Mary Flett, Cachoz, Chahchoza, Cachoza and/or Oggui

Cachoz was born in Fort Liard to father La Gauche. La Gauche was an Indigenous hunter employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in the Fort Liard and Yukon River basin areas. He travelled and worked with Robert Campbell between 1837 and 1852. Cachoz was allowed to marry Andrew Flett, an Orkneyman on contract with the HBC, in December 1851. Lolique Forcier had died, and Cachoz was to take her place sewing and making clothing for the HBC men posted at Fort Selkirk.1)

The Hudson’s Bay Company men were expelled from Fort Selkirk by the Coastal Tlingit traders in 1852 and Mrs. Flett gave birth to a baby during the attack. In 1928, an old man living at Brochet on Reindeer Lake in the NWT said he was born in a canoe on the Yukon River when the Chilkats were ousting Robert Campbell.2) Robert Campbell thought that Flett’s wife and another woman had deserted the post. The events of the day were described in a letter from Robert Campbell to James Anderson in November 1852.3) Campbell and his men were sent off in boats. They saw Brough on the opposite side of the river and soon after they found Lapie with La Gauche and then his wife and child. They drifted down to the bay to Brough's fishery and found Flett's and Lapie's wives there.4)

In 1862, Andrew Flett was a Hudson's Bay Co. clerk at the Peel River Post [Fort MacPherson].5) Flett's wife, Mary, translated for Anglican minister Robert McDonald when he visited Fort McPherson in 1863. McDonald wrote in September 1863 that Mr. A. Flett and his wife exerted themselves so that many who were formerly attached to Romanism converted to Protestantism.6)

1)
Llewellyn R. Johnson (transcribed and edited with notes), Journal of Occurrences at the Forks of the Lewes and Pelly Rivers May 1848 to September 1852. Occasional Papers in Yukon History No. 2. Heritage Branch, Government of the Yukon, Hude Hudan Series., 2000: 153. Note #26.
2)
W. D. MacBride, “Robert Campbell: Trail-Blazer of the Yukon.” Alaska Sportsman, August 1962: 44.
3)
“The Pillage of Fort Selkirk.” The Beaver, December 1921: 15-17.
4)
Clifford Wilson, Campbell of the Yukon. Toronto: Macmillan, 1970: 99, 118.
5)
Lee Sax and Effie Linklater, Gikhyi: One Who Speaks The Word of God. Diocese of Yukon, November 1990: 14.
6)
Lee Sax and Effie Linklater, Gikhyi: One Who Speaks The Word of God. Diocese of Yukon, November 1990: 9-11.