Barbara Fred Sùkusen (b. 1946)
Barbara Fred was born in Whitehorse to the Crow Clan. Her mother was Susie Fred Tut.Latseen of the Marsh Lake Tagish Kwan, her maternal aunt was Lily Kane, and her maternal uncle was Frank Slim. Her father was Ralph LaVallée from Rimouski, Quebec. He was a trapper before coming to the Yukon with the Canadian Army after the Second World War. Ralph and Susie lived at the Whitehorse shipyards in the summers and at a wood camp in the winters where Ralph cut domestic firewood. Their camps were at Tagish, Annie Lake, and in the Carcross area. Ralph also worked as an explosive’s expert at jobs around town and at the Whitehorse dam when it was under construction in the 1950s. Barbara was taken to the Indian Baptist Mission School when she was five. Her mother was able to visit on the weekends and the family was re-united in the summer at their cabin at Robinson. They went hunting with relatives in the area: the Burns, Craft, and Shakoon families.1)
Barbara moved to Edmonton when she was fifteen where she worked as a nanny for a few years and got married. She returned to Whitehorse in 1971 as a single mother and enrolled in a business management course at the Yukon Vocational School. She did her practicum at the Department of Indian Affairs and that was the start of a thirty-two-year career with the federal government. She became Director of Education, managing post-secondary education funding for First Nation students, was seconded to CYFN for a few years, and moved to the federal land claims office.2)
Barbara was an active volunteer in the community and contributed to many projects and sat on many boards. She was on the Yukon College Board of Governors for several years and was the chair from 2002 to 2003. She worked on a committee to establish the House of learning where KDFN students could receive training and education close to home.3)