Fictions of the Last Frontier

• Main Author: Hu Pegues, Juliana
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Carolina Press 2020
• Subjects: tlingit; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656182.003.0003

The gold rush era transformed Alaska, in terms of economic development and by ushering in the first major wave of settlers. Stories of the gold rush are most often associated with Alaska and its identification as the “last frontier.” Chapter 2 focuses on the folklore figure China Joe, who appears in two tales, widely reiterated from the late 1800s to the present: in his generous role as a baker who sustains starving prospectors during a winter freeze, and also as the only Chinese who is allowed to stay in Alaska when the Chinese working in a nearby mine are driven out. The story of China Joe’s exceptional benevolence is undermined by reading the driving out of Chinese in juxtaposition to the lynching of three Tlingit men—the two events taking place within three years of each other in the same Alaskan mining town.