Percy Henry (1927 - 2024)
Percy Henry was born on the Ogilvie River between the Wind and Hart rivers to parents Joe and Annie Henry.1) His ancestry is Teetl'it and Tukudh Gwich'in, but he grew up speaking the Hän language with his peers.2) At age 12, he started fishing with Jim Hughes and learned how to use boats, set nets, and tend fish wheels. He would return in the winter to go hunting and trapping with his father. They had a 200-mile dog team trip to get to Joe’s trap line. After two hard winters Percy froze his lung and quit trapping. He found work as a truck driver for McCormick Trucking, delivering to the Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp camps.3)
In 1940 and 1941 Percy helped to run a fish trap near Tr’ochëk. He then worked at a sawmill in Mayo for nine years and crewed on the steamer Klondike for three seasons during the Second World War. He married Mabel in the late 1950s, and they have seven children. For twenty summers, between 1952 and 1972, Henry captained the MV Brainstorm hauling freight between Dawson and Old Crow. After that, he captained the car ferry across the Yukon River at Dawson.4)
Percy Henry was chief of the Dawson Indian Band for fifteen years. He was one of twelve Yukon chiefs to go to Ottawa to present “Together Today for our Children Tomorrow” in 1973.5) Henry retired in 1988. He was ordained an Anglican deacon in 1999 by Bishop Terry Buckle.6)
In March 2000, Percy Henry was given the Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Yukon Historical and Museums Association (YHMA), recognizing his efforts to preserve the Hän language. In 2001, he received the first-ever Conservation Award from the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board. Mabel taught the Hän language at the Robert Service School in Dawson and she and Percy produced a Hän language dictionary and lesson book for the Yukon Native Language Centre.7) Percy served on the Geographical Place Names board and the Health and Human Rights Commission, and he was active in the Yukon Order of Pioneers.8) In 2013, Percy received an honorary diploma in Northern Studies from Yukon College (now Yukon University) for his knowledge sharing and positive impact on his community. Percy Henry was one of ten inductees into the Order of Yukon on New Year’s Day in 2020.