Julia McDonald, nee Kutug, Gepik, Ooghaii (d. 1938)
	
Julia Kutug married Anglican missionary Robert McDonald in 1876. There are differing stories about her birth and youth. One is that she was Gwich’in from Arctic Red River.((F.A. Peake, “Robert McDonald, The great Unknown Missionary of the Northwest.” //Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society,// Vol. XVII, No. 3, September 1975.)) Another story is that she was an orphan Slavi girl from Fort Good Hope, 250 miles up the McKenzie River from Fort McPherson, and taken in by the mission at Fort McPherson.((//Northern Lights,// November 1932: 10.))
	
Julia travelled with her husband and translated for him until he mastered the language.((Sally Robinson, //Robert McDonald Annotated Journals.// 2024 website: https://www.academia.edu/121998320/Robert_McDonald_Annotated_Journals)) McDonald asked other women to help Julia with the housework as she was so busy helping him.((Effie Linklater’s visit to the Old Log Church Museum, February 1992. Old Log Church research files.)) She worked with her husband to translate the Church of England Book of Common Prayer, many hymns, a grammar and dictionary book, family prayers and short commentaries on the various books of the bible into the Tukudh Gwich’in language.((Dawson Cemeteries Database, SMHDBss #705, //Dawson News// (Dawson), 7 July 1938. Yukon Heritage Branch.)) 
	
Archdeacon McDonald travelled to Europe in 1882 to have his Tukudh translations of the Book of Common Prayer and the Old and New Testaments published and to recover his health. Julia went with him to Winnipeg and then returned to Fort McPherson with their children. McDonald returned in 1886 and continued his mission until 1904 when bronchitis forced his retirement to Winnipeg.((Sally Robinson, //Robert McDonald Annotated Journals.// 2024 website: https://www.academia.edu/121998320/Robert_McDonald_Annotated_Journals))

Robert McDonald’s Gwich’in grammar and dictionary were published in 1911.((“Memorable Manitobans: Robert McDonald (1929-1913).”  Manitoba Historical Society website: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/mcdonald_r.shtml)) Julia told her granddaughter Effie Linklater that Robert would get her up after a long day to help him translate a word. And that one word could take all night to translate in its various tenses. It was a long process.((Effie Linklater’s visit to the Old Log Church Museum, February 1992. Old Log Church research files.))
	
Julia and Robert McDonald’s sons, Neil and Hugh McDonald, fought in the First World War. Hugh was married and was studying law in Winnipeg when he enlisted in 1915.((Michael Gates, //From the Klondike to Berlin: The Yukon in World War I.// Madeira Park B.C.: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd. 2017: 15.)) Julia died in Dawson at St. Mary's Hospital and was survived by one son, Neil.((Dawson Cemeteries Database, SMHDBss #705, //Dawson News// (Dawson), 7 July 1938. Yukon Heritage Branch.))