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FAMILY / GENERAL BACKGROUND
| Chakotay, son of Kolopak, was born at a Federation colony on the Cardassian/Bajor frontier, of Native American descent. The writers of the canon 'Star Trek Chronology' who also wrote Encyclopaedia, conjectured his birth year as 2335. The date 2324 or 2329 appears on Chakotay's tombstone in [#171 and #172 Endgame], the only time a date is given for him is given in the show. Here is a close-up of the tombstone so you can judge the date for yourself. Although it is seen in an alternate future and his date of death would change, his date of birth of course would not change. His tombstone also seems to have the chah-mooz-ee symbol on it. |  Chakotay "meets" his father Kolopak in a vision quest, [#42 and #43 Basics] |
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| Kolopak and the young Chakotay; the latter tells his father he is going to Starfleet Academy [#25 Tattoo] | ||
Chakotay has a sister. When Operation Watson achieves the first galactic live comlink between Project Pathfinder on Earth and USS Voyager, the crew draw lots to determine the order in which they will talk live to someone back home. Chakotay tells senior staff gathered informally in the messhall in [#166 Author, Author] that he plans to talk with his sister.
One of Chakotay's ancestors was a schoolteacher in Arizona by the year 1996 [#50 and #51 Future's End]. Chakotay has a cousin in Ohio, to whom he wrote a letter in the hope that contact with the Alpha Quadrant would be established as a result of sending the Doctor to a Starfleet vessel in the Alpha Quadrant via the Hirogen communications network [#82 Message in a Bottle].
 Chakotay "meets" his grandfather in a vision quest and begs him to take his medicine but his grandfather refuses [#113 The Fight] | Chakotay has the genetic marker for a cognitive disorder known as sensory tremens. The primary symptoms are visual and auditory hallucinations. His family doctor suppressed the gene before he was born. His grandfather had the disorder but refused treatment when he started seeing and hearing things even though all treatment involved was a couple of hypospray injections a day. |
| As a child, Chakotay rebelled against his heritage. When aged 15, Chakotay reluctantly joined his father on an expedition on Earth to find the Rubber Tree People, his people's mythological ancestors: the ancient Sky Spirits created the first Rubber Tree People in their own image. During that expedition he offended his father by renouncing his people's ways and announcing that he was leaving to attend Starfleet Academy. Kolopak remarked that Chakotay had been a breech birth, the sign of a problem child. This information is given in [#25 Tattoo] |  Kolopak speaks to the village leader in the ancestral tongue, while a rebellious young Chakotay looks on, [#25 Tattoo] |
 Captain Sulu [#44 Flashback] |
Captain Sulu sponsored Chakotay's application to Starfleet Academy. Chakotay entered the Academy in 2350 and graduated in 2354. [#25 Tattoo] |
 Chakotay in Voyager's boxing holosimulation [#113 The Fight] | Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby trained Chakotay as a boxer when he was a Cadet. On board USS Voyager, by mid-2375, as depicted in [#113 The Fight], Chakotay accessed the holodeck files and at least twice ran the holographic boxing simulation designation beta-14. This consisted of a boxing ring in a hall, against a holographic Terrellian opponent. In the holoprogram, Chakotay's coach is a hologram of Boothby. Chakotay says that boxing helps him unwind. Chakotay attended the boxing match where Price Jones went twenty-three rounds with Gul Tulet in "The Knockout in the Neutral Zone", and says it was the best match he had ever seen; it is not known exactly when this match occurred but it must have been before the events in 2371 seen in [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. |
 holo-Boothby coaches Chakotay [#113 The Fight] |
 holo-Boothby helps Chakotay put his gloves on [#113 The Fight] |
| Kolopak was killed in 2371 defending his homeworld [#21 Initiations], and Chakotay at last realised the importance of his people's heritage. He took the tattoo on his forehead to honour his father and their ancestors [#25 Tattoo].
Occasionally Chakotay repeats sayings which indicate his affinity to his people and his father:
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 Source ST:M |
 [#25 Tattoo] |
In [#25 Tattoo] Chakotay located the Sky Spirits on a planet in the Delta Quadrant, having recognised this symbol. He found that they possessed advanced technology, enabling them to travel vast instellar distances; they even had cloaking technology and the ability to control the weather. |
| Chakotay is a vegetarian. According to Seska, he is fond of mushroom soup [#11 State of Flux]. In that episode, she gathers mushrooms on a planet for him, though this was to give her an alibi while she was up to nefarious activities. Back on Voyager she makes him mushroom soup and he enjoys having it until he discovers that she and several other Maquis crewmembers stole ingredients from the galley to make it. |  [#11 State Of Flux] |
 [#90 Unforgettable] | In [#90 Unforgettable], Kellin, who claims to know him well because they fell in love during a previous visit to the ship but he has forgotten because memory her people, the Ramurans, cannot remain longer than a few hours in the minds of others, tells him: "You hate carrots, fried food upsets your stomach and you refuse to eat pudding because you think it's slimy, right?" He ignores her question, so we do not know if it is true but we assume so from the context. |
 Chakotay drinks tea with Janeway in her ready room [#83 Hunters] |
Chakotay drinks coffee and tea. He drinks coffee black [#75 Scientific Method]. He drinks tea with cream (milk) and two sugars [#83 Hunters].
He prefers to drink water than, say, alcohol - he tells Valerie Archer in [#98 In the Flesh] that he prefers "to stay in control". |
| He eats meals cooked by Janeway regularly as he dines with her once a week by way of an informal meeting at which ship's business is often discussed; Janeway and Chakotay wear their uniforms to these dinners although often the jacket will be removed.
He knows that Janeway dislikes cooking: she told him, "I hate to cook." when they were marooned together on the planet they christened New Earth in [#41 Resolutions]. Chakotay did the cooking on that occasion. |
 [#129 The Voyager Conspiracy] |
Chakotay once figured out how to communicate with a Terrellian seapod [#120 and 121 Equinox]. It might be Terrellian instead (same pronunciation, slightly different spelling). One canon source states that Chakotay uses a Terrellian sparing partner in Voyager's boxing holoprogram [#113 The Fight], but they must mean Terellian, as Terrellians are a species of four-armed sentient humanoids in the Alpha Quadrant [TNG: Liaisons]. The seapod must have been an Alpha Quadrant species, but whether Terellian or Terrellian cannot be ascertained from Chakotay's statement alone.
