Grace Margaret Johnson Gushàka (b. 1929)
Grace Johnson was born in Burwash Landing, the daughter of Copper Lilly and Jimmy Johnson and the granddaughter of the late Copper Joe. Grace was nine years old when her aunt Jessie Joe started teaching her beadwork and sewing. Her aunt sold flawlessly beaded moccasin tops to the highway construction crews on the Alaska Highway. In 1960, Grace moved to Whitehorse with her husband Gilbert Johnson. He worked as a sharpener, woodcutter, cement layer, mechanic, and trapper. In the summer, Grace worked at the Sheffield Hotel as head laundry person and in the winter her sewing was the main source of income. She could complete more than six pairs of moccasins a week and was able to buy a new car with the money she earned. In the late fall she drove to Burwash Landing and, with her mother Copper Lily, set traps to catch a winter supply of gophers. Grace has three sons and one usually shot a moose for winter meat.1) Grace is a fluent speaker of Southern Tutchone. In 2019, Sharda Ayotte recorded a video of Grace Johnson telling a story about her mother travelling to a potlatch in Whitehorse.2)