Jessie Joe
Ta’ana
1910–2004
Ms. Jessie Joe was born around Christmas time in 1910 at Lynx City. Her traditional Kajằt (Crow) clan name is Ta’ana. She is the daughter of K’akhyųąmą and Copper Joe (Dhädatà). Her mother died when she was a baby. She is the youngest of five children. After her mother died, her father took her and her brother Jimmy Joe to live with their aunt at Lynx City and took Kitty, Mary Jacquot and Copper Lily Johnson back to the White River area where her grandfather Copper Chief had a house.
When she was around three years old her father came back for her and her brother and took them to Champagne to meet the rest of her sisters. They stayed there for one year and then moved back to the White River area. Jessie and her brother Jimmy lived, hunted and trapped around that area for many years. After the Alaska Highway was built they moved to the Landing. That was what Burwash was called a long time ago, before it became Burwash Landing when the Jacquot brothers opened a trading post.
Ta’ana Jessie Joe passed away on April 30, 2004, in her ninety-third year.