Patrick James, Koolseen (1940 – 2024)
Patrick James was involved in negotiating the self-government agreement and was chief and a member of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) council between 1995 and 2001. He championed the recovery of the Southern Lakes caribou in the early 1990s. His tireless work and approaches to land and natural resources management in the Southern Lakes became the foundation for current practices.1) James was Chief of the CTFN when a moratorium went into effect as part of the Southern Lakes caribou recovery program. He said the decision to stop hunting caribou was a difficult one but it was rooted in the teachings of his elders. In 1993, the population of the four Southern Lakes herds was estimated at 1,000 caribou. In 2019, the population reached approximately 4,850, an increase in stark contrast to other woodland caribou populations in Canada.2)
Mr. James was a business owner, running boat charters and sharing local knowledge while shuttling Chilkoot climbers.3)
James was a member of the Yukon Land Use Planning Council’s Indigenous Planning and Traditional Knowledge committee between 2020 and 2023.4) He was part of the Elders Council, sharing his experiences with local youths.5) To the end, James continued to go out on the land and continued as an advocate for teaching youth about caribou.6)