The sighting took place in the first week of June, 1997, in Mary Lake Subdivision just south of Whitehorse. The subdivision is in a forested rural setting where neighboring houses are not visible. Whitehorse is situated just north of the 60th parallel and therefore this sighting which occurred late in the evening was still under daylight conditions. The sun was down but there was still plenty of daylight, enough to read a newspaper.
At about 11:20 pm a woman let her dog out onto the deck of her house. Seconds later, the dog began scratching at the door frantically wanting to get back in. She opened the door and the dog rushed into the house with the hair on its back standing on end, "it was really spooked !" As she was closing the door behind him she caught out of the corner of her eye an object fly by quickly from right to left, just beyond the railing of her deck. She thought it might have been a reflection in the glass door she just closed. She repeated opening and closing the door and found out that a reflection was not responsible.
She went outdoors for a look and there out over her septic field about 50 meters away this object hovering just a meter or two above the ground (3 to 6 feet). It was a pale, pale green, almost white and had a bright glow to it. It was about the diameter of a frisbee and about 10 centimetres (4 inches) thick. When it flew by her deck, she estimated it to be travelling slightly slower than a thrown frisbee. She continued to watch the object for about 20 minutes just hovering back and forth over the low bushes in her septic field. She went back into the house to wake her husband so he too could have a look. Her husband is a deep sleeper and she could not wake him up.
She went back outside to have another look and the object was still there. She observed the object for another 20 minutes. There was heavy dew on the deck and the night was unusually cool for June. However, all she had on was a housecoat and she couldn't believe how warm she felt the entire time she was outside. She was truly amazed at the object "it blew my socks off" she said. The object seemed to be radiating a compassionate, comforting feeling towards her and didn't feel "out-worldly" to her at all, "it felt good," she said. She eventually got tired of watching it and went back into the house and that was the last she saw of it.
The woman is skeptical when it comes to the extraterrestrial explanation for UFO's, although she enjoys "Star Trek", science fiction and astronomy very much. She felt that this object had an earthly origin. She called just about everyone she could think of for a rational explanation for her sighting. She called the Yukon Electrical Company to see if it could be electrical discharge from the power lines. Their response was "no". She called the Yukon Government, Renewable Resources - Fish and Wildlife Branch to see if it was some form of bioluminescence. Their response was also negative. She called Environment Canada to inquire if it may have been swamp gas and was told that there has never been a case reported in the Yukon.
Failing to get any conventional explanation she contacted various North American Native Shaman. One of them explained to her that she was very fortunate in what she saw. The Shaman said that these lights are called "Grandfather and Grandmother lights" and are actually the souls of their departed ancestors. They are apparently quite common around places of healing. This comforted the woman as she went through her own healing process several months prior to her sighting. She also had a rash for days before her sighting which disappeared the next day.
Efforts were made to contact the Shaman that the lady spoke with. This yielded information that the frisbee shape was in fact unique, at least to native legends. The usual accounts of "Grandfather and Grandmother lights" deal with spherical objects the size of a basketball, often red in color. The green color was not very common. The reports were from all over Canada and not just the Yukon.
Attempts were made to attain some of these first hand reports. Another woman was contacted who may have known of such accounts but she heard only of legends. As the "telling of legends" was sacred and reserved for elders, she was not permitted to relate these. To listen to legends from elders, one has to build trust with the community.
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