Mary's Heart: A First Nations Woman in Dawson

In 1937, Mary Johnnie, a First Nations woman, considers marriage with Romeo Poulin, a pioneer and Stampeder turned small mill owner in Dawson. They have known each other for three decades and each has lost loved ones to the rugged territory that defines the Yukon.

Mary has felt the sting of loss, burying more loved ones than most. How much grief can one woman endure? She isn’t alone.

Romeo has also felt the bite of grief, but he longs for a family, and more than anything, a son. Will Mary agree to wed and someday give him the boy he hopes for? If they wed, will she have to change who she is – a Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in?

“We already have a child together. Let’s do things right, let’s get married,” Romeo begs.

While First Nations people intermarry and assimilate into the white man’s culture during the 1930s, Mary questions what she might lose if she marries a white man. Would her children be marginalized as half-breeds by a government that doesn’t care?

“What will I have to give up?” Mary asks.

Mary's Heart, book 4 in the series A Klondike Gold Miner's Life, explores life in the wild North and its many challenges. Intertwined in this story, Romeo Poulin has to deal with his brother, Gaudias, whose stubbornness has created a long-lived rift between them.