Linda Goyette - Northern Kids

Storytellers of all ages worked with me to adapt their life stories for this book. Their family members searched for pictures and extra details, and went out of their way to help me. Thank you, friends. I will never forget the warmth of your welcome.

I am also grateful to the generous people of Dawson City,
Yukon, where I made my home as Writer in Residence at Berton House in the winter of 2009. The Writers Trust of Canada supports this wonderful residencyand I appreciated the help of James Davies in Toronto and the Dawson City Library Board as hosts.

I relied on the expertise of many traditional knowledge specialists for northern First Nations, especially Georgette McLeod, Angie Joseph-Rear, Sue Parsons, and Glenda Bolt of the Trondek Hwchin; and Megan Williams, Mary Jane Moses, and Jane Montgomery of the Van Tat Gwichin. I would also like to thank Gayle Corry of the Council of Yukon First Nations and Michelle Kolla of the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre. I am grateful to the Attawapiskat First Nation council, staff, and citizens for their help during my visit.

Along with storytellers at kitchen tables, and oral history experts, archivists and librarians are my best friends. I would like to thank Susan Twist, Donna Darbyshire, Shannon Olson, and Janelle Hardy of the Yukon Archives in Whitehorse; Laura Mann and Molly MacDonald at Dawson City Museum; everyone at the Dawson City Community Library; Mairi Macrae at the Whitehorse Public Library; Brenda Hans and Susan Irving of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife; Ramona Rose and Erica Hernandez of the Northern BC Archives; Patricia Kother of the Atlin Historical Society of Atlin, BC ; as well as the special collections staff at the Alaska State Library in Juneau and the University of Washington in Seattle. Their help was invaluable.

Photographer Kayley Mackay of Yellowknife contributed creative energy and many photographs to this project. I was also fortunate to collaborate with cinematographer Peter Dreimanis and photographer Liam Sharp in Attawapiskat. I would like to thank Michele Royle of the Yukon Department of Education for thoughtful assistance, and principal Steve Climie of Chief Zzeh Gittlit School in Old Crow and teacher Peter Menzies of Robert Service School in Dawson City for welcoming me into classrooms. Im also grateful to teacher Clair Dragoman for his beautiful photographs, and to Betty and Dan Davidson for guiding me to him.

I have appreciated the generous support of the Canada Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and their joint program, the Alberta Creative Development Initiative. I am also deeply grateful to the Edmonton Arts Council for supporting my work, and for its stellar advocacy for the arts in my hometown.

Ruth Linka of Brindle & Glass Publishing has been a constant friend and supporter of my book projects since 2002. No writer could ask for a finer publisher. I am also grateful to an inspired editor, Lynne Van Luven in Victoria; to copy editor Christine Savage; and to other staff members at Brindle & Glass, Emily Shorthouse, Tara Saracuse, and designer Pete Kohut.

Kira Dreimanis and Anne Cameron-Sadava offered personal encouragement throughout this long project, and I will remember it. Finally I would like to thank my husband, Allan Chambers, for his belief in my work, and for his patience. More than anyone, he understands how much every story matters to me.

LINDA GOYETTE is a writer, editor, and journalist with a strong interest in oral history and contemporary storytelling. Lindas non-fiction books include Edmonton in Our Own Words; Standing Together: Women Speak Out About Violence and Abuse; and The Story That Brought Me Here: To Alberta from Everywhere. Linda is also the author of three of the four Courageous Kids books: Kidmonton: True Stories of River City Kids; Rocky Mountain Kids, and Northern Kids. Linda lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Visit her website at lindagoyette.ca.

Copyright 2010 Linda Goyette

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher or a photocopying licence from Access Copyright, Toronto, Canada.

Originally published by Brindle & Glass Publishing Co. Ltd. in 2010 in softcover
978-1-897142-49-3

This electronic edition was released in 2011
ePub ISBN 978-1-926972-13-8

Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada

Edited by Lynne Van Luven
Proofread by Christine Savage
Cover: Design and Inuksuk illustration by Pete Kohut, Kid running by Kayley Mackay.

Brindle & Glass acknowledges the financial support for its publishing program from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, and the province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Learn more at www.courageouskids.ca

www.brindleandglass.com

Walter DeWolfe, age fourteen

Halfway House, Yukon, 1920

Every old miner I meet on the trail from Bonanza Creek to Forty Mile lectures me about the Iron Man of the Yukon. As if Id never heard of him!

Ive listened to the same stories a thousand times since Tuesday. As soon as an old miner catches sight of me, he thinks he has to tell me the tale all over again.

Last week Stovepipe Dan from Cheechako Hill came running toward me. He tapped old tobacco from his pipe and cleared his throat. No matter how fast I tried to duck behind the tree, I could tell he was going to grab my elbow and start talking.

Hey there, Walter! Is that you, boy? That was something, eh?

No wonder they call him the Iron Man! Crashin through the ice with his horses and his sleigh! Sinkin into the freezin cold water with his horses kickin him in the back! Climbin half-froze to the riverbank with his overalls ripped to shreds! Walkin home to his cabin all injured and with his coat and pants frozen stiff with ice.

And still he carried the Royal Mail! Nobody has guts like the Iron Man of the Yukon!

I nodded at him, smiled, and kept walking.

And who did I bump into next? Why, it was Scruffy Pete from Gold Hill. I took a deep breath as the old coot grabbed my arm.

Hey there, Walter! I knew it was you! Now what do you think about that Iron Man?

They say he was travellin along the shore between Fanning and Forty Mile when his dog team went tumblin through the ice. Hes sinkin and splashin and shoutin to his eight dogs to pull him out of the river. Pull, dogs, pull! he yells. He grabs the edge of his sled in the water, and them dogs pull for all thats in them.

They save his life! Iron Man crawls up on the riverbank, nearly froze solid. Cant even move his arms and legs. Cant even reach his matches or the knife inside his parka. No living soul around for sixteen miles. So what does he do? He climbs back on that sled and mushes on to Forty Mile! They say his feet were nothin but blisters. His frozen skin got torn off with his clothes.