Jimmy Johnny (b. 1945)
Jimmy Johnny is a citizen of the Na-cho Nyäk Dun First Nation. In the 1950s, the doctor in Mayo ordered the people living in the Old Village across the Stewart River to move because of the danger of flooding and because the river water was being polluted from Mayo and the hospital. Instead of moving into Mayo, Jimmy’s family moved twenty miles downriver and lived in a tent until they built a cabin. They hunted and fished in that area for many, many years.1) Jimmy grew up in the bush around 17 Mile on the Stewart River.2)
Johnny started his career as a big game hunter guide as a teenager in 1958. He first went into the Snake River valley in 1961. In 2010, at age 65, he and four others spent seven days trailing twenty-five horses from McQuesten Lake into the Bonnet Plume River area to get ready for the season's hunt. He was part of a team that invited journalists into the Peel watershed in 2009 for three days, just as the great debate over protection of the area entered its final stage.3) Johnny’s knowledge of the Peel River watershed terrain made him one of the most respected guides in the Yukon. He became a tireless and fierce defender of the plants, animals, and culturally important sites in the region. Jimmy Johnny was awarded the Yukon Conservation Society’s 2016 Gerry Couture Stewardship Award for his work in protecting the land, water and wildlife of the Yukon.4)