Lucille Hunter

Black History Month

Lucille Hunter

Lucille hunter was one of the first black women to live in Yukon Territory. When only nineteen she was pregnant and had a Husam named Charles They left Michigan to go to Yukon to start a new life. The Hunters traveled west and stop in Teslin lake to deliver her baby daughter. They named her Teslin after when she was born. After they moved by dogsled to Yukon in February 1898 The family settled outside of Dawson at Bonanza Creek. Lucille helps Charles big for gold while she was carrying baby Teslin. As both black women, Lucille and Teslin were rarely sighted by white people. Where she was living there were estimated to be 3000 white people and only 99 black people. The family later staked claims in silver in Mayo. After Charles died in 1939. In 1942, she moved to Whitehorse and opened a laundry tent. Despite her declining eyesight and eventually becoming blind, Lucille stayed fiercely independent by living in a small clapboard house. Eventually, her house burned down; however, she recovered from her burns and lived in a basement apartment for several more years until she broke her hip.  Spending the rest of her time in a hospital, she died in 1973 at age 94. Being one of the first black women in Yukon.