Yukon has a long history of fierce women.

The matriarchal First Nations have had leaders such as Judy Gingell, of Kwanlin Dun First Nation, a founding director of the Yukon Native Brotherhood, signatory on Together Today For Our Children Tomorrow, and former Yukon Commissioner; Roberta Joseph, two-term chief of  Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation, and Doris Bill, also of Kwanlin Dun First Nation, a former journalist, and second-term chief of her nation.

As for settler women, Martha Black was the second woman in Canadian Parliament, back in 1935.

Ione Christensen can also add her name to that list.

Daughter of long-time North West Mounted Police officer, Gordon (G.I.) Cameron, Christensen would go on to be the first woman to be named Justice of the Peace for the Yukon Territorial Government, the first woman to be elected Mayor for the City of Whitehorse, and the first woman to be appointed Commissioner of the territory. But in 1942, she was living on the banks of the Yukon River, at Fort Selkirk.

Fort Selkirk was far removed from the frantic Alaska Highway efforts, but they could still feel its effects.

Below, Christensen talks about wartime in Fort Selkirk, and the importance of the highway in later years.