WHITEHORSE—An Indigenous woman is being inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame for the first time. Kate Carmack of Yukon will be recognized as one of the handful of prospectors whose discovery of placer gold set off what the Hall of Fame describes as “one of the world’s greatest gold rushes” in the Klondike more than a century ago.
In 1999, the organization recognized four men who were known as the Klondike Discoverers by inducting them into the Hall of Fame for locating the site where the gold was found on Rabbit River in 1896.
But the president of Yukon Women in Mining says many stories also say Carmack may actually have found the first gold nugget while fishing with her family. Anne Turner said Carmack was “missed” in the first round of recognition but it’s “really exciting” that she is finally being honoured.
Carmack is the third woman to be inducted into the hall, joining 1991 inductee Viola MacMillan, a mine finder and financier, and early 1900s Manitoba prospector Kathleen Rice, who was inducted in 2014.
The Klondike Discovers who were previously inducted are Carmack’s husband, George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie of the Tagish First Nation, and Nova Scotia prospector Robert Henderson.
For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/01/10/yukon-womans-role-in-klondike-gold-rush-to-be-honoured-at-toronto-ceremony.html