Political Quotes

“We have a history, as I have said, of pioneering women, women who perhaps have done the unexpected, who have reached out into areas that we would not anticipate, at a time we would not anticipate, women such as Kate Carmack, who is especially important in Alaska's history. Kate was an Athabascan woman who married an American trader. She is actually credited with discovering the first gold in Bonanza Creek, which started the Alaska gold rush in 1896. As the story is told, when Kate first discovered the gold, it was frozen in the mud. Kate and her husband did not have the grub stake, if you will. They did not have the cash necessary to do the digout that winter. So they literally were sitting on the largest gold discovery in history. Kate's resourcefulness as a skin sower and her skill as an outdoorsman earned enough cash for the family to pull together that grub stake to hit 'pay dirt' when the ground thawed the next spring. When we think of women like Kate Carmack in Alaska, who braved some pretty tough, some pretty difficult conditions, I ask the Senator from Maine if she has any similar stories from her State?”