George Washington Carmack - Carmack was called a "squaw man" by fellow prospectors for his associations with the natives and marriage-by-association to a Stick woman named Kate. Arriving in Alaska in the 1880's from San Francisco, Carmack joined a small but growing group of white Americans who migrated north in search of another gold strike as big as California's strike of 1849. Alaska was not yet an official territory, but an unincorporated American property-vast, empty and lawless. Carmack became fast friends with a number of natives in the Interior, including Skookum Jim and his nephew Dawson Charlie. Through their friendship, Carmack met and took as his wife one of Jim's sisters. The woman died shortly afterwards of influenza, and Carmack took another sister for his second wife, named Shaaw Tlaa. Carmack called her Kate and they soon had a daughter named Graphie Grace.

   Not long after Graphie was born, George, Kate, Jim and Charlie were prospecting and hunting around the confluence of the Yukon and Klondike rivers. One day in July, Skookum Jim arrived in camp excited about a gold he saw in a stream bed some distance away. Carmack had earned a reputation as a lazy man, putting forth as little effort as necessary to survive, and he was not eager to go tramping up some unknown stream through underbrush and mosquito swarms. He convinced Jim and Charlie that they would go examine the stream soon, and put the trip off for weeks. Finally in the mood, (due in no small part to running out of food), George, Jim and Charlie set out to hunt and to look over Jim's creek.

   On the way to Rabbit Creek, half-starved, Carmack saw a mark near the trail that pointed to the camp of an acquaintance named Robert Henderson. Arriving in Henderson's camp and asking for food and tobacco, Henderson welcomed Carmack, but took offense to having natives in his camp. Carmack, furious with Henderson, took his in-law companions and hiked out of camp.

   Nearby, on August 16 of 1896, Skookum Jim discovered a fantastic amount of gold while hunting near Rabbit Creek. Carmack, Jim and Charlie staked their claims and went to work shortly after to bring in the gold. Word spread swiftly around the area and several dozen prospectors rushed to the stream (renamed "Bonanza Creek" by the Californian Carmack) and staked nearly every claim possible. The three men discovered treasure that would move 100,000 people to attempt the journey to the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness.

   By the spring of 1898, when the vast mass of gold rushers arrived in Dawson City, Carmack was living the high life in the newborn town, paying others to labor for him. He and his family, along with Jim and Charlie made a trip to Seattle in 1898, then south to visit his sister Rose. The natives-having never traveled outside-suffered a culture shock in the large cities and Kate suffered further from the disapproving eyes of Rose. Young Graphie stayed behind for the winter to be taught by her Aunt while Carmack and family sailed back to Alaska.

   Carmack began to withdraw from the natives he called family in 1899. They traveled south again, but still encountered difficulties trying to adjust. Kate was arrested in Seattle and jailed for being drunk and disorderly, as reported in a sensationalistic article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Carmack was incensed and sent Kate and Graphie south to live with Rose while he returned to Dawson City alone.

   After a winter of Arctic high society, Carmack returned to Seattle with a new fiancée on his arm, an American woman named Marguerite Laimée. Carmack met Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie in Seattle and officially ended their business relationship. Kate soon heard the news, and became furious. Outraged at his adultery, she sued for a divorce. The two were never legally married though, so no papers existed. The suit was soon dropped, and Kate hoped for the best. Disappointed, Kate moved north and Carmack married Marguerite in October of 1900.

   George never returned to Alaska, and never sent any support money to Kate. He did arrange one year to secretly bring a teenage Graphie from Whitehorse to the lower 48, where she came to live with him and Marguerite. Kate found out Graphie had left weeks later, but did not pursue the matter. She did not see her daughter or Carmack again.