Paddy Smith, Kàkhnohh
Paddy Smith’s grandmother was from the coast and married into the Yukon. His father’s country was Driftwood Creek at Steamboat Landing, where the Takhini River meets the Mendenhall River. He moved there when he married Paddy’s mother. This was where the Coast people came to trade. Paddy’s father’s people owned Lake Arkell.1)
Paddy worked on the rail line to Pueblo Mine, he was an interpreter for the Mounted Police when they had hard cases, and then he worked for big game hunters Eugene Jacquot and in Alaska. Paddy and his wife Annie had eight children and lots of adopted children as well. In 1920, Charlie Baxter’s big game hunters brought flu into the Yukon and many people died. Paddy got it when he went on a hunt and Annie took some herbal medicine to him and he got well.2)
After Paddy died, Annie’s second husband was Johnnie Ned who she and Paddy had raised. Johnnie Ned’s mother and Paddy Smith’s mother were sisters, so they thought of themselves as brothers.3)