Draft:Lucille Hunter

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Lucille Hunter (c. 1878 - 1972) was an American pioneer in Canada.

She was born in Michigan, United States[1] and migrated to Canada to escape United States’ Jim Crow laws and was also a prospector in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush.[2] At age 19 and nine months pregnant, she and her husband, Charles Hunter, travelled to Yukon through the Stikeline River Trail.[3] Her only stop was at an Indigneous village where she birthed her daughter, Teslin, which she named after the village’s lake.[4][5]

Biography[edit]

Map to Klondike, 1898.

Lucille, her husband, her newborn baby, and their dog team travelled hundreds of kilometres through unforgiving winters from Michigan to Yukon to reach Klondike. Rather than taking the popular routes, such as Chilkoot Pass, they decided to travel along the lesser known Stikeline trail, as it was assumed to be a cheaper, and easier commute to the mines. However, according to Aneke Mendarozequeta’s “Celebrating Lucille Hunter and her Legacy of Badassery,” this route was even more psychologically and physically testing than the latter. Nevertheless, they reached Klondike ahead of most stampeders, and managed to stake a Bonanza Creek claim.[6]


As a Black woman, Lucille’s presence was unfamiliar amongst white male miners and Indigenous residents. The most available jobs for women were laundresses, housekeepers, and dancehall dancers, each of which was low-paying.”[7]

Charles passed in 1939, leaving Hunter alone with her grandson Buster. Her daughter Teslin had passed years before Charles. Hunter independently managed three gold mines, and a silver mine located 140 kilometres from them.[8] Soon after WW11, she managed a laundromat in Whitehorse.[1]

Due to her perseverance as a Black female miner, Hunter was granted honorary membership by the Yukon Order of Pioneers, making her the first Black member.[1] Hunter died in 1972 at age 94.[9]

Despite the racist and sexist barriers employed in Canadian institutions during the late 19th century and early 20th century, Hunter managed to become successful in a white male dominated field. Hunter worked hard for her success, and it was not easy to attain despite being in the country belonging to the Great White North.[10]

one source[11][12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Healey, Haley (2022-10-25). Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and the Yukon. Heritage House Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1-77203-426-4.
  2. ^ Aneke, Mendarozequeta “Celebrating Lucille Hunter and Her Legacy of Badassery.” Dawson Women's Shelter. 2021.
  3. ^ Jennifer Duncan, “Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of Klondike,” 2004, 1.
  4. ^ Ibid
  5. ^ "Lucille Hunter: a Klondiker of the 1897 Gold Rush". Whitehorse Daily Star. 2000-11-17. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  6. ^ Aneke, Mendarozequeta “Celebrating Lucille Hunter and Her Legacy of Badassery.” Dawson Women's Shelter. 2021
  7. ^ M.J, Kirrchoff, “Dawson’s Boom is Over : When the Klondike Gold Rush Ended, and Why It Matters. 2019. 59.
  8. ^ Jennifer Duncan, “Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of Klondike,” 2004, 2.
  9. ^ Gwiadza, Emily (November 13, 2023). "Lucille Hunter". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  10. ^ Delores, Mullings. “Canada the Great White North where Anti-Black Racism Thrives: Kicking Down the Doors and Exposing the Realities,” Phylon. 2016. 1.
  11. ^ Murphy, Claire Rudolf; Haigh, Jane G. (1997). Gold rush women. Internet Archive. Anchorage ; Seattle : Alaska Northwest Books. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-88240-484-4.
  12. ^ "Learning about Lucille Hunter". Whitehorse Daily Star. 2000-12-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-05-08.

References[edit]

Duncan, Jennifer. Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of the Klondike. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2004.

“Family Chronicle - Alaska-Yukon Goldrush Participants.” Family Chronicle - Alaska-Yukon Goldrush participants. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Accessed March 26, 2023. 

    https://web.archive.org/web/20120116233551/http://www.familychronicle.com/

Jones, Elyn. “Yukon's Black History: Remembering the Intrepid, Courageous Lucille Hunter | CBC News.” CBCnews. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio Canada, February 10, 2021. 

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/lucille-hunter-yukon-hidden-history-1.5907566.

Kirrchoff, M. J. “Dawson’s Boom Is Over: When the Klondike Gold Rush Ended, and Why It Matters.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 110, no. 2 (2019): 55–65.

Mclaughlin, Les. Yukon Nuggets. Yukon Nuggets, 1972. 

    https://yukonnuggets.com/stories/lucille-hunter.

Mendarozequeta, Aneke. “Celebrating Lucille Hunter and Her Legacy of Badassery.” Dawson Women's Shelter. Dawson Women's Shelter, February 24, 2021. 

    https://www.dawsonwomensshelter.com/blog/celebrating-lucille-hunter.

Momodu, Samuel. “African Americans in the California Gold Rush,” Blackpast. February 8 2022. 

    https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-
    history/events-african-american-history/african- 
    americans-in-the-california-gold-rush-1848-1860/

Mullings, Delores V., Anthony Morgan, and Heather Kere Quelleng. “Canada the Great White North Where Anti-Black Racism Thrives: Kicking Down the Doors and Exposing the Realities.” Phylon 53, no. 1 (2016): 20–41. 

    http://www.jstor.org/stable/phylon1960.53.1.20.

Peyton, Jonathan. “A strange enough way”: An embodied natural history of experience, animals and food on the Teslin Trail. Geoforum. (2015). 58. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.09.007.

“What was the Klondike Gold Rush?” National Park Service, December, 2021.



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