Copper Joe, Dhaldata (d. ~1950)
Copper Joe's father was Copper Chief from the White River area. Mary Copper Joe was born in 1900 at Lynx City, near the mouth of the Nisling River. Her siblings were Jessie Joe, Jimmy Joe, and Copper Lily Johnson. Two sisters, Kitty and Bertha, died at a young age. After Mary's mother died, Copper Joe took Mary, Jessie, and Jimmy Joe to live with their aunt at Lynx City and then took Mary, Kitty and Copper Lily Johnson back to the White River area to the Copper Chief's house. Mary married Louis Jacquot.1)
Copper Joe took care of Eliza (Van Bibber) and her mother after Chief Jackson’s wives forced her to leave the Juneau area. He supported them by hunting and trapping. They travelled around and settled at Fort Selkirk.2)
In 1938, Copper Joe was a highly respected elder who remembered seeing the first white men and horses at the time the Yukon/Alaska border was cut. There is a beautiful photo of him at Duke Meadows.3)
In the early 1950s, Copper Joe was about 110, the oldest person living at Fort Selkirk. He was a medicine man. He died when the North Klondike Highway was being built. Taylor and Drury closed their store, and everyone left Fort Selkirk.4)