Charlie Peter Charlie (1919 – 2008)
Charlie Peter Charlie was born in Crow Flats to Mary and Charlie Tetlichi. He spent his youth in the headwaters of the Porcupine River. He grew up speaking Gwich'in and learning traditional ways of hunting, fishing and trapping. He moved to Old Crow in 1935.1)
When Charlie was twenty years old, he took the plane to Fort Yukon on 28 May and then came back on 1 August. The next day his dad told him to go hunt caribou on the mountain. He killed ten bulls and skinned them. When he came back his dad said it was for a feast on August 7th when he was to get married to Fanny Tizya.2) Charlie and Fannie were married in 1939.3) Charlie Peter Charlie was chief in Old Crow from 1953-58, then Charlie Abel-Chitze was the chief, and then Charlie Peter Charlie was elected again for 1962-64.4)
Charlie Peter Charlie was key to the creation of the Council of Yukon Indians and in the establishment of the Porcupine Caribou Management Board, and he was involved in early land claims discussions. He worked for twenty years as the school custodian and served as a guide and consultant to generations of anthropologists, archaeologists, and researchers. He started recording oral traditions and contributing to Gwich'in language documentation and development with the Yukon Native Language Centre in the mid-1970s. He made significant contributions to the recording and understanding of place names in the Vuntut Gwitchin traditional lands. Charlie taught himself how to play the fiddle and for many years was the lead fiddler at the Alaskan International Athapaskan Fiddle Festival. In 1988, Charlie Peter Charlie was admitted to the Order of Canada in recognition of his service to his community.5)