Yukon who is who

Eliza Isaac, nee Harper (~1873 – 1960)

Eliza Harper was the daughter of Hän hereditary chief Gah Ts’yat [aka Abraham Harper].¹⁾ Catseah (Gah Ts’yat, meaning rabbit skin hat, a hunting leader) the chief of the Trondick [Klondike] people, was visiting Fort Yukon in 1873. Jack McQuesten had planned to establish a trading post either on the Porcupine or Yukon rivers. Catseah was insistent that the trading company build a post near his house. On 27 August 1874, McQuesten arrived five miles below the present town of Dawson.²⁾

Chief Isaac was the nephew of Chief Carley Nootlah of Forty Mile.³⁾ Isaac was living in Forty Mile when his marriage was arranged, and he went to the Klondike River to marry Eliza Harper. Chief ‘Gah St’at (Catseah / Catsah) named Isaac a chief after he and Eliza married.⁴⁾

Only four of Eliza and Isaac’s thirteen children survived to adulthood: Patricia Lopaschuck [Princess Pat], Charlie Isaac, and Fred Isaac.⁵⁾

¹⁾

Craig Mishler and William E. Simone. Han Hwech'in: people of the river. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. 2004: 111, 260.

²⁾

Copy of letter from McQuesten to Albert McKay, July 1, 1905. Alaska State Library, MS 13, Box 5, #5.

³⁾

Craig Mishler and William E. Simone, Hän Hwëch’in: people of the river. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. 2004: 94-106, 260.

⁴⁾

Joy Isaac, Chief Isaac’s People of the River. 2018 website: http://chiefisaac.com/the_isaac_family.html

⁵⁾

Helene Dobrowolsky, Hammerstones: A History of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, 2003: 79.