Grafton Njootli was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician. He represented the electoral district

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of Old Crow in the Yukon Legislative Assembly

Yukon Legislative Assembly

-History:From 1900 to 1978, the elected legislative body in the Yukon was the Yukon Territorial Council, a ten-member body which did not act as the primary government, but was a non-partisan advisory body to the Commissioner of the Yukon...

 from 1978 to 1982 as a member of the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party

Yukon Progressive Conservative Party

The Yukon Progressive Conservative Party was a conservative political party in the Yukon Territory of Canada. It is now known as the Yukon Party.-History:...

.

Njootli, a community development and land claims

Land claims

Land claims are a legal declaration of desired control over areas of property including bodies of water. The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims...

 advocate from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation

Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation

The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is a First Nation in the northern Yukon Territory in Canada. Its main population centre is Old Crow, Yukon. As the name indicates, the language originally spoken by the people is Gwichʼin language....

, was the first aboriginal person elected to the Yukon Legislative Assembly. He was appointed Minister of Health and Human Resources in the government of Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson (politician)

Christopher William Pearson was the first leader of the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party and the first Government Leader in the Yukon. Pearson moved to the Yukon in 1957 and worked for the government from 1960 until 1973 when he entered private business...

, but was forced to resign from the cabinet on May 25, 1979 after it was revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

were investigating an allegation that he had physically assaulted a female cab driver.

He was subsequently appointed Deputy Speaker of the House on October 14, 1980, and served in that capacity until the dissolution of the legislature in 1982.

Njootli died in June 1999 in a boating accident. His funeral was held on June 22 of that year.