Environmental activist and elder Charlie Snowshoe dies at 88 in N.W.T.

Environmental activist and Gwich’in elder Charlie Snowshoe died this week at home in Fort McPherson, N.W.T., at age 88.

Snowshoe, like many Gwich’in people in the Northwest Territories, was raised to live off the land as a hunter and trapper.

His daughter Shirley Peterson told CTV News that her father “always instilled in us to take care of the land.”

Despite being forced to attend residential school in Fort McPherson, near the territory’s northwestern border with Yukon, Snowshoe never lost his identity.

Snowshoe would go on to become a strong voice for the north, as vice-president of the Indian Brotherhood and mayor of his home community in Fort McPherson.

Peterson, his daughter, says the family were “always feeling loved and always feeling guidance from him.”

Ken Kyikavichik, Grand Chief of the Gwich’in Tribal Council, says Snowshoe spoke out against climate change well before it became a global conversation.

“He has such a profound impact,” Kyikavichik told CTV News. “The more he heard about it, the more he would say, ‘It’s not climate change, it’s man-made change.'”

The self-taught leader also pushed multimillion-dollar Gwich’in land claims to the forefront with federal government, and united the people against the now-abandoned Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Later in life, he was awarded for his leadership and always gave back to his community.

At age 88, his daughter says his last wish was granted: to spend his final moments at home with the ones he loved most.

“I’m so honoured that… he was there with us and surrounded by family,” Peterson said.