Ruth Welsh, nee Blake (1931 – 2011)
Ruth Blake was born at Dootat Gwitshik (Huskey River), NWT to parents Elizabeth Ross and Arthur N. Blake. Ruth learned traditional bush skills with her family and received medicinal plant teaching from her mother and other Elders.1)
Ruth attended nursing school in Calgary and nursed throughout Alberta, NWT, British Columbia, and Yukon before settling in Tagish in the 1960s. She worked at the Carcross Tourist Information Centre, as a Fire Lookout, trapped, and grew one of the most productive gardens in the Tagish area. She was adopted into the Deisheentaan (Beaver) Clan of the Carcross Tagish First Nation.2)
Ruth was well known for her teaching of traditional plant medicines and the Gwich’in language. Ruth graduated from Yukon College with a diploma as a Gwich’in Language Instructor in 2010, and recorded and taught Gwich’in. Her students included graduate-level ethnobotany students at the University of Victoria.3)