Doris Bill

Doris Bill is a citizen of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation and a member of the Wolf clan. In the 1990s, she was the editor of Dannzha, a monthly public affairs magazine. In 1988, the Ye Sa To Communications Society changed the Yukon Indian News into this magazine and incorporated some of the format of Shakat, the Yukon Indian News summer edition. Dannzha was Yukon's first Indigenous magazine. In 1990, Ye Sa To was the most poorly funded of all of Canada's Indigenous communications societies. Bill wanted to be a journalist but had to be a fund raiser. She left Dannzha to work as a broadcaster for CBC Whitehorse even though the magazine received consistently high critical praise. During her tenure, Bill had edited the magazine, wrote much of its material, and sold advertising. She also posed for the cover of an issue on family violence.¹⁾

Doris Bill was first elected chief of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation in 2014. In November 2018, under her leadership, amendments were made to the self-government agreement to allow the Land Titles Act to apply to parcels of settlement land. The First Nation registered a piece of its Settlement A lands with the Yukon titles office enabling it to bring residential and commercial properties to market. The Yukon Government in turn passed changes to the Land Titles Act which allowed first nations to register settlement lands without relinquishing title. Bill also led her government in developing the community safety officer program that acts as an intermediary between citizens and the RCMP.²⁾