Kate Carmack (neé Shaaw Tlaa) - Wife of credited Klondike discoverer George Carmack, Kate is known as the First Lady of the Klondike. Born a native of the Stick Indian tribe in Interior Alaska, she was the sister of Skookum Jim and the Aunt of Tagish Charlie, the other discoverers. She met Carmack in the 1880's in her village of Caribou Crossing (now Carcross). Carmack was friendly with Jim and the rest of her family, and soon took one of Kate's sisters to be his wife. The woman died shortly after, and Kate soon took her place at Carmack's side. Carmack named her "Kate", and soon her native name, Shaaw Tlaa, was dropped for Kate Carmack.

   After seven years of marriage-by-association, she gave birth to a daughter, Graphie Grace Carmack. The family spent their summers hunting and prospecting, roaming the countryside. Winters were spent in Caribou Crossing, surviving and caring for each other. The summer of 1896 began much the same as previous years, the only difference being a noticeable increase in white prospectors. Kate took care of the camp and little Graphie while her husband, brother, and nephew hunted and searched for ores. She was in camp on August 16, 1896-the day Jim and George discovered the big strike on Bonanza Creek.

   The men built a cabin near the strike, and Kate went to work immediately, cleaning, cooking and caring for three-year-old Graphie in their new home. Ironically, the men sat on the richest gold strike in human history, but did not have enough money to survive the winter. Unable to rinse out the mud and gold in frigid temperatures, no gold could be sold. Kate saw the group through the winter by taking in laundry from neighboring prospectors for a fee.

   As the spring thaw came in 1897, Kate found herself surrounded by wealthy men. Over $100,000 in gold rinsed out of the Winter dirt, and the group moved to newly founded Dawson City on the fork of the Klondike and Yukon Rivers. She was able to hire help of her own, and enjoyed her first year of easy life. The following year she sailed south with her family to visit Carmack's sister in California. Carmack's sister, Rose, was a devout Baptist, and did not fully approve of Kate's native behavior. The group sailed north that fall, leaving young Graphie with Rose to become more "civilised".

   Kate and George grew apart over the following years, Carmack found himself more and more disturbed by Kate's inability to adjust easily to the American culture invading her homeland. Unwanted celebrity made life even more difficult for Kate, and on a second trip south, she became the center of a front page scandal in Seattle. Arrested for being drunk and disorderly, she was described as emitting "warlike whoops" and performing native dances inside a hotel.

   That incident proved to be too much for George, and he sent Kate and Graphie to live with his sister while he went back north. Kate withdrew further as she witnessed her daughter embracing the new world around her. George Carmack returned the next spring with plans to marry a white woman, Marguerite Laimée. Kate was abandoned. Confused and angry, she consulted friends and soon filed for a divorce on the grounds of adultery. The courts did not recognize the marriage though, because no papers had ever been filed. She soon dropped the suit and hoped for reconciliation, but was disappointed as George and Marguerite wed in late 1900.

   Kate and Graphie returned to Carcross, where her brother Jim had built her a cabin. She and her family became local tourist attractions, and Graphie was sent off to school. Though she filed several lawsuits, she never saw a dime from George. He even took her daughter from her one year as he arranged for Graphie to move south and live with him.

   Kate died near her family in 1920 and is buried in Carcross, Alaska.