Yukon who is who

William Silas (d. early 1920s)

Chief William Silas was a subchief to Chief Isaac at Moosehide. He was a smart young interpreter for the traders.¹⁾ Silas and a Local Moosehide woman, Katherine, were married in 1901.²⁾

Chief Silas directed community dances and potlatches. He handled the chief’s duties when Chief Isaac ravelled outside the Yukon in the summer of 1902. When the salmon arrived in their annual migration, Chief Silas was the first to put in a net and then he fed everyone at Moosehide to celebrate the event.³⁾ In 1902/03 Silas and others at Moosehide were fishing commercially. They agreed to catch and sell fish to a man named Marshall. Marshall left for Tanana without paying any of the money he owed.⁴⁾

Katherine Silas died of cancer in 1925.⁵⁾

¹⁾

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

²⁾

The Yukon Sun (Dawson), 23 March 1901; “Chief Silas Wife, Teamster George McGill charged with making indecent proposals to her.” The Yukon Sun (Dawson), 7 April 1903.

³⁾

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

⁴⁾

The Yukon Sun (Dawson), 31 January 1903.

⁵⁾

“Moosehide.” Northern Lights, No. 3, Vol. XIII, August 1925: 8.