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Yukon is the least populated province or territory in Canada, and it shares a border with the

U.S. state of Alaska. Of the 42,000 people who now live in the Yukon, 33,000 of those live

in Whitehorse, the capital and only city in the territory.

In the year 1996, two of those residents were Jesse Peter and her 15-year-old daughter, Miranda Shelley Peter.

Both were Casca Denner First Nation from the community of Ross River,

and they were currently living

in an apartment in the city of Whitehorse. Not much is publicly known about their life there,

but we do know it was not an easy one. 15-year-old Miranda was in a relationship with a 16-year-old

named James Ward, who lived nearby with his

father and siblings. The two teenagers were often between each other's houses. Both Miranda and

James had experienced hardship throughout their lives, and they resorted to a common way of

coping, drinking. They were not an anomaly.

Teenage drinking was a major problem in the Yukon,

according to a 1998 report commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Services.

The report found that the drinking problem was overwhelmingly looked at as a normal part of growing up,

and those who would ordinarily speak up about it had become complacent.

Miranda Peter and James Ward were right in the thick of it, with a relationship that

became abusive pretty early on. James was reportedly violent and oppressive when he drank,

and Miranda stood up for herself and fought back. Their relationship was punctuated by

...