Yukon who is who

Charlie Thomas (b. 1916)

Charlie was born just outside of Rampart House to parents John Porcupine Thomas and Mary Kahsii Thomas. His father`s parents were Thomas and Ellen Thomas.¹⁾ Charlie remembers trapping when he was eight and he remembers Cadzow’s store and that people lived on caribou, flour, oats and rice. Amos Njootli was the minister at Rampart House.²⁾ His dad, John, brought him up and the family moved to Old Rampart, Alaska in 1924. John wanted to be a Canadian citizen so they moved to New Rampart, and then Black River where he thought to hunt and trap. John went out hunting at -60 and not having any luck. When he got back to the tent, Charlie’s brother Elijah had died of a disease.³⁾

1937 was a hard year and people lost a lot of dogs because there was no caribou. The Alaskans blocked up the river so there was no fish and a lot of people were short of food. All of Charlie’s dogs starved at Blackstone and he went hungry for a week.⁴⁾ The family moved to Old Crow in 1838.⁵⁾

Charlie and Jessie Nukon Thomas married in 1941 and they adopted two children. They used to go from Old Crow to LaPierre House to get to Fort McPherson. There was no fur and they had a hard time – the dogs had nothing to eat and Charlie walked ahead to break trail. The store manager did not charge until the trapping was over and people bought only necessities: butter, sugar, tea, flour, and lard. Everyone went across the river to get the caribou when they arrived. In the spring, everyone moved to Crow Flats to trap. On June 15th they moved back to the river. They built boats that were 24’ long with a 4’ bottom. Peter Moses had a motor and he could push a lot of canvas boats down river to Old Crow, or they used paddles. Everyone would come down together. They sold firewood for $15 a cord to Joe Netro when they didn’t make money trapping.⁶⁾

In 1968, Charlie Thomas worked out at a mine in the Alsek district to support his family. He stayed for five months and then got homesick and flew back from Dawson to his home at Old Crow. The village at that time was nothing but tall grass everywhere with little walking trails, no roads. After his wife died, Thomas travelled in Alaska, Yukon, and went down to Edmonton, Alberta.⁷⁾

Charlie Thomas was a councillor with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation between 1954-1956.⁸⁾ He worked with scientists in the 1970s and discovered fossil teeth that belonged to a genus of hyena called Chasmaporthetes. Other fossils like this have been found in Mexico and Mongolia but never before in areas between, so now we know that they passed through Beringia as long as 4.7 million years ago.⁹⁾