Dave Joe - the Yukon's first aboriginal lawyer - was named today as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

It was Joe and Chief Mike Smith of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation who were convinced in the late 1960s and early 1970s to go into law school, so that they might return to the Yukon to help in the struggle for aboriginal land claim settlements here.

Even in the years prior to his call to the Yukon bar in 1976 or '77, Joe was intimately involved with the push for recognition of aboriginal rights and title in the territory.

In the years after being sworn to the bar, Joe remained committed to the land claim movement here. To this day, the recognition of aboriginal rights entitlement of first nations remains a focus of his West Vancouver law practice.

Joe is currently visiting the Yukon, but could not be reached for comment this morning or early this afternoon.

A Southern Tutchone citizen of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, Joe was among 14 others named this morning as officers, the second-highest distinction.

Also named as officer was Nellie Cournoyea, an Inuvialuit woman who served as premier of the Northwest Territories in the 1990s and was instrumental in negotiating the 1984 land claim settlement for her people. (See story below.)

"I think Dave is an excellent choice for the Order of Canada," Whitehorse lawyer Steve Walsh said this morning upon hearing of the appointment.

"It is an award that is well-deserved, given his contribution over the years to the aboriginal rights movement in the Yukon Territory."

Walsh's work with Joe reaches back to the 1970s, a decade before Walsh was called to the bar 1987.

In addition to being the first lawyer of Yukon aboriginal ancestry, he has blazed a lot of trails for the territory's first nations, Walsh said.

The office of Governor General Michaelle Jean indicated today Joe was recognized for his social service.

"For his leadership in building stronger communities and positive relations between native and non-native peoples and in negotiating final land claims agreements for several Yukon first nations,' reads the Governor General's citation.

While never seeking elected office in aboriginal politics, for years Joe was tied at the hip to the leaders of Yukon first nations, whether it was providing regular briefings or hosting strategy meetings at annual general assemblies of the central organization.

He was involved back in 1973 when Yukon first nations convinced then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau and then-Indian Affairs minister Jean Chretien to negotiate a modern-day treaty with Yukon first nations.

Joe was still intimately involved 22 years later, when the first four agreements became part of the Constitution of Canada, on Feb. 14, 1995.

"He was a hard worker, no question about that," Vic Mitander, an aboriginal Northern Tutchone negotiator who worked alongside Joe from the early 1970s onward, said this morning.

"He is a good man, and I think Yukon first nations were quite lucky to have him to work with the leadership and the elders."

Mitander pointed out Joe has also represented first nations right across Canada.