Walter Harper

Walter Harper. A Man of Two Worlds. , Walter Harper was the son of the Koyukon Athabascan (Dena') woman Seentaána (Jenny), and the Irish prospector and trader Arthur Harper. He was born in 1892 at Nuchalawoyya, near Tanana, as the gold rush era was transforming Alaska. Jenny and Arthur separated when Walter was young, and his mother raised him in the Dena' tradition, hunting, fishing, and speaking Denaakk'e (Koyukon). At an early age, Walter's resilience shone in his strong sense of purpose., When Walter was 17 and already a skilled outdoorsman, the Episcopal Archdeacon Hudson Stuck hired him as his trail guide, riverboat pilot, and interpreter. The two developed a father-son relationship as they traveled among mission sites, Native villages, and mining camps in Alaska's Interior. Stuck guided Walter's education in Western culture while Walter steadily improved his subsistence skills. When Stuck began planning to climb Denali, he knew that Harper's participation in the quest would be vital to its success. His intuition proved correct., After the historic 1913 ascent of Denali, Walter attended school in Massachusetts for three years. He then returned to Alaska to work with Stuck while studying for college. He planned to become a doctor and missionary in his Native homeland. However, just seven weeks after he married Frances Wells, they drowned when the Princess Sophia sank in October 1918. Harper's legacy lies in his example of a life of courage and excellence., "He was the best shot, the best dog-driver, the best hand with any sort of boat from a birch bark canoe to a power launch, the most resourceful and capable man I have known in Alaska." , -Hudson Stuck (1918), [Photo captions, clockwise from bottom left portrait, read] , . Walter attended Mount Hermon School for Boys in Massachusetts from 1913 to 1916. In addition to furthering his education, he enjoyed many cultural experiences while traveling with Hudson Stuck., . An avid hunter with an enormous appetite for wild game, Walter wrote on Denali: "Johnnie and I went down to base-camp this morning. We stayed there feasting on the choicest parts of the caribou." (April 20, 1913), . The Reverend William Thomas of Ohio, whom Archdeacon Stuck had inspired to travel to Alaska, and Walter Harper aboard the Pelican, Summer 1916, on the Yukon River., . Younger boys looked up to the friendly and athletic Harper. Here he holds Timothy, another student at St. Mark's Mission.