Issac T-G.

Jack Stick Trail To The Coast

Issac T-G.
Yukon/Stikine Heritage Fair
Whitehorse, YT

My Great Grandfather Jack Stick was of Southern Tutchone and Tlingit First Nation origins. He was the son of Chief Kershaw from Haines Alaska. He was born before the roads were built.  The Southern Tutchone and Tlingit people would travel far distances from the Pacific Coast to the interior land of the Yukon. Living a nomadic life through the seasons between his homes in Cracker Creek, Champagne and Klukshu, Jack spent his childhood fishing, hunting and gathering with Coastal Tlingit people and his family relations living in the interior-land referred to as the Stick Tribes. 

Jack Stick had children with his first wife, the children were sent to residential school and adopted to other families and given new names. Many people started to arrive in the Yukon during my Great Grandpa’s early years. They often say that this was a period of the first contacts between Indigenous and European people.

My Great Grandpa Jack met my Great Grandma Nelly Allen, this is when my Grandma Bessie was born. Bessie was also taken to go to the residential school in Carcross, in the Yukon Territory. She told my father and family how a a big truck came to Klukshu and loaded all the children up and took them away. Where Jack’s cabin once stood, a road was build over it, now called the Alaska Highway, this was a few years before my Great Grandpa Jack passed away after spending his life adapting to this life changing event.

What sources and evidence did you consult for your project? What different perspectives did they provide on your topic?

For my project, I consulted knowledgeable Elders from my Southern Tutchone family. I utilized books at the Whitehorse Library. I had the opportunity to hear audio interviews and written notes from my Grandma Bessie (Stick) Gordon.  I gathered information about my family’s ancestors through research compiled by the Explorer Edward Glave, as part of his book titled:  “Travels to the   Alseck: Edward Glave’s Reports from Southwest Yukon and Southeast Alaska 1890–91.”   I had the opportunity to find valuable material on websites from the Yukon Historical and Museums Association, the  Yukon Digital Library, and from Yukon Tourism and Culture, Cultural Services Branch as per the attached bibliography.  The scientific and academic sources utilized for this project provided valuable evidence helping reconfirm traditional knowledge accounts passed orally through my ancestors.

What is the historical significance of your topic?

My great Grandpa’s traditional way of life was forever changed, after the construction of the Alaska Highway, with the loss of his pre-contact way of life; his traditional subsistence rights, him home, his children, while a road was plowed and built where his cabin once stood by Cracker Creek in the Yukon Territory.

Why did you choose this topic? 

I chose this topic because I wanted to learn more about my Great Grandpa Jack Stick and verify our ancestors oral histories about the “Stick Indians, Stick Tribes”