It is #IndigenousHistoryMonth and this is the story of Keish, the man who started the Klondike Gold Rush
Keish was born around 1855 near Bennett Lake, Yukon, His name Keish means wolf.
A member of the Tagish people, his father was Kaachgaawaa, a chief.
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In the mid-1880s, Keish was working as a packer, carrying supplies through the backcountry. It was doing this where he earned his nickname Skookum Jim, for his strength. The word means strong & reliable in Chinook jargon.
He soon began working with George Carmack.
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His sister, Kate (she will have her own thread in a few days), married George & the three began prospecting.
In mid-August 1896, they struck gold at Rabbit (Bonanza) Creek. While Carmack said he saw it first, witnesses say it was Keish who discovered gold.
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Carmack staked a double claim, and Keish staked his own claim. As they worked their claims, they pulled $1 million worth of gold out, starting the Klondike Gold Rush.
The sudden wealth changed everything. Keish built a large house where he lived during the winters.
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Known for his generosity, when Carmack abandoned his wife Kate & left her penniless, Keish built her a cabin.
He eventually created the Daisy Mason Trust so his fortune could be given to his daughter for her education and adult life.
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Keish died on July 11, 1916 in Whitehorse after a long illness. He left money to several relatives to help them.
When his daughter died in 1938, as per Keish's instructions, the remaining money in the trust was used to help the Indigenous people of the Yukon.
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Outside of Canada, many assume that the entire country uses bagged milk.
The truth is, only part of Canada have bagged milk in the fridge.
But why? Well, it comes down when Canada made the transition to the metric system.
This is the story!
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The story of milk bags in Canada begins in the 1960s. At the time, milk came in glass bottles primarily. Some producers sold milk in cardboard or plastic jugs.
In Canada's Centennial Year of 1967, DuPont introduced milk bags to the country.
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This turned out to be a good move because in the 1970s, Canada moved towards the metric system. While other companies had to redesign all of their bottles, jugs and cartons, milk bag packaging machines only needed to be resized at a very low cost.
Today is Persons Day.
This day honours The Persons Case, which ended in a victory for The Famous Five on Oct. 18, 1929. The ruling declared women to be persons under the law and qualified to sit in the Senate.
This is the story of that case.
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When the British North America Act of 1867 was passed, it used the word "persons" to refer to more than one person, and "he" to refer to one person.
It was argued that only a man could be a person, which excluded women from many things.
Enter The Famous Five.
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Henrietta Edwards was born in 1849.
She was a Red Cross leader during the First World War, a founding member of the Victorian Order of Nurses and helped create Canada's first YWCA.
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Avro Arrow was unveiled with the intention of it being the RCAF's primary interceptor in the 1960s.
Less than two years later, the program was abruptly cancelled and 14,528 Avro employees were put out of work.
This is the story of the Arrow.
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In the 1950s, with the dawn of the nuclear era, there was a concern that the Soviet Union would attack North America with bombers over the Canadian Arctic.
To deal with this possibility, the RCAF commissioned Avro Canada to build an all-weather nuclear interceptor.
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It needed to fly higher and faster than any aircraft of its class. With the Arrow contract, Avro quickly expanded and had 20,000 people working for it by 1957. Nine models, one-eighth the size of the finished plane, were tested in rockets over Lake Ontario.
In 1885, Montreal was ravaged by smallpox.
To stem the spread of the disease that had killed thousands so far, public health officials enforced vaccinations. Those that mistrusted the vaccine rioted in the streets.
This is the story of the Montreal Smallpox Riots.
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On Feb. 28, 1885, George Longley, a conductor with the Grand Trunk Railway, arrived in Montreal feeling sick. After visiting a doctor, he was diagnosed with smallpox. While he survived, the disease quickly began to spread throughout the city, infecting thousands.
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At first, the City of Montreal did not pay to provide vaccinations to fight the epidemic. In response, Sir William Macdonald donated $25,000 to pay for the vaccines.
Through the spring and summer, the disease killed upwards of 100 people per week in the city.
Today is British Home Child Day.
This is the annual day that Canada acknowledges and honours the over 100,000 children who were sent from the UK to Canada to work on farms and in homes.
They were separated from siblings and many were abused.
This is their story.
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The Children's Friend Society was founded in London in 1830 to suppress "juvenile vagrancy" through "reformation and emigration". In 1833, 230 children were sent to Toronto and New Brunswick.
It was a few decades before more children were sent to Canada.
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In the 1860s, philanthropist Annie MacPherson was appalled at the conditions children were forced to work in at factories in London. She decided to help them and believed sending them away from the cities and even Britain was the best option for a better life.
On Sept. 22, 1994, a show debuted on CTV featuring a street-wise Chicago cop and a Mountie on the trail of the man who killed his father.
The critically-acclaimed hit reshaped Canadian television and made a star out of Paul Gross.
This is the story of Due South.
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The idea for Due South came from one of the biggest movies of the 1980s. In 1986, Crocodile Dundee debuted and was a massive hit. Robert Lantos, chair of Alliance Communications, saw that success and spoke with CBS President Jeff Sagansky about creating a similar show.
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Lantos wanted something involving a stereotypical Canadian working with Chicago Police. Sagansky liked the idea and took it to Paul Haggis and told him to make a series about a Mountie or trapper, or something Canadian like that. From there, Due South was born.