Julia McDonald, nee Kutug, Gepik, Ooghaii (d. 1938)
Julia Kutug married Anglican missionary Robert McDonald in 1876. There are differing stories about her birth and youth. One is that she was Gwich’in from Arctic Red River.1) Another story is that she was an orphan Slavi girl from Fort Good Hope, 250 miles up the McKenzie River from Fort McPherson, and taken in by the mission at Fort McPherson.2)
Julia travelled with her husband and translated for him until he mastered the language.3) McDonald asked other women to help Julia with the housework as she was so busy helping him.4) She worked with her husband to translate the Church of England Book of Common Prayer, many hymns, a grammar and dictionary book, family prayers and short commentaries on the various books of the bible into the Tukudh Gwich’in language.5)
Archdeacon McDonald travelled to Europe in 1882 to have his Tukudh translations of the Book of Common Prayer and the Old and New Testaments published and to recover his health. Julia went with him to Winnipeg and then returned to Fort McPherson with their children. McDonald returned in 1886 and continued his mission until 1904 when bronchitis forced his retirement to Winnipeg.6)
Robert McDonald’s Gwich’in grammar and dictionary were published in 1911.7) Julia told her granddaughter Effie Linklater that Robert would get her up after a long day to help him translate a word. And that one word could take all night to translate in its various tenses. It was a long process.8)
Julia and Robert McDonald’s sons, Neil and Hugh McDonald, fought in the First World War. Hugh was married and was studying law in Winnipeg when he enlisted in 1915.9) Julia died in Dawson at St. Mary's Hospital and was survived by one son, Neil.10)