Keish

Who was Keish?

Keish, better known by his English name Skookum Jim Mason, was a Canadian native and a member of the Tagish First Nation in what became the Yukon Territory of Canada. He was born close to Bennett Lake on what is now the British Columbia/Yukon border, to a Tahltan woman He lived in Carcross, Yukon, Canada.

In the mid-1880s, he worked as a packer over the Chilkoot Pass carrying supplies for miners, where he earned his Skookum nickname because of his extraordinary strength. Skookum means "strong", "big" and "reliable" in the Chinook Jargon and regional English as used in the Pacific Northwest.

He assisted William Ogilvie in his explorations of the upper Yukon. He also showed members of the expedition the way over the White Pass. Keish is today co-credited with making the gold discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush, although it was originally attributed solely to George Carmack, his brother-in-law. It is also possible that the discovery was made by Keish's sister Shaaw Tláa.

Carmack described Skookum Jim as:

“straight as a gun barrel, powerfully built with strong sloping shoulders, tapering…downwards to the waist, like a keystone. He was known as the best hunter and trapper on the river, in fact he was a super-specimen of the northern Indian”