1949, but he could not return to Dalton Post as it was abandoned. He now asked permission to leave the country to live with his brother in Juneau, Alaska. In April 1949, the Canadian government allowed him to take up residence in Alaska, and he moved to Haines, Alaska in the spring in 1949.¹²⁾