One of the most remarkable volunteers of all was “Grizzly Bear” Jim Christie. James Murdoch Christie was born in Perthshire, Scotland, on October 22, 1867. When he joined the stampede to the Klondike in 1898, he had been farming in Carman, Manitoba. Christie remained in the Yukon after the gold rush, later becoming a guide and professional hunter, but his extraordinary story began in late October 1909, when he and partner George Crisfield were trapping on the Rogue River, a remote tributary of the Stewart River. Christie had been tracking a large grizzly bear that had disturbed one of their caches. A marauding grizzly bear at that time of year is never good news. The bear surprised him as he climbed up a snow-covered riverbank, and at a range of 30 metres, he got off one shot from his Ross rifle, which hit the bear in the chest, and a second round to the head, just before the bear was upon him. Christie tried to escape the charging grizzly, but to no avail.
Jim “Grizzly Bear” Christie was one of the heroic figures of the Yukon. He survived a vicious bear attack in 1909 to become a decorated hero during World War I. PPCLI Museum and Archives
The grizzly took Christie’s head into his powerful jaws and began to crush his skull. Christie’s jaw and cheekbone were crushed, his skull was fractured and his scalp was ripped away from his head, drenching the snow with his blood. One eye was blinded. To protect himself, Christie thrust his right arm into the angry bear’s maw, and it too was crushed. Christie might not have survived had the bear continued its attack, but the bullets finally took effect and the beast rolled over, lifeless.
Christie was in terrible shape. He was bleeding profusely, and his broken jaw hung open. He wrapped his jacket around his head to hold the fractured jawbone in place and staggered half-blinded toward his cabin, which was 11 kilometres away. By force of will, he overcame the impulse to give up and lie down in a snowbank and freeze to death. Leaving a trail of blood behind him, he struggled forward. It took him an hour to stagger and crawl the last kilometre to the cabin. Crisfield was not there, so Christie kept a fire going despite being half-delirious, until his partner returned. Crisfield barely recognized his mutilated partner at first. After a couple of days’ rest, Crisfield strapped Christie into a sled and headed to Lansing, the nearest trading post, on the Stewart River. Wrapped in his blood-soaked clothing, Christie endured in silence the pain from every bump and jolt on the four-day journey.
For two months, J.E Ferrell, the trader, and his wife (a former nurse) tended to Christie, slowly nursing him back to health. Ferrell even trimmed the jagged edges of Christie’s scalp wounds as the flap of skin began to heal. Eventually, Christie was fit enough for the journey to Dawson by dog team. He, Ferrell and Crisfield left Lansing on New Year’s Day. Christie even insisted on doing much of the physical work on the journey to Mayo, and then on to Dawson City, where he arrived in mid-January.
By this time, his jaw had healed improperly, so he could not chew solid food and was reduced to consuming a liquid diet. The staff of St. Mary’s Hospital in Dawson could do nothing for him, so he went to Victoria, where surgeon Dr. C.M. Jones reset his arm and his jaw, and reconstructed his face over the course of several operations. Dr. Jones told Christie: “You have no business to be alive.” Much of the credit for Christie’s recovery goes to the Ferrells, who tended him for so many weeks.25 Within months, he was back in the Yukon.
When war was declared August 4, 1914, Christie knew he wanted to serve, and signed up in Ottawa only three weeks later. The doctor’s physical examination noted the scars on his head from the grizzly attack five years before. If he had not lied about his age, he would never have been accepted into the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He listed his age as thirty-nine years, ten months, but in fact he was seven years older than that.26 He joined Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) and saw considerable action as a scout and sniper in France.
The federal government made a commitment to provide a force of Canadian soldiers to aid the British, so the need for volunteers was urgent. It quickly established procedures by which civil servants could enlist, with a job guarantee when they returned after the war. Notice was received that a new war tax would be imposed on tobacco products, alcohol, coffee, sugar and confections containing sugar. Commissioner Black received a letter from a miner on Independence Creek pointing out that miners and prospectors who enlisted for overseas duty would be unable to fulfill their annual assessment to keep their claims in good standing, and would thus lose their claims. Although this was beyond the powers of the commissioner to rectify, Dr. Thompson introduced the issue in parliament and was able to confirm, just six weeks later, that he had been successful in getting the government to consent to the proposal that: “In case of mining leases in the West, including Yukon, held by men who are enlisting to go to the front, they shall be exempt from payment of the leases while absent at war.”27
The territorial government also placed restrictions on the actions of German and Austro-Hungarian nationals, who were required to register with the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. The collector of customs was instructed to compile names, occupations, places of employment, ages and religions for these individuals. Note was made of any of those expressing pro-German sentiments, and restrictions were placed on their movement. None expressing pro-German sentiments would be employed in the public service in the territory, and any German attempting to leave the territory would be arrested. Superintendent Moodie of the Mounted Police hastily added that while Germans remained where they were and were neutral, they would be afforded the same protection under the law as any other person in Canada.28
Joe Boyle, the manager of the Canadian Klondyke Mining Company, posted a notice stating that any employees expressing pro-German sentiments, or those who failed to report anyone doing so, would be fired.29 The territorial government later instituted a similar policy. Pro-German magazines and newspapers were banned from the mail. Germans on the American side of the border in the nearby Fortymile district continued to voice their pro-German sentiments, as long as America remained neutral, but doing so often led to a “rap on the nose.”
On the Home Front
while patriotic men were lining up to volunteer, the entire community geared up to support the war effort. The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) would become the pivotal organization for raising funds for the war effort. The purposes of the IODE were, among others, to “foster a bond of union among the women and children of the [British] Empire,” and “to provide an efficient organization by which prompt and united action may be taken… when such action was desired.”30 In other words, the IODE was meant to do good deeds but honour the British Empire, and its history, as well.
Martha Black (seated far right) and ladies of the IODE in the sun room in Government House, making pyjamas for the soldiers serving overseas. Howard Firth
The first chapter of the order was established in the Yukon on March 6, 1913, when Martha Black formed the George M. Dawson chapter at a meeting in Government House in Dawson City. Until the war started, the activities of the order were mostly social, along with hosting a few charity events and handing out prizes for essays written by the public school children. After the war began, the student essays were written on patriotic subjects.
A second chapter, the Fitzgerald chapter, was created less than a year later, on January 17, 1914. It was named in honour of a member of the Mounted Police who perished on a patrol from Fort McPherson to Dawson in 1911.31
Three more chapters followed: the Klondike chapter on January 29, 1915; the Martha Munger Black chapter, of Dawson City, on February 1, 1916; and a chapter in Whitehorse, established on October 21, 1914, with Mrs. Phelps, wife of Willard Phelps, lawyer and member of the territorial council, as its first regent. All were active in organizing events and raising funds for patriotic purposes during the war.
As soon as war was declared, the national IODE organization vowed to raise $100,000 for the purchase of a hospital ship. On August 7, Martha Black, the regent of the George M. Dawson chapter, received