 His mother was Mrs. Elizabeth Lawson (d. 1903), who held the hereditary name Diiks and was also known as Elizabeth Diex.Alfred was of mixed Native and white ancestry, his father having been Félix Dudoire/Dudouaire, a French Canadian tailor in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Simpson.He succeeded to his maternal uncle Paul Sgagweet's hereditary name-title Sgagweet in 1887 upon his uncle's death, in accordance with the rules of matrilineal succession.