Colleen James, Ghoóch Tlâ
	
Colleen James is Tlingit of the Daklaweidi (Killer Whale) clan, and a citizen of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. Her Ghoóch Tlâ name means wolf mother.((Lawrie Crawford, Mary Jane Moses and Colleen James recognized for preservation and revitalization of cultural knowledge.” //Yukon News,// 9 June 2022.)) She grew up in Cowley, halfway between Whitehorse and Carcross. Her mother was Tagish and Tlingit and her father was British. Her uncle was in the delegation that brought //Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow// to Ottawa, a document that started the Yukon land claims negotiations. Her grandmother took her on the seasonal round to follow the animals and the plants that were in season.((Leighann Chalykoff, //Heritage Conversations.// Yukon Government, ca. 2024: 7-9.))
	
Colleen volunteers in the Carcross community and works for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation (C/TFN). She is on the steering committee for Conrad Historic Site on the west arm of Windy Arm in the southern lakes district. The Carcross/Tagish final agreement established Conrad as a historic site co-owned and co-managed by the Yukon government and the First Nation. She is also involved in a C/TFN language revitalization project to remember and use Tlingit and Tagish place names.((Leighann Chalykoff, //Heritage Conversations.// Yukon Government, ca. 2024: 7-9.))
	
Colleen is water ambassador and cultural advisor to the Aat á x yaa has na.át. aáni ka heen (How We Walk with the Land and the Water) initiative to create a land relationship plan with the three First Nations of Kwänlin Dün, Carcross/Tagish, and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. She is a passionate and articulate speaker who remind people of the importance of understanding and fostering our connections with animals, protecting the land and water and recognizing their importance as integral to all our relationships.((Lawrie Crawford, Mary Jane Moses and Colleen James recognized for preservation and revitalization of cultural knowledge.” //Yukon News,// 9 June 2022.)) James is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Assembly of First Nations Yukon Regional Leadership Ceremony.((Lawrie Crawford, Mary Jane Moses and Colleen James recognized for preservation and revitalization of cultural knowledge.” //Yukon News,// 9 June 2022.))

Colleen James received a honorary bachelor of science for her role as a knowledge keeper, ceremonial leader, cultural ambassador, language protector and teacher.  James is a co-author, with Eleanor Hayman and Mark Wedge, of “Storytelling water north of the future Héen Kas’él’ti Xoo 1” (among the ragged lakes) in A Political Ecology of Women, Water, and Global Environmental Change (2015).((Lawrie Crawford, Mary Jane Moses and Colleen James recognized for preservation and revitalization of cultural knowledge.” //Yukon News,// 9 June 2022.))