Walker
Walker worked as a fur trader for the Alaska Commercial Company in the 1880s. Walker’s trading post was at Noukelakayet, near the mouth of the Tanana River, in 1886 when Catholic Archbishop Seghers came through on a reconnaissance of interior Yukon and Alaska.1)
Archbishop Seghers left his travelling companions Fathers Tosci and Robaut at the mouth of the Stewart River and travelled down the Yukon River by canoe with layman Francis Fuller who had already exhibited signs of paranoia. Seghers and Fuller reached Noukelakayet on October 4th and they had to wait until the river froze before continuing. Walker was anti-Catholic and he stoked Fuller’s paranoia. Seghers and Fuller left for Nulato by dog team at the end of November, accompanied by an adult, Sennetoh [Shahnuuti’], and a youth, Koihatoy. They were camped at a spot close to their destination when Fuller shot Seghers, killing him instantly. Francis Fuller was tried for murder in Sitka with Walker and Sennetoh as witnesses. Fuller was convicted of manslaughter and condemned to ten years hard labour and a fine of a thousand dollars.2))
In 1887, Rev. and Mrs. Canham moved down to St. James Mission on the Lower Yukon and were there from 1888 to 1892.3) St. James Mission was at Noukelakayet, near the mouth of the Tanana River. This was a five-year term with the Episcopal Church in Alaska.4) In 1892, David Walker’s father, the trader at Noukelakayet, brought David to stay with Rev. Canham at Fort Selkirk so David could continue in mission school.5)
Gordon Bettles took over the Noukelakayet trading post in 1892. Around 1896, the Alaska Commercial Company moved the trading post to Tanana Village.6)