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Franklin (“Frank”) Thomas Carter was born in Guelph, Ontario in 1915. He trained as a welder. He found work with Horton Steel building corvettes for the Royal Canadian Navy in Hamilton, Ontario in 1939. Frank tried to enlist in 1941 during wartime but was turned down for medical reasons. Instead, he and his brother Ralph followed war work with the steel company, including a job building oil tanks at the Canol Project in Norman Wells in 1942-1943. He later worked on ship construction throughout Ontario as well as in Calgary and Halifax before settling in Waterloo, Ontario in September 1944. After a successful career in welding, and later motorcycle and vehicle welding and repair, Frank died of congestive heart failure on September 1, 1985.

Dr. Emily Elizabeth Cass was born on August 21, 1903 in England. She was educated at Nottingham High School and Cheltenham Ladies College. In 1932, she married William Morley, a bacteriologist but they separated in 1937 and were divorced in 1947. In 1940, Dr. Cass joined the British Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a senior ophthalmologist. In 1943, she was transferred to Gibraltar where she worked as an ophthalmic surgeon in a military hospital. In 1947, she left the RAMC but continued to work for them in her professional capacity until 1955. In December 1956, Dr. Cass immigrated to Canada. She joined the Department of Health and Welfare, working as an ophthalmologist in northern Ontario. In 1958, she moved to Fort Smith, where she became the first resident ophthalmologist. In 1968, she began lobbying the territorial government to establish specialized facilities for the treatment of eye diseases, which lead to the establishment of the Elizabeth Cass Foundation Society. In 1970, as part of the NWT Centennial Celebrations, she organized an international congress on eye diseases that was held in Yellowknife. Because of this meeting, the International Society of Geographical Ophthalmology was created. Dr. Cass was elected President of this organization in 1970, a position she retained until 1977. In 1970, Dr. Cass retired from the territorial government and established a private practice in Fort Smith. In 1970, she received the Order of Canada, Medal of Service. She died in Fort Smith in January 1980.

Josephine Castonguay was born in 1879 in a small rural community on Quebec's South Shore in the Kamouraska region, Sainte-Helene. She attended convent school, l'Academie des soeurs du Bon-Pasteur, in Riviere-du-Loup, then know as Fraserville. She became a teacher and spent nearly two decades in Canada's North teaching. She ventured to the North in approximately 1920 and left in the late 1930s. After leaving the North, she moved to Ottawa and then worked in Quebec City for the government until her retirement when she moved back to her hometown. Josephine Castonguay died on December 30, 1966 at the age of 87.

In 1861, Bishop Grandin selected a site for an Oblate mission which he called Notre Dame de la Providence. Six years later, four Grey Nuns (Sister Adeline Lapointe, Sister Michel des Saints, Sister Amant, and Sister Elizabeth Ward) and two lay missionaries (Domitelle Letendre and Domitelles Lortie) arrived in Fort Providence to establish a boarding school and hospital. In 1927, a new residential school was built to accommodate students from as far off as Fort Smith and Aklavik. This institution was closed in 1958 and replaced with a new day school named after Sister Elizabeth Ward.

Helene Marie Caufield was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on July 10, 1929. She attended Central Public School and Sault Collegiate Institute and received the nursing scholarship on graduation. Helene trained as a nurse at the Plummer Memorial Public Hospital and the Civic Hospital in Ottawa. She also received training in pediatrics at Montreal and at War Memorial Children's Hospital in London, Ontario. Helene worked in Sault Ste. Marie, Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), and Montreal before being sponsored by the Anglican Church of Canada to serve at All Saints Hospital in Aklavik, Northwest Territories. Although based in Aklavik, Helene also provided nursing services in Fort McPherson, Reindeer Station, and Tuktoyaktuk. She also spent some time in Inuvik. In 1960, Helene went to Edmonton and earned a diploma in public health nursing. She resumed her nursing career in Fort Simpson, where she married Edd Johnson in 1963. A son, Peter, was born in Fort Simpson later that year followed by a daughter, Clara, born three years later in Inuvik. Imperial Oil transferred Edd and the family to Calgary in 1966 and Edmonton in 1973. Helene moved to Victoria following the deaths of Edd and Peter. Throughout her life, Helene was involved in church work, including teaching Sunday School while in Aklavik and singing in several choirs. She received a number of awards for her volunteer work with the Victorian Order of Nurses and other organizations. Her other interests included painting, gardening, knitting, and sewing. Helene died in Victoria on September 26, 2015.

CFCT Tuktoyaktuk Radio Station officially opened on July 5, 1971. CFCT was sponsored by CHUM, a radio station based in Toronto. Father LeMeur was instrumental in getting the radio station to Tuktoyaktuk. He was the president, station manager and announcer. Lorna Clement was the secretary, and also the donor of this collection.

The Circumpolar Conference on Literary was held at the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife from April 10 to 12, 1990. The purpose of the conference was the promotion of literacy and the exchange of information.

Lorna Clement moved to Inuvik in September 1969 with her husband Corporal Gary Clement and their young son Bret. During their year in Inuvik, Lorna volunteered to be the Race Secretary for the Top of the World Ski Championships. In the summer of 1970, Lorna and her family moved to Tuktoyaktuk. Throughout their two years there, Lorna was a very active member of the community. She worked as the administrative assistant at the nursing station, coached the junior girls' basketball team, filled in at the school as a substitute teacher as required, was a member of the Women's Institute, and was the secretary of the local radio station CFCT. After their time in Tuktoyaktuk, Lorna and her family moved to Fort Resolution for one year, where she worked once again at the local nursing station. Lorna and her family spent their final year in the north in Yellowknife, where Lorna worked as a transportation clerk for Northern Health Mackenzie Zone. The Clements moved south in 1974. Following her husband's death in 2005, Lorna returned to Tuktoyaktuk for short terms in 2006 and 2007.

Ethel Sheila Coates was born in Carbon, Alberta to John Hubert Coates (an immigrant homesteader from London, England) and Edith Coates (Tirney) on January 16, 1922. She grew up on her parents’ farm, but spent most of her school years in Toronto (where her mother was from) and completed high school in Alberta. Her niece suggests that she may have had some formal training as a secretary, and an Ethel Sheila Coates is listed as having passed the Canadian federal government’s stenographers’ civil service exams in May 1941.

She left the family farm and moved to the Northwest Territories alone and worked for Imperial Oil in Normal Wells for a number of years in the 1940s. It appears that she was one of the few secretaries or female employees living and working in Norman Wells, and that she chose to remain there after the wartime project (the Canol project) was completed. According to her niece, she loved the Northwest Territories and referred to her time there as the best time of her life.

Later she moved to Devon, Alberta, where she lived and continued to work for Imperial Oil for approximately thirty years in total. In Alberta, she worked at the Leduc gas plant, which opened in 1950, and taught skiing at the local Devon ski hill. She traveled extensively internationally in the 1950s and 1960s. She did not marry.

She identified as an environmentalist, and established the Coates Conservation Lands as a bequest to the Edmonton Area Land Trust. She died in August 2014 in Devon, Alberta.

Maxine Roberta Colbourne was born in Wyvern, Nova Scotia in 1934 and grew up around that area, near Oxford, Nova Scotia.

By July 1957, she had moved to Aklavik, Northwest Territories and was working at the Aklavik Federal Day School, where she taught Grade 4 during the 1957-1958 school year. In 1958 she returned to Halifax to attend a summer course and obtain her remaining credits for a permanent teaching license. That fall, she returned to Aklavik to teach Grades 4-5 at the Federal Day School for the 1958-1959 school year and became involved with the school radio station. From at least September-December 1959 she was teaching Grades 3-4 at the Aklavik Federal Day School.

She then moved to Inuvik to teach at the newly-opened Sir Alexander Mackenzie School (Inuvik Federal Day School), where she taught Grade 4 from 1960-1962, and Grade 6 from 1963-1965.

As of 1963 she became involved with the Local Association of Guides and Brownies, specifically as a Brown Owl with the second Brownie Pack. She has been remembered as an accomplished curler who also spent a lot of time dog sledding. In 1965 she travelled to Fairbanks, Alaska to attend a curling Bonspiel.

She became involved with Daniel L. Norris, who was later Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from 1989-1994. Their son, Danny Lee Trevor Colbourne, was born in 1966 in Edmonton. In January 1968 she had a second son (Sean Gregory Harrison Colbourne) with A. Biggs; she continued to live in the Northwest Territories until at least that time.

In 1968, she and her two sons moved to British Columbia, where she worked at Lower Post Indian Residential School. She then taught at Lejac Residential School for several years in the early 1970s. Her sons attended school there as well. They then moved to Chetwynd, British Columbia, where they lived from about 1974-1977. While living in British Columbia, she took summer courses to upgrade her teacher’s license.

In 1977, she died of an aneurysm, and her sons went to live with her brother in Nova Scotia.

Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. (C.M.S.) was formed in 1906 as a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Rail with head operations in Trail, British Columbia. Its aggressive northern exploration in the 1920s and 1930s led to stakes claimed in 1927/28 on the lead and zinc deposits on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, which would later become Pine Point Mine, silver deposits at Great Bear Lake in the 1930s, and Con Mine, which was the first gold mine to go into production in the NWT in 1938. C.M.S. also developed other mines in the Northwest Territories including Thompson-Lundmark, Ruth, Ptarmigan, and Polaris. C.M.S. mines had a significant impact on the economic and social history of the Northwest Territories, particularly in the case of Con Mine and Pine Point.

Con Mine
C.M.S. sent several prospecting parties headed by Ted Nagle into the Yellowknife area in 1928/29, but their searches did not reveal anything significant. During a staking rush in 1935, Bill Jewitt sent a small group of men led by Mike Finland into the Kam Lake area of Yellowknife where they filed ‘CON’ claims in September and October. In 1937 C.M.S. bought an interest in Tom Payne’s adjacent properties, which developed into the Rycon Mine company. The construction of the Con-Rycon mines began on July 13, 1937 under the lead of Bob Armstrong. Production began in the spring of 1938 with the first gold brick poured on September 5, 1938. The Bluefish Hydro plant on Prosperous Lake was built in 1940 to support the energy needs of the mine, and also made Yellowknife the first electrified NWT community. Production at Con Mine ceased between 1943 and 1945 due to WWII although maintenance and development work continued under the direction of geologist Dr. Neil Campbell. The Campbell Shear Zone was named in honour of his hypothesis of a major orebody 2000 feet below the surface of the mine. Its existence was confirmed in 1946, with full production starting in 1963 and continuing until the closure of the mine. In 1953 C.M.S. bought the Negus Mine and found new reserves there. In 1966 C.M.S. changed its name to Cominco. The Robertson shaft – at 250 feet the tallest building in the NWT – was completed in 1977 and eventually reached a depth of 6250 feet. The Con Mine was the most productive gold mine in the NWT, and Cominco’s most successful gold mine.

In 1986 Cominco sold the Con Mine to Nerco Minerals for $46 million US. Con Mine was subsequently bought by Miramar Corporation for $25 million US in 1993. Miramar leased the mining rights of the Giant Mine in 1999 and milled Giant ore at the Con Mine. In 2003 mining ceased at Con, and the processing of Giant ore at Con ceased in 2004. Demolition and reclamation of the mine site occurred over several years, with the demolition of the iconic Robertson headframe - then the tallest structure in the NWT - happening on October 29, 2016.

Through its history, the Con Mine produced 5,276,363 ounces of gold from 12,195,585 tons of ore milled between 1938 and 2003. Over 10,000 gold bars were produced in 65 years of operation.

Pine Point
In 1928 C.M.S. began exploration in the Pine Point area south of Great Slave Lake, and in 1929 formed the Northern Lead Zinc Company with the Atlas Exploration Company and Ventures Ltd. Assessment work on the lead and zinc deposits in the area continued between 1930 to 1948, with extensive exploration drilling 1948 to 1955. Pine Point Mines Ltd. was formed in 1951 with C.M.S. holding a majority interest. In 1962 Pine Point Mines Ltd. began construction on the Great Slave Lake Railway with assistance from Canadian National Railway and the Canadian Federal government’s “Road to Resources” program. This railway line connected Roma Junction, Alberta and Pine Point, a company town that was established in 1964. Mining began in 1963, and mill production started in 1965. Mining ceased due to economics in 1987, and the town officially closed on September 1, 1987. 8.4 billion pounds of zinc and 2.6 billion pounds of lead were produced over the mine’s history. The railway and townsite have since been removed.

In 1982, a plebiscite was held on the question of dividing the Northwest Territories. With the vote in favour of creating Nunavut, it became apparent that with division, two new governments would be established, one in the east and one in the west. Consequently, the Constitutional Alliance Committee, made up of the Nunavut Constitutional Forum and the Western Constitution Forum was created. The Constitutional Alliance ceased operations in 1990. However, a group of political leaders including MLAs, elected officials and ministers, leaders of the Dene Nation, the Metis Nation, the Gwich'in Regional Council and the Sahtu Regional Council, believed it was important that the Constitutional work continue.

In the spring of 1991, the Committee of Political Leaders, an informal group composed of representatives from the Government of the Northwest Territories and the major Indigenous organizations, gave the Commission for Constitutional Development a mandate to develop a comprehensive constitutional proposal for those regions of the Northwest Territories remaining after the creation of Nunavut for consideration by way of a plebiscite. The Commission was funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories through a contribution agreement.

Commission members included Jim Bourque (Chairperson), Richard Hardy, George Braden, Les Carpenter, Francois Paulette, and Bertha Allen. Four members and chairperson were appointed by the Committee of Political Leaders and one member was appointed by the Western members of the Legislative Assembly.

The Commission for Constitutional Development was Incorporated under the Societies Act in August 1991. Its objectives were: (a) To co-ordinate, manage and direct the financial affairs and organized public activities of its members in the development of a constitution for a government to be created in the western part of the Northwest Territories. (b) To initiate and co-ordinate independent research into topics related to political and constitutional development. (c) To prepare discussion papers and other background materials for dissemination to the public. (d) To solicit opinions and responses from the public and individuals on constitutional and political issues. (e) To prepare proposals for political and constitutional development and to print materials on constitutional issues for the public at large. (f) To initiate and co-ordinate public meetings and discussions on matters of political and constitutional development throughout the western part of the Northwest Territories. (g) To take such further action as the Commission deems appropriate to accomplish its objectives.

The Commission released a discussion paper “How Can We Live Together?” in the fall of 1991, to provide background information and stimulate debate. The first round of community hearings took place during November-December 1991. Funding was provided to interest groups to prepare submissions. The Commission released an interim report in February 1992, summarizing what had been heard so far and outlining ideas and recommendations. The second round of community hearings took place during March-April 1992. The Commission’s final report was released on April 24, 1992 and is known as the "Bourque Report".

No further work was undertaken and by late 1992, the Commission was in the process of wrapping up its affairs and requesting direction from the Committee of Political Leaders. Following a letter of direction from the Chairman of the Western Caucus of the Legislative Assembly, Fred Koe, the Commission made an extraordinary resolution to dissolve the Commission effective March 31, 1993. The work of developing a constitution and governmental structure for the Western part of the Northwest Territory was continued by the Committee of Political Leaders, which was renamed the Constitutional Development Steering Committee and expanded to include the original six Indigenous leaders, the fourteen western MLAs, a representative of women’s organizations, and three representatives of the Association of Western Tax Based Municipalities.

In the 1960s and 1970s, a group of concerned individuals began a project to record the legends and life experiences of the Inuvialuit, Gwich'in (Loucheux) and North Slavey (Hareskin) people. Two of the leaders of this project were Nellie Cournoyea and Oblate priest Father Lemeur. To help finance the project, a deal was arranged with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Inuvik, where Nellie Cournoyea was working. The plan provided a small remuneration for the person interviewed to be paid out when the recording was broadcast. The recordings were intended to be used in various communities as research material for school curriculum, to preserve the legends and life stories of the elders and to help promote Indigenous language literacy.

Frank Conibear was born in Plymouth England on August 23, 1896, but moved to Ontario with his family when he was three. His family settled in Fort Resolution in 1912, becoming the first independent white family to settle in the Northwest Territories. In 1916, the Conibear's relocated to Fort Smith. At this time, he set up his own trapline on the Talston River, which gradually became extended 320 km into the barrenlands. He earned extra income by acting as a guide during the summers for mineral and survey crews. While in Minnesota, in 1923, Frank Conibear met and married Cecelia Powell, returning to Fort Smith to live. In their time, Frank and Cecelia also owned and managed a hotel and cafe. While operating his trapline Frank became concerned with the use of leg-hold traps. He considered the leg-hold trap to be inhumane and following his discharge from the Canadian Army in 1919, he began work on a replacement to the leg-hold trap. By the 1950s, he had perfected his trap and in 1958, a company began mass production of the Conibear trap utilized by most trappers. He died in March, 1988 at the age of 91.

The Constitutional Alliance was founded in February 1982 with the Dene Nation, Metis Association of the NWT, Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE), Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC), and four members of the NWT Legislative Assembly as members.

On April 14, 1982, a plebiscite on division was held in the Northwest Territories with the majority in support of division. As a result, the Constitutional Alliance created two sub-committees: the Western Constitutional Forum (WCF) and the Nunavut Constitutional Forum (NCF). The Forums were tasked with proposing a boundary between east and west and negotiating it with the federal government and developing proposals for political and constitutional development for their respective territories. Both aims were to be accomplished using public consultation processes. The WCF and NCF continued to meet jointly as the Constitutional Alliance over the next several years. The primary responsibilities of the Constitutional Alliance were to coordinate the selection of the boundary, facilitate and coordinate cooperation, communication, and the sharing of research materials between the two Forums, and provide public support for their activities. Funding and support was obtained from both the Territorial and Federal Governments.

The first meeting of the Western Constitutional Forum took place on September 7-8, 1982 and the Western Constitutional Forum Management Society was formally incorporated on June 23, 1983. Steve Iveson served as the Executive Director from 1982-87. Additional staff members Deborah O’Connell, Aggie Brockman, and Janet Snider were hired in 1983. The original members were George Erasmus (Dene Nation), Bob Stevenson (Métis Association), Bob MacQuarrie (non-aboriginal MLA), and James Wah-shee (Legislative Assembly). Later active members included Larry Tourangeau, Mike Paulette, Steve Kakfwi, and Nick Sibbeston. At various times observers from COPE and the Kitikmeot West communities were also involved.

The mandate of the Western Constitutional Forum included: initiating and supervising independent research into topic areas relating to political development; reaching a tentative Agreement in Principal to guide the development of a new government for the western NWT; providing material to interested residents in the communities and travelling to communities to provide clarification and gather feedback; developing a proposal for the establishment of a new government and distributing this to communities, obtaining responses through community hearings; getting the final version of proposal ratified by the public; and negotiating with the Federal Government.

The two Forums had different approaches to the goals set before them and reaching agreement was a long and difficult process. In January 1985, the Constitutional Alliance reached an agreement on a process for establishing a boundary for division and a tentative boundary. However, the agreement was a subject of controversy between WCF and NCF in the following months. On January 15, 1987 the Boundary and Constitutional Agreement was signed by the WCF and NCF outlining shared principles on constitutional development and a tentative boundary for division, subject to the ratification of Dene/Métis and Inuit claim regions, endorsement by the organizations represented by agreement signatories, including the Legislative Assembly of the NWT, and endorsement in an NWT-wide plebiscite. Preparations for the plebiscite were made but never carried out because an agreement on the boundary between the Dene/Métis and Inuit claims could not be reached before the deadline.

Since the process appeared stalled, the Federal funding provided to the Forums dropped dramatically. By early 1988, the NCF dissolved and the WCF maintained its Society status, but became inactive. The Constitutional Alliance became the sole body responsible for constitutional development in the Northwest Territories. It was officially incorporated August 25, 1988 with the aim of further political and constitutional development taking into account aboriginal and non-aboriginal rights, using research and public consultation, with the end goal of negotiating with the federal government and getting public ratification on forms of public government. The original members included four MLAs (Steve Kakfwi, Tom Butters, Titus Allooloo, and Peter Ernerk) and representatives from the Dene Nation (Bill Erasmus), Métis Association (Mike Paulette), Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (Roger Gruben), and Tungavik Federation of Nunavut (president Donat Milortuk and regional representative Jack Kapeuna).

Between 1988 and 1990, the Constitutional Alliance had three successive Executive Directors: Aggie Brockman, Marina Devine, and Ben Nind. By mid-1989, it was obvious that the Alliance process had lost momentum and was not meeting its goals. Federal funding was also coming to an end. In early 1990, the Alliance concluded operations, although some aspects of the work were later carried on by the Commission for Constitutional Development and the Constitutional Development Steering Committee.

In 1991, a group known as the Committee of Political Leaders was involved in setting the terms of reference for the Commission for Constitutional Development (Bourque Commission), which presented its report in April 1992. In February 1993, the Committee of Political Leaders and the Western Caucus of the Legislative Assembly met and decided to expand the original Committee, creating the Constitutional Development Steering Committee.

Membership included the 14 members of the Western Caucus of the Legislative Assembly, three members from the Association of Western Tax-based Municipalities, and one representative each from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Gwich’in Tribal Council, Sahtu Tribal Council, Metis Nation NWT, Dogrib Treaty 11 Council, women’s organizations (NWT Native Women’s Association and NWT Status of Women’s Council), and later, the South Slave Metis Tribal Council. The Deh Cho Tribal Council and Treaty 8 Tribal Council had the option to be involved as members but withdrew in favour of pursing their own processes.

The Constitutional Development Steering Committee Management Society was incorporated in May 1994. The Society was created to implement the decisions of the Constitutional Development Steering Committee and coordinate financial affairs, research, and public activities.

The Management Society was composed of members of the CDSC, including the chairperson, first vice-chairperson, and second vice-chairperson, who would function as the President, Vice-President, and Secretary/Treasurer of the Management Society. The Bylaws of the Management Society also provided for a staff Secretariat headed by an Executive Director. Steve Iveson was the first Executive Director, followed by Charles McGee, Sharon Hall, and Fred Koe.

The CDSC operated independently of the government. Its aim was to work towards establishing a constitution and government structure for the western territory left after Nunavut was created in the east. Funding was sought from the federal and territorial governments. Small amounts received in 1993 allowed the CDSC member groups to produce a set of research reports outlining their ideas on constitutional reform. In 1994, with additional funding from the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government, the Constitutional Development Steering Committee organized community information meetings to prepare for the “First Constitutional Conference,” which took place in January 1995. The Conference brought together people from all 34 western Northwest Territories communities to discuss their ideas, discover areas of common ground, explore differences of opinion and identify where there was more work to accomplish. The Conference produced a twenty-two point emerging consensus that confirmed many of the principles and recommendations of the Iqaluit Agreement and the Bourque Commission. The Conference stressed the importance of proceeding with constitutional development and self-government as a parallel process.

With little additional funding available through 1995, the CDSC assembled summary reports of work completed and cooperated with the Aboriginal Summit. The activities of the CDSC concluded in early 1996.

Alfred James Cook was born in Carmen, Manitoba on October 24, 1893. He married Ann Ritchie, who was born in Glasgow, but had been living in Edmonton. Cook graduated from a Manitoba medical school in 1924 and moved to Aklavik with his wife to set up a medical practice. They lived in Aklavik from 1924-1927 and Ann gave birth to their daughter Jane during this time. Dr. Cook later lived in Reliance, Alberta from 1927-1942, Vancouver, B.C. from 1942-1953 and then in various locations within B.C. until his death in 1961. His wife Ann died in 1945. Dr. Cook had two other children, a son, Clark and daughter, Lorraine.