Joseph Guilbaud (1915 - 2010)
Joseph Guilbaud was born in Chauche in the Vendee area of France. His father died in the First World War when Joseph was six months old.1) Joseph joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in the early 1930s. He heard about the Yukon when Whitehorse bishop Jean-Louis Coudert visited his seminary. Guilbaud made his vows as an Oblate missionary in 1934 but his intentions to relocate were disrupted when he was drafted into the French military for five years and then recalled to active service when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia. He was captured in 1940 and spent five years as a prisoner of war.2)
After the war, Joseph was ordained as a priest and sent to the Yukon. Father Pierre Rigaud, the parish priest at Haines Junction, influenced his choice of destination. Guilbaud spent a year in Battleford, Saskatchewan studying theology and English before boarding a bus for Johnsons Crossing in 1950. He hitchhiked to Ross River and, in August, started off for Pelly Lakes with a crosscut saw and an axe plus his kit. His goal was to build a new mission for the Dick, Charlie, Cesar and other Kaska families living there. He and Louis “Slim” Rader, the Taylor and Drury storekeeper at Pelly Lakes, towed a canoe a good part of the 240-km trip due to low water. Guilbaud built a log living quarters and church at the Pelly Lakes community and returned to Ross River on 14 October to pick up supplies and his four dogs. George Dick made a little canvas boat that Paul and Joe Charlie towed across a chain of three lakes before Father Joe could set off down a little tributary to the Pelly River. He reached Slate Rapids just as slush started in the river and was almost capsized. He had to walk the last 160 km to Ross River with his belongings tied to his body. Tom Smith brought him across the river and warmed him up at his camp. He borrowed a pack and reached Ross eleven days after he started his trip. Father Joe spent the rest of his active ministry based at Upper Liard with a six-year stint at Carmacks in the 1960s. He shared his life with the people of Watson Lake, Lower Post, and communities further along the Alaska and Cassiar highways. Father Guilbaud retired to Whitehorse in 1999.3)
During his time in Upper Liard, Father Guilbaud heard from the people that they were worried about losing their language. He carried a tape recorder, asked the Elders to teach him Kaska, and became quite proficient in the language. He also set up two speakers in the church tower and played his recording to people sitting on the church steps. The father had a stroke in Whitehorse in 2010 and spent a month in the hospital before he passed.4)