Carolyn Doris McLean (~1941 – 2018)
Doris McLean was a Carcross/Tagish First Nation citizen of the Dakl’aweidi (killer whale) clan.1) In the 1970s, she helped establish the Skookum Jim/Keish Tlingit Dancers and acted as a founding elder of the Dakhà Khwàan Dancers.2)
As a court worker, she advocated for Indigenous people across the Yukon. She visited people in the correctional centre to offer legal advice and support. Doris McLean was chief of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation from 1982 to 1992. During her tenure she worked to develop the Umbrella Final Agreement, finalized in 1993. She was known as the rebel chief because she always questioned and did her own thing.3)
Mclean was active in the RCMP Citizens on Patrol, the 2000 Arctic Winter games, and the Yukon International Storytelling Festival. She was the first Canadian Indigenous woman sergeant-at-arms, serving with the Yukon Legislative Assembly. She was a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Tagish language and a gifted storyteller who shared her stories internationally. Doris McLean leaves daughters Marilyn Jensen and Shirley McLean.4)