Conference Speakers

Daniel Tlen – Council for Yukon Indians Address to the Yukon Legislature 1976

Daniel Tlingit Tlen is a Southern Tutchone member of the Kluane First Nation.  He served as Chair of the Council for Yukon Indians in the 1970s and was an active participant in the Yukon Land Claims negotiations. He is a musician, author, linguist and teacher living in the Yukon who actively promotes the survival and revival of Yukon Native languages and cultural traditions.

 

 Ilona Dougherty – Youth Friendliness in Government 

Ilona Dougherty co-founded Apathy Is Boring, a national non-partisan organization that uses art and technology to re-engage youth in the democratic process. She has won numerous awards including the Vince Sirois Prize, Yukon Women’s Award, and she was featured in the book Notes from Canada’s Young Activists compiled by Severn Cullis-Suzuki.

 

Terrence Cole – Alaska: Territory to Statehood 

Terrence Cole directs the UAF Office of Public History and is a Professor of History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He earned a B.A. in Geography and Northern Studies at the University of Alaska in 1976, and an MA in History in 1979. He received his PhD in American History at the University of Washington in 1983.

 

 

 Judy Gingell - Yukon Aboriginal Leaders

 Judy Gingell was a founding member of the Yukon Indian Brotherhood in 1969 and acted as its secretary/treasurer in 1973, when they presented the grievance document, “Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow,” to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien. This document became the basis of the Yukon land claim. She was elected Grand Chief of the Council for Yukon Indians in 1989 

 

 

 Ken McKinnon – Yukon Responsible Government  

Ken McKinnon was elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly for four terms between 1961-1978, and was appointed to the first Advisory Committee on Finance and later as a Member of the Executive Committee. He served as Commissioner of the Yukon from 1986-1995 and is the current Chair of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board. 

 

 Conference Chair – Linda Johnson

Linda Johnson works as a heritage researcher and consultant in Whitehorse. She served as the Yukon Archivist for 20 years, and later College Archivist at Yukon College. She was born in Ottawa and has called the Yukon her home since 1974. She received her M.A. in Northern Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007.  Her most recent publication is: With the People Who Live Here: The History of the Yukon Legislature, 1909 – 1961, published in 2009.

· Floyd McCormick is the Clerk of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. He was born in Montreal, and has been a Yukon resident since 1995. He received his PH.D. in Political Science from the University of Alberta in 1997. He has published a variety papers and numerous newspaper articles about Yukon politics and political system. His most recent paper is entitled: “Reconciling Parliamentary Privilege with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Who Gets to Decide?”

· Steven Smyth is a retired public servant with 28 years of service in the Yukon Government. He was born in Ottawa, but has lived in the North for over 40 years. He received his PH.D. in Northern Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2005. He has published a number of papers and a book on the Yukon’s constitutional development.

· Michael Pawlowski graduated from Alaska Pacific University in 2001 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. He has worked as Chief of Staff and Legislative Aid to Alaska State Representatives. In 2004 he was project manager for the Alaska Natural Gas Development. He was co-sponsor of the Student Initiative for Renewable Energy Now (SIREN), passed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks student body in April of 2009. Currently he is an MA student in the Northern Studies Program at UAF.

· Lesley Buchan was born in Whitehorse and has had an interest in history since she first took the historic W.P.& Y.R. train in the mid-60s when Santa Claus arrived via the North Pole. She has a history degree from the University of Victoria and coursework from the Masters of Archival Studies Program at UBC. She has worked at the Yukon Archives on and off since 1985.

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