Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 21/02) - Agnes Semmler, a political reformer, trapper's wife, and community leader, died Tuesday at the age of 91.

Although her mother was Gwich'in and her father a Swedish trapper, she spent much of her life among the Inuit, and played a key role in the settlement of the Inuvialuit land claim in 1984.

"I've always called myself Canadian," Semmler told an Edmonton Journal reporter in 1983. "I don't like this Dene Indian or Metis or whatever crap. I'm a Canadian."

In many ways, Semmler was a pioneer of her time. In 1967, she was named NWT's Woman of the Century at the Montreal Expo. In 1975, she became the territory's first woman justice of the peace and in April 1984, she became the first woman to be appointed to the position of deputy commissioner.

Semmler was born on April 17, 1911 at Rampart House, a community in northwest Yukon. After attending mission school in Hay River, she followed her father and brother to the Central Arctic, to trap white fox. It was at Cape Krusenstern, when Semmler was 19, that she met and married her husband Lawrence "Slim" Semmler, an American trader, in 1931.

"Mr. Semmler came along looking for a good wife and he thought I'd make a good fox skinner," she said in a profile written about her in 1967. Slim operated a number of isolated trading posts around Cape Krusenstern and Kugluktuk (Coppermine) area, and the couple had three children there.

With no doctors or nurses near, the Semmlers provided medical care for local residents, helping them through illness, childbirth and even a few influenza epidemics. Semmler cared for her patients with nothing more than pots of home cooked stew, a medical book, and government-issue medicines.

Daughter Shirley Gadbow, 71, says her mother served as a midwife on numerous occasions, though she couldn't stand the sight of blood, and even fainted once after delivering a child.

Granddaughter Lori Craven also remembers the stories Semmler told of that time. "She said Ottawa was so stupid because they would send cod liver oil, and she said all you had to do was cut a hole in the ice to get all the cod you wanted."

In 1947, the family moved to the Mackenzie Delta, where Slim set up a trading post and mink ranch at Napoiak Channel. They adopted their youngest son from Aklavik and when Inuvik was built in 1956, the family moved there to set up the first store in town.

Political activist

In Inuvik, Semmler was active in political and community life, helping to organize the Home and School Association, Catholic Women's League, Women's Institute and a building program for the YMCA.

She served on town council and the Trapper's Committee, and she travelled widely with the Liberal party acting as an interpreter in Inuvialuktun, her second language.

In 1965, Semmler ran for territorial council but was defeated by 150 votes. It wasn't the end of her political career though. In the late 60s, she co-founded the Committee of Original People's Entitlement, the predecessor of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., and became its first president.

She was outspoken on the rights of aboriginal people, and at times held audience with the likes of Pope John Paul, Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth, Pierre Trudeau, and Jean Chretien. She was also invited to give speeches at universities including Harvard, Acadia and Scarborough.

"We formed COPE when the oil men first started coming in to the Delta area," she said in a 1983 Edmonton Journal article. "We got together and said we're not going to let them just take over the country, take everything that's any good and leave us with nothing."

Outside of her political activism, Semmler was an avid fan of baseball and curling.

She helped organize a women's baseball league, called the Inuvik Sputniks, playing backstop for several years. "We had all these native women and she had us all playing baseball with her," recalls niece Bertha Allen. After serving as deputy commissioner in the 1980s, Semmler retired in the and lived in Inuvik until her death last week.

"She had a lot of visitors all the time and she was still active playing bingo and doing things like that," says Gadbow.

"Everybody in town still calls her mom and granny."

Semmler's funeral is scheduled to take place in Inuvik today.