Yukon who is who

Pauline Frost

Pauline Frost was born and raised in Old Crow and left the community to attend school. She worked as the director of the Yukon First Nations Self Government Secretariat and as spokesperson for Mapping the Way, a forum promoting awareness of Yukon Self-Government Agreements. She was a negotiator, an intergovernmental coordinator, and a senior official for the Vuntut Gwitchin Government. She was the president of the Vuntut Gwitchin Limited Partnership, and chair of the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee. She sat on the Air North Board and the board of the Yukon First Nations Culture and Tourism Association. Pauline Frost was elected as a Liberal in the Old Crow riding to the Yukon Legislative Assembly in the November 2016 election.¹⁾ As Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister of Environment, and Minister responsible for Yukon Housing Corporation, she was instrumental in advocating for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, government investment in rural mental health and wellness supports, creating family care agreements in communities, and adding hundreds of housing units in multiple projects.²⁾

In 2020, Pauline Frost lost her seat in the Yukon Legislature to Annie Blake when a perfect tie was resolved by a random draw. Frost launched a legal challenge to Blake’s election based on the legitimacy of a vote by a Vuntut Gwitchin citizen incarcerated in Whitehorse during the election. A judge dismissed Frost’s petition and thus set a precedent for future cases.³⁾

In 2023, Pauline Frost was sworn in as the new chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in Old Crow. She is only the third woman to hold the office. The first female chief was Alice Frost, Pauline’s mother. Norma Kassi was the second.⁴⁾

Pauline Frost is a multi-medal winner at many national and Indigenous games over the years. In 2006, she set a new record for women’s tandem canoe in the Yukon River Quest and then flew to the North American Indigenous Games in Colorado where she and others from Old Crow medalled in shooting.⁵⁾