December 19, 2014

YUKON

A Yukon News Christmas Special

StorieS by

Photo by Alistair Maitland

Yukon news staff AdditionAl StorieS by:

keith hallidaY ione Christensen leighann ChalYkoff MiChele genest MiChael gates

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Coming together in Carcross for Christmas Whether you’ve got a little or a lot, ’tis the season for sharing with family and friends.

By Jacqueline Ronson rowing up in the 1940s in Carcross, Annie Auston and her brothers and cousins made their own fun.

The girls made dollhouses from sticks and cutout paper dolls from department store catalogues.

The boys made guns, bows and arrows from willow and string.

“That’s what we used to use, in the early days,” says Auston, now 76.

“Didn’t have all the toys and everything, like they do now.”

At Christmas time, too, everything was homemade.

“We’d get slippers and we’d get knitted socks and scarves and knitted gloves, those kind of things.

“And sometimes it was little fancy things like necklaces and stuff like that.”

The kids were in charge of decorating the Christmas tree with ornaments and garlands made of crepe paper.

The whole community came together that time of year, says Auston.

There would always be a big bonfire and wiener roast, and the kids would skate on the frozen lagoon.

Auston remembers being pulled around on the ice by the bigger kids, who were on skates.

“They’d pull us around on the sleigh and then they’d let us go. The sleigh would circle around and we’d go ‘Wheeeeee!’”

Mom always cooked a turkey for Christmas dinner, and a fruit cake for dessert.

You’d invite anyone who might not have somewhere to go for dinner, so you’d never quite know who would show up.

“There was always extra, like knitted socks and things like that, so that they would get something too,” Auston remembers.

One year at age maybe six or seven, Auston got a very special gift, ordered from a catalogue.

It was a pair of toy monkeys in little outfits that strap to bicycle spokes so their arms and legs would flail when the wheels turned.

“Which was really cute,” says Auston.

But she had two and her cousin had none.

My mom said, ‘Annie,’ – one of my cousins there didn’t have anything – and she said, ‘Annie, I think what you should do, because you’ve got two of them, I don’t think

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

Annie Auston, a member of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, celebrated her early Christmases surrounded by friends, family and homemade gifts in Carcross.

you need two.

“She said what do you think about giving one up for your cousin there, so your cousin can have something at Christmas, too?”

That’s what Christmas time was about – sharing and being together, Auston says.

“The community used to come together quite a bit in the early days.”

That got lost, a little bit, somewhere along the way. But its starting to come back now, she says.

Auston is the oldest of her family, and her brothers still come every year for a big family Christmas dinner.

This year she’s already ordered her turkey from a cousin’s organic farm, near Takhini Hot Springs.

Everyone chips in to help with the cooking and the cleaning.

And if there are any stray distant cousins in town without a place to go, they’re welcome, too.

“Come on down, join the rest of the family,” says Auston.

There will be presents for everyone.

“I still always have extra things, maybe a box of chocolates or a box of cookies or something.”

Contact Jacqueline Ronson at jronson@yukon-news.com

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Happy Holidays

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Myles Dolphin/Yukon News

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A different kind of Christmas list

By Keith Halliday sually Christmas lists are about what you want. As a father of four, I’ve seen some doozies over the years.

This year, however, I’m going to do a different kind of Yukon Christmas list: what I’m going to do this festive season.

• Shovel a sourdough’s driveway, and not tell them who did it. Also, try to figure out something nice to do for the sourdoughs I know who have sensibly downsized into condos and don’t have driveways anymore.

• Go skating on a Yukon lake, and not complain if I have to help shovel it.

• Get a tree that is not twice as high as my living room, and not make any species-ist comments if the children choose a lodgepole pine instead of a spruce (a topic on which I have strong feelings).

• Attempt to make fruitcake with my children, using dried fruit that is as hard and Yukon-like as possible, and mail it to victims Outside.

• Break my personal best on the 10-kilometre crosscountry ski loop at Mount McIntyre.

• Give a bottle of local hootch, Yukon Shine gin to

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be precise, to some Yukoner who has delighted me with a random act of kindness this year. And give another bottle to a cheechako pining for home at Christmastime.

• Not go carolling, to protect the ears of my neighbours.

(I was asked not to participate in my elementary school class’s production of Winter Wonderland due to the quality of my singing).

• Write a cheque to a local charity that does good work.

(Maybe split it between a couple that will be getting their grants cut by the scrooges on city council).

• Break the “no TV” rule and binge-watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the old-school version) with my family followed by Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation. This one will probably include a cheering seasonal beverage.

• Pass my role as carver of the roast beast to one of my children and teach them how to do it properly, using my grandfather’s carving knife and fork with the folding safety-bar.

And one more thing: Give thanks that my family and I live in such a wonderful place. Happy Christmas to all.

Keith Halliday is a Yukon economist and author.

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

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When Santa brought a litter of sled dogs Myles Dolphin hen Gaetan Pierrard steps out of the cabin he built with his own hands, 14 pairs of ears perk up.

In the heart of the Mendenhall subdivision, among the densely packed evergreen forest, his eager sled dogs emerge from their kennels and howl in anticipation.

Standing on their hind legs and held back by strong chains, they’re raring to go.

One by one, he unties them and brings them to their respective harnesses.

Despite the cacophony, Pierrard never has to raise his voice to get their attention.

Aged between two and four years old, the Alaskan huskies are affectionate animals with luxurious coats and hypnotic blue eyes.

As soon as Pierrard says “ready,” there is an eerie silence and suddenly they’re off in unison, pulling their master on an idling ATV. The 38-year-old musher trains his dogs a few times a week leading up to the Yukon Quest 300, a race in which

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Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

Gaetan Pierrard of Mendenhall stands with Bunny, one of six sled dogs born on Christmas morning. He hopes to race his team in the Yukon Quest next year.

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he finished 10th this year.

Their endurance is so remarkable that Pierrard thinks they could run seven or eight hours in a row, if they had to.

Born in Belgium, Pierrard came to Canada in 2002 and hitchhiked across the country.

He discovered sled dogs on his way south from Inuvik, when he made a pit stop in Dawson City.

He fell in love with the animals and came back to Canada permanently in 2007, becoming a dog handler for Sebastian Schnuelle, winner of the 2009 Yukon Quest.

“It made sense to come to the Yukon,” he says.

One Christmas Day, Pierrard discovered he had a litter of six sled puppies.

While Pierrard isn’t a religious person, he thought it would be fun to give some names belonging to nativity characters. So there’s Jay (Jesus), Jo (Joseph) and Mad (Mary Magdalene), along with Bunny, Cute and Ninie.

Jay, who has since passed on, was a powerful dog who exuded happiness. “He was able to jump into my arms to cuddle,” Pierrard says.

Shortly before he passed away he was able to help another of Pierrard’s dogs have puppies. Pierrard called that litter of seven dogs the resurrection.

Cute is a great lead dog who can often be found playing with her brother, Jo.

Merry

Christmas from

“She trusted me right from the start,” Pierrard says.

“When she was a puppy she’d sleep and cuddle like there was no tomorrow.”

Mad is goofy while Ninie, named after the nickname given to Pierrard’s little sister when they were growing up, “is the alpha of the group.”

Bunny is more affectionate than the other dogs. The name actually comes from “ebony” because she was completely black at birth.

Pierrard says he enjoys being alone with his dogs in the bush and watching them grow.

“All 14 of these dogs are mine, I’ve trained them myself.

They listen really well but it takes time for them to learn the difference between work and play.”

Pierrard often puts younger dogs behind older ones, so they can learn to follow his commands.

Next year, his youngest dogs will be three years old, an ideal age to take part in the Yukon Quest.

Pierrard has been involved in the race before. He was the assistant race manager during this year’s edition.

He thinks the dogs will perform well based on their genes.

“I breeded them from dogs who had already taken part in the Yukon Quest,” he says.

“And while genes aren’t everything, it certainly helps.”

Contact Myles Dolphin at myles@yukon-news.com

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An ornament hangs from a Christmas tree on display in the Yukon government building for Northwestel’s Festival of Trees.

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

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Giving can be its own gift

By Ashley Joannou s the shoppers around him go about their everyday business, Ted Garland stands next to the Salvation Army kettle as it slowly fills with donations.

This annual job is as much of a Christmas tradition for him as eggnog, carols, and Christmas cake might be for others.

Garland has volunteered to man a Christmas kettle for at least the last decade.

He smiles at everyone who walks past, whether they give or not.

“Lots of people, they might not give when they go by me, but they’ve already given three times before they hit the store or they may have sent in a big cheque. So I don’t judge anybody,” he says.

A retired teacher, Garland came up to the Yukon in 1973 to paddle a canoe trip. He never left.

“This is home,” he says.

Garland is one of about 30 volunteers. Together, they help watch over the round, clear kettles at four locations in Whitehorse – Walmart, Canadian Tire, the liquor store and Superstore.

A

Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

Ted Garland with the Salvation Army kettle at the liquor store in Whitehorse.

The campaign runs each week from Wednesday until Saturday until Christmas Eve. Garland often volunteers for a few hours each of those days.

“I just think there’s a huge need, it’s growing every year.

I just do this a few days a week for a few weeks. But there are other people that are doing it full time, year-round,” he says.

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“So I guess I feel like I’m helping the helpers.”

For the Yukon Salvation Army’s captain, Shannon Howard, that help is critical. All money collected through the kettle campaign stays in the Yukon. Howard estimates these funds help cover about 15 per cent of the Sally Ann’s yearly budget.

The goal is to raise $65,000 a year through the kettles and another $85,000 through a mail campaign that asks for donations.

The cash covers costs at the Whitehorse shelter with its 14 beds, and its 16 overflow mats that get pulled out once the beds are full – as they are every night of the winter. “(The money) goes for our sleeping, it also goes for our meals. We have about 5,000 meals a month that we’re serving,” she says. It also helps ensure the lights and furnace stay on.

The Christmas kettles have been a fixture around North America for more than a century. According to lore, the first kettle was put out in 1891 by Captain Joseph McFee in San Francisco.

As the story goes, McFee was trying to raise money for the poor and thought back to his early years in Liverpool, England. There, he remembered seeing a large kettle where passengers of boats that docked nearby were able to toss coins to help the poor.

Using that model, he set up a kettle of his own to cover the costs of Christmas dinner for those in need.

The first time a kettle was used in Canada was in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1906. It’s estimated kettles showed up in the Yukon in 1978.

Garland encourages anyone interested to volunteer, “both for the sake of Sally Ann – there’s lots of shifts left to cover – and also I just find it very gratifying.”

“All we really look for is someone that has a smile on their face who can say Merry Christmas.”

Contact Ashley Joannou at ashleyj@yukon-news.com

Tammie and I send you warm Christmas greetings and wishes for a beautiful holiday surrounded by family and friends.

May the spirit of peace, happiness and generosity grace your home during this season and into the New Year.

Darrell Pasloski, Premier

Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Government

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

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Christmas memories of Fort Selkirk

By Ione Christensen arrived in Fort Selkirk in June of 1935 when I was just 19 months old. We left the town in August of 1949 when it closed due to the Dawson-to-Mayo highway making the steamboats obsolete.

Of the 14 Christmases we had there, I was away for six of them because of schooling: two in Dawson City and four in a boarding school on Vancouver Island. But the important years, the years when I still believed in Santa and his reindeer, were all spent in Selkirk.

Being a very small community, Christmas dinner was a never-ending feast, starting at one home and moving each and every night. Anywhere from three to five turkey dinners were consumed. Lots of wood-splitting and running with the dog team followed to work off this week of gluttony.

All the gifts would have come on the last boat of the season, ordered with care from the Eaton’s catalogue, then hidden away till Dec. 25.

The week before Christmas, Dad, Mom and I would take one of the dogs with the small toboggan and head out in search of the perfect tree. It would be a big one and once home it was hauled into the kitchen to thaw.

In the morning, all the snow and ice having melted, the kitchen floor was swimming with water and spruce needles. But the rich, wonderful smell of the spruce filled the house and set the stage for the coming week of festivities.

Then the decorating. Without electricity, there were no lights. Dad would not allow candles, and for good reason: fire was an ever-present threat and we did not need a saprich tree flaming up in the living room. I helped to make popcorn and paper chains and we adorned the tree with tinsel, glass balls and other special decorations, topped

I

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Fireworks Kits Cherry Bomb Boxes Roman Candles Floral Shells Sound Shells Mines ★ Barrages Chinese Flying Lanterns Vertical Cakes Comets

Submitted photo/Yukon News

Martha Cameron, her dog Blackie and Ione Christensen head out to find a Christmas tree.

off with an angel. Dad would lift me to make that final placement.

Then it was Christmas Eve. Had I been a good girl all year? Well, it all depended on what Santa would consider a transgression. Having gone through this agonizing exercise, Mom and Dad would agree that, yes, Santa would most likely come, and he would have at least part of my rather extensive list to leave under the tree.

Then Dad would help me prepare a big cup of hot cocoa and a cookie to leave for Santa. Sleep was a long time coming but at last I would drift off to dream land. Mom and Dad could then get on with the task of wrapping and putting gifts under the tree.

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throughout the land. I was up at 5 a.m. First I would find that Santa had enjoyed my cocoa and left a quarter under the cup to show his appreciation. Then, because I could not open any gifts till both Mom and Dad were up, I would ask in a very loud voice, “Are you awake?”

Each year I could count on Santa bringing me a doll with hand-knit clothes. (Mother so wanted a little girl who liked dolls, but I would rather have a toy gun, or storybooks about dogs and horses, or even a toy horse.

I did so want a real horse, but I knew that even Santa couldn’t manage that.)

Christmas was the time of year all the Selkirk First Nation residents would come into town to sell fur, stock up on needed supplies for the trapline and have a big Christmas feast at the chief’s home. There would be a dance and everyone was invited. Depending on the weather this would be just before the 25th or just after.

While the home was one of the bigger ones in town it was still full to overflowing, but an event looked forward to by all.

Christmas was a wonderful break at the darkest and coldest time of year. Temperatures of -45 to -50 Celsius were more the norm than the exception, and as they said, “hard on the old woodpile.” It was a time of getting together in friendship, sharing stories and eating wonderful food.

It would be very rare for any alcohol to be served. Not that people didn’t drink, but it was just not available, and what we had was used for emergencies only, like the rum when Dad had to pull a tooth.

Dinner started with shrimp in a spicy tomato aspic.

There were no greens for salads. The main course would be mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, (just maybe some canned peas,) Yukon cranberry sauce, a large turkey from Burns Meat Company in Whitehorse, lots of wonderful spicy dressing and brown, rich gravy. Then the dessert, a steamed plum pudding, which had been aging for the last two months, served with a white hard sauce, flavoured either with brandy or rum and then covered in a hot rum sauce. For those who still had an empty space, there was shortbread and fruitcake.

After all this wonderful food, I can remember laying

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Submitted photo/Yukon News

The Christmas tree at the Cameron house. The two little owl ornaments are still being used today.

on the rug in the front room, the fire crackling, the room warm, cosy and filled with happy conversation. I would then drift off to sleep and Mom or Dad would carry me off to bed.

Ione Christensen has served as a justice of the peace, a judge of the juvenile court, the mayor of Whitehorse, the commissioner of the Yukon and as a Canadian senator, among other roles in public life.

Holiday Hours: Christmas EvE - DEC 24 - 8am - 4pm Christmas Day - DEC 25 - ClosED Boxing Day - DEC 26 - ClosED nEw yEars EvE - DEC 31 - 8am - 4pm nEw yEars Day - Jan 1 - ClosED

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17

Tourtière for 10

By Michele Genest or our Parksville tourtière we made a lot of pastry and filling, because we weren’t sure what we were doing, and ended up with one 24-cup (6-L) tourtiere, three nine-inch (22.5-cm) pies and two five-inch (13-cm) square singleserving pies. That’s a ton of tourtière!

Here I’m going to provide the recipe for just the 24-cup (6-L) amount of pastry and filling, more reasonable for first-timers.

F

La pâté Instead of using commercial lard Cathie Archbould/Harbour Publishing, 2014 I rendered pork fat from a local pig we’d purchased in Whitehorse in the 2. Combine egg yolk and milk and stir into dough with fall – this was time-consuming but rewarding. a fork just until it holds together.

The rendered fat was beautiful: snowy white, 3. Shape dough into a rough ball, cover with plastic and aromatic and good enough to spread on toast. refrigerate at least one hour. You can do this step the day before you make the tourtière.

5 cups (1.2 L) All- purpose flour 1 Tbsp (15 mL) Baking powder 2 tsp (10 mL) Salt 1 ½ Tbsp (22 mL) Brown sugar 1 lb (455 gr) Rendered pork fat or

commercial lard, chilled 1 Egg yolk ½ cup (125 mL) Milk 1. Whisk together dry ingredients. Cut pork fat into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until the fat pieces are the size of peas and there are some larger pieces here and there.

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Filling The right amount of stock to use was disputed in Parksville. My brother Paul felt the pie could have used a touch more. Marlynn’s instructions were to fill the stock up to within about 1⁄2 inch of the top of the filling, but other cooks cover the meat. Friends who grew up near Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean say the idea is for the stock to be fully absorbed by the time the tourtière is cooked. So I’ve stuck with what we did.

1 ½ lbs (680 gr) Beef (preferably a marbled cut) 1 ½ lbs (680 gr) Pork tenderloin (preferably with

some fat attached)

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1 lb (455 gr) 8 oz (225 gr)

2

2 Tbsp (30 mL)

1 tsp (5 mL) 2 lbs (910 gr) 1 tsp (5 mL) 3 cups (710 mL) 1

Moose Grouse breast, duck leg or breast, or chicken legs or breast, removed from the bone Yellow onions, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced Fresh thyme, leaves removed from stems (or 1 Tbsp/15 mL dried) Ground black pepper Russet potatoes Salt Beef, bison or moose stock Egg, beaten (for brushing)

1. Cut meat into 3⁄4-inch (2-cm) cubes and combine with onion, garlic and thyme. Add ground black pepper and refrigerate eight hours or overnight.

2. When ready to assemble, preheat oven to 400F (205C) and grease a covered 24-cup (6-L) roasting pan or Dutch oven. Remove the dough from the fridge about 10 minutes before you’re going to roll it out.

3. Peel potatoes, wash, dry and dice into 3⁄4-inch (2cm) cubes. Combine with meat mixture and add salt.

4. Cut off one quarter of the dough. Roll out the larger piece on parchment paper. Check the size against your cooking vessel to make sure you’ll have enough.

5. When it is large enough to line the bottom and sides with some overhang, flour the top of the dough so that it won’t stick to itself. With a spatula, loosen any dough that might be stuck to the counter, and fold the dough into thirds, like an envelope.

6. Drape the envelope of dough crosswise over the pan.

Peel the parchment paper from the outside of the dough envelope. You’ll need help to lift the dough

briefly while you peel the paper from the underside, and then you’ll need to lift the uppermost flap of dough to unpeel the parchment paper underneath.

7. Let the folded envelope settle gently into the pan, then unfold the flaps. The entire piece of dough will now be sitting loosely in the pan. Press dough gently into the bottom and sides of the pan and patch any holes. Cut the overhanging pieces so that there’s just a lip remaining over the rim of the pan.

8. Fill the pastry with the meat and potato mixture, leaving an inch (2.5 cm) of headroom at the top.

Pour stock over until it reaches 1⁄2 inch (1 cm) below the top of the filling.

9. Roll out the remaining piece of pastry to fit the top of the pan. Lay it over the meat mixture. Fold the overhanging pasty over the top, making a tight seal.

10. Brush pastry with the beaten egg and cut three or four vents in the pastry to allow steam to escape.

11. Cover pan with lid and bake for 1 hour. Reduce heat to 300F (150C) and bake for another 2 hours, then reduce again to 275F (135C) and bake for another 2 hours. Remove lid and bake for a final hour, for a total baking time of 6 hours.

12. Let the tourtiere sit for 20 minutes before serving to allow juices to fully absorb. Serve at the table so everyone can enjoy the magic moment when the interior is revealed.

Makes 10 servings.

From Michele Genest’s The Boreal Feast: A Culinary Journey through the North (Harbour Publishing).

Genest lives in Whitehorse and is passionate about using northern ingredients in her cooking.

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Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

Amberley Cooke makes her own Christmas decorations at YuKonstruct.

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Egg liqueur and boreal biscuits

By Michele Genest

Egg liqueur hose who love advocaat or Eierlikor will recognize this old favourite, though generally the eggs come from chickens, not ducks.

Here the liqueur is spiced with a splash of birch syrup and a scrape of vanilla. Choose amber rum for the best results – darker rum will overtake the fresh, custardy flavour. This a great substitute for eggnog, but not to be taken in the same quantities. Too rich!

T

5 (chicken) Egg yolks ½ cup (125 mL) Sugar ½ cup (125 mL) Whipping cream ½-inch (1.25-cm) Length of vanilla pod, sliced in two 1 tsp (5 mL) Birch syrup ½ cup (125 mL) Good quality amber rum 1. Beat egg yolks and sugar in small bowl until thick and light.

2. Beat in cream.

3. Scrape vanilla seeds into the mixture and add the birch syrup.

4. Pour mixture into top of double boiler. Cook over simmering water until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Don’t let it boil or it will curdle.

5. Remove from heat and strain. Pour in the rum and mix well.

6. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in a sealed bottle or jar. Let sit for a day to allow flavours to blend. Serve in small glasses for a holiday treat.

Johan Agrell’s Kolakakor ½ cup (125 mL) Butter ¼ cup (60 mL) Sugar 1 Tbsp (15 mL) Birch syrup ½ tsp (2.5 mL) Baking soda 1 cup (250 mL) plus 2 Tbsp (30 mL) Flour 1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Sift dry ingredients together.

4. Add birch syrup to butter mixture. Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, using your hands as necessary to form a ball.

5. Transfer dough onto a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and shape into a rough 10-inch (25-cm) log.

Wrap log and roll with your hands until rounded.

Unwrap and slice into about 20 pieces. Arrange pieces on baking sheet.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Makes 20 cookies.

Merry Christmas

and all the best for the New Year

Makes about two cups (475 mL). Will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge.

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM

Senator Daniel Lang 206 Main St • Whitehorse • 456-4228 Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

1-800-267-7362 daniel.lang@sen.parl.gc.ca

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Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

There’s no place like

Home for the Holidays

414 Baxter Street, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2T5 Phone: 867-668-6068 | Fax: 867-668-6052 Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

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Alistair Maitland/Yukon News

A view of Grey Mountain.

from the Staff & Management of

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Mon. to Sat. 9am to 6pm • Christmas Eve & New Year’s Eve closed at 4pm Closed Boxing Day • 205 Black Street (in the Black Street Centre)

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To All of Our Customers

Merry Christmas

Give the gift that’s KFC Gift Cards always in good taste. available now.

2230 2nd Avenue Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Seasons Greetings

from Board of Directors at the Yukon Chamber of Mines www.yukonminers.ca

from the

Council of Yukon First Nations

Wishing you & your families Good Health & Happiness in the New Year.

Grand Chief Ruth Massie, Executive Office, Education, Finance & Administration, Circumpolar Relations, Natural Resources & Environment, Self Government Secretariat, Justice, Health & Social and Yukon Native Language Centre.

Council of Yukon First Nations

Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

from all of us at

Yukon Council on disABILITY 2-211 Wood Street Whitehorse, YT Y1A 2E4 Phone: (867) 668-6703 Fax: (867) 393-4992 Our office will be closed from 12 p.m. Dec. 24 until 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 5th, 2015.

25

Soldiers struggled through Yukon yuletides

By Leighann Chalykoff hey were cold, isolated, and far from home. Many of the U.S. Army personnel stationed in the Yukon during the Second World War – working on the Alaska-Canada Highway and the CANOL Project – were more than 5,000 kilometres away from friends and family.

Though the highway was opened for military use in a dedication ceremony on November 20, 1942, there was still a lot of hard work to do by both American and Canadian contractors to keep the rough, crooked road passable. Hundreds were still stationed in the Yukon years later.

“Americans and Canadians, young engineers and old northerners took time for dinner and talk and here and there for a little singing,” David A. Remley wrote in Crooked Road: The Story of the Alaska Highway. “There were acts of kindness, humour, and the pleasure of making simple things. There were popping hot barrel

T

Gene Tunink collection/MacBride Museum of Yukon History

The U.S. Army’s 18th engineers “F” company display their frozen laundry during the construction of the Alaska Highway.

From our families to yours, the Yukon NDP wishes you

s a m t s i r h Mer ry C

a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

to all from the Yukon Liberal Caucus.

Sandy Silver

Leader, Yukon Liberal Caucus

Liz Hanson, Leader of the Official Opposition 867-393-7050 www.yukonndpcaucus.ca

26

Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

stoves and plenty of cigars.”

But Christmas working on the Alaska-Canada Highway in the 1940s was a mixed bag depending on the regiment, where they were stationed, and unfortunately for some, the colour of their skin.

It was a lonely Christmas for the 97th “A” company at Beaver Creek during in 1942, wrote author John Virtue in The Black Soldiers who Built the Alaska Highway.

The regiment’s commander tried to boost morale by ordering a plane to drop frozen turkeys for dinner. With temperatures dropping below -40 degrees Celsius, the turkeys didn’t unfreeze in time and the men ended up with a meal of hash and Spam instead.

Meanwhile, in Whitehorse black members of the U.S. Army’s 93rd company shared dinner with Canadian personnel after white American soldiers refused to eat with them. “It was a cruel thing,” one man says in Virtue’s book. “The white American soldiers were standing around outside waiting for us to finish.”

A year later in 1943, army troops stationed at Brooks Brook used the holiday as an opportunity to celebrate.

A sergeant drove into Whitehorse to buy Christmas decorations for the mess hall, but was disappointed to find the town sold out. “You can imagine their dismay when they found not a single decoration available – not one red bell, holly wreath or tinsel star!” Cecil E. Barger wrote in the Alaskan Sportsman in 1946.

The men made do with what they could find. They bought rolls of yellow, purple, pink, orange and brown paper, and then they used it to “turn the mess hall into a riot of gay colour.” Buoyed by the effect, the men decided to decorate a tree along the highway. With no manufactured Christmas lights available, they painted light bulbs yellow, blue and green, and then strung them on a line with homemade wiring.

On Christmas Day they sat down to a hearty dinner and spent the evening talking as a warm fire crackled in the oil-barrel camp stove. “Even though it was several degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) outside, I felt warm and mellow as I climbed into my sleeping bag that night. It had been a wonderful Christmas,” wrote Barger. “After a Christmas way up yonder in the Yukon on the fringe

Gene Tunink collection/MacBride Museum of Yukon History 1989-53-17

The U.S. Army’s 18th engineers “F” company during construction of the Alaska Highway.

of the North Pole, I know I shall have to go back to find another Christmas equal to it.”

Leighann Chalykoff is a history buff with MacBride Museum.

Happy Holidays

The City of Whitehorse wishes our residents a safe and healthy holiday season, and all the best in the New Year.

JOY•LOVE•PEACE Hope your holiday, has it all!

With best wishes and heartfelt thanks from

Must be 19 yrs.

211 Black St. | 393-3360 Dec 15 noon to 6pm • Dec 22 noon to 6pm Dec 24 Noon to 6 pm • Dec 25 closed • Dec 26 Noon to 6 pm • Dec 31 noon to 6pm • Jan 1 2014 closed Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

Season's Greetings from Mayor and Council.

www.whitehorse.ca

27

Christmas on Miller Creek

By Michael Gates t was 1894, and Emilie Tremblay couldn’t have chosen a more remote place to celebrate Christmas.

She was a newly-wed who had chosen to join her husband in one of the most isolated places in the country – Miller Creek in the Fortymile district of the Yukon.

Emilie was one of the first white women to come over the Chilkoot Pass into the interior of the Yukon.

Charlotte Bompas, the wife of the Anglican bishop stationed at Fortymile, had preceded Emilie by two years. On Christmas Day of 1892, a deputation of miners presented her with a gold nugget weighing about three ounces, in honour of her being the first white lady to winter over so far north. Up to that date, Christmas was often celebrated with a meal and lots of booze, which the miners regretted for days after.

But the presence of a woman had a civilizing influence on everything that the miners did. The first thing that Emilie had to do with her Miller Creek home was subject the little one-room log cabin to an industrial-strength makeover to make it liveable.

Life on Miller Creek was a difficult adjustment. Among the thousand of prospectors in the entire Yukon valley

I

Goetzman photo/Michael Gates Collection

A miner’s cabin before the Klondike Gold Rush would have been a place of isolation, hardship and deprivation at Christmas.

at that time, there may have been two dozen other white women scattered thinly throughout the region. Emilie was the solitary woman living on this Sixtymile tributary,

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année

With Wishes Warm & Bright

Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo

We look forward to helping all future home sellers in the upcoming year save thousands on real estate costs!

Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon Wishing you a Mummer’s Christmas!

Repairing a broken industry.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Sell Your House. Pay Yourself.

Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

which the miners felt was no place for the fairer sex.

She was further isolated by the fact that she did not speak any English, but Emilie started working on her grammar and vocabulary, and her English gradually improved.

In December, being the only woman on the creek, she took on the responsibility of preparing a Christmas dinner for the miners living nearby. This in itself proved a challenge as there were none of the usual amenities to make a Christmas dinner a success. They improvised and made invitations written on birch bark. The guests were told to bring their own utensils to eat their meal.

The task was further complicated by the fact that she could only cook dishes which were small enough to fit into their tiny oven. Lacking the amenities of civilization, she adapted a long skirt to serve as a tablecloth in her log home.

The Christmas menu was made up of the food available to her in this isolated place: stuffed rabbit, roast caribou and brown beans in broth. There were King Oscar sardines, evaporated potatoes, sourdough bread and butter, cake and a plum pudding with blueberry sauce for dessert.

Just before the end of the meal, a latecomer arrived with a bottle of rum to add to the festivities. He had walked all the way to Fortymile and back, a considerable distance, to obtain the liquor. After the meal, they played

Veazzie Wilson photo/Michael Gates Collection

Emilie Tremblay was the only woman on Miller Creek during the Christmas of 1894.

cards and filled the cabin with tobacco smoke and good cheer.

Just two years later, gold was discovered, 50 miles up the Yukon valley. Civilization quickly followed, but no Christmas was ever so grand as that gathering on Miller Creek.

Michael Gates is a Yukon historian and sometimes adventurer based in Whitehorse. His latest book, Dalton’s Gold Rush Trail, is available in stores.

And remember, now is a great time to bring your boat to us for Aluminum Consoles, Pass-thrus & Windshields – and sAve with Winter rates!

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

You are invited to attend the Commissioner’s New Year’s Levee, Thursday, January 1, 2015 2–5 p.m.

Westmark Whitehorse Season’s greetings to all from Commissioner of Yukon Doug Phillips

106 Copper Road | Whitehorse, Y.T. | 867-667-6613

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The Christmas tree in front of the White Pass building lights up during Winterval on December 6.

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211 Wood Street, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2E4 | Phone: (867) 667-6285 | Fax: (867) 668-3755 | www.yukon-news.com Published by YUKON NEWS December 19, 2014

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