Yukon who is who

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Sarah Simon, nee Stewart (1901 - 2001)
	
Sarah Stewart was born near Fort McPherson to parents Martha [Kaye / Kyikavichik] and Charlie Stewart.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.)) Her father was a Scot working for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort McPherson.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) He was a Special Constable for the RCMP for many years, and was a guide for Sgt. Dempster when he found the Lost Patrol.((Sarah Simon, //Sarah Simon, Fort McPherson, NWT: A Pictorial Account of Family, Church, and Community.// Council for Yukon Indians and the Government of the Yukon, 1982: 3.)) Sarah’s First Nation mother died in 1903 and she was raised by her paternal grandmother Catherine Stewart.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.)) Sarah went to day school at the [Fort McPherson mission] post starting at age 6.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) 

When Sarah was ten, her grandmother went blind and Sarah looked after her for the next nine years. This was the start of her life caring for others. She was taught by the local minister and learned to read her English and Gwich’in bibles.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.)) Sarah and her grandmother, and her uncle John Stewart, stayed at a fish camp in the summer, about three miles downriver from the First Nation clergyman. They would paddle up the Porcupine River to go to church. The church was about a mile from the river and Sarah led her blind grandmother through the bush. After Sunday service and evening prayer, they would arrive back home about 9 pm.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))
	
Sarah first met James Simon in 1916 at St. Matthew’s Church in Fort McPherson.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) They were married in 1920, a marriage arranged by her father.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.)) They and catechist Colin Vichick held services in their tent every Saturday from July through September. The people would sit on birch branches covered with bed sheets. Sarah and James trapped during the winter and there was no lay worker near their trapline, so they read their prayer books and bible. Their first baby girl was born in April 1921. In 1922, they moved to Aklavik, and Sarah taught Sunday School wherever they travelled.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) They lived in the bush at Aklavik, and Sarah learned to drive a dog team and make dry meat.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.))
	
In the winter of 1923, Sarah and James met some Old Crow people and camped with about six families. There was no Sunday service, and Sarah was unhappy until James agreed to let the families come into their home for services. James read prayers and Sarah started the hymns and read the lessons. They adopted a little Metis girl during this time. They moved to a fish camp in the summer where old Edward [Sittichinli] was the lay reader and Sarah taught Sunday School. Edward asked James why he was doing the services and James then told him it was because of his wife, Sarah. Edward told James that he was called to the ministry.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))
	
In 1926, the Whittakers came on the steamer to visit their old parish and they persuaded James to go to the Hay River residential school to learn more English. Sarah and James left Aklavik on August 1st and arrived at the boarding school on the 9th. They were responsible for small children from age 4. Their own children were separated and put into the dormitories and that was strange and hard. Sara had laundry duty and mending after the washing. Friday noon to Sunday were days off at the school and Sarah relieved the kitchen worker. The Simons stayed at the school for two years. Canon Wells was the principal and he told Sarah she was too old to learn music. She was heartbroken but a teacher, Miss Doone, asked what she wanted to learn and started giving her lessons. Nine months later Sarah was playing the portable organ for Sunday School.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))	 
	
The Simons returned to Fort McPherson in 1928, just in time to help people through a major flu epidemic. The First Nation minister and three catechists died, so James went out day and night to pray with the families and conduct funeral services. Church services were held in a woman’s house because the church was being used as a hospital. Bishop Geddes arrived from Aklavik, and the Simons returned with him. James assisted a priest in Aklavik by conducting a service in Gwich’in and Sarah played the organ and helped with the Women’s Auxiliary. When two Inuvialuit children attending the residential school missed the boat back home, the Simons took the little girl so now they had three little girls.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))
	
The parishioners at Fort McPherson asked them to come back, so they returned in 1929. Sarah conducted Sunday School and James translated for the white priest. In 1930, they went out to the fish camps to conduct services and Sarah became a mid-wife. Sarah really wanted a boy so they asked James’ sister if they could adopt her unborn baby if it was a boy. The sister already had nine children. The baby was born and the Simons baptised him John Henry.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) 

In 1932 the Simons moved to Aklavik and put two of their girls in the residential school. In 1933, they travelled for a month to have tent services with Bishop Tom Greenwood, and they spent 1935 in Whitehorse. That year, their fourteen-year-old girl Susan died in a place with no doctors or nurses. Mrs. Greenwood joined her husband in 1936 and the Simons left Whitehorse. Sarah had a little girl in April 1939. Charlie died in 1958 and James had to bury his own son. Between 1949 and 1952, tuberculosis, flus, and colds killed many people. The Simons brought up eight adopted children in their home. They sent their only girl out to college in Alberta in 1956.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))
	
The Simons moved to Whitehorse in 1958 and the Greenwoods took them into their house until they could have a home ready for them. In October 1959, Bishop Greenwood (Geeheetroe) ordained James as a deacon in the little log church. In 1960, Mrs. Greenwood asked Sarah to got to the annual Women’s Auxiliary meeting in Ottawa. Mrs. Greenwood went ahead, and Sarah had to travel alone by plane and train. After the meeting they travelled to Toronto to meet a woman that Sarah had been corresponding with for years. They just made it back to see James ordained a priest in the cathedral on September 17th.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.))
	
For the next two years, the Simons used Whitehorse as a base and travelled to conduct services at Pelly, Minto, Carmacks, and Teslin. They moved to Dawson when the minister there retired in 1966. James died in 1977. They had been married for fifty-six years.((“Interview with Sarah Simon.” Old Log Church Museum research files.)) Sarah’s //A Pictorial account of Family, Church and Community// was published in 1982 by CYI (now Council of Yukon First Nations).
	
Sarah became a delegate to the National Synod in Winnipeg at the age of eighty-six. She worked with Yukon linguist John Ritter to preserve her Gwich'in language.((Flo Whyard, "Mourning Sarah Simon, a northern icon." //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 16 November 2001.)) Sarah Simon was awarded the Order of Canada (April 1991), the Commissioner’s Award of the Northwest Territories, and the Independent Order of the Daughters of the Empire. In 1945, she became a Life Member of the Women’s Auxiliary in the Anglican Church.((//Gwich'in Elders 2001 Calendar,// Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute.))