Frank Blanchard Sr. (1909 - 2001)
Frank Blanchard was a Northern Tutchone man of the Wolf Clan. He was the son of Long Peter and Susan Baum and was raised by parents Ralph Blanchard Sr. and Susan Baum. He grew up on the Yukon River between Fort Selkirk and Hells Gate and learned traditional Northern Tutchones ways as well as building boats and fish wheels and crafting snowshoes and fish nets. He worked for Ralph Sr. when he was a young man, cutting wood for the steamers and the Yukon communities.1)
Frank met his late wife Annie at Lakeview. They were married at Fort Selkirk on Christmas Day 1938 and went on to have fourteen children. Frank, Annie and their first three children rafted to Dawson in the late 1940s and settled in Tr’ochëk with other Northern Tutchone families, including friends Charlie and Elise Johnson. They were all affected by having their children taken away to residential school. Frank cut wood for the City of Dawson until he was hired by Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp as a handy man, maintaining the sewer and power lines. He used his old green Ford pick-up to freight cases and crates of food to Bear Creek. Later he moved on to work for NCPC doing similar jobs until he retired. Frank was known to his friends as “Machine Machine” because of his hard-working ways.2)
Frank was survived by his sister Ada Van Bibber (Pat) and children Lionel, Frankie Jr., Trudy Lingren (Barry), Kathy Bullen (Chuck), Paul (Elaine), Susan, Ralph, Kevin, Grace, and Joanne (Jason).3)