Book Review: The Story of the Fort Yukon Missionary Couple is Told in ‘Hospital & Haven’

“Hospital and Shelter: The Life and Work of Grafton and Clara Burke in Northern Alaska”

By Mary F. Ehrlander with Hild M. Peters; University of Nebraska Press, 2023; 360 pages; $34.95.

In 1885, Presbyterian minister Sheldon Jackson, who had come to Alaska with the goal of evangelizing, realized the vastness of the newly purchased territory and the futility of trying to introduce his church there. Wishing to bring Christian teachings to the native population, he devised a plan to divide the land and people into regions and turn each over to a different Christian denomination for missionary work that would include not only religious instruction but also health care and education. In the absence of federal government interest, this was the only means available to provide the latter.

Under Jackson’s plan, the vast interior territory was given over to the Episcopal Church, leading to the arrival of Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, a titanic figure in Alaskan history. In 1904, he reached the territory and, in short order, was leading missionaries north. Among those who heeded the call was Grafton “Hap” Burke, a newly qualified physician whose training Stuck had overseen since childhood.

Burke arrived in Alaska in 1908, where Stuck assigned him to supervise the mission in the Han Gwich’in village of Fort Yukon. On his way to the small town, Burke passed through Allakaket, where he met Clara May Heintz, an adventurous young woman who had been there for a year and intended to leave after a short period of missionary work.

Burke and Heintz, in what almost seemed like a destined partnership, fell in love and married in 1910. For the next 28 years, the couple ran the St. Stephen Mission, living through and contributing to the rapid changes that swept Alaska Native communities as Americans flooded into their ancestral lands.

The story of how the Burkes interacted with a village that welcomed them and was greatly served by them is told in “Hospital & Haven,” a deeply researched history by Mary Ehrlander and Hild Peters that explores both the development and impacts of missionary work in Alaska in the early 20th century.

Among the denominations that sought to introduce Christianity to Alaska Natives, the Episcopal Church was in some ways unique. This owed much to Stuck, who greatly admired native cultures and, in addition to his desire to convert them, sought to protect them from the diseases, alcohol, and sexual appetites brought by miners, trappers, and white settlers.

The Burkes followed Stuck’s lead when they built the mission at Fort Yukon. Evangelism was certainly a priority, we learn, and services were held in both English and Gwich’in. But more importantly for both, service to the community as an example of Christian faith was paramount. No one in need, Native or white, would be turned away. Ehrlander and Peters follow the Burkes through their decades in Alaska, where they provided assistance in a variety of ways.

When the Burkes arrived, they found a village where cultural unity was strong, but where health and hygiene were lacking. The two men wasted no time in getting to work. Among their responsibilities was the protection of the children. Education to prepare them for the impending intervention of the outside world was paramount, and Clara soon became a schoolteacher. Even more demanding were children who needed homes. Among them were orphans, mixed-race children abandoned by their white fathers, and those whose parents lacked the resources to care for them properly. The Burkes took dozens of them into the mission house, where sometimes more than 25 lived temporarily or long-term. Clara, according to the authors citing letters and documents from the time, watched over them while tirelessly helping Hap with his chores.

Much of Hap’s work focused on medical aid. With the help of the tireless Stuck and with funding from the Church’s National Mission Fund, he built and opened St. Stephen’s Hospital (later renamed Hudson Stuck Memorial Hospital after the archdeacon’s death in 1920), the only hospital accepting Aboriginal patients along a 1,300-kilometre stretch of the Yukon River.

He had to deal with deadly epidemics that devastated Alaska Native settlements. Influenza, measles, and smallpox were sometimes rampant, and tuberculosis rates were very high. All of these diseases were leading causes of death. Hunger due to increased pressure on food supplies by white settlers was also widespread. Alcohol amplified the problems. In some places, mortality rates reached 50 percent. By 1911, Native mortality rates in the Yukon drainage region exceeded birth rates. All of this led to intergenerational trauma that was not recognized until decades later. “To mitigate these threats to the lives and well-being of Alaska Natives,” the authors write, “Episcopal missionaries encouraged the maintenance of traditional lifestyles, with health-related adaptations and avoidance of alcohol and corrupting outside influences.”

Hap also cared for victims of gunshot wounds, frostbite, and other injuries, as well as those with chronic illnesses, health-related diseases, and bacterial infections. He received only minimal compensation from the Church for his efforts. And according to the mission rules, Clara, as his wife, received nothing. The mission itself was perpetually underfunded, and more than once Hap had to dig into his own pocket to cover expenses. They worked purely out of devotion and nothing else.

The Burkes themselves became familiar with the native ways of life and integrated so deeply into the community that they became well-liked. But the authors point out that by their very presence, they brought about change. Although unintentional, the Western customs they brought with them inevitably led the Gwich’in people to question whether their own culture was inferior. Disease and sanitation problems were compounded by the consolidation of a people who had traditionally moved across the land into a single permanent settlement. And education alienated children from their heritage.

Overall, however, the Burkes were invaluable to Fort Yukon, where they are still fondly remembered. As the authors point out in the final line of this fascinating study of the role of missions in Alaska after the gold rush, “Hap and Clara chose to join the Gwich’in people and did real mission work, saving lives.”

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