Dick Nukon, Tl-yah (b. 1925)
Dick Nukon (tl-yah or “rope”) was born in Eagle, Alaska and his parents John and Miria Nukon brought him to Old Crow in 1927. He remembers when he was two years old coming through the Ogilvie Mountains by dog team. They travelled with eight family members, brothers and sisters and parents. His father, John Nukon was originally from [Fort McPherson]. He moved to Dawson in 1898 and then he moved on to Eagle, Alaska.1)
When surveyors cut a line through the bush to mark the Yukon/Alaska border, John Nukon wanted to be Canadian so he and the family moved to Whitestone.2) The family ravelled over land to the Porcupine River and then travelled down it in a skin boat that John made. They spoke like people from Eagle and it took Dick about twenty years before he started to understand Van Tut Gwich’in. He had to learn his mother's language. His father was independent and stayed in the bush all the time. He taught the kids how to make a living by trapping and how to respect animals and to share what they had.3)
In 1937, Dick’s mother died after being hurt by the dog team. His sister also died in 1937. His father taught his kids all the skills including cooking and sewing. In 1939, some other families moved into Whitestone and it became a small village. Hannah and Joe Netro came with two children. Joe was a trapper and entrepreneur who barged supplies in from Fort Yukon and sold them in his store. There was candy, cookies, canned fruit, and pilot bread. Dick calls Whitestone John Nukon village. They all moved to Old Crow by 1950 so their children could attend the local part-time school.4)
Whitestone is now inside the Fishing Branch Protected Area. Dick was hired by the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation to mark the grave sites and cabins of Whitestone and Johnson Creek villages. Both of those communities are now abandoned.