J. Lewis Robinson was born on July 9, 1918 in Leamington, Ontario. He received his BA in 1940 from the University of Western Ontario, his MA from Syracuse University in 1942 and his PhD from Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1946. J. Lewis Robinson was appointed the Federal Government's first professional geographer with the Department of Mines and Resources in 1943 and that same year he participated in the Eastern Arctic Patrol where he visited communities in the Eastern Arctic and in the Keewatin Region. In 1945, he was transferred to the Mackenzie Valley section of the Northwest Territories Administration in Ottawa to help with the North Pacific Planning Project. The aim of this project was to bring together government administrators and scientists to plan for postwar development in northwestern Canada. Since no maps existed in the Northwest Territories Administration showing the relative position and spacing of buildings in the old settlements, Robinson was sent to the Mackenzie Valley in order to map these buildings. The mapping was done by pacing distances and later redrafting the sketches. During this time, J. Lewis Robinson visited and mapped the buildings in the following settlements: Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Providence, Norman Wells, Fort Norman, Fort Good Hope, Arctic Red River, Fort McPherson, Fort Simpson, Aklavik, Fort Resolution, Port Radium, Yellowknife and Fort Resolution. Robinson came to the University of British Columbia to establish a Geography Division within the Department of Geology. He became chair of the division and, in 1958, established a separate Department of Geography. Robinson served as head of the department until 1968. He has written various published articles and books about geography, environmental resources and people of northern Canada. He retired in 1984 and lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Norman Lubbock (Robbie) Robinson was born on July 18, 1890 in County Wicklow Ireland. He spent over two years with the Northwest Mounted Police prior to World War I, and then five years in the army; first with the 19th Alberta Dragoons and then with the British Army in 1915. After returning to Edmonton in 1919, he worked as an Inspector with the Soldiers Settlement Board before traveling to the Northwest Territories where he spent five years working as a trapper, guide and purser aboard the steamer "Mackenzie River." In 1925, he returned to Edmonton with the intention to rejoin the Northwest Mounted Police, however, due to poor eyesight he was denied a position. He moved to British Columbia where he married in November 1928 and operated a timber business near Kamloops. During the Depression, he accepted a position as a Game Warden with the British Columbia Provincial Game Department. He held this position until 1938 and worked in Kamloops, Quesnel and Lillooet, British Columbia. In 1938, Robinson and his wife moved to Ireland for two years where he worked for the Turf Development Board on Clonsast Bog in Leix, Ireland. They returned to Canada in 1940. At the time of his May 1952 death in Calgary at age 61, he was an employment claims officer for the Unemployment Insurance Commission.
Letitia "Tish" Robshaw (nee Ryan) was born on January 15, 1913 in Chapeau, Quebec. After attending schools in Sudbury, Pembroke and Chapeau, she moved to Yellowknife in September 1954 to begin teaching at St. Patrick School. She remained at St. Patrick School until the summer of 1956 when she moved to Fort Resolution. She married Barry (Robbie) Robshaw, who she met in Yellowknife in 1958.After teaching in Fort Resolution from 1957 to 1960, she then returned to St. Patrick School where she remained until the summer of 1964. In 1964, she returned to Chapeau, Quebec. When they left the north, they moved to Hull, Quebec where they lived until the 1980s. They retired to Victoria, British Columbia but spent summers in Chapeau, Quebec. She died in October 1991.
Richard Henry Charles LeBreton Ross was born in Winnipeg in 1907. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1929 and began working as an assayer at a mill in Trail, B.C. He moved to Kimberly, B.C. in 1938 and began working for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. He was married to Dorothy (b. 1908) in Kimberly, B.C. in 1939 and his daughter, Carol (now married to Elliott Starr), was born in 1940. In February 1941, Richard Ross moved to Yellowknife to assist with the construction of the Thompson-Lundmark mill at Thompson Lake. In the summer of 1941 he was joined at the Thompson-Lundmark mine site by his wife and daughter. In the fall of 1941, he transferred to Ptarmigan Mines. His daughter Patsy was born in 1942 and when the mining operation shut down in 1942, the Ross family moved back to Trail, B.C. In 1946, they returned to Yellowknife and Richard again worked for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company at Con Mine. Lynn and Roderick Ross were born in 1947 and were the first white twins born in Yellowknife. The family left Yellowknife in 1952 and in 1957, moved to New York. During their time in Yellowknife Richard Ross became involved with the establishment of the Yellowknife Children's Aid Society and was elected the first Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1951.
Hugh Ross worked for the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals in the 1930s through the 1960s. He was stationed in a number of locations in northern Canada, including Fort Norman, Yellowknife, Alert and Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Foster Raymer (Ray) Ross was born in 1893; the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) hired him in 1925. He served as manager in Tree River (1925-29), Bernard Harbour (1929-33), Reid Island (1933-39), Coppermine (1939-40), Holman Island (1941-43), War Industry (1943-46) and Keg River, Alberta (1946-58). In 1935, he met and married Lillian Smith while out in Edmonton. When they returned to the north, Lillian and Ray had three children: Raymer (b. 1937), Patricia Ellen (b. 1940) and Charles (b. 1945). During the Second World War Ray Ross was granted a leave of absence to serve as the purchasing agent for the Observer's School operated out of Edmonton by Wop May. In 1946, he became the post manager for Keg River, Alberta. He remained at the Keg River post until his retirement from the HBC on October 31, 1958. He died at the age of 84 on October 26, 1976 in Vernon, BC.
Charles Victor Rowan was born in Guben, Germany in 1892 and arrived in Canada in 1911. During World War I, Charles was interned as an enemy alien at camps in Manitoba (1914) and Vernon, British Columbia (1917). He was granted a Certificate of Release in 1919. He entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company on May 15, 1926 where he traveled aboard the "Bay Maud" enroute to the Western Arctic and his first posting at Perry River, where he was Post Manager from 1926-1929. In 1929, he was transferred to Fort Collinson where he operated the Hudson's Bay Company post from June until October 1929, until resigning from the Hudson's Bay Company in October. He rejoined the Hudson's Bay Company in July 1930 and went to King William Land until 1932. He was then transferred to Fort Collinson until 1936. Between 1937-1938, Rowan was post manager at Fort Collinson, Tuktoyaktuk and finally ended his career with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1939 while post manager at Baille Island. He resigned from service on August 14, 1939 and became the owner and operator of the Boston Bar Hotel in British Columbia. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia 1978.
The North-West Mounted Police (the precursor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) formed in 1873 to control Canada's newly acquired western lands. Their work was confined to the Prairies for the first quarter century because that was where most of the white population was to be found. It was the discovery of gold in the Yukon that led to the movement north of Edmonton. In 1897, the North-West Mounted Police made its first patrol "north of sixty." From Dawson City, the patrols extended northwards to the Mackenzie Delta. Eventually police posts were established at Fort McPherson in 1903, Arctic Red River in 1926, and Aklavik in 1927. The Arctic Red River Post closed in 1969. In 1920, the North-West Mounted Police was amalgamated with the Dominion Police Force to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The duties of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Northwest Territories extended far beyond normal police work. Police work was limited for most of the time to registering firearms, arbitrating disputes about trap lines, and routine patrols of the district. On behalf of the Federal Government, the police issued licenses for many trading activities and collected the fees. These included trapping, hunting, trading and trafficking, trading post and timber licenses. The police also administered the income tax and fur export tax, collecting the revenues and issuing receipts. The records of births, marriages and deaths were collected and marriage licenses issued by the police. While on patrol they checked for cases of destitution or illness and made the necessary arrangements. They controlled the use of liquor permits in the Territories and issued licenses for radio receiving sets. Any government department, which operated in the Territories, used the RCMP as its local agents. In addition, they were expected to assist any northern research project. They recorded earthquakes, the prevalence of biting insects and the number of wild animals in their area. Explorers and scientists visiting the Arctic were also able to call for their assistance.
John Russell, known as Jack, was born in Digby, Nova Scotia, June 28, 1886. By 1910, he established a homestead in Hope, British Columbia but abandoned homesteading to become a surveyor. Between 1914 and 1930, he worked as a Dominion Land Surveyor, surveying northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. In the early 1930s, Russell returned to Nova Scotia and worked for the Highways Department doing road surveys. He married twice but had no children. It is believed he died in 1962.
Joan Ryan was born in 1932 in Montreal. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Carleton University in 1957 and a Master of Education in Psychology in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1959.
Ryan spent her early career employed as a Northern Service Officer and teacher with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. She taught in Whatì (Lac La Martre) from 1957 to 1959 and George River (northern Quebec) from 1959 to 1960. In 1964 she left government service and enrolled as a PhD student at the University of British Columbia. In 1967 she accepted a professorship at the University of Calgary in anthropology, a position she held until retirement in 1987.
Upon retirement she was affiliated with the Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) for many years, pioneering participatory action research (PAR) projects. She was involved in several NWT projects including working as a trainer, coordinator, and researcher for community development projects in Fort McPherson from 1988 to 1990. She returned to Whatì (Lac La Martre) from 1990-1993, publishing 'Doing things the right way: Dene traditional justice in Lac La Martre N.W.T.' (1995). She later worked with the Deline Uranium Team. Joan Ryan died October 29, 2005, in Calgary. She was survived by two adopted daughters.
Dr. George Nelson Rysgaard was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on October 28, 1917. He received an undergraduate degree in science from the Hamline University and graduated with an M.S. from Michigan State in 1941. From 1941 to 1946, Rysgaard served in the U.S. Army. After his military service, he entered medical school, interned at the Minneapolis General Hospital and maintained a private practice in Northfield, Minnesota from 1951 until his retirement in 1985. Dr. Rysgaard has held a life-long interest in natural history. During his college years, he was an assistant at the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History. In 1937, he helped establish the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union. Following his graduation from Hamline University, Rysgaard continued to work at the Bell Museum teaching programs in ornithology and mammalogy. Rysgaard made four trips to the Northwest Territories: Great Bear Lake and Tree River in 1966, Colville Lake in 1968, Victoria Island in 1969 and the Thelon River in 1970. Although the trips were primarily recreational, Dr. Rysgaard also recorded his interest in the natural history of the areas with slide and film.
The Sachs Harbour School was constructed in the summer of 1968, first opening in fall 1968 to students in grades 1-6 and originally operated by the federal government. Prior to the school being built, children were sent to Shingle Point, Aklavik, then Inuvik for schooling, and after its construction, older students continued to go to Inuvik for later grades. This school was transferred to the GNWT when it assumed responsibility for education in 1969, and was replaced by Inualthuyuk School which opened in 1973.