Bill Laberge/Laberge Billy, K’umgaelte (~1879 - 1939)

Laberge Billy was Gertie Tom’s grandmother’s brother [great uncle].¹⁾

Bill and Jenny Laberge Hu ala and their family spent most winters at Winter Crossing, and they hunted around Livingstone Creek.²⁾ They had nine children: Peter, Amy [Cletheroe], Pauline, Mary, Sadie, Violet [Storer], Harold, Elizabeth [Lizzie Jackson] and Peter. Amy and her husband, William Cletheroe, were among the first to mine in the Livingstone Creek, along with “Dutch” Henry Broeren. Other Ta'an families also sometimes joined in mining operations.³⁾

Eventually the family moved to Lake Laberge. Most of the people used poling boats to travel along the rivers. If they couldn't use boats, they used dogs and packs. The family stayed at Lake Laberge when Violet was very young, and her sister and brother went from there to the school in Carcross. Then the family moved to Whitehorse near the rapids to a place called Yard Limits. They stayed there for many years. They used to go hunting for winter food all the way to McClintock.⁴⁾ Old Billy Laberge had a cabin in the McClintock Valley. That's where he got his moose, especially in February and March. There is a trail that goes right over Grey Mountain to the McClintock Valley, and they went that way.⁵⁾ He hunted moose with Johnny Joe. Around September, the family would get home to the Whitehorse Rapids. They would raft all the way from McClintock by Marsh Lake and down the Lewes River to Wigan, near present day McCrae. From there they would walk home.⁶⁾ In the 1920s and 1930s, the area around Whitehorse Rapids was a base camp for Old Tom Smith, Laberge Billy, Jenny Laberge, and Whitehorse Billy. (Ruth Gotthardt, Ta'an Kwach'an, People of the Lake. Whitehorse: Yukon Government/Northern Research Institute. 2000.))

Billy Laberge died after several months in the Whitehorse General Hospital. He is remembered as one of the best moose hunters in the territory.⁷⁾