A graveside service will be held in Carcross tomorrow at 2 p.m. for Edith Mary Henderson who passed away last Wednesday [May 18, 1976] in Whitehorse General Hospital after a long illness.
Edith Henderson was the closest surviving link to the Indian family that discovered gold in the Klondike in 1896, Her husband, Patsy Henderson, was a nephew of Skookum Jim and of Kate Carmacks.
Henderson, 17 years old at the time, was with the discoverers of gold when they made the strike, but had remained behind in their camp on the Klondike River while the three older men went up to what was to become Bonanza Creek.
Mrs. Henderson was born in Hootchi Village, north of Champagne, Yukon in 1883. Her father was Hootchi Jackson and her mother's name was Mary. Her paternal grandfather was the chief of Hootchi, and had two wives. His name, "Wun de Tsaw" was given to Alexander Richard Dickson, one of Patsy and Edith's grandsons.
Edith Jackson married Patsy Henderson, whose Indian Name was "Kulsin", in St. Saviour's Church in Carcross on July 6, 1906. According to her marriage certificate - which had been misplaced and did not reappear until 1974 - she was 23 years old. Her older sister Annie had been promised to Henderson but had died. Edith, next in age, by Indian custom, became the bride. They were the first Indian couple to be married in the church in
Carcross.
When the steamer Tutshi returned from Ben My Chree during the 1930s, the tourists had a few hours in Carcross before catching the train. Patsy Henderson held lectures and sang in front of the station.
Henderson owned a wealth of artifacts made of bone and wood, traditional costumes of the Tlingit Indians, some of which were home made and some were received by gifts from Alaska coastal Indians. These items were inherited from the collection belonging to Skookum Jim. Henderson made many models of traps, snares, and nets used by the Indians before the coming of the Whitemen and delighted the tourists by demonstrating the way to start a fire without matches and singing traditional songs, one of which was an Indian love song which made lady tourists squirm in embarrassment
Henderson's collection was so large that he rented the biggest room in the Old Scott Hotel in Carcross to house it. When that burned down, he put what remained in the White Pass station sitting room. The collection is still owned by the descendants of the Henderson family.
The Hendersons had two daughters, Irene, who died at 12 years, and Lillian Ann, who married "Buck" Dickson of the Kluane area. They had 11 children, 9 of whom are still alive and living in the Yukon. Lillian died in 1949 and Buck in 1961.
There were 10 children in the Hootchi Jackson family. Edith and her sister Ginnie were the last surviving ones until 1966 when Ginnie was killed in an
automobile accident. Edith was crippled in the same accident and was in hospital until 1970.
Before the accident she had been very active, trapping in the Little Atlin area, taking her two youngest grandsons out to pick berries, fishing, sewing and
beading, tanning skins and hunting. She killed her last moose in 1965, when she was in
her 80s.
Irene Shackoon Isaac, a niece, and her husband Joe took Mrs. Henderson from the hospital in 1970 and cared for her for two years. A number of people since have provided home care varying in length from two months to a year.
The family said there was great pressure from agencies to place Mrs. Henderson in a nursing home, but the years she spent in Carcross since her accident with inadequate help forced her to begin doing things herself when she was left alone for several days at a time. She became more self-sufficient and able to get around with some
difficulty.
As she became stronger, the idea of moving to a nursing home did not set too well with her and she absolutely refused to leave Carcross. She complained bitterly about the homecare provided by either very young women or people who drank and neglected her, but regardless of the home situation she would put up with anything in order to
remain in Carcross.
Mrs. Henderson, after being hospitalized, moved to Whitehorse, last November, and lived with her nephew and his wife, John and Annie Smith.
She is survived by 9 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.
