Stanley Jonas

“It’s a really nice little community there. You don’t have to worry about alcohol or drugs. And its ideal place to raise kids.”

Stanley Jonas is the First Chief of Canyon Village, 110 airmiles up the Porcupine River from Fort Yukon and about 200 by boat. Canyon Village did not exist until 1962, when Jonas, his wife, Madeline and a few other Fort Yukon families originally ventured up and built a school, a church and homes for everybody. Stanley and Madeline raised 12 children in Canyon Village.

“It’s a really nice little community there. You don’t have to worry about alcohol or drugs. And its ideal place to raise kids,” he recalls.

In recent years, economic conditions have forced most of the Canyon Village residents to leave. Madeline suffers from multiple health problems and is permanently hospitalized in Fairbanks, so Stanley spends most of his time traveling between the hospital and Fort Yukon. He continues to travel to Canyon Village each fall, where he joins some of his children and grandchildren in the hunt for caribou and moose.

He hopes to one day move back full time, and is expecting a few other folks to return soon. Canyon Village is not one of the 229 federally recognized tribes, but it is recognized by CATG and at their meetings, Jonas has as much a say as any First chief from any of the 10 villages. CATG is working to help the village gain federal recognition.

“Well I’ll tell you, we’d like to develop a community,” Jonas says. “There’s two men and their wife going to go move up, their kids are all graduated. And I’m pretty sure we’ll get some more because a lot of them know by now where Canyon Village is, by hunting. They like the community. So that’s why I really want to develop that village. Once it gets going, then you know, it’ll be just like the other communities that will be growing, get some little money to work on up there.

“The only thing that I’m really striving for is a recognition, and last month Donnie Young was here and we talk about it. We got him in here and we talk about it, getting recognized.

“He said, ‘I’m going to help you get recognized, but I’m not promising you you’re going to get any money - I’m not promising you money.’ So we told him if we get recognized then the money will come after that. And an airport too, we really want an airport up there.”