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Peter Lockhart Gordon and his brother, Hugh Donald Lockhart Gordon travelled down the Nahanni in the summer of 1961 by canoe. Hugh drowned while on the trip.

Gordon Robertson Education Centre (GREC) opened in 1971 as a junior and senior high school and vocational school. In addition to local students from Iqaluit, its enrolment included students from other communities who were housed in Ukkivik Hall, which opened along with GREC and closed in 1996. In the early 1990s, the school was renamed Inuksuk High School.

John W. Goodall, born September 1890 in England, immigrated to Fort Simpson in 1927. He worked in agriculture raising potatoes and livestock commercially and fulfilled the role of postmaster for the community until 1954, when he became an elected member of the NWT Council for Fort Simpson until 1967. During this time, Goodall played a pivotal role in the activities of the council, including the construction of the residentail school and hostel in Fort Simpson. After retiring from politics in 1967, he was awarded a Medal of Service from the Order of Canada. He continued to play an active role in Fort Simpson, sitting on the Fort Simpson Local Advisory Committee until his death on September 12, 1971.

Frank S. Gonda was born in Hafford Saskatchewan on April 6, 1934. He grew up on a small farm and attended a nearby elementary school. He attended high school at Battleford Scholastics, a school run by Oblate fathers. He finished his secondary schooling at age 16 but was too young to go to university. A shortage of teachers for rural areas led him to supervise a school in Alberttown. He taught there for two years before attending the University of Saskatoon. Upon graduation, Mr. Gonda taught school in Saskatchewan for two years. In 1959, at the age of 24 he left Saskatchewan and spent the next 18 years teaching in the Northwest Territories. He worked in a variety of communities including: Fort Simpson, Pelly Bay, Yellowknife, Wha ti (Lac La Martre), Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay) and Repulse Bay. He was the first teacher in Pelly Bay. He gave occasional lectures, slide shows and wrote a story entitled "Christmas in the Big Igloo," which was later used as the title of a book. Frank Gonda returned to Saskatchewan in 1976 to care for his ageing mother and taught for several years in various residential schools in Saskatchewan. His hobbies included photography, painting and archaeology. He died on his farm in Hafford, Saskatchewan on April 3, 1989

Jacob Isaac Glick was born in 1899 or 1900, possibly in Galicia or Montreal, and was raised in Montreal in a family of 11 children.

When he was a teenager, his father attempted to establish a homestead near Rosetown, Saskatchewan through the support of the Baron de Hirsch Institute and the Jewish Colonization Association. The homestead was unsuccessful, and he reported that his brother and father were the first two people to be buried in the new Jewish cemetery in Saskatoon. The rest of the family returned to Montreal. His mother died during the influenza epidemic, and he and his older siblings worked together to care for the three youngest children.

From the fall of 1920 through the 1930s, he worked as a prospector and fur trader in northern Ontario. He wrote that he had long dreamed of working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, but was told at the head office in Montreal that they did not hire Jewish staff. From then on, he was determined to work against the HBC: “If they don’t let Jewish people work for them, then it was my ambition to work against them.” After working for a fur trader for several years in Sudbury, Gogama, and Low Bush, Ontario, he entered into a business partnership with A. Brown of Sudbury.

While in Toronto with his trading partner, he met Sonia (Sadie) Nicholeavsky and her family. They had arrived two years prior from Russia, where they suffered during pogroms, war, and revolution. He and Sonia married on January 16, 1925, moving to Gogama and then Sudbury, where Sonia had extended family. On October 26, 1925, their only child Harold was born. That winter Glick began prospecting near Red Lake while Sonia and Harold stayed with Sonia’s mother in Toronto. When he returned to Sudbury, he and Brown established a fur business there while maintaining an office in Gogama. The family experienced significant financial difficulties during the Great Depression. By 1931 he began work in Oba, Ontario on behalf of Glick Mining Syndicate and Troy Consolidated Gold Mine Limited, and appears to have continued this work through 1935 on behalf of Steepe Mining Syndicate.

In July 1935 he shot and wounded William Denomer, an employee, near Horne Payne, Ontario. The case went to trial in August 1935, and after an appeal in September 1935 Glick was sentenced to three years in Kingston Penitentiary. Glick maintained that the shooting was in self-defence, and that the trial had been laced with antisemitism. While incarcerated in Kingston, he attempted to maintain his mining claims and syndicate and wrote an autobiography. He was released in November 1937, and returned to Oba.

In June 1938, Glick was charged with illegal fur dealing in Gogama, Ontario. He was released on bail and then arrested in Rouyn, Quebec, with nearly $10,000 of furs. After he was released on bail in Quebec, the Ontario Provincial Police launched a land and air search for him. There was a moratorium on selling beaver pelts in Ontario, and Glick was purportedly part of an international ring purchasing furs illegally from First Nations hunters for sale to markets in the United States and Great Britain. In July 1938, Glick was convicted on 21 charges and sentenced to two and a half years in Burwash Reformatory.

Upon release from Burwash, Glick enlisted in Montreal on June 20, 1940, and went overseas in August 1940, serving as a cook with the 1st Canadian Survey Regiment through 1944. He was discharged from the military and returned to Montreal in January 1945.

J.I. and Sadie Glick moved to Yellowknife in April 1945 with the encouragement of Hon. Charles McCrae, the president of Negus Mines and former Ontario Minister of Mines who had acted on behalf of Glick during his mining disputes. Upon arrival, Glick worked at Negus Mines as a cook, and the couple spent their first winter in a tent.

J.I. Glick's first business venture in Yellowknife was the Veterans Restaurant (also known as the Veterans Cafe), which was in operation from approximately 1946-1953. He started the business with the support of Re-Establishment Credits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The cafe was in a building in ‘New Town’ downtown Yellowknife, and he also sold vegetables from a root house. By 1953 he was reporting income from property rentals and a second hand store. He sold the Second Hand Shop in 1955 and ventured more deeply into real estate, owning and operating Central Real Estate from 1954 onward to around 1971.

In 1957 he built the Gold Range Hotel on the same site as the Veterans Cafe, and worked as hotel manager from 1958 onward. He and his wife owned half of the business and their business partners were in Edmonton. The hotel property was owned by Central Real Estate. Around 1958-1959 J.I. Glick introduced the first telephone that had more than local service. He ran a radio telephone from his office in the hotel that connected out to the south, which locals could use to call out. In 1966 the Glicks sold their shares in the Gold Range Hotel to Hymie Weisler (Edmonton). J.I. Glick stayed as a public relations manager for the hotel for two years. Glick was also a Director of Premier Electrical, a local utility company, ca. 1967-1970.

Glick was involved as a member of the Yellowknife Ratepayers Association and Yellowknife Town Council in the 1960s, and was also a member of the Northwest Territories Progressive Conservative Association.

J.I. Glick passed on March 20, 1973. A service was held at Park Memorial Chapel on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, and interment took place at Lambton Park Cemetery.

Harold Glick was born in 1925 in Sudbury, Ontario to Jacob Isaac (J.I.) Glick and Sadie Glick. He described his upbringing as not overly religious, but his parents did keep a kosher household. He was raised in Sudbury until 1938 or 1939, at which point the family relocated to Montreal. He completed schooling through Grade 10 as well as two years of an electronics apprenticeship through Ecole Polytechnique, after which he worked for Northern Electric Company (1944).

He served in the Second World War in the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals (1944), and upon discharge moved to Yellowknife to be near his parents. He arrived via plane in March 1946 during Operation Muskox, and worked at his parents’ business, the Veterans Cafe, for about a year. For three months in 1947 he worked as an electronics helper at Giant Mine, and then went to Toronto to study radio technologies. In October 1948 he returned to Yellowknife and went into business, starting Yellowknife Radio and Record Store Ltd (YK Radio) in a wall tent next door to the Gold Range Hotel. The store initially sold records, radios, and appliances, and also offered repair services, and by 1952 had moved into a new building. In 1958 an addition was added to the shop. The store’s offerings expanded to include jewellery and furniture. As of 1968-1970, the company had three directors: Harold Glick, Zelda Glick, and Jacob Isaac Glick.

In 1952, Harold Glick married Zelda Vinsky of Vegreville, Alberta, who he had met in Edmonton. Harold and Zelda had four children (Murray, Jeffrey, Leah, and Marilyn), who they sought to raise with a Jewish education. Zelda kept a kosher household in Yellowknife, and brought meat from Winnipeg and Edmonton. The family belonged to Beth Israel Synagogue, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Edmonton, Alberta. Harold and Zelda sent their sons to Pine Lake (a B’nai B’rith Camp near Red Deer, Alberta) and their daughters to Camp Hatikvah (Lake Kalamalka at Oyama, near Kelowna, British Columbia).

Harold volunteered with Yellowknife's first radio station, and also served on the Yellowknife municipal council (Town Council) during the 1960s, including 1960-1961. He became a director of Hidden Lake Gold Mines Ltd., which was established in 1968.

In 1986, Yellowknife Radio was sold to Roy Williams, and Harold and Zelda Glick moved to Kelowna, British Columbia, where there was both a Yellowknifer community and a Jewish community. Harold passed on April 20, 2009, in British Columbia.

Until 1964, all Girl Guides of Canada activities in the Northwest Territories were under the jurisdiction of either the Alberta Council that controlled Girl Guide activities in the Western Arctic, or the Quebec Council that oversaw activities in the Franklin and Keewatin Districts. In 1965, after lobbying from Local Guiding Associations within the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, the Girl Guides of Canada organization created the Yukon and Northwest Territories Council, which assumed responsibility for all guiding activities throughout the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

In 1965, there were 64 groups of guides and\or brownies in the Northwest Territories and Yukon with a combined membership of 1,200. In 1966, the Yukon Territory was organized into one division with two districts and the Northwest Territories divided into three divisions: Mackenzie Division, Franklin Division and Keewatin Division. By 1968, the Yukon Division was still organized into two administrative districts, which had a combined membership of 350. The Northwest Territories Division had been sub-divided into eight districts with a combined membership of 1,356. The Northwest Territories districts were: Yellowknife, Great Slave Rapids, Southern Slave, Arctic Circle, Nunakput, Keewatin, Frobisher Bay and Baffin.

In 1974, the Yukon and Northwest Territories Council was divided into two distinct entities, the Yukon Council and the Northwest Territories Council. At that time, the Northwest Territories Council reorganized its districts, creating four new administrative divisions: Great Slave, Eastern Arctic, Midnight Sun and Keewatin. In 1983, the Keewatin Division was renamed the Central Arctic Division. In 1985, the Nunakput Division was created. In 1986, the Northwest Territories Council organized its activities into five administrative divisions: Kivaliq, Midnight Sun, Nunakput, Great Slave Lake and Eastern Arctic. In 1988, the Northwest Territories Council reorganized its divisions again, creating the Eastern Arctic, South Great Slave, North Great Slave, Kivaliq, Midnight Sun and Kitikmeot Divisions. In 1990, the Northwest Territories Council again reorganized its administrative body, creating the following divisions: Eastern Arctic, North Great Slave, South Great Slave, Kitikmeot and Midnight Sun.

Beryl Clemetsen Gillespie was born in Evanston Illinois on June 18, 1938, the daughter of Erling A. Clemetsen and Florence Clemetsen. Her father owned a wood working plant in Chicago, and she grew up in the small community of Long Grove, Illinois. She received her B.A. at Cornell University in 1960 and her M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Iowa in 1969. Beryl Gillespie was a research associate of northern anthropologist Dr. June Helm for several years, conducting ethnographic fieldwork with Dene consultants in Detah, Behchoko (Rae), Deline (Fort Franklin), and Tulita (Fort Norman) between 1968 and 1981, as well as archival research. Beryl's M.A. thesis was an ethnohistory of the Yellowknives Dene, and she continued graduate studies at the University of Iowa Anthropology department for several years. She contributed to several anthropological texts, including the Handbook of North American Indians, Subarctic volume. She was also a consultant for the Indian Brotherhood from 1973-1975 and the Berger Commission in 1976. In 1981, Beryl Gillespie participated in the project to build the mooseskin boat currently on display at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Shortly thereafter she retired from academia. Beryl was first married to Dr. Robert A. Gillespie in 1961, later marrying Eugene S. Rave in the late 1970s. She died in Iowa City, Iowa, on September 22, 2002.

The original 21 Giant Mine claims were staked by C.J. Baker and H.M. Muir in July 1935. Both prospectors were at that time working for Burwash Yellowknife Mines, Ltd. In August 1937, Giant Yellowknife Mines, Ltd. was incorporated. In 1941, Frobisher Explorations, a subsidiary of Ventures Ltd. examined the Giant claims and signed an agreement with Giant in which they gained control of Giant. The first gold brick was poured in May 1948. In 1962, Ventures Ltd. merged with Falconbridge Mines, Ltd. In 1986, the Pamour group of companies began acquiring shares in Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd. and bought the company from Falconbridge for $200 million dollars. In 1990, Royal Oak Resources Inc. purchased the Pamour group of companies along with all of its subsidiaries, including Giant Yellowknife Mine, Akaitcho Yellowknife Gold Mines and Supercrest Mines Ltd. Royal Oak Mines Inc. was formed through the amalgamation of these companies. Royal Oak Mines Inc. declared bankruptcy in 1999 and Giant Mine was put into receivership and officially closed in the fall of 1999.

In September 1841, the Legislature of the Province of Canada (the area that is now the southern parts of Ontario and Quebec) passed a resolution "that a sum not exceeding 1,500 sterling be granted to Her Majesty to defray the probable expense in causing a Geological Survey of the Province to be made." This resolution gave birth the following year to the Geological Survey of Canada (known widely as the Survey or GSC), Canada's first scientific agency and one of its oldest government organizations. The decision to undertake a geological survey was based on the realization that the development of a competitive industrial economy in Canada would depend on a viable mining industry. It was necessary to conduct a geological assessment to determine if Canada had the resource base to support such an industry.

William Edmond Logan was appointed the Survey's first director on April 14, 1841. One of the most important accomplishments of the Survey under Logan was the publication in 1863 of the Geology of Canada, a 983-page book, which represented all of the work the Survey had accomplished up to that date.

By the time of Confederation in 1867, the Geological Survey was widely recognized as the main contributor to the establishment of a viable mining industry in Canada, yet the Survey had performed its job without any funding stability. Finally, the government recognized the Survey's importance, and it was moved from Montreal to the new capital, Ottawa to be closer to other government organizations and Parliament.

With Alfred Selwyn, following in Logan's footsteps, the next surge of exploratory surveys took place in the west and the north. A larger staff was required and with newly secured funding, Selwyn was able to build up his staff from six parties in the field in 1870 to fourteen in 1890. That same year, Parliament passed an act making the Geological Survey a separate department of the government, reporting to the Minister of the Interior. The act also stipulated that scientific officers of the Survey should have post-secondary training in science.

In 1895, after 26 years as Director, George M. Dawson succeeded Selwyn. Dawson was permanently recognized for his contributions to the exploration of northern British Columbia and the Yukon; Dawson City was named in his honour. Dawson died suddenly in 1901 and was replaced by Robert Bell, whose association with the Survey went back to 1857. Under Bell's leadership, increasing attention was paid to the mineral potential of the country; Survey reports of the period looked at nickel and copper deposits, oil field and gold deposits. Albert P. Low succeeded Bell in 1906 and served as Director for 18 months before being struck by severe illness. Low's most significant scientific work was his study of the Labrador Peninsula in 1895-1896 and leading the Canadian Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands. On an administrative level, Low oversaw the creation of the Department of Mines in 1907 when the Mines Act was passed by Parliament. The new department included the Geological Survey and the Mines Branch, an organization set up six years earlier to compile mining statistics and publicize opportunities in Canadian mining.

Reginald Brock was Low's successor in 1907 and under his leadership, the Geological Survey became a training ground for the Canadian geoscience community. Special emphasis was given to Precambrian geology and Low also created a separate topographical unit that would prepare the maps needed as a base for geological information. The topographical unit left the Survey in 1947, but remains closely linked as part of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada.

William Collins took over the survey in 1920, under Charles Camsell, the newly appointed head of the Department of Mines. In 1936, the departments of Mines, Interior, Immigration and Colonization and Indian Affairs were amalgamated into a single organization headed by Camsell-the new Department of Mines and Resources. World War II spawned many new technologies that changed the world and placed new demands on the Survey. High priority was given to Survey field and laboratory work related to locating and evaluating uranium. The post-war period also saw, for the first time, the Survey contributing geological information and expertise to aid in the construction of large-scale pubic works projects such as the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Red River floodway around Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1959, the Survey also established a specialized marine geology research group to accommodate growing interest in Canada's huge offshore area.

In 1966, Parliament created the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources of which the Geological Survey of Canada today is part. The new department carried on the scientific responsibilities of its predecessor, the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, but through its new mandate to plan Canada's energy needs, it was transformed into an important policy-making department. Because of this new focus on energy policy, the Survey became heavily involved in resource appraisal.

From the 1970s to the present, the Survey has been involved in a variety of projects, such as terrain mapping concentrated mainly along the Mackenzie Valley pipeline route, the polar gas corridor of west Hudson Bay and in the Arctic Islands. Results of the Survey were used to evaluate the environmental impact of development in these areas. Other initiatives included the provision of geoscientific information about Canada's ocean resources, involvement in LITHOPROBE, a deep earth study geoscientific research program, a national mapping program and working closely with provinces and territories on a range of geoscience surveys and mapping projects in an effort to stimulate regional economic development.

Joseph Burr Tyrrell was born in Weston, Ontario on November 1, 1858. Following studies at the University of Toronto, Tyrrell received a position with the Geological Survey of Canada. His first field experience came under the tutelage of Dr. A.R.C. Selwyn in the Rocky Mountains. In 1893, Tyrrell led an expedition for the Geological Survey of Canada from Lake Athabasca to Chesterfield Inlet via Selwyn Lake, the Dubawnt River and the Thelon River.

Emile Gautreau worked for the Canadian Forestry Service in the NWT from 1963 to 1969. He and his wife Evalyn lived in Calgary and Behchoko during this time and spent time in other communities in the NWT. They became friends with local Dene people and with the Grey Nuns and got involved in cultural exchange activities, including promoting Dene crafts to people in Calgary, organizing donations of used clothing to send to the NWT, and organizing a field trip for Dene children to Calgary. Emile received a Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967 for his work with the Dene people.

Terry Garvin was born on a farm on January 23, 1930, and grew up near Craik, Saskatchewan. In 1951, Garvin joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and was posted to various detachments in northern British Columbia (BC) and Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories (NWT) over the next 13 years. These postings included Prince George and Fort Saint James, BC (1951-1953), Behchoko (Rae) and Yellowknife, NWT (1954-1958), and Fort McMurray, Alberta (1958-1964).

In 1964, Garvin went to university and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. In the following years he worked for various employers in a variety of fields, including community development work for Syncrude Canada Ltd., socio-economic assessment and management for Petro-Canada Inc., and community development work as a consultant for various Indigenous groups. From 1981 to 1983, Garvin worked for the Arctic Pilot Project (Arctic Institute, University of Calgary), and from 1983 to 1985, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Indonesia. Upon his return to Canada in 1985, Garvin continued his work as a consultant for Indigenous groups working on community development projects. His work often involved traditional use studies and land use mapping.

Terry Garvin wrote two books, Bush Land People (1992) and Carving Faces, Carving Lives: People of the Boreal Forest (2005). Both books focus mainly on northern Alberta. They are illustrated with photographs Garvin took of the people he met and the places he lived and worked in from the 1950s onward.

Garvin had four children: Linda, Erin, Edmund, and Marleis.

Terry Garvin died on May 23, 2019, at the age of 89.

Timothy (Tim) Garrish was born on January 4, 1950, in Oliver, British Columbia (BC). His parents were Arthur Ross Garrish (1915-1996) and Elizabeth Nancy Garrish (nee Grimsditch, 1921-1984). Garrish grew up on an orchard in Oliver, on land that his father had first purchased in 1934. As a child, he spent time doing farm work on the orchard. From age 16 onwards, he worked in fruit packinghouses and sawmills. Garrish graduated from Southern Okanagan Secondary School in Oliver in 1968, then attended the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU). During his summer breaks while in university, Garrish held jobs in mining exploration in northern BC.

At age 22, Garrish earned his Commercial Pilot’s License. His first job in aviation was flying for Superior Airways/Severn Enterprises Ltd in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, starting in May 1972. Garrish then moved to Fort Simpson in September 1973 to fly for Arctic Air Ltd. In 1974, Garrish returned to Langley, BC, to earn his Flight Instructor Rating, followed by a stint as a flight instructor on weekends while back at university between January 1975 and December 1976. Garrish graduated from SFU with a Bachelor of General Studies (Economics and Geography) in December 1976.

In 1977, Garrish began doing seasonal (summer) fire suppression work. He started in 1977 working for Wolverine Air Ltd (WAL) in Fort Simpson. Garrish then spent more than four decades doing fire suppression work in the summers, including working for Avalon Aviation (1978-1980) and Conair (1983-2022).

In 1978, Garrish flew for Wolverine Air Ltd (WAL) once again. Flying for WAL in the winters became a constant in his life. In 1988, Garrish became part owner of WAL with Les Dvorak, who had started the firm in 1972. Garrish and Dvorak were co-owners of Wolverine Air until 1993, when they sold the operation to Chris Yarrow. He lived in Fort Simpson until 1995, at which point he relocated first to Canmore, Alberta then back to his home base in Oliver, BC. Garrish’s duties at Wolverine Air included both Chief Pilot and Operations Manager at various times. He continued to work for WAL as a relief Operations Manager/Pilot in Fort Simpson during winters as required until 2010.

In 1981-1982 and 1987-1988, Garrish worked with Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) flying the L-100 Hercules and the Boeing 737. He was based in Edmonton and flew for PWA’s high Arctic operations.

In 1988, Garrish became the Managing Director of Airports North Ltd in Fort Simpson. Airports North Ltd became responsible for the management and operation of the Fort Simpson Island Airport in 1988 and operated it on a ‘user pay’ model. It was one of only a few airports in Canada to be financially self-sustaining, operating without any form of government assistance.

From 1994-2010, Garrish also worked as an aviation consultant with Hemlock Aviation Services.

Tim Garrish continued to fly fire suppression in the summers for Conair until 2022 when he retired after 39 years with them. In total Garrish did 51 years of accident-free commercial flying during his career, including 44 seasons doing aerial fire suppression (16 in Yellowknife). He lives in Oliver, BC, and is currently writing his memoirs of his flying adventures.

Galena Heights Elementary School opened in 1977, originally housing pupils from kindergarten to grade two. Galena Heights Elementary School was expanded in 1980 to host students up to grade five after a fire destroyed the other school in the town; the rebuilt Matonabbee School opened in 1981 for the senior grades. Both schools closed in June 1988 with the closure of the mine and community of Pine Point.

Rene Fumoleau, O.M.I., was born in France on August 6, 1926. He was ordained a priest in 1952 and came to the Northwest Territories in 1953. He worked with the Dene in Fort Good Hope from 1953 to 1959, in Deline from 1960 to 1968 and then returned to Fort Good Hope between 1968-1969. In 1971, he began historical research on Treaties 8 and 11 which resulted in the publication of "As Long As This Land Shall Last: A History of Treaty 8 and Treaty 11, 1870-1939". From 1970 until 1994 he lived in Yellowknife and then moved to the community of Lutselk'e. During his time in the north he was an avid photographer and many of his photographs have been displayed, sold and published. In addition, he produced and directed several films including "I Was Born Here" and "Dene Nation". He was active in the area of storytelling, speaking at numerous national conferences. Rene Fumoleau died August 6, 2019.

Terrence ("Terry") William Stockbridge Foster was born in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, on May 31, 1946. After he completed his bachelor studies with the University of Saskatchewan, he worked at its Institute for Northern Studies. In 1975 he decided to move his family to to Yellowknife to pursue work with the newly formed territorial government. The Fosters lived in Yellowknife until 2005, whereupon they retired to Kelowna, British Columbia.

During Foster's career with the GNWT (1975-2004), he worked with the Department of Planning and Program Evaluation, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (and with its later incarnation as Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development), and the Department of the Executive. By the time Foster retired he was Special Advisor to the Cabinet Secretariat.

The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) established the Fort Smith post in 1874. Fort Smith was the administrative centre of the Mackenzie District until Yellowknife became the Territorial capital in 1967. On April 4, 1963, the Advisory Committee of the Local Improvement District of Fort Smith organized a vote that granted village status to Fort Smith as of January 1964. Town status was obtained as of October 1, 1966, and the Fort Smith Village Council became the Council of the Corporation of the Town of Fort Smith.

In 1947 the first two federally funded schools were opened in Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk. In 1948, the federal school at Fort Smith opened. In that first year, there were five federal schools with approximately 103 pupils in the junior and senior high school grades. By 1958 this number jumped to 576 pupils in 52 federal schools. 1958 was also the year Breynat Hall, the residence for the high school, was established.

Fort Simpson was built in 1804 by the Northwest Company. It is the oldest continuously occupied trading post along the Mackenzie River. Fort Simpson obtained hamlet status on January 1, 1973.