Executive Director
Gerald Bruce
Director of Lands
Travis Stewart
Travis Stewart is part of the Crow clan, his mother is May Stewart, and his Grandmother was May Brodhagen. His traditional name is Dena Cho.
Both his parents were RCMP Officers. In the summers he spent time with his Grandparents on the Hyland River and in the Selwyn mountain ranges. He moved back to the Kaska traditional territory 11 years go after completing his post secondary education. When he moved back, he worked for a community-based non-profit for several years. He has run in three different LFN elections and was successfully voted in as a LFN Councillor from 2017-2020.
Presently he sits as the LFN Lands Director and has the privilege of speaking about Kaska rights and title for LFN. The Kaska traditional territory is a borderless nation that encompasses 90,000 square miles extending from MacMillan Pass in the North to Williston Lake in the South. The Kaska traditional territory includes Federal, Territorial, and Provincial jurisdictions via NWT/ Yukon/ & B.C.
Director of Justice
May Stewart
May Stewart is Kaska and a member of the Crow Clan. She has three adult children Samantha, Crystal, and Travis. She has been inspired by her mother May Brodhagen to pass on her traditional experience and knowledge on to the next generations including to her Grand-daughter Hazel. She is an advocate for collaborative approaches that are rooted in community-based solutions and tries to demonstrate that in her role as Justice Director over the past ten years.
She enjoys spending time on the land with family and friends on the trapline along the Highland River, camping, hunting, fishing, and boating. She also enjoys sewing and beading traditional regalia.
Director of Health & Social
Katherine Durocher
A longtime resident of Watson Lake, Katherine Durocher is originally from the Lower Mainland of BC. She is a Registered Nurse (RN) and up until recently worked at the Hospital in Watson Lake, striving to make a difference in northern health care for more than 2 decades. Katherine moved into the position of Director of Health & Social in early 2021 and hasn’t looked back. She believes in supporting staff and LFN membership by providing a better form of wellness focused on people first and work-life second. When Katherine is not at the office you can find her with family, including her husband, 5 children and 7 grand-children, all raised in the North.
Director of Language
Martina Volfova
Martina’s Kaska name is Nóghāmā, given to her by Elder Robert Jules. She been adopted into the Wolf Clan by Leda and Robert Jules. Martina first came through the Kaska territory in 2001, while on a solo bicycle trip across Canada to Alaska. She fell in love with the place instantly and knew she wanted to find her way back to get to know it better. She returned in the summer of 2014 and 2015 as a part of a UBC team, recording with Kaska Elders for the Kaska Talking Dictionary project. During this time, Martina formed a number of truly life-changing relationships with people in the community. Besides Leda and Robert Jules, who continue to guide her until this day, some of her first Kaska teachers included Elders Alice Brodhagen, Maggie Dick, and Mida Donnessey. In 2016, Martina moved to Watson Lake permanently and began working on other Kaska language projects, such as the development of the Kaska Language Website and other language learning resources, including video recording Kaska natural conversations with speakers from Watson Lake, Lower Post, and Ross River. In 2018, Martina began working for the LFN Language Department. She has been interested in languages since she was a child, which eventually led her to studying linguistics and Spanish, earning a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota. Her primary focus of study was on second language acquisition and the maintenance of minority languages. After years of working as a language teacher, she decided to go back to school, pursuing her interest in Indigenous languages, earning a Master’s Degree in Linguistic Anthropology from Northern Arizona University. During her studies, Martina worked with Shoshone and Goshute youth from Utah, Nevada, and Idaho on the reclamation of their ancestral languages. She completed her PhD in Linguistic Anthropology at UBC, which focuses on her collaborative work documenting the Kaska language. In her free time, Martina loves spending time outside, especially hiking and skiing in the nearby mountains. She enjoys photography and has been captivated by the beauty of the Kaska territory ever since she arrived. One of her favourite things to do is picking berries with Elders and listening to their stories.
Director of Capital and Infrastructure
Vacant
Director of Education and Employment
Vacant
Director of Human Resources
Vacant