Yukon who is who

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Kenneth Nathaniel L. McDonald (1851 – 1905)
	
Kenneth McDonald was born in the Red River settlement to Neil McDonald and Ann Logan. His brother Robert became a noted northern missionary. Kenneth was one of the first students taught by Archbishop Robert Machray.((“Memorable Manitobans: Kenneth Nathaniel L. McDonald (1851-1905).” Manitoba Historical Society website: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/mcdonald_knl.shtml))

McDonald arrived at old Rampart House, Alaska in 1871 where he learned to speak Tukudh.((Lee Sax and Effie Linklater, //Gikhyi: One Who Speaks The Word of God.//  Diocese of Yukon, November 1990: 29, 30.)) Before the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) moved from Fort Yukon around 1870, they convinced the area Gwich’in to keep their alliance and trade into the future so Red Leggings and his Black River people traded at LaPierre House, and then followed the HBC when they moved to the Upper Ramparts [old Rampart House] on the Porcupine River. By the late 1870s, the American Commercial Fur Company had an agreement with Sahneuti, a famous trade chief of the Kutcha-Kutchin, and for two years Sahneuti was in charge of the company business at Fort Yukon. The HBC saw their trade drop at Rampart House for a time as the Yukon Flats people traded at Fort Yukon.((Kerry Abel, //Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History.// McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005: 153.))

Kenneth McDonald worked as a lay minister at old Rampart House, preaching and teaching at First Nation camps and travelling on the Bell-Porcupine route with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) employees. In 1876, he started working for the HBC and was posted to Rampart House for another five years.((Colin Beairsto, "Making Camp: Rampart House on the Porcupine River." Prepared for the Yukon Heritage Branch, March 1997: 67, 69-70-71.)) 

Many of the Gwich’in returned to the HBC partially because the American had no ties to the community, while HBC trader John Firth was married to a Gwich’in woman, and Kenneth McDonald had Gwich’in relatives through the marriage of his missionary brother Robert McDonald. Kenneth thought that people were influenced by their religion and their missionary. The American traders were affiliated with the Roman Catholics.((Kerry Abel, //Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History.// McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005: 153.)) 
McDonald complained about competition from American traders and asked Hardistry to increase the tariff. Mr. Hodson, McDonald’s replacement as post manager, arrived at the post with Bishop Bompas in June 1881.((Colin Beairsto, "Making Camp: Rampart House on the Porcupine River." Prepared for the Yukon Heritage Branch, March 1997: 67, 69-70-71.)) 
During his time at old Rampart House, McDonald continued to hold church services.((Manuscript "Summery of the Anglican Church in Yukon" by Archdeacon Allan Haldenby of Dawson in 1957 and updated by Lee Sax and Bishop Ronald Ferris in 1991.)) He built all of the old Rampart church except the roof in 1880.((Lee Sax and Effie Linklater, //Gikhyi: One Who Speaks The Word of God.//  Diocese of Yukon, November 1990: 29, 30.))  
	
McDonald became the clerk in charge of Peel’s Post [Fort McPherson] in 1881 and moved on to the English River District in 1882.((“Servant Biographies,” Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg.)) He was a member of the Winnipeg City Council in 1884. He retired from the HBC in 1903. He was an active member of the Manitoba Historical Society and was a member of the Archaeological Committee for some years. He was living in Winnipeg when he died.((“Memorable Manitobans: Kenneth Nathaniel L. McDonald (1851-1905).” Manitoba Historical Society website: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/mcdonald_knl.shtml))