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Claire Barnabe was born on November 13, 1940 in Eastview (now Vanier), Ontario. She attended Our Lady of the Presentation in Overbrook for elementary school and Eastview High School in Vanier for secondary school. Claire was a member of the religious order of Holy Cross for four years. She attended Ottawa Teachers' College and obtained a permanent Ontario Teachers' Certificate. She taught at an elementary school in Alexandria, Ontario, Iona Academy in St. Raphael’s West, Ontario, for the Catholic School Board in Montreal, and for the Separate School Board in Ottawa before moving north.

In 1965, she accepted a teaching position at Fort Franklin (now Deline), where she worked until 1967. During her time in Deline, she was also Secretary of the Community Club. In 1968, after spending a year in the south and touring Europe, Claire returned to the north to work as a teacher in Fort Providence. She was also President of the Community Club there and Chairman of the NWT Centennial Planning Committee for Fort Providence.

In 1969, she left her teaching position in Fort Providence and moved to Norman Wells where she worked at the Mackenzie Mountain Lodge. She moved back to Fort Providence later that year to work for Alex Arychuk, also in the hotel business. In the 1970 Territorial election, she ran as a candidate for the Lower Mackenzie riding. Following her defeat in the election, she applied to work as a Settlement Manager.

In May 1971, she accepted the position of settlement manager in Port Burwell on Killinek Island, where she remained until May 1973. After a very brief time as Settlement Manager at Large for the Baffin Region, she became the Settlement Manager at Repulse Bay (now Naujaat, Nunavut). Also in 1973, she was appointed to be a member of the NWT Historical Advisory Board. In 1974, Claire returned to Norman Wells as Settlement Manager there. She ran in the 1975 Territorial election and the 1976 by-election for the riding of Mackenzie Great Bear, but was defeated both times.

She took leave from the GNWT in 1976 to work on a Master’s degree in Public Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa. In 1978, she joined Bud Drury’s office as a policy analyst. She ran again in the 1979 Territorial election for the riding of Yellowknife Centre and was again defeated. Claire remained in the north for many more years, before retiring to the south.

G.H.U. "Terk" Bayly was born in 1917. He married Fay (nee Anderson) in 1944 and they had a daughter named Ann, and two sons, Richard and John. "Terk" was a pilot with the 413 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force (R.C.A.F.) during World War II. After the war, he completed his studies in Forestry and spent most of his career with the Ontario Department of Lands and Forestry, where he was Deputy Minster of the department for many years. Later he held many senior positions with the Ontario provincial government, including the position of Secretary of the Management Board of Cabinet. After his retirement, he served as Chairman of the Ontario Heritage Foundation and the Niagara Escarpment Commission. He was an avid canoeist and in the summer of 1973, Jim and Jane Bayly, Eric and Pamela Morse, and Angus Scott accompanied him for a canoe trip down the Hanbury and Thelon Rivers. He was also a glider pilot and instructor and operated a farm and woodlot. Until shortly before his death, he chaired the Blue Mountain Watershed Trust. He died on June 9, 1998 at his farm in Meaford, Ontario.

John U. Bayly was born on April 20, 1945 in Toronto, Ontario. He has enjoyed a long and varied career in the North and worked as both a Crown Attorney and private counsel in the communities of Kuujjuarapik or Great Whale River (Quebec), Rankin Inlet, Inuvik and Yellowknife. He was the founding partner of what later became Bayly Williams where he practiced between 1983-2000. Between 1984 and May 1985, Mr. Bayly chaired the NWT government's Task Force on Spousal Assault. Between 1981-1987, he served as Counsel and Negotiator for the Dene/Metis Land Claim Agreement-in-Principle. He served as the first Executive Director for the Legal Services Board of the NWT and was responsible for the delivery of legal aid public legal education and services throughout the NWT. In 1990, John U. Bayly was retained as Inquiry Counsel for a Judicial Inquiry into the conduct of Judge R.M. Bourassa (the Bourassa Inquiry). The inquiry was established following public outcry to remarks attributed to Judge Bourassa in a 1989 Edmonton Journal article suggesting that sexual assault among northern natives was less violent than in the south. Mr. Bayly was also a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Public Complaints Commission for 12 years and he has represented a variety of aboriginal peoples organizations, including the Dene Nation, Committee for Original People's Entitlement (COPE), Inuit Tapirisat and Nunavut Tungavik Incorporated (NTI). Before there was a Law Society of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Bayly was the president of the NWT Bar Association for two years. He has been an active member of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories since 1978 and for 21 years he was the Chairman of its Discipline Committee. He is also a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Law Society of Nunavut, the Canadian Bar Association and a director of the International Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism. He is a past chairman of the Denendeh Conservation Board (1988-1991), a past member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (1988-1991) and the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (1986-1989). Mr. Bayly served for seven years as the Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic. In March 2000, he was appointed to the position of Principal Secretary for the Government of the Northwest Territories. John Bayly died in Yellowknife February 17, 2004.

Bear Exploration and Radium Limited (BEAR) was incorporated as an Ontario company on June 6, 1932 to finance development of the Contact Lake Mine in the Echo Bay region of Great Bear Lake. The backers of BEAR were an Ontario mining interest represented by William Wright and Harry Oaks. Contact Lake Mine was purchased by BEAR in 1932 and produced silver and a small amount of uranium before shutting down in 1939. The property was later sold, although BEAR retained shares in the International Uranium Mining Company, which had purchased it.
BEAR established a presence in the Yellowknife area in 1933 when their employees C. J. Baker and Herb Dixon discovered free gold and staked the Quyta group of claims. BEAR established a subsidiary, Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd. to develop the claims and several other subsidiaries in the following years to deal with other groups of claims. BEAR, together with Howey Gold Mines Limited, incorporated Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines Limited in 1937. Frobisher Explorations, a subsidiary of Ventures Limited, assumed management control over Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines in 1943. According to a 1944 report on BEAR, they were “a holding company engaged in the acquisition, promotion, financing and exploration of mining prospects in the Northwest Territories.”

BEAR continued to have numerous interests and associated companies, besides Giant, in the Northwest Territories, specifically the Yellowknife area, including International Uranium Mining Co., Yellowrex Mines Limited, Atlas Yellowknife Mines Ltd., Redpointe Gold Mines Ltd., Fort Rae Gold Mines Ltd., Neptune Yellowknife Gold Mines, Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd., Admiral Yellowknife Mines Ltd., Moher Yellowknife Gold Mines, and Rich Group Yellowknife Mines. Around 1944, there was enough activity in Yellowknife that BEAR constructed a staff house on Lot 8, Block 1 (now 3612 Pilots Lane). N. H. C. (Hugh) Fraser and his family moved into the house when he became BEAR’s Manager of operations in the Northwest Territories in July 1946. At that time, BEAR remained headquarted in Toronto, Ontario with H.R. Swanson as President, Ralph Pielsticker as Vice-President, Carl Pielsticker as Treasurer and Director, C.A. Gardiner as Secretary, and G. D. Fairley and J.M. Brewis as directors. Several of these men also served on the boards of BEAR’s associated companies.

Hugh Fraser had worked in the Northwest Territories in the late-1930s as a geologist with the Territories Exploration Company and later Camlaren Mines and Thompson-Lundmark Gold Mines. In 1941, he was transferred by Frobisher Exploration Company to eastern Ontario, but returned to the Northwest Territories in 1944 and was in charge of Frobisher’s activities in Yellowknife until being hired by BEAR in 1946. Fraser continued consulting activities with Giant Yellowknife and Frobisher Exploration after being hired by BEAR. Fraser appears to have moved to Toronto in 1948.

BEAR became less active in the north in the years following, and the Yellowknife house was sol d to John Anderson-Thomson in 1948. He continued to do some work for them into the 1950s. Little is known of their later activities outside of the Territories, however, they underwent name changes, incorporating as Yellowknife Bear Mines Limited in Ontario in 1948, changing their name to Yellowknife Bear Resources Incorporated in 1981, and merging with Rayrock Resources, becoming Rayrock Yellowknife Resources Incorporated, in 1986, and then reverting to the name Rayrock Resources in 1998.

In 1939, S. Hansen travelled towards the Beaulieu River District and staked the NORMA group of claims that would eventually lead to the discovery of the Beaulieu Mine. Immediately following the staking, Norma Tungsten and Gold Mines Ltd. formed to work on the claims and retrieved approximately 15 tons of ore from two pits. Beaulieu Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd. formed in 1945 and took over the operations on the NORMA claims. In 1945, the construction of a mine site was underway. Between May and July 1947, a compartment shaft was sunk and a mill was quickly erected along with major camp buildings. Despite the initial promising reports of the vein size and grade, it was discovered that the claims were exaggerated. In 1947, A.D. Hellens, an engineer was hired to accurately assess the ore reserves. He reported on 1200 tons in reserve which was only enough to last the mine 2 weeks. The ore was mined during the summer months of 1948 and the Beaulieu Mining operation folded in chaos and bankruptcy at the end of 1948.

Maurice Beauregard was born in 1912 in Roxton Falls, Quebec. He was ordained as an Oblate Priest on June 29, 1941. He came to the Northwest Territories in 1942 and his first assignment was in Fort Norman. He ministered to the communities of Norman Wells, Camp Canol and Fort Norman until 1947. From 1947 to 1949, he was the Superior-Administrator in Aklavik, although he also provided services to the people of Arctic Red River. While in these postings, Father Beauregard learned to speak English and Hare, a dialect of North Slavey. In 1949, he returned to south eastern Canada for medical reasons. He returned in 1952 to serve in Yellowknife where he participated in projects such as the building of Saint Patrick's Church. From 1963 to 1969, he served in Fort Smith. In 1969, he was transferred to Fort McMurray where he remained until 1981 when he was transferred to Edmonton. Father Beauregard died on May 3, 1998.

James M. Bird was born in Scotland in 1920 and immigrated to Saskatchewan with his family in 1927. In October 1937, James Bird moved to Yellowknife to join his father, Robert Bird, who was working as a medical officer at the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. (Con Mine). James was hired as a general labourer at the mine, but after working in a variety of areas became a qualified miner. In February 1941, James joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving in Italy, Corsica, Malta and North Africa. At the end of World War II, he returned to Canada to pursue his studies at McGill University. Upon graduating from McGill he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and spent the next 17 years as a naval officer.

In the 1920s, A.N. Blake opened an independent trading post in Fort McPherson. Blake kept a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ledger of 'Indian Accounts' for Indigenous traders who dealt with him. Blake may have had special trading arrangements with the Hudson's Bay Company, where traders brought furs to him and received chits to exchange at the HBC post for specified goods. Blake's post closed in 1935.

George Blondin was born at Horton Lake, north of Great Bear Lake, in May 1922, the son of Edward Blondin. In his early years George worked as a guide for surveyors on the Canol Pipeline project, and at Port Radium as well as a woodcutter, trapper and hunter. He later moved his family to the Yellowknife region and worked for Giant Mine. He served as Chief of the Deline (Fort Franklin) Band and as Vice President of the Dene Nation. He worked with the Dene Cultural Institute and wrote for northern newspapers, sharing political opinions and traditional stories, for which he was well known. George wrote several books on the Sahtu Dene, traditional medicine, and traditional stories, including 'When the World was New' (1990), 'Yamoria the Law Maker' (1997), and 'Trail of the Spirit: The Mysteries of Dene Medicine Power Revealed' (2006). In 1990, George Blondin was awarded the Ross Charles Award for Indigenous journalism, and in 2003 he was appointed a Member of Order of Canada for his work towards preserving the heritage of his people. George Blondin was married to Julie Blondin and had seven children: Evelyn, Ted, John, Tina, Georgina (Gina), Bertha and Walter (died in infancy). George died in 2008.

John Blondin was born in Deline (Fort Franklin), Northwest Territories on March 6, 1959 to George and Julie Blondin. His family moved to Yellowknife in the early 1960s where John attended school. After his graduation, John traveled to Wales to attend Atlantic College. Upon his return to Canada, he completed a degree in linguistics at the University of Montreal. John was active in the theatre and art communities. He founded the Native Theatre Group and directed several productions of the "Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife" (French Cultural Association). Much of his theatrical work focused on the telling of Dene legends, many of which he learned from his father, noted Elder, writer and storyteller George Blondin. He also performed in original Indigenous theatrical and dance performances in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. He did not formally study photography, however, he enjoyed it as a hobby. He died on April 27, 1996 at the age of 37.

William Bonnetplume was a Gwich’in artist who created oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, political cartoons, and at times wood sculpture.

He was born in 1946 or 1947 near Aklavik to Sarah (Mitchell) Bonnetplume and Paul Bonnetplume and was raised in the Aklavik area. He attended All Saints Anglican Residential School in Aklavik before 1959, where he began painting and drawing. He attended Inuvik Federal School beginning in 1959-1960, and lived in Stringer Hall. After, he lived in Akaitcho Hall (Yellowknife Federal Hostel) while attending Sir John Franklin School in Yellowknife.

He was living in Yellowknife in the 1970s and appears to have mostly made art in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 his drawings were featured in a booklet on Gwich’in traditional games (James Ross, Dinjii Zhuh Dene Games). His political cartoons were featured in The Native Press and later in Denendeh: A Dene Celebration (Dene Nation, René Fumoleau, 1984). In the 1980s his work was exhibited at galleries in Yellowknife (Toa-Chen’s Gallery, Twin Pines Motor Hotel, Arctic Art Gallery), in Calgary, and at the Arctic Arts Gallery in Edmonton. In 1990, his work was featured in an exhibition at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. Several of his paintings from the 1970s are currently held at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies.

He died in Edmonton in 2001 at age 55.

Richard Henry Gardyne Bonnycastle was born in 1903 in Binscarth, Manitoba. He attended Oxford University and entered service with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) as an accountant on May 11, 1925. He was posted in Winnipeg throughout his career with HBC; however, he held different positions within the company. Between 1926-1929, he worked in the Statistical Section, Accounts Department and between 1929-1936, he was the District Manager for the Western Arctic District and made annual trips down the Mackenzie River. He married Mary (nee Northwood) in 1931. In 1936-1939, he worked in the Fur Trade Commissioner's Office and was Acting Secretary, for the Canadian Committee between March 10 and October 25, 1939. He later became Secretary of the Canadian Committee and held that position until 1945. He resigned from service with the Hudson Bay Company in February 1945 and died on September 29, 1968.

Robert Bouchard was born in Montreal, Quebec on April 5, 1912. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931, and in 1935 was admitted to the Bar in Quebec. From 1935 to 1940, he practiced law in Sherbrooke. During World War II, he was a legal advisor and administrative officer with the Federal Department of Munitions and Supplies. Between 1944 and 1948, he practiced law in Montreal; from 1948 until 1955, he was a Judge in the Northwest Territories and served as the Secretary of the Northwest Territories Legislative Council. In 1955, he was admitted to the bar of the Northwest Territories and from 1955 until 1957, he was the Crown Prosecutor in the Northwest Territories. He returned to Montreal in 1957, where he practiced law for Letourneau et Associates. Between 1966 and 1969, he was Clerk of the Court for Montreal and the Director of the Municipal Office for the city. He returned to a private law practice in Montreal in 1978.

Jean Boulva was born in Montreal and completed his Bachelor of Science degree from the Université de Montréal in 1968. He continued his studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, earning a master’s degree in marine biology and a doctorate in biology. Dr. Boulva was employed as a professor of marine ecology at Université Laval, Regional Science Director for the Quebec Region in the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), then Director of the Maurice Lamontagne Institute (MLI) in Mont-Joli, Quebec. Dr. Boulva is the author of numerous publications, has lectured on marine biology, served as a board member for teaching and research agencies, and been a guest expert on advisory committees.

During the summers of 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968, Jean Boulva worked as a summer student for the Fisheries Research Board of Canada onboard the M. V. Salvelinus, a 12 meter research vessel.

In the summer of 1964, along with Captain Ingram Gidney and summer student David Patriquin, he was directed to prepare and sail the M. V. Salvelinus some 1000 kilometers from Cape Parry to Cambridge Bay. Jean took many photographs on the journey north, while staying in Inuvik for nine days (June 18-27), and while delayed in Cape Parry nearly 2 months (June 27-August 16) due to poor ice conditions. He also spent time on bird and plant studies. At the time, Cape Parry had a church, Hudson’s Bay store, and was the site of a DEW line station, PIN-Main. In later years, the population of Cape Parry relocated to Paulatuk, further south. They travelled from Cape Parry via Coppermine and southern Coronation Gulf, arriving on August 25 in Cambridge Bay, where they studied oceanography and marine fish populations until beginning their return trip on September 19.

In 1965, the same team returned for the summer (June 27-September 11). They conducted oceanographic and fishery work first in Cambridge Bay and then in Bathurst Inlet (August 9-12), and traveled alongside the patrol vessel R.C.M.P. Spalding from Cambridge Bay to Baychimo (Bay Chimo). They took a side trip to a field camp at Keyhole Lake (50 kilometers northwest of Cambridge Bay) to study a landlocked arctic char population.

From July 2 to September 17, 1966, Ingram Gidney, Jean Boulva, and David Curtis (also a summer student) conducted research in Cambridge Bay and at a site in Dease Strait near Starvation Cove (69° 09' 41"N 105° 58' 50"W, 36 kilometers west of Cambridge Bay), where they built a small laboratory to support a multi-year study of arctic marine waters and small arctic lakes. On August 19, the trio visited a commercial char fishery at Wellington Bay.

From June 19 to September 25, 1967, Ingram Gidney, Jean Boulva, Steve McColl, and David Curtis (also summer students), and Moses Koihok (a local Inuit assistant) continued the research from 1966 in Cambridge Bay and Dease Strait near Starvation Cove. During the sea ice breakup period, David Curtis and Steve McColl coordinated scientific field work at Starvation Cove while Moses Koihok, Jean Boulva and Ingram Gidney worked on fisheries, oceanography and preparing the M.V. Salvelinus in Cambridge Bay.

From June 16 to September 8, 1968, a larger group carried out scientific research, including Ingram Gidney, two Fisheries Research Board of Canada (F.R.B.C.) technicians (Marsha Joynt and Shirley Leach), two F.R.B.C. scientists (Ken Muth and Jay Wacasey), the scientist head of the M.V. Salvelinus research program (J. Gerald Hunter), as well as two summer students, Gary Atkinson and Jean Boulva. The group carried out studies of marine and freshwater productivity near Starvation Cove, and fisheries research in Cambridge Bay. The group took a trip to Bathurst Inlet “with a lot of bad weather from August 5 to 11”; on August 11 Ingram Gidney departed due to an arm injury; on August 16 the vessel’s transmission broke down and became inoperable until the end of the season.

Arthur George Boutilier was born in 1946 to Jack and E. Claire Boutilier in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had three sisters, Catherine, Daphne, and Barbara.

Arthur attended Gorsebrook and Tower Road Schools in Halifax and Kings College School in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He received additional education at Dalhousie University (1963-1965), the Nova Scotia Technical School of Architecture (1965-1969), and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1969-1971), earning an engineering diploma, Bachelor of Architecture, and Masters of Landscape Architecture. He worked for architectural and urban design consulting firms in the United States, including Llewlyn-Davies Associates, William L. Pereira Associates, and Ben-Ami Friedman, AIP. In 1975, Arthur discovered R. Buckminster Fuller’s book “Synergetics”, which influenced and altered his design thinking.

In 1976, Arthur joined Parks Canada with a job in national park planning. He became involved in an investigation of the Torngat Mountains and Mealy Mountains in Labrador as proposed National Parks, which touched him deeply and ignited a passion for the North. He was also involved with developing a park management plan for Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland.

In 1981, Arthur moved to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and was employed as a Senior Planner and Urban Designer for the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Local Government, doing community-based town planning. From 1984 until his retirement in 2011, he worked for the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, becoming involved with the Northwest Territories Land Use Planning Commission (1984-1986), Lancaster Sound Regional Land Use Planning Commission (1984-1991), and Nunavut Planning Commission (1989-1991) in regional land use planning for various areas including Lancaster Sound, Keewatin, Sahtu, and Deh Cho. Later job titles included Special Advisory, Head Projects & Planning, Nunavut Land Use Planning Coordinator, and Mackenzie Valley Land Use Planning Coordinator. Following retirement, he served as a board member of the Gwich’in Land Use Planning Board from 2017-2020.

Arthur’s father was a photographer and Arthur’s own interest in photography stems from his experience at Expo’67 in Montreal. He has steadily cultivated it since then, taking thousands of images and showing his work in several exhibits.

In 1983, Arthur applied to the Canadian Astronaut Program, making the first cut. He was also involved with the northern SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Program chapter.

Arthur struggled with alcoholism throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, finally accessing treatment in 1991 and becoming involved with Alcoholics Anonymous. He met Dale Murphy in 1992, the love of his life, and the two were married on July 10, 1994. Arthur and Dale continue to live in Yellowknife.

The first Boy Scout troop in the NWT was founded in Hay River in 1916. The movement grew slowly at first but gathered strength in the late 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in 1963, the national council's Committee for Arctic and Northern Scouting was responsible for getting new groups established and planning large projects, while provincial councils in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec provided day-to-day guidance and support to Scout groups in the NWT.

Toward the end of the 1960s, the Arctic and Northern Committee decided that Scout groups in the NWT should be served by a council within the NWT, due to increased east-west communications within the NWT as well as a feeling that a northern-based administrative body would better understand and support northern groups. In 1971, the new Northwest Territories Council was chartered. This Council reported directly to the national council, on a level with the provincial councils.

The NWT Council was responsible for overall strategic planning and coordination for Scouting in the NWT. The Council coordinated the registration of members, forwarding national membership fees and registration numbers to the National Council. It organized three NWT Jamborees and other territorial events, programs, and initiatives, as well as providing advice and oversight for regional and local events. The NWT Council produced a number of publications, including the Boreas newsletter aimed at Scouters in the NWT, as well as newsletters and annual reports discussing the activities of the NWT Council itself. The Council also operated two Scout shops in Iqaluit (then Frobisher Bay) and Yellowknife, from which groups could order badges, uniforms, and equipment.

The NWT Council initially divided the territory into five regions: Mackenzie, Great Slave Lake, Arctic, Baffin, and Keewatin. A sixth region, the Yellowknife Region, was added in 1978 and remained until 1996, when it was changed to the Yellowknife District. Between 1995 and 1999 all the regional councils became inactive, so support to groups was provided directly by the NWT Council. With the creation of Nunavut in 1999, the Council changed its name to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council and continued to provide support for groups in both territories.

In 2003, due to logistical issues and declining membership, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council was dissolved. Scout groups in the NWT became part of the Northern Lights Council in northern Alberta, while those in Nunavut joined the Voyageur Council in northern Ontario.

Boyles Brothers Drilling Company Ltd. was an international company with offices in Vancouver, Port Arthur, Edmonton, the Philippines, Singapore and England. The Yellowknife operation was managed from the Port Arthur, Ontario office until 1948 and subsequently from the Edmonton office. The company's Yellowknife operation was involved with contracted drilling for mining companies and exploration companies.