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.
Archibald Lang Fleming was born at Greenock, Scotland on September 8, 1883. Upon leaving school, he entered the firm of John Brown and Company, the famous shipbuilders of Clydebank and it was during his years in Glasgow that he became interested in mission work. In 1906, he went to Canada to train at Wycliffe College in Toronto. His interest in the Inuit people and mission work and an appeal from Bishop George Holmes of Moosonee for a young man to work in Baffin Island, led Fleming to establish a mission at Lake Harbour on Baffin Island in 1909. In 1912, Fleming returned to college where he was ordained a deacon in 1912 and a priest in 1913. He returned to Baffin Island in 1916, however, because of ill health was only able to undertake light work. After crossing of the Foxe Peninsula, he was made a member of the Royal Geographic Society. Until his first appointment as archdeacon of the Arctic in 1927, he served first as financial secretary and chaplain to Wycliffe College and then as rector of Old Stone Church in Saint John, New Brunswick. His travels as bishop of the Arctic earned him the title "The Flying Bishop." He was author of "The History of Saint John's Church, Saint John, New Brunswick" (1925) and "Archibald of the Arctic" (1956). He died on May 17, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario.
Ben (Bent Gestur) Sivertz was born in Victoria, B.C. in 1905 to Christian and Eliborg Samuelsdottir, both Icelanders. During his childhood, he spent a great deal of time at sea. He graduated from the University of British Columbia after which he taught at schools on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. During World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and was appointed as officer in charge of the Navigation School. In 1945 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (Military). Following the war he moved to Ottawa as a foreign service officer with the Department of External Affairs. In 1950, he was transferred to the Department of Resources and Development (later Northern Affairs and National Development). In 1954, he was appointed chief of the new Arctic Division. He succeeded F.J.G. Cunningham as Director of the Northern Administration Branch in 1957 and became Commissioner of the Northwest Territories on July 10, 1963; a post he held until 1967. He retired to Victoria, British Columbia.