A trapper and crafter/artist navigates “a unique blend of cultures”
It’s a pleasure having you here, Minnie. Tell us a bit about your growing up
I was raised at Johnson’s Crossing on our family trapline in the southern Yukon. With my Tlingit heritage from my mother and the English roots from my father, my siblings and I navigated a unique blend of cultures. Growing up in a remote part of the Yukon and living without electricity and running water helped shape me into the woman I am today. All activities were geared to the outdoors and were not always conventional or easy. There were many chores. We packed water from the river, we helped bring in the firewood for heat, we had gas lanterns for light, and every Saturday night we had a bath in a tin tub in front of a blazing fireplace. Romantic, hey?
We washed clothes every Sunday and hung them to dry outside on a clothesline. I can certainly attest that there is nothing like the smell of fresh laundry right off the line! Monday through Friday, we rattled sixty miles down the Alaska Highway on the bus to the nearest school in Teslin, and in the evening after dinner, we would sit around the kitchen table with a coal-oil lantern for light, doing homework or reading before bed. Working hard and doing heavy chores taught us good work ethics and to be self-reliant, but more importantly, we learned to keep ourselves entertained, whether it was with book reading or crafting. These tools [are] instrumental in my life today.
What does your work life and trapping life look like?
After a thirty-two-year career with the Yukon government, I have now been retired ten years this summer. My husband and I maintain the small trapline running along Teslin Lake and about twenty miles down the Teslin River. A typical winter day starts off with a nice cup of coffee, answering emails and making plans for the day as we enjoy the quiet hours of the early-morning sunrise. After a quick breakfast, we do all our outdoor chores and then we are off to run the trapline. Sometimes, if the ice on the lake isn’t safe, we truck the snow machines down the highway eleven miles and take our river trail up onto the lake and begin checking our line. Often we are re-breaking the trails, cutting wind-fallen trees and bringing in firewood on our return trip down the line.
If we have been successful that day and have harvested furs, we will bring them home and process the pelts in the garage. These furs are cared for and handled in a respectful manner. We are always mindful that these animals come from the environment we love to be part of. You have to have respect for what you take from the land. Trapping is very expensive and you certainly require disposable income in order to run a successful line, or you should have a job to help supplement the expenses of running a trapline lifestyle. We did make a commitment to my parents to keep the trapline in good standing for the grandchildren, and that is what we have been doing every day for the past thirty-five years. If you really want this type of lifestyle, you have to accept everything that comes with it, and everything that doesn’t come with it. Not every couple wants to live remote; however, if you really want to do it, you just have to make that commitment, make that leap and just do it!
Where do you work on your fur pieces?
My husband and our boys recently built me a little studio right out my back door here at Timberpoint. And so, on a day [when] we aren’t out on the line, after breakfast, my husband will light the wood stove in the studio to warm it up for me, and I would begin gathering my latest project together for a day of sewing. I often have local women drive down to spend the day learning many of the patterns that have been passed down through generations of my mother’s family.
It is here where all the magic happens—my days are filled with crafting furs into fashionable pieces of art.
What other art form are you pursuing?
Photography is another great hobby of mine. So of course most of my pieces are photographed before taking them off to market. I use my camera to capture a lot of the natural colours, as the seasons change, and these photographs help to inspire my work. My camera and my dog, Remington, are never far from my side.
Do you also teach people interested in your fur craft?
My mother passed away five years ago, and through my sewing and beading, this provided me with great comfort as I was grieving her loss. I have now recently started taking workshops to other Yukon communities, sharing my mother’s patterns and teaching skills I had learned as a young girl. I wish to ensure these traditional skills of crafting with furs and leathers are not lost on the youth of today. In order for these traditions to carry on, we must teach these skills to others so that they may one day pass this knowledge to their children.
Also, in a world where there is so much drug and alcohol abuse in our small northern communities, I can only hope that by passing these traditional skills on, this could somehow help provide alternative, healthy lifestyles to our young people. And especially to our youth at risk.
Where can we buy your unique items?
Some challenges, as a rural entrepreneur, [are] getting my products out there. Internet access, social media sites and Canada Post are the main staples of my business. Without these services, I would have to travel to public markets, craft fairs, and seek alternative vendor sites. This public social media has enabled me to stay at home, maintain the trapline and turn these harvested pelts into a small cottage industry.
My husband and I work closely together to get my products to where they have to go. Everyone has their daily chores. My husband, Jim, is a very instrumental part of the business. While I’m busy sewing or off teaching, he’s at home minding the homestead (keeping the home fires burning), preparing meals, running errands, taking care of our lab (Remington), or clearing snow from the driveway.
I will always be grateful to my parents, who have inspired me in life. My appreciation for nature, vivid colours and my eye for composition can be mainly attributed to their love of the land and to the lifestyle in which we were raised as children. That had a lot to do with my present self.
We were taught to work hard, show up on time and be respectful and mindful of the needs of others.
