Gold Rush Women

Presents the stories of women who moved to the Klondike River Valley before and during the Gold Rush years

Grade 7 Up. When gold was discovered in Alaska's Klondike region, one in ten of the adventurers who stormed the territory was female. Although women were central to the commerce and social life of this rugged frontier, their pioneering roles have been downplayed or ignored for over a century. These 23 short biographies reveal the depth and variety of their experiences. Native women Kate Carmack (Tagish) and Jennie Alexander (Athabaskan) participated in the first discoveries of gold and taught vital survival skills to the white settlers. Sisters Belinda and Margaret Mulrooney established the Dome City Bank. Ethel Berry panned gold by lantern light to become one of the first Klondike millionaires. Lucille Hunter, the first African-American woman in the territory, gave birth to a daughter on the rugged trail to Dawson. These stories of triumph, tragedy, hard work, and hard luck create a vibrant and multilayered picture of early Alaskan and of American society in the 1890s. Lavish use of period pictures helps tell the story, as do boxed insets on subjects from sourdough cooking to Native life. The authors do not gloss over the realities of the time, including the effects of racism, gender roles, and sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, these portraits show what women of the era did accomplish, given the freedom of the frontier and their own abundant determination.?Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7^-12. The women who joined the gold rushes in the Yukon and Alaska between the late 1880s and the early 1900s get scant attention in the history books. This collective biography draws on primary sources to tell their stories, with fascinating historical photographs and portraits on every page. Some women went with men, some went alone. They panned for gold, ran boardinghouses and grub tents, worked as dance-hall girls and prostitutes. Ethel Berry was one of the first Klondike millionaires. Klondike Kate, a Tagish native, never got any money from the gold she helped discover. One whole section is devoted to the important roles played by Native American women in the region. Martha Louise Block, a wealthy Chicago matron, said of her adventure: "What I wanted was not shelter and safety, but liberty and opportunity." Lots of sidebars provide general information, including one newspaper article telling women what to pack and what to leave behind. With its handsome, browsable design, this will be welcome for classroom reports and for personal reading. It's a great companion to Karen Cushman's gold rush novel, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (1996). Recommend it also to adult readers. Hazel Rochman