Tlingit & Haida Hall of Fame Book

TLINGIT & HAIDA

Hall of Fame

A STORY OF LEADERS AND VISIONARIES

TLINGIT & HAIDA

Hall of Fame

A Story of Leaders and Visionaries

Acknowledgments

The Tlingit & Haida Hall of Fame book was compiled by President Emeritus Edward K. Thomas.

Vital to this project was the financial support of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida). The archives of SHI were

and formatting

Many thanks to Peter Metcalfe for his research and writing skills; this project likely would not have been completed without his assistance.

Every effort has been made to acknowledge sources of information; however, original sources are not always available.

Many leaders are not profiled due to the absence of easily accessible records or oversights by which we appeal to you for your insights, corrections, or suggested sources of information.

It is our ambition to recognize Alaska Natives who provided leadership and inspiration and whose contributions improved the lives of the Indigenous peoples of Southeast Alaska.

Introduction

Alaska Native people have been in Southeast Alaska from the beginning of time. It offended early Native leaders when European “settlers” began occupying our lands and imposing their laws and policies upon our people.

Aboriginal tribes of North America have always governed themselves at levels to meet the needs of their tribal citizenry. European “settlers” with the establishing of the United States has had the greatest impact on the very fiber of our existence and our way of life. Southeast Alaska Natives saw how tribal people in the Lower 48 were wiped out in endless wars with the United States and so they chose to advocate for our rights utilizing non-Native laws, policies, and procedures to gain equitable rights for our people.

Notwithstanding their important successes on behalf of Native people, very little has been written about those wise Native leaders of contemporary times during the occupation of our homeland by the United States; these profiles will remind us of who these people were and are.

I have found the Native organizations I have been involved in do a relatively good job in documenting current accomplishments of Native organizations and corporations, but even still it is difficult for us to credit individuals for doing what they do on our behalf.

I provide a summary of the period of time in The Story and a Historic Chronology to help link the profiles to important activities and events these leaders were a part of. I tried to include pictures of some of the leaders during the era of their involvement in The Story. It is important to know most of these leaders were involved in several of the eras of The Story even though they appear in only one era for the most part.

Decades of Visionaries (1900–1920)

The United States became more active in Alaska relative to land and Native rights. It all began when President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Southeast Alaska as the Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve in 1902. This was followed by the creation of the Tongass National Forest and then the combining of these two forests into a “new” Tongass National Forest in 1908.

In 1912, the Territory of Alaska became organized as a territory of the United States.

The Nelson Act of 1905 prohibited Native children from attending public schools.

Chapter 24 of the sessions laws of Alaska provided an opportunity for Natives to become citizens of the United States provided they gave up tribal relationships and adapted the habits of a civilized life.

One positive federal law improved opportunities for tribes to get involved in the administration of federal programs designed to benefit Native Americans – The Buy Indian Act of 1910.

The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) of 1912 and the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) of 1915 were established to unify Alaska Natives for the purpose of stopping the taking of our traditional homelands and to advocate for the rights of Alaska Natives.

Native Leaders of the Time

It is helpful to match the leaders to the timeframe in which they did outstanding work. They made their mark in this country’s history.

Rudolph Walton Peter Simpson

William L. Paul, Sr.

Decades of Exercising Basic Rights (1920–1940)

The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) began to show its effectiveness. They not only got Alaska Natives included in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, but they also got William Paul elected as the first Alaska Native to the Alaska Territorial Legislature. Citizenship finally allowed Alaska Natives to vote, hold public office, and own private property.

The ANB passed a resolution in 1929 to sue the federal government for the taking of our land without our permission or compensation. This led to the passage of the Jurisdiction Act of 1935 which recognized the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) as a federally recognized tribe with rights to sue the federal government for the taking of aboriginal lands.

They were also successful in getting the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 amended to include Alaska. This led to the creation of more than 200 federally recognized tribes in Alaska.

Natives of Southeast Alaska began to get heavily involved in the salmon fishing industry. Charlie Demmert built a cannery in Klawock, Alaska in 1923.

Native Leaders of the Time

Louis Paul

Judson Brown

Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders (1912)

Matilda Paul Tamaree

Charlie Demmert

Termination Era (1940–1960)

The attitude of people in Congress during this timeframe was very negative toward Native Americans. The prevailing attitude was to terminate federal recognition of tribes, extinguish Indian reservations, and require assimilation of Native Americans into the dominant society.

In 1944, Indians in the Lower 48 met and incorporated the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in efforts to unify and protect the rights of Native Americans.

Although the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) was actively lobbying Congress to get the Tlingit and Haida land suit settled, nothing happened in Congress towards settlement. They asked every Tlingit and Haida person to contribute a small amount of money each year to help with lobbying expenses. The ANB and ANS successfully got the Anti-Discrimination Act passed in the Territory of Alaska.

Alaska became a state in 1959 and most Tlingit and Haida people supported this because it meant local control over fish traps. Up until then, large fish packing companies built and managed fish traps, and were wiping out salmon in Southeast Alaska very rapidly. Despite the fervent lobbying efforts of the ANB and ANS to urge Congress to outlaw fish traps, their endeavors proved futile because these large companies contributed handsomely to the campaign funds of congressional representatives.

Despite enduring a climate of hostility within the halls of Congress, our Native leaders held steadfast to rectify past wrongs and secure a future where our voices are heard, our rights are respected, and our sovereignty is honored.

Native Leaders of the Time

Frank Johnson

Andrew P. Hope

Elizabeth Peratrovich

Roy Peratrovich

Robert Cogo

Helen Sanderson

Decade of Native Organization Advocacy (1960–1970)

Alaska Natives came to realize it was important to join forces and advocate for the rights of our people. The Termination Era of the 1950s marked a period of intense pressure on Native Americans, as the federal government sought to dissolve its special relationship with tribal nations and encourage assimilation. During this time, political forces increasingly undermined Native American rights, pushing for the termination of federal recognition and the reduction of tribal sovereignty.

The Alaska Federation of Natives was created in 1966 primarily to get the federal government to compensate Alaska Natives for the taking of our aboriginal lands and to return some of our land back to us. This organization became very important for the advocacy of Alaska Native rights for decades, more than just land rights.

In 1968, Congress passed the Second Supplemental Appropriation Act which appropriated $7,500,000 as a settlement to the land suit filed by Tlingit & Haida for the taking of our ancestral homeland. This award violated the “fair compensation” provisions of the United States Constitution.

Native Leaders of the Time

In the wake of the Termination Era’s effects on Native communities, Alaska Native leaders united, forging a resilient front, to advocate for our sovereignty and future well-being.

Andy Ebona

Byron Mallott

Marlene Johnson

Mark Jacobs, Jr.

James Price

Janie Leask

Self-Determination Era (1970s)

In 1971, the United States Senate passed Concurrent Resolution 26: Reversed the federal policy of termination and develop a government-wide commitment to enable Indians to determine their own future. This resolution was critically important in defining the future relationship between the tribes in the United States and the federal government.

Tlingit & Haida contracted for the entire Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Southeast Agency in 1971 under the Buy Indian Act. This was the first time a tribe in Alaska contracted for the management of federal services normally managed by the federal government themselves. The Tribe also established the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority and the Tlingit Haida Regional Electrical Authority in 1973 and 1975 respectively.

The Indian Education Act was passed in 1972 and the Indian Selfdetermination and Education Assistance Act was passed in 1975. These acts not only provided opportunities for Native American tribes to contract for government services intended to benefit their tribal citizens, but it also required the federal agencies to issue contracts to any tribe or tribal organization who wanted to enter into a contact with their agency. Very important laws.

I have had the honor of working with Tlingit and Haida leaders on the local, statewide, and national levels. Dr. William Demmert was intimately involved in the writing and implementation of the Indian Education Act.

Self-determination is the fundamental right of individuals and communities to shape their own destinies. Upholding self-determination honors diversity, fosters empowerment, and lays the foundation for inclusive societies built on justice, equality and mutual respect.

Native Leaders of the Time

Andrew Hope III

Dr. William Demmert

Ethel Lund

Niles Cesar Ivan Gamble

John Borbridge, Jr.

Era of Native Corporations (1970s+)

It took decades of hard political work for Southeast Alaska Natives to get compensated for land taken from our people without being properly compensated for it and/or getting some of our land back. The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) made the decision to sue the government in 1929 and it was not until 1968 Tlingit & Haida was awarded $7.5 million as a settlement of out suit against the federal government. The award of $962.5 million and the return of 44 million acres to Native corporations pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was the largest aboriginal land settlement in the history of the United States.

Prior to the passage of ANCSA, a number Alaska Native regions who were members of the Alaska Federation of Natives believed Southeast Alaska Natives had already received compensation for lands taken from us; a vote was taken and a there was an even split between those who felt Tlingit & Haida should be included in ANCSA or not and the chair broke the tie by voting for including Southeast Alaska in ANCSA.

Many of the Native leaders of the original ANCSA corporations were not familiar with how corporations worked prior to the passage of ANCSA. No other society had moved from a subsistence lifestyle to being capitalist in such a short amount of time as Alaska Natives.

Since ANCSA’s enactment, Alaska’s industries have diversified the economy and flourished, creating jobs in both private & public sectors, benefiting all Alaskans.

Some ANCSA Leaders

Margorie V. Young

John Borbridge, Jr.

Walter Soboleff

Robert Sanderson

Mark Jacobs, Jr.

Byron Mallott

Broad Leadership Throughout Time

Southeast Alaska Natives have demonstrated leadership in a variety of areas throughout the years locally, regionally, statewide, and nationally. Strong leadership in tribal governments, corporations, Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood, education, culture, and subsistence advocacy to name a few.

Native Leaders of the Time Tribal Government Leadership

It became very important to find and elect Native leaders at the local and regional level in order for our people to work on a government-to-government relationship with the federal government. These leaders excelled in creating strong tribal governments in Southeast Alaska.

It was Southeast Alaska Native leaders who first brought about tribal contracting with the federal government to manage federal programs intended by Congress to benefit Natives. Our people were leaders in the first Buy Indian Act contract ever negotiated in Alaska. When Public Law (P.L.) 93-638, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, was passed the tribal contracts in Southeast Alaska lead the way in designing and incorporating solid administrative practices in running these contracts.

Southeast Alaska Native leaders pioneered tribal contracting with the federal government to oversee programs that were established to benefit Alaska Natives and American Indians.

Ray Paddock, Jr.

Andrew Hope John Borbridge, Jr.

Dick Stokes

Leadership in Education

Southeast Alaska Natives have always considered education important. In traditional times the Tlingit people had a very strong tradition of identifying who, in the family, was responsible for educating the young members of the family.

When early contemporary Native leaders noticed public schools discriminated against our children, they succeeded in suits against the schools in Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska in non-Native courts and Native children were allowed to attend public schools in Alaska.

A substantial number of Southeast Alaska Natives went on to earn higher education degrees from prominent colleges and universities around the nation. They went on to become school administrators, college professors, and Native education advocates in Alaska and at the national level. For example, Dr. William Demmert, Jr. was the primary Native leader who assisted in the writing of the Indian Education Act which was significant in incorporating Native cultures into the schools across America.

Leadership in Education encompasses a legacy of dedication, innovation, and advocacy, exemplified by Southeast Alaska Natives who have historically prioritized and championed educational opportunities for their communities. These leaders have paved the way for inclusive, culturally relevant learning environments that empower future generations to thrive.

Native Leaders of the Time

Gil Truitt

Embert Demmert

Dennis Demmert

Rudolph Walton

Herb Didrickson

Joseph Kahklen

Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood

The most powerful and effective Native organization in Alaska in the early and middle 1900s was the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS). Established in 1912, they were successful in many civil rights issues on behalf of Native Americans:

ƒ Citizenship to the United States,

ƒ Right to own personal property,

ƒ Right of children to attend public schools,

ƒ Federal recognition of Alaska Native tribes,

ƒ Right to vote and hold public office, and

ƒ The right to sue the federal government for the taking of aboriginal lands to name a few.

The ANB and ANS has always taken great pride in the fact that their advocacy success is primarily because they are a “grass roots” organization representing all communities of Southeast Alaska.

Mary Jones

Stella Martin

Roy Peratrovich

Millie Schoonover

Native Leaders of the Time

Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood (1950)

Cultural Preservation and Advocacy

Assimilation of our people took its toll on the culture and heritage of our people. Most schools in Alaska did not include Native history and/or culture in their curriculum. The 1915 Sessions Laws of Alaska would provide opportunities for Natives to gain United States citizenship to those who have “severed all tribal relationships and adapted the habits of a civilized life.”

After the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), elders of Southeast Alaska came together and decided the Sealaska Corporation should incorporate a non-profit cultural heritage organization that became the Sealaska Heritage Foundation, now known as the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI).

Under the leadership of Dr. Rosita Worl and support of many elders knowledgeable about the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures, SHI ignited a cultural renaissance in Southeast Alaska. Not only did they provide material for learning our languages, but they also developed relationships with many schools in our region to include Native cultural classes in schools. The institute assists skilled Native artists in the teaching of their crafts to the youth in and out of our schools.

Native Leaders of the Time

Rosita Worl

Delores Churchill

Nathan Jackson

Erma Lawrence

Clarence Jackson

Political Advocacy

The Native leaders in Southeast Alaska learned early on participation in the legal process of policy development in the United States was very important. As soon as federal laws granted citizenship to our people they rallied around William Paul and elected him to the Alaska Territorial Legislature.

Natives like Frank Johnson, Alfred Widmark, Frank Peratrovich, Andrew Hope, Frank See, and Arthur Johnson were elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature and early state legislature.

In more recent years, Albert Kookesh, Bill Thomas, Bill Williams, and Jerry Mackie served in the Alaska State Legislature. Albert and Jerry also served in the State Senate.

So many public policies that impact Natives are federal policies passed by Congress or implemented by federal officials. Natives nationwide got together in 1944 and formed the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Many of us served on the NCAI Executive Committee and several of our Alaska Native leaders from Southeast Alaska served in the NCAI administration. Jacqueline (Jackie) Pata served at the Executive Director longer than anyone else in Indian Country.

Native Leaders of the Time

Protection of Subsistence

Living off of the resources of our homeland has always been important to the Southeast Alaska Natives. There were more and more restrictions placed upon our people with the arrival of foreign governments. Native leaders at the local and regional levels made themselves well versed in their laws and constantly participated in the governmental policy making process to ensure our people had access to our resources to sustain our way of life.

It is true, many more of our Native leaders did great things in the efforts to preserve and protect our subsistence rights, but here I focus on those I worked directly with and observed their efforts.

Native Leaders of the Time

William L. Paul, Sr.

Jacqueline Pata

Floyd Kookesh

Albert Kookesh

Rosita Worl

Hall of Fame Profiles

Rudolph Walton

Kaawóotk’ • Áataatseen

1867–1951

Tlingit • Yéil

Kiks.ádi Clan

The life story of Rudolph Walton provides a window into the wrenching upheaval of Tlingit society that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“Sheldon Jackson and the Presbyterian missionaries held out to the Native people the promise that if they became ‘civilized’ they would be treated equally in the eyes of the American government,” observed Joyce Walton Shales, his granddaughter, in her 1998 doctoral thesis.

For all his accomplishments in life, Rudolph proved the promise of equality to be empty.

Born into a high status Kiks.ádi family in April 1867 in Sitka, a month after the Russians sold their interests in Alaska to the United States, Rudolph was one of the first graduates of Sheldon Jackson School (formerly the Sitka Industrial Training School before being renamed in 1910). He often referred to himself in later life as “The first student of Sheldon Jackson School.” His granddaughter determined he had received about five years of schooling. While being educated, he and other students helped build the school.

Rudolph honored Tlingit customs when he married a fellow student, Daisy, whose family was of similar status and of the opposite moiety, continuing the alliance of the Kiks.ádi and Kaagwaantaan. Rudolph began working in a nearby mine in Silver

Bay, where he earned enough money to build a “Boston home,” an Americanstyle house like the others built by and for Sheldon Jackson graduates in a neighborhood next to school grounds that became known as the “Cottages”.

Rudolph and Daisy had four children and were living a Christian way of life in accordance with Cottage rules and regulations. According to Shales, “the promise to never participate or countenance heathen festivities or customs,” was to drive a wedge between Rudolph and the increasingly hypercritical Presbyterian elders “who felt that the Tlingit needed a complete makeover.”

Rudolph straddled two worlds—the Cottages where he and other “civilized” Tlingits lived and the village of his unassimilated relatives one mile up the coast. By the turn of the century, Rudolph was a “beloved elder” of the Presbyterian church and, as he grew older, an ever more important elder of his clan, the Kiks.ádi. But even though their fellow Presbyterians admired them as a model family, living moral and upright lives in a model cottage, they were like all Alaska Natives: without rights.

Sometime after the turn of the century, Rudolph moved his family to a home near his workshop on Katlian Street, the site of the Sitka Indian Village.

Until 1905, the educational system in Alaska could not legally discriminate—schoolage children were to be educated without reference to race. The Nelson Act, passed by Congress in January 1905, provided that Native and White children in Alaska would be educated in separate school systems. Natives could attend a White school so long as they and their parents lived a “civilized life.”

By this time, Rudolph had buried his wife Daisy and two of their children. Within a few years of losing them, Rudolph married a widow from Hoonah, Mary Davis, a marriage that became a great controversy among Sitka’s Council of Presbyterian elders. The elders chose to focus on the couple’s interclan relationship, which may well have been coincident to a love match: Mary Davis was a widow and a prominent Kaagwaantaan, Rudolph was Kiks.ádi, and the Kiks.ádi often married into the Kaagwaantaan clan. Rudolph was accused of marrying in the “heathen custom” by following Tlingit custom and marrying someone of a clan of the opposite moiety.

The conflict led to Rudolph’s expulsion from the council, and a breach of many years between him and his church. Early in 1906, the new Sitka School Board closed the public school to Natives, resulting in Rudolph’s two adopted “mixed blood” children not being allowed to attend—his two surviving children had aged-out of school.

Despite its refusal to admit Native children, the Sitka School District continued to “enumerate” them for the purpose of federal

funding, which heightened the hypocrisy since the school district continued to receive funds for the children they would not accept.

The resulting court case, Davis v. The Sitka School Board illustrates the no-win situation the graduates of Sheldon Jackson School faced: no matter what they did, no matter how impressive their success, they could not overcome the taint of their Native blood.

Even though Rudolph spoke and wrote in English, was a respected businessman who paid his license tax, road tax and water tax, and kept a postal box at the post office, the decision made it all too obvious that any Alaska Native, whether mixed or not, were by their very nature uncivilized.

“The case of Davis v. Sitka School Board proved that the promises of equality made to the Tlingit by the Presbyterians would not automatically happen no matter what they did,” Shales states.

Shales quotes from trial transcripts the testimony of Whites, including a prominent Presbyterian elder, revealing the acute racial prejudice common at that time.

If nothing else, the court drama demonstrated that litigation was an uncertain road. Individuals alone could not expect to change government policies that discriminated against Alaska Natives. It would take collective action.

Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB). Rudolph became a charter member of Sitka ANB Camp 1. While it is tempting to make a direct connection between the Davis v. Sitka School Board and the founding of the ANB, such a link has yet to be found, but it is difficult to imagine that such a widely perceived injustice did not influence the founders.

The results of the collective action led by the ANB, later joined by the Alaska Native Sisterhood, ultimately brought about change: the winning of citizenship, equal education, passage of an anti-discrimination act, the recognition of Alaska Indigenous rights, and the final resolution of Alaska Native claims.

Rudolph made many difficult choices in which he attempted to integrate his traditional values with the realities he faced. (Many) others like him became educated in the beliefs and values of the Western world, and used that education, along with their knowledge of Tlingit culture and tradition, to lead us into the New World. — Joyce Walton Shales

Four years after the ruling, graduates of the Sheldon Jackson School founded the

Peter Simpson

1871–1947

Tsimshian • Killerwhale

Gispwudwadaa Clan

Over a cup of coffee at the Sitka Café in 2008, Martin Strand told the story of a simple act of independence that characterized the earliest days of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB).

“Peter Simpson organized the march when the Presbyterian elders voted to prohibit dancing in the ‘Cottage Hall.’ He told his neighbors, ‘That’s alright, we’ll build our own hall.’” With obvious pride, Martin gestured to Lincoln Street bordering the café and described Peter leading a parade of Cottage residents on their march down Lincoln then up Katlian Street to where the group began building the first ANB Hall on the waterfront. In their own hall, they would make their own rules.

Martin grew up with stories about the ANB founders like Peter, neighbors of his family in the Cottages, the small, insular community of Sheldon Jackson School (SJS) graduates who built the model homes and lived “civilized lives,” according to the rules of the local Presbyterian Council of Elders.

have to do it through their own collective efforts.

A Tsimshian of Gispwudwada (Killer Whale clan) and the only non-Tlingit among the founders, Peter became the moral center of the organization that led the fight to win civil rights for all Alaska Natives and then guided the effort that, in time, led to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Peter’s molding of the ANB is somewhat controversial by today’s standards due to his insistence that Native people leave the “old ways” in the past. But by the standards of the early twentieth century, he was a quietly determined radical, a disrupter, who refused to be contained by White perceptions of the proper role and place of Indigenous people in modern society.

The no-dance policy had been enacted soon after the ANB was organized in 1912. Peter, elected as the chairman and, at the first “Grand Camp” meeting in 1913, as president, used the edict to show the new members that if they wished to effect social changes, they would

Above all, Peter insisted that Alaska Natives make their own way.

He was not alone. The Cottages served as a social center where Peter Simpson and his fellow Sheldon Jackson School (SJS) alumni neighbors would host social gatherings in their homes that included playing board games and engaging in convivial conversations—and political strategizing. Like-minded, Ralph Young (1877-1956), a resident of the Cottages, and Peter were eager for the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Peter Simpson and wife

In 1910, Joseph McAfee, the secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, was in Sitka for a tour of Sheldon Jackson’s school. Ralph and Peter used the occasion to confront the secretary. Encountering McAfee on a street, the two expressed their grievance the rights they were denied gave lie to the assertion by their Presbyterian mentors that education and Christian living would qualify Alaska Natives for citizenship. The clergyman challenged the two to organize for their own self-improvement.

The model organization was right in front of Ralph and Peter. The Arctic Brotherhood maintained a fine lodge in Sitka that was one of its 25 “camps” throughout Alaska. The group met annually in a “Grand Camp.” With an entirely White membership, the organization successfully promoted selfgovernance for the Alaska Territory. The Brotherhood’s lobbying of Congress helped propel legislation that, in 1906, won Alaska a non-voting congressional delegate and then, in 1912, authorized Alaskan citizens to elect a legislature.

If the ANB founders needed any further goad to demand redress of their grievances, it may well have been the 1908 outcome of a lawsuit, Davis v. Sitka School District, brought by Rudolph Walton, their fellow SJS graduate, to contest a decision by the district in 1905 that prohibited Native children from attending public schools. Discussed earlier (see “Rudolph Walton”), the judicial decision handed down in 1908 reaffirmed the district’s action. Prominent citizens, and at least one member of the Elders Council, testified against Rudolph. By

then, the cohort that would form the ANB had run out of patience and heeded Peter and Ralph’s insistence that full citizenship would have to be won by a Native-led organization.

Following his last year of service as ANB Grand Camp President in 1924, Peter continued as the organization’s leader emeritus. He is credited by William Paul, Sr. for being the first to put forth the notion that Southeast Alaska Natives should fight for the return of their homeland and, for those lands irretrievably lost, to be compensated.

His personality infused the ANB and the ANS. Among his long and fondly remembered influences was his admonition that members always leave the meetings as friends no matter how much they

might disagree in floor debates. If debates threatened to get out of hand, Peter would ask for a temporary recess and lead everyone in singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

By the time of his death at age seventy-six, Peter Simpson was known as the “Father of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.”

ANB Convention - Sitka, AK (1914)

William L. Paul, Sr.

Shgúndee • Shis.aan

1885–1977

Tlingit • Yéil

Teeyhítaan Clan

“As many times as he was defeated, he never gave up. As for the Klukwan Camp, we have always voted a hundred percent for him... Every time Paul writes circular letters, harsh and good ones, Klukwan receives one too and our people mumble among themselves if it was a harsh letter and say ‘What did Klukwan do to Paul now? He should leave us alone.’ We get hurt just like anybody else, but in the meantime the elderly members always step in and talk to the younger group that if it wasn’t for Paul Sr., this organization would not be where it is now. He has fought a good fight for our people. We might as well admit it.” —Mrs. Margaret V. Thomas of Klukwan, Paul Family Records.

William L. Paul, Sr., famously acerbic and contentious, charged through life like the college football player he once was.

Following his education at Sheldon Jackson School, Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, and Whitworth College in Washington, William briefly attended a seminary, and he was known to have considered a career in opera.

William had an excellent singing voice. I remember him leading the ANB Battle Song, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers,’ at Grand Camp Convention. He would begin by enthusiastically stating that Onward Christian Soldiers was a ‘march’ and not a ‘hymnal’ and it should be sung with a strong voice and at a fast tempo like all marches should be sung.

He studied law, admitted to the Alaska

Bar in 1920 to become the first Alaska

Native attorney. Utilizing his legal skills on behalf of our people, he emerged as one of the most noteworthy political leaders in the contemporary history of Southeast Alaska Natives.

In 1922, William successfully sued the Ketchikan public school system to allow Native children to attend public schools in Ketchikan. In November 1922, his mother Tillie Paul was arrested in Wrangell for illegal voting with Charlie Jones (Chief Shakes); Paul took on the case that was quickly ruled in William’s favor, unleashing the voting power of Indigenous people in Alaska. Notably, he was one of the ANB leaders who placed a resolution before the 1929 Grand Camp to sue the United States for taking our lands without due compensation.

Alaska’s preeminent historian, Steven Haycox, characterized the early ANB as a self-help organization, its objectives to “prepare Indians for citizenship and to provide models of acculturation.” He stated, “William and his younger brother Louis Paul emerged after World War I as the primary leaders of the ANB and politicized the

organization. The two believed that Natives were already citizens, by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment: (Alaska Natives) had been born in the United States and therefore were citizens.”

This belief in the US Constitution inspired William’s insistence that the government’s taking of Native property and rights was “extra-legal,” that it had been beyond the authority of the government to deprive Alaska Natives of the land that was taken to establish the Tongass National Forest, and that compensation was owed to the original owners since the Fourth Amendment prohibits the government from depriving citizens of property without the due process of law.

This became the core argument of a lawsuit he brought on behalf of his clan, the Teeyhítaan, that went all the way to the US Supreme Court. According to Haycox, the court’s 1954 decision that ruled against William was an indirect victory for Alaska Natives. The highest court in the land found that aboriginal rights in Alaska existed and had not been “extinguished,” an action reserved to Congress. The push for Alaska statehood was close to victory and suddenly a bright light illuminated a foundational problem: Alaska Native claims had yet to be settled. Statehood was granted in 1958, but with a provision admitting that settlement of Native claims awaited federal action and that the new state’s land selections could not encroach upon Native lands.

Louis F. Paul, Jr. Hah-dei-eesh •

1887–1956 Tlingit • Yéil Teeyhítaan Clan

Born in Port Tongass, Louis Frances Paul, Jr., as chairman of the Tlingit & Haida’s first convention, presided over the creation of what is now the regional Tribe for Southeast Alaska. According to John Hope, in his manuscript history of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), Louis opened the first meeting in November 1940, convened during the Grand Camp convention.

“A large part of the week was relinquished to Tlingit & Haida,” Hope wrote. “(The Delegates were) very concerned about the apparent lack of progress (in the T&H lawsuit) evident at that time.”

At 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 14, 1940, Louis, Chairman of Tlingit and Haida, called the meeting to order. It was billed as the 1st Annual meeting of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska. Because the convention piggybacked on the regular ANB/ANS [Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood] convention, many of the Tlingit & Haida Delegates were also ANB/ ANS Delegates. The Tlingit and Haida communities did not have sufficient money to hold a separate and distinct meeting.

The third child of Tillie and Louis Paul, Sr., Tillie gave birth to Louis in the village of Tongass a few months after the disappearance of her husband. Throughout his life, Louis believed his father had been murdered. What is

known is that Louis Sr. did not return from a canoe journey he took with two other men to find a new village site for the Tongass and Fox people. The weather was calm, and they were experienced outdoorsmen. The incident is described in Tlingit Life Stories: “In December 1886, a government schoolmaster of the area, Samuel Saxman, was sent, along with Louis Paul and a young Native man, to survey the area… At this time Tillie was due to deliver their third child [Louis], and the Paul family was living at Tongass. Samuel, Louis, and the young Native man never returned from the trip.”

After the death of her husband, Tillie accepted an offer by Sheldon Jackson to move with her three sons (William, Samuel and Louis) to the Sitka Industrial Training School (renamed Sheldon Jackson School as mentioned previously, see “Rudolph Walton”) where she was to serve in a series of increasingly substantive positions. All three of Tillie’s boys eventually attended the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. So far as is known, Samuel was to live out his life on the East Coast.

According to Ben Paul (William’s grandson), Louis’ name was pronounced the French way, “loo-ee,” like his late-father’s name.

Louis went into the US Army, serving during World War I. Upon his return to Alaska in 1919, he joined the Alaska Native Brotherhood and was elected secretary.

In the November 1919 issue of the Verstovian—a quarterly publication by the Sheldon Jackson School—Louis wrote

about the proceedings of the recent Grand Camp convention and focused on a topic under consideration: a proposal to advocate for Native reservations in Alaska. “American ideals develop best where American ideals exist and these are not found best on reservations,” Louis wrote. “[Reservations are] not conducive to proper advancement because of racial segregation. Such segregation does not give proper environment [and] is un-American in principle by setting apart the Indian American for special legislation.”

Louis’ attitude reflected a typical patriotism of World War I veterans and his education, especially his years at Carlisle where, as Haycox explains, “the curriculum was based on the idea of racial equality of whites and Indians, and therefore the appropriateness of complete acculturation of Indians.”

When William Paul returned to Alaska in 1920, Louis convinced him to join the ANB.

It was during the 1920s that William and Louis rose to prominence through their association with the ANB. They are generally recognized as among the most important of the second generation of ANB leaders. From Haycox: “The Paul brothers soon took over ANB leadership and politicized the organization, redirecting its activities toward the Carlisle vision of Indian equality.”

“I really don’t know what we would have done without them,” Judson Brown said in a 1988 interview by historian Vern Metcalfe. William Paul, a more aggressive personality,

has overshadowed his brother in historical accounts, but the record reveals a close collaboration between Louis and his older brother for many achievements now attributed solely to William.

Louis became a professional journalist and eventually took over The Alaska Fisherman, a publication initially edited by William. It was the first publication published solely by Alaska Natives and advocated many political positions at cross-purposes with a White establishment, which was rooted in canneries, gold mines, and logging.

Louis served four terms as the ANB Grand President (1920, 1921, 1927, and 1939).

Matilda Paul Tamaree

Kaataaháa • Kaalei.át

1862–1952

Tlingit • Yéil

Teeyhítaan Clan

There is a case to be made that Matilda “Tillie” Paul Tamaree is the Mother of Alaska Native claims. Although no single person can be credited with initiating the process that led to the historic court cases and legislation, were it not for her son, William Paul, Sr., who set the stage to pursue a settlement of Native claims at the 1929 Grand Camp of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS), the decades-long struggle might not have been launched.

The biographies we have of Tillie Paul Tamaree describe a woman of determination, assertiveness, talent, and intelligence, traits she passed on to her sons, William and Louis Paul, two seminal figures in the history of the ANB.

In her time, Tillie was recognized as one of the most influential Native women in Alaska. She was a skilled interpreter of Tlingit and English, a talented musician, and a deeply devout Christian.

Her earliest days have provided fodder for numerous books and biographical sketches that describe her mother, Kut-Xook, fleeing back to her people in Wrangell by canoe from Vancouver Island with her daughters Tillie and Margaret. The desperate journey was to foil the plan of the children’s father to send the young girls to Scotland for his sister to raise. This may be an exaggeration. Tillie’s descendants believe the departure was not one resisted by the girls’ father, who had another family to support. But there is no denying the perilous nature of a 600-mile voyage by canoe through

waters controlled by tribal groups hostile to Tlingits. Not long after completing the 600-mile voyage to Wrangell, much of it at night, Tillie’s mother died of tuberculosis. Tillie soon entered Mrs. Amanda McFarland’s Home and School for Girls in Wrangell, where she began a life-long affiliation with the Presbyterian Church.

Of contemporary interest is Tillie’s transition from a confirmed assimilationist to a proponent of Tlingit culture. Her granddaughter, Frances Paul DeGermain, wrote that by 1920, Tillie “had serious doubts about the wisdom of the missionaries (for whom she had been an interpreter since she was 15) that the ‘old ways’ were evil, and should be repressed.”

By middle-age, Tillie had begun working to preserve the Tlingit traditions she perceived as cultural strengths, rather than adhere to the Presbyterian efforts to consign the entire culture to museums.

“As the years grew and with them her experience with the white man’s code,” wrote Mary Lee Davis about Tillie in her 1931 book, We Are Alaskans, “this woman came to a mature philosophy about her own people and much of the ‘old custom,’ which often placed her in direct opposition to some of her best-loved and bestrespected teachers—even her old friend and early preceptor Dr. S. Hall Young…”

Tillie’s great-grandson, Ben Paul, the family historian and archivist, has come to believe that Tillie’s appreciation for Tlingit traditions was modulated by her disdain for such

practices as shamanism, slavery, and ritual killings. A deeply intelligent woman, Tillie was keenly aware of hypocritical Whites who tolerated their own cultural misdeeds such as dispensing unequal justice and denying Alaska Natives civil rights, among many other moral failures.

Tillie dedicated the later years of her life to, as Ben says, “preserving the best part of her Tlingit culture and praying for salvation from the rest.”

By the time William Paul, Sr. began interviewing elders for the oral history that became The Alaska Tlingit: Where Did We Come From?, Tillie and her husband William Baptiste Tamaree “helped my father considerably in the task of revitalizing his Native language…” wrote Frances Paul DeGermain in the foreword to William Paul’s book. “As a child, Tillie had punished him when she caught him speaking it… (Now,) with the help of Tillie and (his stepfather) he soon was able to speak to the ‘Old Ones’.”

Of late, the Presbyterian Church has been doing the spade work necessary to reconsider its history of suppressing Indigenous beliefs. The memory of Tillie Paul is presented as an object lesson:

She was the first Native American woman elected as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Before her election as elder in 1930, Tillie Paul worked as a translator, civil rights advocate, and missionary educator within the Tlingit community in the Pacific Northwest… (Tillie) paved the way for future generations

of proud Native American women… This was a time of strong missionary influence, especially by the Presbyterian Church, which tried to repress the Tlingit culture, customs, and language, punishing students in schools for speaking their native language and jailing parents who kept their children at home. Adults who participated in their own culture’s activities were also banned from the church and ostracized. In this environment, Tillie Paul’s ability to advocate for her own culture while also embracing the Presbyterian faith is indicative of the struggle of many who love a faith that doesn’t always love them.

Tillie stands at right holding an infant

Judson Brown

Shaakakóoni •

Hínleiych Gushklane

1912–1997

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Dakl’aweidí Clan

Kéet Góoshi Hít

Those of us who knew Judson Brown can easily call to mind his deep, resonant voice. The term “larger than life” fit both his natural charisma and his physical stature.

His daughter, Judy George, was my executive assistant. From the earliest days of my tenure with Tlingit & Haida, Judson often stopped by my office to say hello to Judy and exchange pleasantries with me. We talked about fishing and politics and, in response to my questions, he provided an education in the history of our organization.

Judson was there at the 1929 Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Grand Camp convention where it was decided to sue the U.S. Government for taking our land and resources without compensation. To sue the government, we had to form a tribal organization: Judson was there for that, too, at the first organizational meeting of Tlingit & Haida in 1936.

Judson was born in Haines, Alaska, when the state was a U.S. territory. He was the son of James Wheeler Brown (K´ikaa, of the Kaagwaantaan) and Mary Spurgeon Brown (Kaasának, of the Dakl´aweidí). He was Tlingit, an Eagle: Dakl´aweidí; Kaagwaantaan yádi, Kéet Góoshi Hít. One of his Tlingit names, Hinléiych (Yelling Sea Water), referred to the “woosh” sound of the last flip as the killer whale dives again after surfacing. Judson was also part Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

included an elective legislature, but Alaska Natives had no voice: they could not vote or hold office, nor could any Native get an integrated public-school education, or assume any official capacity, be it a licensed boat engineer or a corporate officer. The rule of law did not apply: Natives could be arrested and punished but could not seek legal redress; they could be sued in court but could not sue.

Judson not only witnessed historic changes that resolved these inequities but helped bring about many of those changes.

His energy and intelligence prompted elders to enroll him in the previously segregated high school in Haines. In 1929, he became the first Native to graduate from an integrated public school in Alaska.

After graduating from Haines High School, Judson worked in many capacities, including as a law clerk, deputy marshal, two-term mayor of Haines, career fisherman, and supervisor at the Pacific Maritime Association. He served on the Sealaska Corporation Board of Directors, as a board member of the Institute of Alaska Native Arts, as well as on the Sealaska Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees. (Sealaska Heritage Foundation became Sealaska Heritage Institute.)

In 1912, the year of Judson’s birth, Congress had just approved a rudimentary government for the Territory of Alaska that

He was an early member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), and his fluency in Tlingit and English must have been used to his advantage. In the mid-1920s, when Judson became active in the ANB, the organization required members to be

English speaking; this requirement reflected its earlier aim to shed “old ways” (see “Peter Simpson”). In time, ANB membership bowed to political reality and opened the doors to all Alaska Natives, regardless of their fluency with English.

A self-taught ethnographer, Judson traveled extensively to Hawaii, Polynesia, and New Zealand for cultural exchange programs.

In 1990, the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) faced a significant problem: it planned to build a voyaging canoe out of traditional materials but could not find any koa trees in the forests of Hawai‘i large or healthy enough for hulls. PVS founder and historian Herb Kane remembered a historical document that pointed to another source of trees: drift logs from the Pacific Northwest. He contacted his friend Judson Brown who arranged for Sealaska to provide logs of Sitka spruce. Herb introduced Judson to Nainoa Thompson, director of the Hawai’iloa project.

“Judson’s wisdom came from his kupunas,” Nainoa explained. “It is their guiding values. It’s the kind of wisdom we always seek in the older generation. What he told me was extremely powerful. I was in charge of building a canoe and that was my narrow focus, but around it was all these layers of values that I did not clearly see. I understood them, I felt them, but I did not articulate them clearly. I was too busy thinking of deadlines and logistics. Judson brought in a new set of values. Judson also clearly saw a bridge being constructed between his people and ours. He saw it

from the very beginning.”

My Sealaska colleague, Chris McNeil (corporate attorney, and later CEO), and his wife Mary, made a generous donation that endowed the annual “Judson L. Brown Leadership Award,” by which annual scholarships honor Chris’ “Uncle Jud,” who was a forceful advocate for education and leadership development. The endowment is administered by Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Perhaps his greatest achievement, say loved ones, was living successfully in modern society while honoring the traditions of his Tlingit forebears—members of the Killer Whale Clan under the Eagle moiety. He was a primary contributor to the formation of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation, now the

Sealaska Heritage Institute.

In 1997, Judson passed away. He is buried in his native village of Klukwan where, by the light of a flickering kerosene lantern, he first began teaching his people about their rights. Judson had lived a life expressive of his Tlingit name, Gushklane—Big Fin— the one who has guided his people with wisdom and with a deep belief in the values of not only his ancestors, but the traditional values of all people.

Judson Brown (center) seated in regalia (1980)

Andrew P. Hope

Khaa.oosté 1896–1968

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Kaagwaantaan Clan

Ch’áak’ Hít

On October 3, 1946, after having been seized for non-payment of street improvement assessments, St. Michael’s Cathedral was sold for $714.28 and the Orphanage [Bishop’s House] for $743.75, both going to Andrew Hope, the only bidder.

If ever there was a man of quiet humility, it was Andrew Percy Hope who lived a purposeful life of unstinting service and great accomplishment.

Through a quarter century of protracted litigation of the Court of Claims case Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska v. United States, he served as president of Tlingit & Haida from 1941 to 1965. He kept the organization on life support until winning the land claims lawsuit, which was the catalyst for the establishment of Tlingit & Haida—to pursue land claims.

His tenure in public office displayed dedication as well. As one of the first Alaska Natives elected to public office, he served on the City Council of Sitka from 1924 to 1936. He was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1944 and served seven terms (1945–1962), five terms for the Alaska Territorial Legislature, and, after statehood, he served in the first and second Alaska State Legislatures. The Alaska State Legislature honored Andrew’s service in 1968.

Life started for Andrew Percy Hope in Killisnoo, a small village near Angoon, born to Percy and Mary Williams Hope. After spending his early childhood in Killisnoo and Angoon, he moved to Sitka to attend the Sheldon Jackson School and later studied carpentry and boatbuilding at the Cushman Indian School in Tacoma, Washington.

As a boatbuilder, he presided over the construction of the mission boat, M/V Princeton Hall, and at his boat shop on the Katlian Street waterfront, he produced a steady stream of large vessels, including fishing boats of all types.

Andrew was the youngest charter member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), joining in 1912 at the age of 16. He served as president of the ANB Grand Camp in 1922 and as a member of the ANB Executive Committee until his death. He was a director of the Salvation Army in Sitka for 30 years, a member of the National Congress of American Indians, and active in the Alaska Federation of Natives. He was also a musician, playing the clarinet and violin.

In 1912, Andrew married Matilda ‘Tillie’ Howard (1896–1975) of Sitka. The two raised 14 children.

Andrew Hope (seated) with Legislators

From Tlingit Life Stories, “They had fourteen children, several of whom died in their infancy or youth, but many of whom survived and are…active in Native affairs in Alaska today.”

His daughter, Ellen Hope Hays, a remarkable woman of great accomplishments of her own, said this of her father:

After decades of litigation, a controversial ruling handed down in 1968 by the federal Court of Claims diminished the expected award in the case by half. Tlingit & Haida had to decide whether to accept or fight. Andrew was too ill to take part in the [Tlingit & Haida meeting on March 28, 1968], at which it would be decided to accept or not accept the judgment. With heavy hearts, it was accepted. When (Hope) was given the report of the amount and the acceptance, this is what he said: ‘In the greatest country on earth, in the highest court of the land, we won our case.’

Frank G. Johnson

Taak’w k’wáti

1894–1982

Tlingit • Yéil

Sukteeneidí Clan

Frank G. Johnson was born in 1894 about forty miles south of Kake, Alaska near Shakan Bay, in a camp along the banks of a river. He attended Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka, Alaska, and the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. Frank graduated from Chemawa in 1917 and then went on to the University of Oregon where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1927. He was married three times, did not have any children of his own but enjoyed his many nieces and nephews.

He taught school in Kake and Klawock, Alaska and, in the summers, fished on a seine boat that he owned in equal shares with his brother Charlie. He became active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), serving as the ANB Grand Secretary for a number of years, ANB VicePresident, and finally ANB Grand President in 1931.

the curriculum—he suddenly got hard of hearing,” Jackson said with a laugh.

Frank was an early advocate of civil liberties. In 1931–32, according to research conducted by Ishmael Hope, Frank collaborated with Louis Shotridge of Klukwan, Alaska to lead a successful protest action that challenged the Juneau Coliseum Theater’s “No Natives Allowed” admission policy. “It is a very-little known part of Alaska’s history,” Hope wrote in a blog, “and though I am proud of Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich’s work, it is well documented. Some other leaders such as Peter Simpson and William Paul, and Frank Johnson in particular, I feel, are unsung heroes of the efforts to achieve civil rights. There are hundreds of others.”

One of his fifthgrade students in Kake, Gordon Jackson, remembered “Mr. Johnson” as an excellent teacher. “He took every opportunity to teach us about our culture, described preparing traditional foods, and told us stories of the past. When he got criticism from parents— who wanted him to focus on teaching

Frank was elected to the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives on the Republican ticket in 1947. During his ten years as a House member, he served as the Ways and Means Committee Chairman and was sent to hearings in Washington, DC to provide testimony on Alaska Territorial financial issues.

Frank served as the secretary for Tlingit & Haida for 25 years while Andrew Hope was president. Those two, as volunteers, were responsible for keeping the Tribe functional for all those years.

Territory of Alaska House of Representatives (1947)

Charles W. Demmert

Charles Webster Demmert was born in Shakan, Kosciusko Island (northwest corner of Prince of Wales Island) to Carl Charles Johann Demmert and Anna [or Annie (Jaghal.aat) Gonette Quenette] Demmert. He married Emma Frances (Kunyeik) Williams and had fourteen children. He passed away on November 25, 1962, in Ketchikan, Alaska.

He was a longtime resident of Klawock Alaska, establishing a cannery there. He built the cannery in 1923, felling trees and sawing them in his own sawmill with the help of his children and others. The cannery started as a hand pack operation but rapidly improved and expanded to become a fast one-line cannery. The cannery provided a major source of income to the residents of the community. He operated it for 27 years prior to selling out.

Charles built or rebuilt seven seine boats. He also operated ten fish traps to supply his cannery. His biggest seasonal pack was 86,000 cases in 1936. In 1962, the facility became known as the Klawock Oceanside Packing Company (KopCo) cannery.

As a youth, Charles attended the Sitka Industrial Training School. All fourteen of Charles’ children received education through high school, which reflected his firm belief in education.

He was struck down and paralyzed by a falling tree limb in 1938. While he was no longer physically active, he continued to manage his logging, sawmill, and cannery operations for a time. He later leased

the cannery to R.E. Welch of Bellingham, Washington. After Klawock became a permanent community, he milled the lumber needed for the local sidewalks and donated the materials.

He also was known for moving large buildings long distances. Charles moved the old mess hall from Shakan to Klawock, along with other buildings from Skowl Arm to Taku Harbor near Juneau, Alaska. He also moved his 22-room house from Port Beauclerc on Kuiu Island in Sumner Straits to Klawock. It became the family home, known in Klawock as the “Big House.”

I recall going to Klawock from Craig and being invited to spend the night at the Big House. It was exciting for my brother and I to share our own room, whereas at home us boys slept in the living room at bedtime. I remember my brother and I sharing dinner and breakfast with the Demmert family around the twelve-foot-long table in the large dining room. His grandson Byron Skinna and family still reside in the building.

All his children were born and raised in the home except his son Archie, who was born aboard a boat off Point Baker, Alaska.

Helen Sanderson was born in Hydaburg, Alaska on February 1, 1906, and died on July 31, 1992. Helen was Haida Yáahl, Double Fin Killer Whale and her Haida name was Ka’illjuus. She married Ed Sanderson, a well-known and successful commercial fisherman, and together they had five children.

Recognized for her community involvement, Helen always worked to improve her community of Hydaburg. While not always visible at community functions, she was often there, helping in any way she could and always donating generously to worthwhile fundraisers.

She was a schoolteacher in Hydaburg for many years and was a lifelong advocate for Native education.

I recall my first trip to Hydaburg for a junior high school basketball game. The parents of the home basketball team would cook an excellent lunch for the players and coaches. Helen was always there working to make the lunch special even though she did not have children in school at the time.

until the time of her death. She took pride in working with each and every ANS Grand President that succeeded her, including but not limited to Elizabeth Peratrovich. When elected mayor of the City of Hydaburg, she became the first Alaska Native woman to serve as a mayor. She worked hard to keep the citizens of the Hydaburg community well-informed on human services programs available through the State of Alaska as a Vista Worker under the governor of the state.

The Tlingit & Haida Executive Council unanimously selected Helen to become the very first honorary Tribal Hostess. The Tribe designed the program in the late 1980s to honor outstanding Tlingit and Haida elders. The honorees are selected by the Executive Council from nominations received from Delegates and tribal citizens prior to the annual Tribal Assembly.

Haida • Yáahl

Yahkw Janáas Clan

In those days, school children traveled from community to community on purse seine boats as no roads connected the communities, and air travel was too expensive. The boats were mostly donated, and sometimes the school would simply pay for the fuel.

Helen was a former Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) Grand President and served on the ANS Executive Committee

In consultation with her dear friend, Ester Nix, Helen gave the Haida name of Skil’ Kwidaunce to me while I served as Tlingit & Haida President. This name is interpreted in English as “Luck Standing Tall.”

Helen Sanderson

Roy Peratrovich, Sr.

Lk ’uteen 1908–1989

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Naasteidí Clan

Through all this struggle, (your father) suffered the most. He had a growing family to support. In spite of his administrative ability, he had to constantly refuse the numerous positions offered him for we had to (be) politically independent and there is always a price for freedom. A few times some people tried to discriminate against us but that is almost impossible to do when the object of such action feels no inferiority. — Elizabeth Peratrovich in a January 1957 letter to Roy Jr. (Sonny).

I enjoyed talking about politics with Roy. He took a keen interest in the current affairs of Alaska Natives. Fortunately, Roy wasn’t one to hold a grudge, which was good for me since we got into a conflict in 1975 when he was superintendent of the Anchorage Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and an Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) grand officer.

Public Law (P.L.) 93-638 (Indian SelfDetermination Act) had just passed. At that time, I was getting active in Native politics. I heard that Roy was pushing to have the ANB recognized as a tribal entity. In a discussion with a friend of his, I said that wasn’t going to happen, and I asked if Roy understood how important it was that Alaska tribes be recognized. Well, it got back to Roy that I said he didn’t understand tribes. He came looking for me and gave me a lot of grief over that.

In 1984 when I was elected President of Tlingit & Haida, I moved to Juneau and began working closely with Richard Stitt, then Grand Camp President. Richard made

a point of inviting me when he’d stop by and visit Roy. The three of us collaborated on lobbying the state of Alaska to employ a higher percentage of Natives. Roy gave us advice on who to talk with and worked his connections to set up meetings for us. During this period, I grew to better appreciate his contributions to breaking down barriers to our civil rights.

Roy and Elizabeth were a team. They would strategize and Roy would arrange their lobbying activities. According to Ishmael Hope’s research, Roy recalled how the two planned for their appearance at the Alaska legislature. Little remembered are the remarks Roy made during their appearance before the legislature that set the stage for Elizabeth to give the speech for which she is now famous. They rehearsed their remarks in advance. It is all the more impressive that the two could see what was coming and prepared for it.

The Peratrovich family was prominent in Klawock. I grew up in Craig. In those days, there was no road connection — to visit Klawock, we’d take a boat. The father, John Peratrovich, was of Yugoslav descent. He worked as a fisherman, boat captain, and trapper. John married a Tlingit Indian and Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich

the two raised a large family in Klawock. Roy dedicated his adult life to the ANB. He was a staunch defender of the ANB Constitution and an expert on Robert’s Rules of Order. In 1940, he was elected as Grand Camp President, serving five terms through 1944.

In the mid-1940s Roy and Elizabeth moved to Juneau.

The couple were further inspired in their opposition to discrimination when they tried to rent a place to live but were turned away by Juneau landlords for being Alaska Natives. The two were key participants in winning passage of the anti-discrimination bill by Alaska’s Territorial Legislature in 1945.

Roy later joined the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, becoming superintendent of the Anchorage office.

The Peratrovich Park in downtown Anchorage is named after Elizabeth Peratrovich, wife of Roy Peratrovich.

ANB and ANS Leaders: Back row, from left: Roy Peratrovich, Andrew Hope, Cyril Zuboff, Mrs. Joe Williams, Al Widmark, Mark Jacobs, Sr., John Hope. Front row, from left: Frank Peratrovich, Joe Williams, Steve Hotch, Percy Hope, Cyrus Peck, Sr.

Elizabeth Peratrovich

Kaaxgal.aat 1911–1958

Tlingit • Yéil

Lúkaax.ádi Clan

Rich and poor, strong and weak gave their help in this difficult fight. (Alaska Natives) began to gain by receiving equal old age assistance, aid to dependent children, a revised juvenile code (originally written on our own kitchen table), desegregation in our public schools, public health services and hospitals for the many tubercular Indians and Eskimos. And finally, the passage of the Anti-Discrimination law. — Elizabeth Peratrovich, January 1957 to her son, Roy “Sonny” Peratrovich, Jr.

I met Frank Peratrovich when I was a boy, and as an adult became acquainted with Roy, but never had the opportunity to meet Elizabeth. The quote is from a letter in which Elizabeth admitted to her son she was living on “borrowed time.” She died of cancer in December 1958.

In this letter, she puts the AntiDiscrimination Act in perspective: a crowning achievement that followed a string of earlier victories including equal justice, and access to education, health care and family services. Many played a role, but by the 1940s, Roy and Elizabeth were at the center of the efforts to achieve full civil rights for all Alaska Natives.

At the invitation of Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening, on April 16, 1945, the couple attended the signing of the AntiDiscrimination Act. Upon putting his signature to the bill, Elizabeth described the next moment to her son: “(Governor Gruening) turned to me and presented me with the pen with which the bill was signed. The governor said it was the

most important legislation ever passed in Alaska and would help the most in its development.”

On April 21, 1988, another ceremonial signing was held that established Elizabeth Peratrovich Day to honor her “courageous, unceasing efforts to eliminate discrimination and bring about equal rights in Alaska.”

In one of a series of “overlooked” obituaries for remarkable people, the New York Times gave Elizabeth her due in 2019, recalling her famous response to a legislator during consideration of the anti-discrimination act:

Senator Allen Shattuck argued that the measure would “aggravate rather than allay” racial tensions.

“Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?” He was quoted as saying in Gruening’s 1973 biography, “Many Battles.”

When the floor was opened to public comments, Elizabeth set down her knitting needles and rose from her seat in the back.

Taking the podium, she said: “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind the gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.”

…Her testimony, The Daily Alaska Empire wrote, shamed the opposition into a “defensive whisper.” The gallery broke out in

a “wild burst of applause,” Gruening wrote. The 1945 Anti-Discrimination Act was passed, 11-5.

More recently, in September 2021, a huge mural, the work of Crystal Worl celebrating Elizabeth Peratrovich was added to a prominent building on Juneau’s waterfront and, in early 2022, leaders of Sealaska, Tlingit & Haida, and the Alaska Federation of Natives joined in celebrating Elizabeth Peratrovich Day with the presentation of commemorative postcards.

On that occasion, ANS Grand President, Daphyne Albee, during a radio interview, said: “We recognize Elizabeth Peratrovich and the Alaska Native Sisterhood, alongside Roy Peratrovich and the Alaska Native Brotherhood, in their years of advocacy to pass the anti-discrimination act of 1945… The words of Elizabeth Peratrovich not only moved to the members of the Senate but continues to encourage us as we fight for equal rights today.”

An episode of the PBS show Molly of Denali featured the history of Elizabeth Peratrovich. Tlingit screenwriter Vera Starbard said that writing the 12-minute sequence took several months that was “an absolute labor of love.”

Governor Cowper (seated) signing the bill that created Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, May 26, 1988

Governor Gruening (seated) signs the anti-discrimination act of 1945. Witnessing are (from left) O.D. Cochran, Elizabeth Peratrovich, Edward Anderson, Norman Walker and Roy Peratrovich

Mark Jacobs, Jr.

Gúshdeihéen • Saa.aat’

Keetwú • Oodéishkáduneek

Wóochxkáduhaa 1923–2005

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Dakl’aweidí Clan

Mark Jacobs, Jr. was born on November 28, 1923, in Sitka, Alaska to Mark and Annie (Paul) Jacobs. He was a member of the Dakl’aweidí (Killer Whale clan). His Tlingit names were Saa.aat’(Cold - referring to the migration of the clan and its encounter with an icefied), Keet wú (White Killer Whale), Oodéishk’aduneek (Everyone wants to claim the Killer Whale) and Gusteiheen (Spray behind the dorsel fin). In late 2003, he was given the name Woochkkaduhaa; he was the Naashaadeiháni (clan leader) of the Killer Whale clan. A noted historian, he was the last male speaker of his lineage and house-group. He enjoyed speaking Tlingit with others and telling stories. He died Jan. 13, 2005, at the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital and he was buried at the Sitka National Cemetery.

He attended a segregated school system for Natives in the Sitka Village and spent his younger years at the family camp at Wat’ateen in Hoonah Sound and at Chatham Cannery. He attended Sheldon Jackson High School, but his studies were interrupted by military service in World War II. He returned to Sheldon Jackson High School and graduated in 1947.

During four years of military service, nearly all of which were sea duty and in war zones, he served on the USS

New Mexico in the Aleutians and on the USS Newberry, the last two years served in the Amphibious Forces in the South Pacific. He and his brother, Harvey, never attended basic training and were immediately put to work on “picket boats” in the Icy Straits area. Using “code,” he and his brother were part of a group of lesserknown code talkers, communicating only in the Tlingit language. The utilization of the Tlingit language in communicating military activities and directives was very effective and the Japanese were never able to translate the Tlingit into Japanese or English.

After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy, he became active in the Sitka ANB Camp 1 of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and held various offices, including President; working actively on the Alaska Native land claims. When he served as an ANB Delegate in many annual conventions and as a Tlingit & Haida Delegate from Sitka, his strong voice needed no microphone, nor did he need notes. He was active in the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) conventions as well as the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). I remember early in my administration as President of Tlingit & Haida I told Mark that I was going to propose that we discontinue membership in AFN and NCAI to save money.

Mark Jacobs, Jr. (standing on right) with brother Harvey Jacobs.

He didn’t hesitate, saying that the Native community needed to be more unified, not less. We still have many issues to have our voices heard in and we cannot afford to go it alone. As a result of his advocacy, we continued our membership and increased our involvement in both.

He completed more than 34 years of service on the Executive Council of Tlingit & Haida. The Tlingit & Haida Delegates voted unanimously to appoint Mark the very first Executive Council Emeritus in recognition of his many years of dedicated service. He also served on the interim board of directors of Sealaska and two additional three-year terms on the Sealaska board of directors. He was also on the interim board of directors of Sitka’s Native urban corporation, Shee Atika Inc. He served on the Boats and Harbors Commission and the Historic Preservation Society, and was a charter member of the Civil Air Patrol in Sitka and a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Mark was a steadfast supporter and member of the Sitka Assembly of God Church.

He spent many years as a fisherman with his father Mark Jacobs, Sr. on the F/V Rondout. He was also a union member (Local 942), retiring in 1985. He served as area steward for many years and was involved in construction and blasting of many of the roads around Sitka, at Blue Lake and Green Lake dams and the Sitka airport. He did the blasting that leveled the islands for the airport extension and many other projects around town and Southeast. A licensed and experienced driller and powder man,

he was asked once what qualified him to be on the board of a corporation. He said, “I know the best how to handle explosive situations!”

All of his involvements in civic affairs cannot be fully listed. He was on the State Parks Advisory Board in Sitka. He served on the Southeast Alaska Native Subsistence Commission as vice chairman and the local Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee, was the first member representing Tlingit & Haida on the Rural Alaska Resources Association, dealing with the first State of Alaska and sportsmen’s fish and game challenges to rural preference law mandated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. He was appointed by Governor Wally Hickel and served two years as Director of Rural Development. For the City and Borough of Sitka, he served as chairman of the harbor commission and also chairman of the historical archaeology commission.

On the national level, Mark was appointed a member of the Native American Veteran Advisory Commission. Many of his proposals became law when the Veterans Omnibus Bill was enacted. His input helped Sen. Daniel Inouye’s draft bill on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Frank Peratrovich

Frank Peratrovich and his younger brother Roy were born into a large, extended Tlingit-Croatian family. According to the Dauenhauers, their mother was a full-blooded Tlingit about whom little is known, although they believed she was Kaagwaantaan, a lineage that traced to Sitka, Alaska. Their father, John Peratrovich, immigrated from Yugoslavia at the age of 16. He soon acquired a reputation as an expert net maker and was hired by the company that built Klawock Cannery (ca 1878), the first land-based cannery in Alaska. He was to live out his life in Klawock, Alaska.

Frank and Roy took different paths. Frank established himself in Klawock, for most of his life running Klawock Cash, a general store. Roy preferred city life.

I grew up in Craig, Alaska, and in those days, there wasn’t a road between Craig and Klawock. The most popular and dependable mode of transportation between these two communities was seine boats. The Klawock canneries were the places to go. My Mom worked there. In the winter and fall, there was a lot of basketball playing between Craig and Klawock.

Frank was a good communicator and people liked to visit with him. He was almost always in the store or if he wasn’t, his wife was. He did a lot of walking early in the morning every day. He was very effective in the Alaska Territorial Legislature. Even before the State wealth from the North slope oil, he got the State of Alaska to build the only airport on Prince of Wales Island in Klawock. The airport was named after him.

My parents were active in the ANB and school board. Frank was involved on the local level and in 1949 was elected as Grand Camp President of the ANB — this was all before my time of involvement.

In 1956, he served as a co-chair of Alaska’s constitutional convention. I remember the disappointment that there were not more Natives at the convention. Frank was the only one. We were proud of him, but that was overshadowed because so many of our people had not been invited.

Frank served in the U.S. Navy (1917-18) during World War I.

His public life included serving as mayor of Klawock and as an Alaska territorial legislator, elected in 1947 to the first of several terms in the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives then two terms in Alaska Territorial Senate, where he served as Senate president. He was elected to the Alaska Constitutional Convention (winter of 1955-56), serving as co-chair. Elected to the first Alaska State Senate, he served from 1959 to 1967, and then in the Alaska State House of Representatives from 1969 to 1973. I’ll never forget a story he told to the 1968

ANB Convention in Kake, Alaska. He said, “back in the horse & buggy days there was the man who owned a horse and buggy and was expert with his whip and like to ‘show off.’ He was giving a friend a ride one day and showed that he could pick a leaf off of a tree at will. His friend spotted a beehive and challenged the horseman to see if he could knock the beehive off of the tree limb. The horseman said, “no way, that’s organization!” The message is that organizations like the ANB were strong when united and nobody dares mess with them.

He received an honorary doctorate degree of Public Service from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1973.

Frank stayed with the store until his wife died and then moved to Ketchikan, Alaska for his final days.

He was a close friend of my uncle, Frank Johnson. One day when I was the Executive Director of the Ketchikan Indian Corporation, I just returned from a business trip and my phone rang. It was Frank Peratrovich. He said in a very stern voice, “You better go down and check up on your uncle Frank. He’s very sick and nobody goes in to check up on him or help him! He ran out of stove oil and has very little food in his apartment.” I immediately went down to Frank’s apartment and helped him get admitted to the hospital to treat his pneumonia. I believe my uncle would have died had it not been for his friend Frank Peratrovich.

Frank Peratrovich, Presiding, sits at desk between flags; Evelyn K. Stevenson, Secretary, and Hildie Lowell, Asst. Secretary, are at front of desk; members of the Senate are at their desks.

A. Cogo

Robert (Bob) Cogo was living in Craig, Alaska along with his wife, Nora, for as long as I can remember. They owned a confectionery store that was a favorite hangout for many of the youth and teenagers. Nora was an excellent cook and Bob enjoyed helping with the serving and visiting with customers. They lived in the same building as the store; with bedrooms upstairs and a large living-room downstairs.

Bob was very active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB). He was camp president for a number of years, but he preferred being camp secretary. He took careful notes at every meeting. Most ANB meetings were held jointly with the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) and local members loved meeting in their large living-room. Nora always baked goodies for meetings: cookies or pies or cakes or combinations. Those of us who were junior ANB or ANS were able to hangout in the kitchen and serve refreshments to the members in the meeting.

Bob was elected Delegate to the ANB Conventions regularly and seemed to enjoy reporting what happened at conventions. In the years prior to the Tlingit & Haida settlement, Bob was a leader in collecting money from Natives in Craig to send to Grand Camp to help pay for our Native leaders to travel to Washington, DC to lobby for the “land suit!” He kept accurate records of who paid and how much they paid. At that time payment was assessed at $5 per adult and $2 per child (this may have varied over the years, but this is what I remember).

When Bob and Nora retired to Ketchikan, Alaska, they remained active in the ANB and ANS, attending meetings whenever their health permitted. Bob got active in the local organization that began documenting Haida stories and the Haida language: Haida Society.

Bob enjoyed visiting and sharing humorous stories about friends he grew up with. For he and his friend, Frank, Haida was their first language, and they were learning English together. Frank was proud to learn “big” words before any of the others could learn them. One day Bob greets him with, “how are you feeling today, Frank?” Frank responds, “oh, I feel delicious!”

ANB/ANS Convention 1951

(L-R: Lydia James, Elizabeth Gardner, Robert Cogo, Sam Thomas, Roland Haldane and Bessie Thomas)

Victor Haldane was born May 24, 1907 on Grindall Island near Kasaan, Alaska on Prince of Wales Island. He died in Ketchikan, Alaska on January 19, 1995. Throughout his service as a member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and a Delegate to Tlingit & Haida, he was among the strongest voices in advocacy of Southeast Alaska Native rights. The people in his hometown of Hydaburg were well aware of his ability to speak out on issues important to the Native community and elected him time and again to represent them at conventions and conferences.

He was well read on Native American laws and policies; to hear him talk one would conclude that he had gone to college and studied law but he never went to college, never studied law, and did not have law degree. His discussions on the policy issues were all from what he read and what was discussed at previous meetings. If he did not have information, he didn’t totally understand he asked for it in a very forceful manner.

He also made sure that when policy resolutions were proposed at ANB or Tlingit & Haida conventions that Haidas were included in those resolutions. He was a strong believer that Southeast Alaska Natives had aboriginal fishing rights that needed to be protected. He advocated that even though federal laws mentioned Native subsistence there is no verbiage specifically abrogating Native hunting and fishing rights.

I recall when I was facing my first reelection as president of Tlingit & Haida I had to be elected as a Delegate from Juneau. I was successfully elected Delegate but there was concern among my supporters that I may not have support from other Juneau Delegates. So, we agreed in a meeting that it would be important to have a Juneau Delegate nominate me to demonstrate to the convention that I had local support. At the time of nominations on the Tribal Assembly agenda, the Elections Committee Chair was taking the podium and before he really started to speak, Victor got up and stood by the floor microphone and when the chair opened nominations Victor said in a very strong and determined voice, “Mr. Chairman, I nominate Ed Thomas.” My Juneau support team was shocked and worried because they totally put our original plan out of order. I won my re-election and was proud to have been nominated in the way Victor nominated me.

Victor Haldane

Lifelong Alaska Native educator Joseph Matthew Kahklen (Saiche) was born February 28, 1908, in Kake, Alaska. He died March 1, 2001, in Anchorage, Alaska.

Demonstrating an early love of education, Joe left his home in Kake after eighth grade to attend high school in Petersburg, Alaska. He was on the Petersburg basketball team that won the first All Alaska High School Basketball Championship in 1929 in Fairbanks, something of which he was very proud. He attended Central Washington College, earning a bachelor’s degree in education. After working as a teacher and school administrator, Joe earned a master’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University in 1962. For being a “respected educator and humanitarian,” he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree from the University of Alaska Southeast.

His career spanned 45 years, serving as a teacher, principal, and district superintendent. He and his wife, Vivian, were devoted to promoting equal opportunities in education for all Native people. He taught school in Haines, Kokrines, Killisnoo, and Klukwan. He was a principal in Angoon and Sitka, and served as superintendent of schools in Kake and Angoon. He was principal of the Shonto Boarding School on the Navajo reservation 135 miles northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona.

I recall when I was the Director of Indian Education for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, I attended a meeting of Native educators in Anchorage

to discuss ways Indian Education programs could be more effective and ways to incorporate Native programs into the curriculum of Alaska schools. We decided it would be best if we had a state-wide Indian Education organization and so at this meeting, we formed the Alaska Native Education Association that would be affiliated with the National Indian Education Association. I was honored to be elected by conference participants as a member of the initial organization board along with Joe Kahklen.

Joe was active in community organizations serving as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, member of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation Scholarship Committee, and as a member of the Kake Tribal Corporation board. He assisted in a 1946 study by the Department of Interior documenting Southeast Alaska Native aboriginal land rights. This work laid the foundation for later settlement of Alaska Native Land rights issues.

He had many interests and talents. He had a trained tenor voice and sang for weddings and special events. He also passed on to his family his special knowledge of hunting and fishing. Joe was well known as a true gentleman, always kind and considerate of others. At his 50th Wedding Anniversary he was asked what he attributes to his long and successful marriage, he responded, “I don’t really know but I always try to help Vivian around the house. When the dishes need to be done, I do them…I don’t wait to be asked.”

Joseph M. Kahklen

Dr.

Walter A. Soboleff, Sr.

T’aawchán • Kaajaak’wtí

1908–2011

Tlingit • Yéil

L’eeneidí Clan

Aanx’aakhittaan Hít

Dr. Walter Alexander Soboleff was born in Killisnoo, Alaska in 1908. His grandfather was a Russian Orthodox priest serving in Southeast Alaska. His mother, Anna Hunter, was a Tlingit born in Sitka, Alaska. His father, Alexander (Sasha) Soboleff, who died when Walter was 12 years old, was the mechanic or engineer of the family. His uncle, Vincent Soboleff, was an accomplished photographer who left hundreds of photos of Tlingit cultural events, Russian Orthodox church events, and the fishing industry.

Walter grew up in a rich multicultural atmosphere. He remembers hearing his grandmother speaking German to him, Russian hymns from his time at the mission school in Sitka, and most of all, the Tlingit language and oral tradition of his mother.

His memories of childhood reveal a close-knit and serene picture of loving adults watching over happy, playful children. He remembers how physically close the homes were, the constant interaction of children and adults, the feeling of security and mutual respect. The good memories extended to his school years.

In the fifth grade, he began to board at the Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka and continued there through high school.

He doesn’t recall being prohibited from speaking Tlingit, although the Sheldon Jackson School expressly forbid the use of Native languages. Possibly, since

Walter was already bilingual, he didn’t suffer the trauma that many Native people did in school. English was just the language of school.

After working at the cold storage in Sitka and fishing for five years, he enrolled at Dubuque University in Iowa. He said that it was not his first choice; he really wanted to become a medical doctor, but that’s where the scholarship money was. He received his Bachelor of Arts in education from there in 1937, and his Divinity degree in 1940, and began to serve as minister of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau.

The church, which later merged with the Northern Light United Church, was just two years old when Walter became pastor. The church grew from one Sunday school classroom to nine classrooms and a large chapel. Under his leadership, the church, originally built to serve the Tlingit people, extended such a warm welcome to people of all races, that it came to serve Haidas, Tsimshians, Caucasians, Blacks, and Filipinos, as well as Tlingits.

“In 1940, an interest in Tlingit culture started to awaken. People wanted to raise money to build an ANB hall. We had a performance of some of our traditional dances and songs. We rented the GrossAlaska Theater and I was the emcee. People came from Angoon, Hoonah, and Haines to help. I think that’s when people started to appreciate their culture again,” he said. His return to Juneau in 1940 coincided with a revival of interest in their heritage among Native people.

Walter served seven terms as president of the ANB, and for years was chairman of its scholarship committee. He also was appointed to the state Board of Education and served as its chairman. For several years he did radio broadcasts of the news in Tlingit, and also broadcast his church service over the radio.

From about 1962 to 1970, Walter began to serve as minister-at-large on the Princeton Hall and other mission boats which served villages that had no resident pastor.

In 1970, he retired from the ministry to start and direct an Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He taught Tlingit history, language, and literature until his retirement in 1974. Walter spoke of this part of his life as a very exciting time. “There were 500 Native students, from Barrow to Metlakatla, hungry to know their language and the history of their villages. I was given a generous budget to bring people from villages all over the state to Fairbanks as resource people. The students were so eager, they never missed a class.”

some struggle. Right now, everyone wants to claim a subsistence lifestyle. One of the first things you change, when a culture changes, is the language. The last thing to go is the food.”

The remarkable thing about Walter is that even though he spent years and years of his life in Western schooling, he speaks as if he spent his life outdoors. He once surprised someone in Nome, saying it must be herring season there because the gulls were making a peculiar sound. Sure enough, when they came in sight of the shore, it was “like milk” - full of gulls feeding on herring.

“I used to hear them every day when I walked along the shore in Sitka,” he said, but his years in Sitka were school years. He must have learned these things as a young child, and never lost them. “We Natives were the first Audubon Society members,” he said with a twinkle in his eye, “we were the first conservationists.”

Walter was a library himself. He was both a participant and an observer of a changing culture. He lived in two worlds and continued to help each one understand the other.

Dr. Walter Soboleff died on May 22, 2011, at his home in Southeast Alaska. He was 102.

Walter said he felt fortunate to have lived in such a time of transition for Native people. He is very aware of living in a time that will never be experienced again. “Culture is always changing. People are always in transition. Some manage it gracefully, and

A look of deep sadness crossed his face as he said that the recent school board allocation of a small amount of money for Tlingit language instruction in Juneau schools was just “a beginning.” The loss of their Native language has had the most devastating impact on Alaska Natives of all the changes they have lived through. Walter has said, “In the Native culture, your older people are the Native libraries.”

Adeline (Skultka) Garcia Saanuuka

Adeline (Skultka) Garcia, was born Adeline Hannah Skultka, Saanuuka, in the Haida Kaigani language, in Craig, Alaska and went on to become a leading urban Indian activist. She was beset by lung problems, so her father wanted her to get an education that would qualify her for work that didn’t require physical strength. Her parents, Benson and Bessie, lived in Craig when I was a youth, and we could go to their house by going out our back door through a trail to their front door. I enjoyed going to their house as her mother was an excellent baker and they had a nice, large living room to play in.

Adeline, a longtime president and board member of the Seattle Indian Health Board and founding member of the American Indian Women’s Service League, died of complications from chronic lung disease, relatives and fellow activists said.

her family to earn a high school diploma, Adeline came to Seattle with her sister and a cousin in 1943. She worked during World War II on a Boeing Co. assembly line and later as an egg chandler, shipyard welder, secretary and waitress, then met and married Genaro (Jerry) Garcia, a military police officer.

Along with Pearl Warren, a Makah, and other activists, Adeline founded the Service League in 1958 as a volunteer group which opened the Seattle Indian Center as a spiritual and community gathering place. By the 1970s, Seattle had more than two dozen Indian organizations, including the nation’s first urban Indian health clinic. Adeline was on the health board from 1989 until she retired as president in December.

Haida • Yáahl

Yahkw Janáas Clan

She was a member of the Indian Heritage High School board, a public-school liaison for Indian high school students in the city and a national and state financial aid adviser who helped get money for hundreds of Indian students to attend college. “She probably touched the lives of every Native person that’s been in Seattle since the 1940s,” said Rebecca Corpuz, the health board’s associate director. “She was definitely a pioneer, an institution.”

After graduating from Ketchikan High School in 1943 at age 20, the first in

Adeline served as an elected Delegate to Tlingit & Haida for many years. She was instrumental in having the Tribal Assembly held in the Seattle area for the first time in the history of the Tribe shortly after I was elected President. I served with her on the Craig Village Corporation (Shaan Seet) board for a number of years and remember her as a strong voice for shareholder benefits and rights. She was one of the elder hostesses at the 1993 Sealaska Annual Shareholder Meeting in Seattle and nominated me for director; I was elected to the board and attribute that success to the fact that Adeline nominated me because of her popularity with shareholders in the Seattle area.

L. Embert Demmert

Kindeisteen • G alweit’ 1915–1994

Tlingit • Yéil

Taak’waneidí Clan

Lonnie Embert Demmert was born in Klawock, Alaska, on December 4, 1915. He died in Mercer Island, King County, Washington on November 1, 1994, at 78 years old.

He was known as “Embert” and was a strong advocate of education as a way to living a successful life. He went on to get his college education and that served as an inspiration to his extended family as well as other Native children. He taught school in Craig, Alaska after college and then went on to teach school in Mercer Island, Washington. He was also the school basketball coach during his tenure as a teacher.

He was a successful commercial fisherman who served as a crew member on a family boat skippered by his brother. He later went on to be a successful skipper of his own purse seine boat, the Muzon. Embert was proud of his family’s fishing heritage and passed his fishing boat and legacy on to his son who now runs the Muzon.

Embert served several terms on the Sealaska Board of Directors where he advocated for stability in business and the continued funding of the Sealaska Heritage Institute college scholarship program.

In the late 1940s, following World War II, he coordinated the gathering of military

veterans and National Guard members in military exercises each and every Wednesday evening. The gatherings were closed to the public, but the kids enjoyed watching the military exercises through the school auditorium windows. The exercises gradually got less frequent as time went by.

I remember taking a shop class Embert taught when I was a freshman in high school. What I learned in that class I was able to make use of for the rest of my life.

I will forever appreciate the personal encouragement Embert gave me over the years. He encouraged me to sign on to commercial fish on the seine boat Billy and I that was skippered by his brother Arthur Demmert. This led to later being hired onto his other brother Bill’s boat the Melanie Ann when it was newly built and in its first year of fishing.

Mary E. Jones Jaadgaa

Mary Elizabeth Baines was born in Ketchikan, Alaska on April 7, 1930, to Joel and Elizabeth (Kininnook) Baines. She was Tlingit-Tsimshian from Cape Fox, Eagle moiety, Beaver and Halibut crests, of the Neix.adi Clan. She attended grade school in Metlakatla, graduating from Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka in 1949, as salutatorian. She then attended George Fox College in Newberg, Oregon and Sheldon Jackson Junior College, in Sitka Alaska.

She married Willard Jones of Kasaan, Alaska in March of 1951. Together they raised their children Eleanor and Laird in Kasaan, Ketchikan, Metlakatla, and Sitka. The family relocated to Oakland, California in 1961 where Willard completed his education in diesel mechanics. They then returned home to Southeast Alaska.

Mary dedicated her life fighting for Alaska Native health, education, and well-being. Her involvement in the medical field started right out of high school. She worked with many doctors in a number of offices and hospitals during her career in Southeast Alaska and in Oakland, California. Her 20+ years of employment in the health field included nurse’s aide in Sitka’s TB ward, medical records clerk and technician, secretary, office manager, and medicalsurgical transcriptionist. She also worked as the Executive Secretary with the Ketchikan Indian Education program as well as the Center Supervisor/Administrative Assistant for the Ketchikan Indian Corporation (now known as the Ketchikan Indian Community or KIC).

Clan

A loving and strong wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, aunty, and friend, Mary supported her husband throughout his career, and they worked together on cultural and community activities. They loved commercial power trolling for salmon together. Their subsistence food activities included freezing, canning, and jarring fresh and smoked salmon, picking berries and beach greens, and digging cockles; Mary did not like processing yein (sea cucumber)! They enjoyed quiet moments together and especially enjoyed time with family and friends. They loved to travel, research artifacts held in numerous museums under NAGPRA, and spend countless hours working on family genealogy and history, both their own and helping many others.

Her civic involvement included local and state-wide Native health boards: KIC Health Board; Alaska Area Native Health Board (advisory to Indian Health Service); State Comprehensive Health Board; Health Systems Agency Board; and the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium Board (SEARHC). Her other involvement included: Sheldon Jackson Teacher Aide Board; North American Indian Women’s Association; Kavilco Corporation interim Board; KIC Tribal Council; and Tlingit & Haida (Delegate and recipient of the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award). KIC started a scholarship in her honor: The Mary Jones Excellence in Healthcare Scholarship Program.

Mary was a lifetime member of the Ketchikan Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) Camp 14, where she started in 1966. She

was elected to many terms in ANS Camp 14 as both President and Secretary, as well as Delegate to Grand Camp. She also served several terms as ANS Grand Secretary and then ANS Grand President. She held the highest honorary office in ANS Grand Camp as the ANS Grand President Emeritus at the time of her death.

In 1984, Mary developed the idea to bring Southeast Alaska Native women together to discuss and brainstorm on Alaska Native issues and concerns. Working with other Alaska Native women, she founded the first Southeast Alaska Native Women’s Conference, sponsored solely by the ANS Grand Camp.

Her ability to encourage personal potential, and connect peoples’ histories, was a quality not held by many. Leading by example, she lived a life of grace, compassion, love, and advocacywelcoming many into her circle. Her constant love and support for her family and friends was evident in her every waking day; her last thoughts were to make sure we were all safe and healthy.

I attribute much of my success in working with Native organizations over the years to the guidance of Mary Jones while we were working together. When I was the Indian Education Director for the Ketchikan School District, I had the responsibility of hiring an office assistant. There were several applicants, but Mary was the first applicant I interviewed. I was so impressed with her experience and ability I did not interview other applicants. During our time working

together she made sure she introduced me to prominent Native leaders in our region and in the community and totally educated me on who’s who in Ketchikan. She had excellent secretarial skills and organizational skills that were very important in getting tasks completed.

I returned to work from a BIA SelfDetermination conference after the Department of the Interior had decided to give priority to Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) tribal organizations for grants and contracts in Alaska. I remarked to Mary that it was too bad there was no IRA in Ketchikan; she responded that there used to be an IRA in Ketchikan and she called her husband, Willard, to make sure. He confirmed and said that the last president was Ray Roberts. Mary contacted Ray and he came by our office with all the records he had of the former IRA. Mary and I worked together to reactivate BIA records on KIC so that we could once again be functional and eligible to apply for BIA programs. We applied for and were advised that we were the first IRA tribe in Alaska to get a P.L. 93-638 grant; and later a P.L. 93638 contract. That beginning led to many more tribal grants and contracts for KIC.

Shortly after getting our first BIA SelfDetermination grant, I received notice in the mail that the US Department of Commerce had money set aside for tribes for building tribal facilities. I told Mary that it was too bad we didn’t have land because the grant did not provide funding for buying property. Mary responded, “Well the Ketchikan ANB has property.”

She pointed out that the ANB owned the former BIA school property at 429 Deermont Avenue. The problem was that neither the ANB nor the ANS had met for several years. She helped me identify the former officers and got permission from them to reactivate ANB and ANS Camp 14. We held a Camp reorganization meeting and several meetings on the possibility of getting a tribal building built if we could officially lease the ANB property for a minimal amount of money for the life of the building. The membership approved the lease, and we were successful in having the first tribal offices in Ketchikan.

I am forever grateful that I had the opportunity to work with and learn from Mary Elizabeth Jones. Furthermore, the friendship that flourished over the years between our families has truly enriched my life.

Mary E. Jones and Edward K. Thomas

John Borbridge, Jr.

Dúk saa.aaat’

1926–2016

Tlingit • Yéil

L’uknax.ádi Clan

Frog House

John Borbridge, Jr. was raised in Juneau, Alaska where he attended school, gaining a love of reading, basketball and track and field. He valued his education, graduating from Juneau-Douglas High School in 1945, Sheldon Jackson Junior College in 1947, and from the University of Michigan in 1955.

During his time at Sheldon Jackson Junior College, John met Emma Christine Nicolet, his wife of 68 years. Together they formed a partnership with the goal of putting John through college.

To help pay for his education, John worked in the world-class Bristol Bay salmon fishery, starting with the final years of commercial fishing with sailboats as a deckhand and then skipper for the “monkey boats” that would tow sailboats out to the fishing ground at the beginning of the week and bring them back to shore at the end of the week. He later participated in the Bristol Bay drift fishery and then with his family at their setnet site in Naknek, Alaska.

John considered himself first and foremost a teacher. Following his graduation from the University of Michigan he returned to Alaska where he started his career in education at Sheldon Jackson High School, teaching government, history, and physical education. He coached basketball, track and field

and tumbling, working with students from across the state of Alaska. In 1961 he moved on to teaching and coaching at JuneauDouglas High School. He taught there for six years and coached basketball, track and field, and cross country. The basketball team won the state title in 1963. To this day he is still referred to as “Coach” by his former team members and “my teacher” by his former students.

In the late 1960’s, John was called upon by Tlingit leadership to work on their behalf following the Court of Claims decision for the Tlingit and Haida people. During that time, John was elected as the first full-time President of Tlingit & Haida, establishing the structure for the tribal government to provide services to its members. He led his management team in the consummation of the first Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Buy-Indian Contract in Alaska where the Tribe contracted the management of all BIA programs in the jurisdiction of the Alaska Southeast Agency. John’s love of history and government enabled him to participate fully in this effort. His beliefs and values were essential for him to help lead this effort. He believed in the central role of the tribes in Alaska’s past, present, and future.

During the late 1960’s, Southeast Alaska joined efforts for a statewide settlement of Native land rights when John served as the lobbyist for Southeast

Alaska and the first chairman of the Alaska Federation of Natives board. The effort to settle Native land rights spoke to John’s strong belief in justice -- not only that the settlement of Native land rights was just but that it was the obligation of the U.S. government take action, and the belief that the government would do the right thing. He had a commitment to scholarship and preparation for each meeting and presentation. He followed his calling as a teacher whether speaking to individuals, groups, or Congress. In the words of former U.S. Senate Interior Committee counsel Bill Van Ness, “I remember one time when it looked like we wouldn’t get the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) legislation and John spoke without notes for forty minutes, an amazing delivery, better than many constitutional lawyers I’ve seen.”

In 1972 John moved from land rights advocacy to organizing and running one of the regional ANCSA corporations as the founding President and Chairman of the Board for the Sealaska Corporation, a position he held until 1978. During the mid-1970’s John received a congressional appointment as a commissioner to the American Indian Policy Review Commission, and a presidential appointment as a Delegate to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1992 he became the Subsistence Specialist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

including the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture. He particularly enjoyed participating in the University of Alaska Fairbanks Rural Development program, presenting the historical aspect of the fight for Native land rights as one who was directly involved. It was always encouraging to him to share that firsthand information with students, for future generations.

John received an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree at the University of Alaska Southeast, he advised the students it only took him 50 years to earn that degree.

John continued his interest in athletics, remaining a diehard fan of the Michigan Wolverines. He took the opportunity to attend the Olympics when they were held in Montreal to watch the track and field events, and he followed with interest the careers of former Wolverines who went on to play professional basketball and football.

John was Raven Luk.nax.adi from the Frog House and Wooshkeetan yadi. His Tlingit name is Duk.saa.aat.

In later years, John returned to his lifelong vocation – teaching. He was asked to give lectures by Federal agencies

Richard J. Stitt, Sr.

Tsooneil • Naawdaséikw

1930–2004

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Kaax’us.hítaan Clan Kaa x’oosi Hit

Richard James Stitt, Sr. was born in Klawock, Alaska, to David and Louise Stitt on April 4, 1930. Tsuneil, Naaw da sayk was Kaa x’oosihittan (Eagle/Wolf) of the Kaa x’oosi Hit (Thunderbird Wolf Crest).

At an early age he went to school at the Wrangell Institute where he developed many lifelong friendships. It was there that he decided to learn to play the guitar, because he saw the ability music had in drawing people together, in other words, get the girls. So he, Jim Austin, Archie Cavanaugh, Sr. and others formed the band, Short Circuit. He acquired the nickname Doc in Wrangell, as he worked in the nurse’s office for a while. He later went to Mt. Edgecumbe High School where he graduated in 1948. Throughout his high school years he was very popular with his peers and served as class president three of his four years in high school.

Richard also excelled in sports. He was a talented basketball player and was well known for being a good sport. He developed his appreciation and love for basketball at Wrangell Institute and enjoyed reminiscing with his friend and classmate Gil Truitt whenever they got together. His team was one of the first Mt. Edgecumbe teams to be invited to the Gold Medal Tournament and they did very well. He was also an excellent boxer and was much admired by his teammates and respected by opponents.

After high school, Richard joined the United States Marines and served from 1950 to 1953. He was proud to be a Marine and

had active duty in Korea. It was during his service in the Korean War that the value of an education became crystal clear to Richard. Because he had taken Trigonometry at Mt. Edgecumbe, he was asked to be in the group that took flash range measurements of the bombardments during the battles, and that kept him off the front lines and out of the toughest fighting. Richard received a Bachelor of Science – Public Health and Microbiology Degree from Seattle Pacific University in 1960.

After relocating from Anchorage to Juneau in 1964, Richard continued in his participation in Judo by starting Southeast Alaska’s first Dojo for Judo enthusiasts. It was held at the old Juneau Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Hall using mats generously purchased by Juneau ANB Camp 2. The club was so successful, it was relocated to the National Guard Armory to accommodate a plethora of new students.

A part of Richard’s professional life that is not talked about enough was the fact that he was part of Tlingit & Haida’s management team at a pivotal time in the history of our people. He was part of the team that led our Tribe into the very first Bureau of Indian Affairs Buy Indian Act contract in Alaska back in 1971. He was also part of the management team that wrote

the famed “Six-Point Plan” that paved the way for the Tribe to receive the $7.5 million land suit settlement. He was also part of the management team that incorporated Sealaska after the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Richard was the SelfGovernance manager for Tlingit & Haida at the time of his death.

The ANB was a very important part of Richard’s life. He attributes much of his success as a public servant and a knowledgeable parliamentarian to his experiences in the ANB. He not only served six separate years as Grand President, he was a strong contributor to the local camp for many years. He learned the value of thoroughly understanding the circumstances of our people and making a commitment to do whatever he could to correct problems of our people.

a berry patch. And he knew where the best places were for salmonberries, blueberries and huckleberries, depending on the season.

Richard was a fun loving entertainer. Teresa and he starred in the film “Jonnico” that Chuck Keene produced here years ago. He loved music; any kind of music. The Sargent-Stitt Band was one of the greatest gifts his family gave to the Native community. From Yakutat to Ketchikan and out to Prince of Wales, this band packed the ANB Halls, from the 1970’s on through 2000. Everybody loved the SargentStitt Band and they made us all proud!

Besides his work in Public Health, Teaching, Sealaska and Tlingit and Haida, Rich was a lifelong fisherman and subsistence user. He commercial fished for many years and enjoyed sport fishing these last 15 years, he also enjoyed gathering seaweed, picking gumboots, digging cockles, celebrating timeless Tlingit traditions of respecting “haa aani” (this land) and its resources. He loved to go berry picking and he picked berries the old time way. He beat the branches into a large sack that was strapped around his shoulder. It was amazing to see the speed with which he could move through

The Tlingit language fascinated Richard. It was easy to get caught up in his passion to learn or re-learn the language of his grandparents. For many years Richard voluntarily facilitated a lunch time Tlingit language class at Tlingit & Haida. He really didn’t consider himself the language teacher; he wanted everybody in a learning session to be active participants in the class by determining the learning activities and the material to be covered. Through the years, many, many staff and community members owe their first attempt to speak the Tlingit language to the nurturing of this man.

Richard often spoke of his concern for young people who did not have a sense

of place, or a family life where they could find comfort, security, and guidance. He recognized the value of the Tlingit tradition of requiring boys to be taught by their uncles because it is so very difficult to look past our love for our children when it comes to giving them firm guidance and discipline. So many of today’s youth appear to go aimlessly through life without consideration of their family values or ethics. “So I said what do we do?” He said, “The greatest gift a man can give his children is to love their mother.”

Richard served as the Self-governance Manager at Tlingit & Haida from the beginning of the Self-governance compact inception in the early 1990s. He was directly responsible to ensure the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) communities under the compact not only got funding to their community but that expenditures were accounted for. This job was perfect for his personality and experience; he quickly gained the trust of the local tribes and the management staff servicing the programs.

Clarence M. Jackson, Sr.

Galtín • Asx’áak •  Daa naawú • Tá Gooch 1934–2013

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Tsaagweidí Clan

Clarence M. Jackson, Sr. was born in Kake, Alaska in 1934. He lived there most of his life, attending Sheldon Jackson High School in Sitka, before moving back to the village, where he was a fisherman and operated a small store.

Tlingit elder and original Sealaska Corporation board member, Clarence Jackson is remembered for his contributions to the Native land claims movement. He was long considered an ambassador for Tlingit culture in both the business world and his personal life.

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) President Rosita Worl says Clarence relished comforting people in times of need. He served as master of ceremonies at the memorial service for the late Reverend Dr. Walter Soboleff, Sr. in 2011.

“He became like our ambassador from Sealaska, where he would attend all of the funerals, all the memorials,” Rosita said. “He was there to comfort clans and the family of those who had lost someone.”

Rosita shared he was a great fisherman, who loved boats. “We always say, it is as if the spirits of the animals know him and they give themselves to those kind of people who have those good spirits,” she said. “So, yes, he was a great fisherman.”

Former Sealaska board chair, Albert Kookesh, first met Clarence when he joined the board in 1975. He said they quickly became friends. “We’re both from villages right next to each other. He’s from Kake and

I’m from Angoon,” said Albert. “He knew my father and he knew Walter Soboleff, my uncle. So, I got immediately scooped up into his little circle.”

Albert said Clarence was a champion of village life and traditional culture on the board, something he attributed to being raised by his Tlingit speaking grandparents.

He also said his ability to speak both Tlingit and English fluently made Clarence a valuable asset to the company. “His Tlingit background, and his Tlingit stories, and his Tlingit upbringing gave him a really good sense of oration,” Albert said. “Very, very articulate. Not somebody who went to college, not somebody who went to law school, not somebody who went to graduate school. But somebody who went to the upper learnings of the Tlingit culture.”

When the corporation established the nonprofit SHI in 1980, Clarence became one of its trustees and served as chair of the Council of Traditional Scholars–a panel of elders and clan leaders who guide SHI on programs.

Rosita says the council was instrumental in identifying the core cultural values that guide the institute to this day. “ Clarence would remind

us always, this is what makes us Native people, it’s our cultural values,” Rosita said.

Clarence talked about the importance of preserving those values at Celebration 2012, the biennial cultural and educational event sponsored by the Heritage Institute. “We’re strengthening our culture,” Clarence said. “We might hear a new song here and there this Celebration. But it’s a shoring up time to not be doing anything just for show. But to show the young people, this is the way it is.”

Clarence Jackson was also a former President of Tlingit & Haida. The role of the President during those years of his tenure was to serve as the political leader of the Tribe; he lived in Kake at that time and did not get directly involved in tribal administrative functions. The Tribal Assembly had a koo.eex in his honor at the 2006 Tribal Assembly in Juneau as a thanks for all he had done for our people over the years.

Stella Martin

Yaandayéin

1922–2002

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Tsaagweidí Clan

Xaay Hít

Most of us remember Stella Martin as an Alaska Native Sisterhood role model. She was a stern taskmaster, but fair and always willing to provide guidance. She was also my cousin through my mother Bessie who was her aunt.

Stella served as president of Juneau Camp 2 and two terms as president of the ANS Grand Camp, 1955–1956 and 1969–1970. She was a past member of Sitka Camp 4 and Kake Camp 10. At the time of her death, she was a Grand Camp Executive Committee member, Grand Camp President Emeritus, and life member and Camp Mother of Glacier Valley Camp 70.

Stella and her husband Robert Martin, Sr. devoted their lives to the ANS and ANB. They personified the best aspects of those organizations.

In the book, “In Sisterhood,” Stella told of how she learned from my mother one of the characteristics that both organizations impressed upon all members–do not leave a meeting with a grudge. Amidst a rancorous debate when harsh words were exchanged and people’s feelings were hurt, Stella recalled, “Aunt Bessie stood up (with her friends) and said, ‘It’s time to sing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ And they were crying, and they started singing. And people stood up and started singing with them. And that just dispelled the harsh words that were being exchanged. Bessie had a beautiful voice. ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ is considered a battle song, was instigated by the Founders, and is used even today.”

In recognition of Stella’s passing on August 26, 2002, Governor Tony Knowles ordered

state flags lowered to half-staff, an honor usually reserved for elected leaders. A few days later the Juneau Empire praised her in an editorial: “Martin found time for the less fortunate and gave of herself tirelessly. In addition to being kind, she was brave. With other women of courage, including civil rights champion Elizabeth Peratrovich, she pursued equality of education and opportunity and was effective in diminishing racial discrimination in Southeast Alaska and its capital from the 1940s to the present… Those who knew her best acknowledged Martin’s understanding of human nature, her wisdom, her self-discipline, and her ability to provide solutions to the real problems that frustrate each of us...”

Stella was born in Kake, Alaska to Charles and Annie Johnson. Her Tlingit name was Yaan da yein. She was Tsaagweidei, Killer Whale Clan, of the Yellow Cedar House (Xaai Hit’) and the Eagle Moiety. She attended school at Sheldon Jackson before marrying Robert Rueben Martin in Sitka. They were married for 46 years, and had six children: Bob Jr., Bill, Priscilla, George, Michele, and Rena, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren, as well as an extended family of adopted loved ones.

She was active in Tlingit & Haida, serving as a Community Council member and Delegate for many years. She was named Tlingit & Haida Delegate of the Year and was selected to be honorary Tribal Hostess after retiring as a Delegate. She also served a term as one of the first Tribal Judges. Stella earned many honors for her work, including the Sealaska Woman of the Year award, the Elizabeth Peratrovich ANS Citizenship award, and named a Woman of Distinction award by AWARE of Juneau.

Hihljaang

1928–2023

Haida • Yáahl

Yahkw Láanas Clan

Robert (Bob) (Ozzie) Sanderson was born and raised in Craig, Alaska. He was a lifelong commercial fisherman who worked with his father, Ed Sanderson, in the building of a limit purse seiner F/V Carolynn S. The seine boat had a long reputation of being among the boats who got the most fish throughout the summer and fall fishing seasons.

The citizens of Hydaburg very much appreciated his steadfast community involvement and elected him as city mayor for several terms. He was very successful at getting grants for building a new school in Hydaburg as well as a new city office building. He also served several terms a president of the Hydaburg Cooperative Association, the local tribal government. He worked hard to keep the fish processing plant functioning for local fishermen. He was successful at getting federal funding to build a warehouse where fishermen stored their fishing gear and had a place to work on fishing gear out of the weather.

He was a lifelong member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and represented Hydaburg as a Delegate to ANB Grand Camp for many years. He was a Delegate to Tlingit & Haida for many years where he was a strong voice advocating for the improvement of public services such as water and sewer programs as well as lowincome housing. He was one of the original members of the Sealaska Corporation and was instrumental in getting Hydaburg

recognized as a village corporation under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

His knowledge of the geography of Southeast Alaska and locations of Tlingit and Haida villages and fish camps were prior to United States occupancy was very important and useful in land selection under ANCSA, as well as registering Native historical and sacred sites. “I know of no other person who knows each and every cove and inlet and island name in Southeast Alaska than Bob Sanderson,” said Byron Mallott, former Sealaska President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

In the early 1990s, Bob joined Tlingit & Haida in a lawsuit against the State of Alaska for violating its Constitution by harvesting sea cucumbers without a sustained yield plan. The suit was settled out of court with the State of Alaska putting for a sustained yield harvest plan and agreeing to enforce a buffer zone around Southeast Alaska communities where sea cucumbers are utilized for subsistence purposes.

Robert Sanderson, Sr.

Ethel M. Lund

Aanwoogeex’ • Léek’ • Shaaw Tlaa

1931–2022

Tlingit • Yéil

Teeyhítaan Clan

Shx’at Khwaan

My late friend, Bob Loescher, knew Ethel far longer and better than I. When asked what he thought of Ethel Lund, he said, “For me, she is always that little Tlingit girl from the village.” Bob said this with amazed affection: that a person like Ethel, from such a modest background, rose to such prominence.

Ethel served as President Emeritus of Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), an organization from which she retired over 20 years ago (in 2000) when SEARHC was the largest single employer in Southeast Alaska, and one of the largest medical and health care providers in the state. Although universally credited as the person at the helm who for a quarter century guided SEARHC through turbulent seas, Ethel would counter such praise by saying that those most deserving of credit for SEARHC ’s success was the “little old ladies from the villages,” a derisive description of SEARHC’s directors she frequently overheard and one she has long used with pride when speaking about the organization.

she had been born of an unwed mother. Martha, at age 20, had fallen in love with a Swedish fisherman, Carl Lund, but her parents forbid a marriage. Carl was to die in a fishing accident when Ethel was three; her mother succumbed to tuberculosis 12 years later.

Few people who knew Ethel while she was growing up in Wrangell could have guessed of her leadership potential, nor could she. Ethel graduated from her Wrangell High School class of 12 as the valedictorian, but that was to be the only educational degree she was to hold. Less than a year into her enrollment in a Portland school of nursing, she came down with an active case of tuberculosis, and 18 months of hospital confinement put an end to her nursing career ambitions.

Ethel Marie Lund was born in Wrangell, Alaska on November 4, 1931, to Martha Ukas, daughter of Thomas and Josephine Ukas, prominent Tlingits of Wrangell. It wasn’t until Ethel, at age 18, applied for a passport to travel south that she learned

Three decades later Ethel Lund, president of SEARHC, was the featured speaker at the opening plenary session of the 5th International Symposium on Circumpolar Health, in Copenhagen, Denmark. On the morning of Monday, August 10, 1981, she presented a speech about the role of northern women in health care. She explained the foundation of medical care in Alaska Native villages: the Community Health Aide (CHA) Program, a unique approach to providing medical assistance in rural settings. Most village CHAs were women, and few in those days had much education, but they were skilled healers. The old guard were scandalized that

uncredentialed, barely educated villagers were allowed to treat and, if necessary, prepare the sick and wounded for medical evacuation. But plenty of the new guard present at the symposium testified of being inspired by Ethel’s words, unburdened as they were by the patriarchal attitude that infected the medical profession. They understood Ethel’s comparison of CHAs to military medics, and that few villages anywhere in the world had sufficient population to support credentialed health professionals. It was this moment that Ethel Lund of Wrangell, Alaska, stepped onto the world stage to receive the admiration of her peers.

Several years after the international conference, on a blustery day in early January 1986, Ethel presided over the ceremony at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka by which SEARHC took over the Mt. Edgecumbe Service Unit from the Indian Health Service (IHS) and assumed responsibility for providing health care for all Native people living in Southeast Alaska.

SEARHC was not the first Native health consortium to assume control of an Alaska service unit, but it soon took the lead in the state, and nationally.

Ethel, ably assisted by Niles Cesar and Art Willman, charted a strategy that required lobbying Congress in Washington, D.C. which would have been illegal for any IHS administered service unit to do.

career in the U.S. Navy when he was hired as chief executive officer of SEARHC. Art Willman, a career officer, and longtime director of the Mt. Edgecumbe Service Unit, decided to join SEARHC and continue as a lead administrator.

Ethel, Niles, and Art — the dream team — worked with Senator Ted Stevens and his staff, and with administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services, to bring home an unprecedented level of federal funding that transformed Mt. Edgecumbe into one of the most modern, well-equipped, and staffed providers of medical and health care to Native Americans of any former IHS service unit in the United States.

In 1990, “self-governance compacts” were executed, which provided for the transfer of full administrative responsibilities to Native/ tribal organizations for federal government contracts. Until then, most decisions required approval of the contracting government agency. As president of Tlingit & Haida, I knew the limitations of being under the thumb of federal bureaucrats.

The problem facing all Alaska Native health providers was that the Indian Health Service made clear they would not negotiate a dozen compacts, effectively putting the service units into competition. Ethel’s team led the way of forging a statewide collaboration of all service units, one compact for all, that put Alaska at the forefront of Native health care nationally.

That Ethel Lund rose to such prominence is a remarkable achievement, especially for that the little Tlingit girl from Wrangell, whose top academic achievement was graduating as valedictorian of her tiny high school class, and who after an abusive marriage, became the single mother of her three children. When she retired from SEARHC in 2000, on SEARHC’s 25th anniversary, she left behind an organization of great strength, that more than two decades later, it remains among the most prominent health care organizations in the United States.

Niles, of Tlingit heritage who grew up in Juneau, had retired from a distinguished

At the June 1990 conference of National Congress of American Indians, held that year in Fairbanks, I spoke out in favor of the compacts, although several other national Native leaders spoke in opposition, fearing that after the responsibilities transferred, federal funding would dry up. Ethel attended, and according to her, my remarks inspired her to have SEARHC seek such a compact with the IHS.

Andrew J. Hope, Jr.

Kaalgéik’w

1923–1999

Tlingit • Yéil

Kiks.ádi Clan

X’aaká Hít

Andrew “John” Hope, Jr. was born in Sitka on August 26,1923 to Andrew Percy Hope and Tillie Howard Hope and he died on October 6,1999. His Tlingit name was Kaalgeik’w. He was of the Kiks.ádi Clan, X’aaká Hít (Point House), Raven Moiety; and was the son of the Kaagwaantaan Clan.

From 1948 through 1956, and from 1965 to 1980, John was employed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Sitka and Juneau as Area Tribal Operations Officer, as Contracts and Grants Coordinator and as Temporary Area Director. In the early 1980s, he was president of John Hope & Associates, a professional consulting firm directed toward serving the Alaska Native community. He served as Director of Community Development with the State Department of Community and Regional Affairs in 1985-87.

Because of John’s skills at handling meetings, he also served as Parliamentarian for ANCSA regional corporations of Calista, Doyon, CIRI, Koniag, the Aleut Corporation, and the Kake Tribal ANCSA village corporation. He served successive terms as the Parliamentarian for the Alaska Federation of Natives conventions as well as for the National Congress of American Indians.

John was elected Grand Camp president of the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1962 and 1963. He also served as the president of Tlingit & Haida, 1980-1984. He was on the first Sealaska Board of Directors and served from 1974 to 1991. He chaired the AFN Human Resources Board 1981-84. In 1985, he was Alaska Area Vice-president for the National Congress of American Indians and served on the National Indian Housing Advisory Board to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was also a member of the Alaska Governor’s Task Force on Federal/State Tribal Relations. He was also a member of the Southeast Alaska Tribal College Interim Board of Trustees. John was a long-time member of Northern Light United Church. He diligently sought out a church in which to worship even when he was traveling. At the time of his death, he was a member of the ANB Grand Camp Executive Committee and was active in Juneau ANB Camp 2.

He took considerable pride in his involvement with the Juneau Lion’s Gold Medal Basketball Tournament. He managed the Sitka ANB team in the first several tournaments; in 1949 his team won the first of several championships. In 1998, he was inducted into the Juneau Lions Club’s Gold Medal Basketball Tournament

Andrew J. Hope, Jr. chairs Tlingit & Haida meeting

Hall of Fame, in honor of his long-time service as a play-by-play broadcaster of the tournament games.

I didn’t understand, and I did numerous times throughout the convention.

The Andrew P. Hope Building in Juneau was built while John was president of Tlingit & Haida. The Tribe joined forces with the Juneau ANB Camp 2 and got federal grant money and money from the State of Alaska to build the building. The land upon which the building was located was formerly federally protected Village Townsite property and it took a lot of bureaucratic work to get the property to the Tribe and the ANB. The Tribe still owns the building. I am, personally, very grateful for John Hope. He “took me under his wing” and coached me on

ANB Convention rules, protocols, and procedures when I served as Programs Chairman at the Haines convention in the late 1970s. My job, as Programs Chairman, was to make sure presenters who were on the agenda were ready and available to present at their designated time. I also managed any amendments or additions to the agenda. He invited me to consult with him should I encounter something that

He would come by my office when I was first elected President of Tlingit & Haida to offer information that was not obvious and to see if I had questions of him about tribal administration. He served as President before me and pledged to help in any way he could for the betterment of the Tribe. He would also share stories of his dad, Andrew Percy Hope, working with my uncle, Frank Johnson; Andrew was President and Frank was tribal secretary.

Marlene Johnson

Slath Jaa Klaa Lákooti

Tlingit • Yéil

T’akdeintaan Clan

Taax Hít

To this day, she remembers the bitter taste of Lifeboy soap, the only brand available in Hoonah, Alaska during World War II. When her playground peers tattled on her, telling the principal, “Marlene is talking Indian,” she would get a thorough mouth washing. Having the Tlingit language washed out of her is one of the few things she regrets about an otherwise wonderful childhood in Hoonah.

In an interview, Marlene remembered being in her mother’s store and observing “the old ladies sitting around the heater laughing and telling stories (in Tlingit). I remember telling my mom, ‘Don’t talk Indian.’ I didn’t want her to get in trouble. To me, it seemed like cussing. It took our people in the Native community a long time to realize we weren’t doing anything wrong by speaking in Tlingit.”

After finishing grade school in Hoonah, her family moved to Juneau so Marlene could attend high school, from which she graduated in 1953. She then attended a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) school where she received vocational training in accounting and personnel management and attended the University of Oregon and Washington State University where she trained in management, financial management, and personnel. She later completed an administrative law course at the National Judicial College, University of Nevada, Reno.

Marlene put the schooling she received to practical application during her years

in private business that included serving as accountant for Coastal Glacier Seafoods in Hoonah from 1961–68, and being part owner and vice president of a regional air taxi, Southeast Skyways. She served as the sales and personnel manager as well as managing the Hoonah station and supervising agents in stations throughout the region from 1969–82.

In 2011, Marlene was interviewed for the documentary film ANCSA@40 for information about her role in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). That interview along with a biography from Sealaska Heritage Institute provided the following details about her tenure as a leader in the Alaska Native community, by any standards a long and distinguished record of service:

Marlene Johnson was a commissioner of the State of Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission; served on the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences advisory council and on the Southeast Alaska Selective Service Board, which she chaired; was a member of the National Advisory Committee to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the Healthy Nations Program and The Improving the Health of American Indians; served as a Trustee on the Sealaska Heritage Institute. She was one of the original incorporators of Sealaska, chaired the board for ten years, and represented the corporation on the boards of subsidiaries such as United Bank Alaska and Ocean Beauty Seafood. She represented the Southeast Alaska region on at the Alaska Federation of Natives from 1971 to 1995.

Marlene was an elected Delegate to Tlingit & Haida for many years and served as a vice president on the Executive Committee of the regional tribal governing body from 1961-80.

During the times we served together on the Tlingit & Haida Executive Committee and on the Sealaska board, her words carried great weight when business matters were discussed and decisions were being made. For me, Marlene was always a thoughtful and hard-nosed businesswoman.

In 1998, Marlene was appointed by Governor Tony Knowles to serve on the Rural Governance & Empowerment Commission.

Marlene also served on RurAL CAP Board of Directors and as its President for eight years, during which time she helped form the Alaska Federation of Natives and lobbied for the passage of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Later, she helped lobby for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980.

In Hoonah, she served on the Board of Directors of Huna Totem Corporation (19721992) and serves on the Huna Heritage Foundation Board. She was an elected member of the Hoonah School Board, which she served as board president for 15 years (1961-1986); served on the Hoonah Indian Association (HIA) Council and assisted HIA in writing grant applications and implementing programs (1967-1985); served on the Hoonah Tlingit & Haida Community Council, was the secretary/ treasurer for several years and established the Hoonah Cable TV for them (1960-1980).

Marlene and her husband Clifford L. Johnson raised six children: Don, Howard, Bob, Patty, Lynell “Pixie,” and Jodi.

Nora Dauenhauer

Keixwnéi

1927–2017

Tlingit • Yéil

Lúkaax.ádi Clan

Shaka Hít

Nora Marks Dauenhauer (Keixwnéi) was born in 1927 in Juneau, Alaska. She was raised in Juneau and Hoonah, as well as on the family fishing boat and in seasonal subsistence sites around Icy Straits, Glacier Bay, and Cape Spencer.

Nora’s first language was Tlingit. She began to learn English when entering school at the age of eight. She recognized the importance of education, and she returned to school in 1970 to obtain her GED. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology (Alaska Methodist University 1976) and is internationally recognized for her fieldwork, transcription, translation, and explication of Tlingit oral literature.

Her creative writing has been widely published and anthologized. Her Raven plays have been performed in several venues internationally, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 1980, Nora was named Humanist of the Year by the Alaska Humanities Forum. In 1989, she received an Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts, and in 1991, she was a winner of the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. From 1983 to 1997, Nora was Principal Researcher in Language and Cultural Studies at Sealaska Heritage Foundation in Juneau.

In December 2004, she received the 2005 Community Spirit Award from First People’s Fund of Rapid City, SD. Nora’s other awards include American Book Award (1991 and 2008), Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee (2010), Indigenous Leadership Award (2011), and Alaska State Writer Laureate (2012-2014). It was my honor to award Nora one of the first Tlingit & Haida President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her lifelong commitment to preserving our Native culture.

Nora was married to Richard Dauenhauer, writer, and former poet laureate of Alaska, with whom she co-authored and coedited several editions of Tlingit language and folklore material. She and Richard were well known for their contributions to preserving the Tlingit language and culture. Together, they published several works including poetry and prose, dramatic plays, beginning Tlingit textbooks, oral narratives and stories shared by Tlingit elders, and Alaska history anthologies related to the Battles of Sitka.

Governor Bill Walker congratulates Nora on being named 2012-2014

Alaska State Writer Laureate

Nora lived in Juneau, and during her semi-retired years continued with research, writing, consulting, and volunteer work with schools and the community. She had 4 children, and at the time of her passing, she had 11 grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren.

Nora passed away in her home on Marks Trail in Douglas, Alaska on September 25, 2017. She was Tlingit and belonged to the Lukaax.ádi (Raven Sockeye) clan from Shaka. Hit (Canoe Prow House) on the Alsek River. Nora was raised traditionally amongst master carvers, weavers, and beaders who lived a subsistence lifestyle. She left school early to help support the family.

Throughout Nora’s life, she worked as a housekeeper, a fish slimer, an egg puller, a Tlingit language researcher, a professor, and as a poet and linguist. She later earned her Bachelor’s in Anthropology from Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Alaska Southeast.

Nora was a member of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 2, a lifetime member of Filipino Community, and she was instrumental in establishing the Women’s Auxiliary of the Juneau Filipino Community.

Dr. Delores Churchill

Ilskyaalas

Haida • Ts’áak’ Git’ans Git’anee Clan

Delores Churchill (Ilskyaalas), born 1929, is a renown Haida artist who may be mistaken as being unique, one of a kind. Delores is the first to explain that she learned her skills at the side of her mother, Selina Peratrovich, a nationally recognized weaver, skills that Delores passed on to her daughters, who taught their daughters, Selina’s great-grandchildren, who now carry on the tradition, a matrilineal continuum that began in Haida Gwaii, the ancestral homeland of Selina and then Delores, who were both born in Massett, Haida Gwaii.

Selina was one of the few people of her day who carried on Haida basket weaving and taught the skills throughout Alaska and British Columbia. Without Selina and Delores, it is likely the art would have become extinct. Today, hundreds of basket weavers carry forward the legacy.

Selina’s first husband, Alfred Adams, Delores’ father, was a founding member and first President of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia. George Peratrovich, her second husband was a brother of Frank and Roy Peratrovich, both well known in Alaska history. Roy and Elizabeth Peratrovich were leaders of the successful effort against discrimination.

Evelyn Vanderhoop, Delores’ daughter and a renowned artist in her own right, attributes Delores’s adherence to Haida traditions to her early life. “Both my grandmother, Nani, and my mother were able to retain all the traditional skills because they weren’t sent away to residential schools.” They both received

education at village schools, where English was spoken but they spoke Haida at home. One fortunate consequence was they both retained Haida as their first language. In those days, says Evelyn, “people made conscious efforts to only speak English in their homes because their children were punished in boarding schools for speaking Haida. Naani father, Alfred, was brilliant. He insisted his children speak Haida. How else were they to learn from village elders?”

Delores described the process of learning basketry from her mother at the 2007 basketry seminar in Sitka; with a twinkle in her eye, a smiling countenance, and in a tone of voice that made plain her respect and love for a mother who insisted on perfection and by doing so bestowed upon Delores the skills and artistry for which she has received the highest accolades. She said of her mother, “she was really amazing. She taught Haida basketry from Prince of Wales Island right up to Bethel.” Delores described Selina as being especially strict with her, dismissing out of hand everything that Delores produced, including a basket that a young Delores secretly entered in a contest, which she won. Even then, Selina refused to praise Delores for the basket: it wasn’t hers alone because the basket was made from materials Delores had not gathered and prepared.

In mid-life, after raising a family and retiring from a career as an assistant comptroller of the Ketchikan hospital, Delores returned to basket weaving and was soon asked by the University of Alaska Southeast to teach a basketry course. She approached

her mother. “My mother looked at me and said, ‘You are not ready. You don’t prepare your own materials.’ I said, ‘I don’t prepare my materials because you do it all.’ So, for two more years I had to learn to prepare the materials and then she let me teach the class.”

“My father, Allen Churchill, encouraged my mother to get back to weaving,” says Evelyn. “He thought that the weaving tradition would stop if Delores didn’t take up weaving and teaching also. She signed up for a weaving class that Selina was teaching through the local college. My mother who had not woven since childhood, walked into Selina’s class expecting to be a student, but my nonny wanted to send her home. The administrator convinced Selina to accept Delores into the class. My mom must have excelled because that was the beginning of the teaching duo. My Nonny taught traditionally, demonstrating the complex techniques, while my mother talked students through the ancient motions.”

“They had a very close relationship,” says Evelyn. “They lived in houses next to each other in Ketchikan, and after Nani’s husband died, they continued to be a pair. The keeping of traditions was very, very important to both. One of the major things we have always been taught to share the ancient techniques, pass them on.”

After learning traditional Haida weaving from her mother, Delores went on to study traditional Tsimshian and Tlingit basketry from elders willing to share their art. She

then studied Raven’s Tail under Cheryl Samuel. Cheryl and Delores studied naaxiin (formline weaving) techniques with Jenny Thlunaut. Cheryl dedicated her Raven’s Tail book to both Selina and Jenny. Delores is now famed for mastering Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit weaving and for having produced robes, baskets, hats, and other regalia, as well as leading revitalization efforts for Haida, her native language.

Delores is also well known as an expert in gathering and preparing cedar bark, spruce root, and the materials for weaving Chilkat and Raven Tail robes. She has taught basketry and exhibited her works throughout the world and has served as a museum consultant identifying works in museum collections.

Now a nonagenarian, Delores’ eyesight is failing, but according to Evelyn, “she is still preparing materials and is vibrantly sharing her knowledge of Haida language.”

Some of her awards include: Alaska State Council on the Arts fellowship; US Artists Fellowship, 2020; Lifetime Achievement Award from Tlingit & Haida, 2017; National Basketry Association Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017; National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 2006; Lifetime Fellowship Award, Rasmuson Foundation, 2006; Alaska Governor’s Award for the Arts, 2003; First People’s Fund Community Spirit Award, 2002; National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Artists Residencies, Hull, Quebec, 1996; and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Alaska Southeast 1991.

I said, as former President of Tlingit & Haida, when Delores was getting her Lifetime Achievement Award that she was excellent at networking, using her charisma and wit to be an effective representative. Her speech to the Assembly was indicative of how effective of a communicator she can be. Almost without effort, she can command the attention of a room and get the most out of others.

Dr. Erma Lawrence

Erma Baronovich Lawrence was an accomplished and generous woman. In the 1970s, she worked with other Haida elders to create a Haida language writing system which resulted in the publication of the Alaskan Haida Dictionary. She authored Xaat Kíl hl Sk ’at’áa! the Alaskan Haida Phrasebook that included more than 4,000 Haida sentences she compiled between 2004 and 2007. Sealaska Heritage Institute keeps both books in print.

I first came to know Erma when I stayed with the Lawrence family during Craig vs. Hydaburg basketball games. I was on the Craig junior high school team at a time before there was a road connection, and to play in Hydaburg required travel by boat and overnighting. I became lifelong friends with her children, especially David, John, and Marge.

Erma dedicated her life to gathering, recording, documenting, and teaching the Haida language.

orthography that included the tone marks, underlines, and notations that indicated unique Haida sounds not found in English pronunciations. This led to the publication of the Haida dictionary, an original publication.

Erma gained “ANS Lifetime Member” status while a member of Ketchikan Camp 14 when we inducted several other Natives active over the years in ANB and ANS.

Percy Frisby, a friend I’ve known since we were young, is a former CEO of Haida Corp who retired after a tenure as Director of the Office of Energy for the State of Alaska. He grew up in Hydaburg. Erma was his mother’s aunt, but Percy knew her as his aunty.

“She was a very kind lady, always smiling, and she was a really good singer,” Percy recalled. “Later in life she moved to Ketchikan and would be happy to see us ‘Haida kids’ whenever she encountered us—Erma was always friendly and very polite. A classy lady.”

• Ts’áak’ Ts’aahl ‘Láanaas Clan

I worked with Erma when I was the Director of Indian Education for the Ketchikan School District and was aware of her role in organizing the “Haida Society”— Haidas who lived in Ketchikan at that time and met as a group. In addition to Erma, participants included Phyllis Almquist, Selena Peratrovich, Vesta Johnson, Loreana John, and Robert Cogo. They reached out to University of Alaska linguists at the Alaska Native Language Center—Michael Krausse and Jeff Leer—to come up with Haida alphabet lettering. Jeff took the lead and worked with the group to develop an

Erma was born in 1912. Most sources note her place of birth as Hunter Bay, where a cannery was located, but she may have been born in the village of Klinkwan near the mouth of the bay. A year before her birth, the federal government had begun the process of merging Klinkwan, Howkan and Sukkwan, all neighboring Haida villages, into a new village, Hydaburg, which included a church, school, and other modern facilities. Occupancy was limited to those who agreed to not speak Haida or practice their culture.

Erma grew up in Kasaan, on the east coast of Prince of Wales Island. Her family spoke both Haida and English. At the age of 13, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, Erma went to Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka, where use of Haida and other Native languages was strictly prohibited. During school breaks, she returned to her family home in Kasaan.

In 1930, Erma and her family moved to Hydaburg. She graduated from high school in 1933, then, in 1935, Erma married John Lawrence, a Tlingit man from Haines. She and John lived in Haines for three years, before moving back to Hydaburg, where they lived for the next 23 years. Erma and John raised six children: Herbert, Albert, Mary Anne, David, Marjorie, and Johnny.

In 1959, Erma moved to Ketchikan, where she taught Haida in the Ketchikan schools and at the local college. She earned her Associate Degree in Elementary Bilingual Education from Sheldon Jackson College in 1989 (at 77 years of age).

Erma was a faithful parishioner of the Presbyterian Church. Like Percy, I knew of Erma as an excellent singer and can recall her singing the songs she had translated into Haida sang regularly at Sunday services

as well as at funerals and memorial services. Her renditions of “How Great Thou Art” and “Amazing Grace,” including the Kasaan version of “A Wolf Sings to the Raven,” sung in the Haida language are popular requests at many events.

In addition to the two books mentioned, she translated “The Gospel According to John” in Haida (Kasaan dialect), a lifelong project she was pleased to have published in 2009.

Having a firsthand knowledge of Erma’s many contributions, I nominated her for the honorary doctorate degree she received from the UA Ketchikan Community College. I was honored to participate as commencement speaker during the ceremonies on May 1, 2004, when, at the age of 91, Erma was awarded a Doctorate of Letters and Humanities for her lifelong contributions to Haida language and literature. Mayor Bob Weinstein declared May 1 to be “Dr. Erma Lawrence Day” in Ketchikan.

Dr. Erma Lawrence and Edward K. Thomas

Nathan P. Jackson

Yéil Yádi

Tlingit • Yéil

Lúkaax.ádi Clan

Nathan Paul Jackson was born August 29, 1938. He is among the most important living Tlingit artists and the most important Alaskan artists.

Nathan was born into the L’ukwaax.adi (Sockeye) clan on the Raven side of the Chilkoot Tlingit.

He is often called upon to speak on behalf of his clan at public events where clan representatives are asked to speak. He is well versed in Tlingit protocol when discussing our Tlingit culture.

Nathan is best known for his totem poles, but works in a variety of media.

As a young adult, he served in the military in Germany, and then became involved in commercial fishing. While ill with pneumonia and unable to fish, he began to carve miniature totem poles. His interest in art was piqued, and he enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since then, Nathan’s work has included large totem poles, canoes, carved doors, wood panel clan crests, masks, and jewelry.

Nathan previously received a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest award in folk and traditional arts, from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities as a “national treasure.”

Nathan has created more than 50 totem poles, some of which are on display in the National Museum of the American Indian, Field Museum in Chicago, Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, and other museums in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Other totem poles stand outside Juneau-Douglas High School, Juneau’s Centennial Hall, in Juneau’s Sealaska Building, in Totem Bight State Historical Park, at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, at Saxman Totem Park, and at the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan.

One of the earliest examples of his totem poles was carved for the American Festival held at the Horniman Museum, London in 1985 and now stands in a commanding position in the Horniman Gardens.

Nathan has worked to pass on traditional Tlingit carving skills to younger artists, and has offered many demonstrations and workshops in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Nathan is a recipient of a 1995 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished Artist Award (2009), and a United States Artists Fellow (2021). He received an honorary doctorate in humanities from the University of Alaska Southeast.

By understanding and explaining the deeper meanings in traditional Northwest Coast art, Nathan Jackson has changed beliefs and boosted the confidence of Alaska Native artists, said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute. Nathan serves on Sealaska’s Native Artists Committee.

Nathan is shown on the 1996 Raven Dance US postage stamp.

He resides in Ketchikan, Alaska. His wife and son are also artists.

Dr. William Demmert, Jr.

Kaagoowú 1934–2010

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Naasteidí Clan

William (Bill) G. Demmert, Jr., Ed. D, was born March 9, 1934, in Klawock, Alaska, and raised in the Klawock/Craig area. His father, Bill Sr. was Tlingit and his mother, Florence, was Sioux. Bill spent his formative years accompanying his father, a highly accomplished commercial seine boat skipper, on fishing expeditions during the summers until his father’s retirement. He was known by many as Kaagoowu (a man with the strength of a stump) of the Tlingit ‘’Naasteidi’’ Eagle clan.

Bill attended the Klawock Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) School as well as schools in Petersburg, Craig, Sitka, and Kings Garden. He pursued higher education at Seattle Pacific University, the University of Alaska – Fairbanks, and Harvard University. After obtaining his doctorate in education from Harvard in 1973, Bill resumed his career in public policy, serving in roles such as Deputy Commissioner of Education for the U.S. Office of Indian Education and Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs at the BIA.

Bill Demmert, Jr. was married to his wife, Nora, and had four children: Melanie, Philip, William John, and Norita. At the time of publication, Bill had four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Deeply connected to Alaska’s land, Bill balanced his roles as a fisherman, gatherer, scholar, and clan member. Proud of his Native heritage, he immersed himself in ancestral landscapes, researching his family’s history extensively. Bill was actively involved in his community, he was

a member of the Klawock Alaska Native Brotherhood, chaired the Klawock Heenya Corporation and served on the Sealaska Heritage Institute board. He also held positions teaching in Fairbanks, serving as Klawock’s Superintendent of Schools, and later becoming Dean of Education at the University of Alaska Southeast.

A multi-talented individual, Bill excelled in basketball, and enjoyed golf, tennis, hunting, and especially sports fishing.

Throughout his professional life, Bill championed three important education issues: 1) early learning and preschool programs; 2) meeting the educational needs of at-risk youth; and 3) improving the academic performance of American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native children.

Bill served as a professor of education at Western Washington University at the time of his retirement. He played a pivotal role in founding the National Indian Education Association. He also served as the Commissioner of Education for Alaska and contributed to President Clinton’s education transition team.

Bill was a member of the Independent Review Panel created by the U.S. Congress to undertake a national assessment of Title I, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments (ESEA), and other federal programs in the U.S. Department of Education, 1995-2001.

He collaborated with the RAND Corporation on various projects, including reviewing

research on Native American education, analyzing NAEP data for Native American students, and studying early childhood education longitudinally. Additionally, he partnered with the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory on a proposed National Study of Indian Education, which involved assessing the impact of language and cultural programs on Native American education, determining the feasibility of such a study, and designing its framework.

Bill had extensive international involvement, including chairing the Steering Committee for the CrossCultural Education Seminar Series in the Circumpolar North. He co-chaired a coalition of Education Ministers in northern nations, organizing education seminars across various regions including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Russia, Alaska, Nunavut Territory, Northern Quebec, and Yukon Territory. The seminars aimed to enhance educational opportunities for Indigenous students in the far north. In later years, he collaborated with the Greenland Ministry of Education as an advisor and consultant for their school reform initiatives.

Bill was widely respected among Indigenous communities worldwide. His research on Native language immersion education demonstrated that learning heritage languages enhances critical thinking, college readiness, and academic achievement.

Native, and Native Hawaiian students. His work was invaluable in the exploration of educational programs and schools serving Native communities, helping educators and policymakers to better understand the role of traditional knowledge in instructional practice, and assessing what works in providing a school environment that values academic performance, citizenship, and the traditional ways for Indian children.

Bill, unlike typical academics, had real-world experience. After teaching in Washington State, he returned to Alaska, teaching and serving as principal and superintendent in various towns. He immersed himself in education during the 1960s. He later collaborated with Senators Kennedy and Mondale to draft the Indian Education Act of 1972, known today as Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. His efforts led to significant improvements in Native education, benefiting thousands of educators, children, and families.

After five years with the Federal Government, Bill returned to academia at the University of Alaska Southeast and finished the 1980s as Commissioner of Education for the State of Alaska. As Commissioner from 1986 through 1990, Dr. Demmert is credited with ‘’changing the conversation’’ on education. Today, many of the issues he championed have become mainstream in Alaska education.

chair the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force. They authored a significant report titled “Indian Nations at Risk: An Educational Strategy for Action,” assessing two decades of Native American education. The report included an Indian Student Bill of Rights. Reflecting on his family’s education in BIA schools aimed at assimilation, Bill emphasized the importance of preserving Native languages and cultures, expressing concern over the lack of fluency among young people and the disregard for their heritage in education.

Bill spent the remaining years of his life researching and teaching at Western Washington University. Before retiring in 2008, he served as a principal investigator, in partnership with Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and other major partners from Arizona to Hawaii working to develop and test assessments in schools using Native language immersion and culturally based instruction.

Recognized for his extensive experience and vast expertise in Native education, Bill was called to testify in 2000 before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in support of the Native American Languages Act Amendments Act. That bill passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent.

The focus of Bill’s research was the education of American Indian, Alaska

After leaving office as Commissioner in 1991, Bill was appointed by President George H. W. Bush, along with former U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell H. Bell, to co-

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Bill was a good man. He had a great ability to put people at ease. He understood his role as mentor, and built bridges between academia, policymakers, and everyday people. He was a teacher of teachers, and a leader of leaders.

Niles Cesar

Sxayadheich

1941–2012

Tlingit • Yéil

Lúkaax.ádi Clan

Yéil Hít

Midway through his senior year, Niles Cesar dropped out of Juneau-Douglas High School. 20 years later, in 1979, he returned to Juneau, Alaska as a college graduate and a retired officer of the U.S. Navy. He went on to stellar careers with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs/Alaska Region.

Born at St. Ann’s Hospital in Juneau to Santiago and Mary Cesar, Niles attended St. Ann’s parochial school and Juneau-Douglas High School. The family was closely related to the Paddock, Vavalis, and Marks families. In a profile published by SEARHC, he reminisced about his family’s walks across the bridge from Juneau for Sunday visits to “Marks Trail,” the Marks family homesite at the beginning of the North Douglas Highway. “One of my mother’s several jobs was working at the bakery, and we’d take day old baked goods and visit with Aunt Jenny [Marks] and eat dry fish. About that time, Uncle Austin [Hammond] and his brother, Horace Marks, would be there. This was when I was ten or eleven, when I first remembered those sorts of things. We began to figure out who we were.”

Figuring out who he was included his Filipino-Tlingit identity. He described St. Ann’s School as a cloistered environment. “We had a lot of Native kids in parochial school. We were kind of sheltered, but then you’d interact with the ‘public school kids’ … there was a lot of prejudice back then. I kind of felt we were at the bottom of the rung. ‘If you’re white, you’re all right.’ If you can’t be white, you should be at least half white; and so, it was white, half-white and then full-

blooded Native, then at the bottom of the barrel was always Filipino-Native. We were equally disliked by Natives and whites.”

High school was a destabilizing experience for Niles. He fell in with the wrong crowd. “I didn’t realize how bad I did until my daughter got a copy of my high school record. I couldn’t believe it! I had been telling all these lies about how I hadn’t been too bad a student and then I looked at all these incompletes, Ds and Fs. I was terrible.”

After dropping out he joined the Navy, which he admitted gave him the discipline and incentive he needed to succeed. While in the service, Niles graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Tidewater Community College.

Niles served 20 years in the U.S. Navy’s Medical Service Corps, including a year in Vietnam as commissioned officer aboard the USS Midway. He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant, completed his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health from George Washington University, and then returned to Juneau. Within a few months of his return, he was hired as Executive Vice President of SEARHC and devoted his skills to achieving the provision of healthcare services to Southeast Alaska Natives, working from 1979 to 1990.

Niles went on to become the Regional Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)/Alaska Region. Throughout 20 years in the position, Niles helped maximize the services and benefits provided to Alaska Natives, including establishing the

BIA Providers Conference. The Providers Conference gave tribal representatives plenty of opportunity to interact with the BIA administrative staff, other tribal representatives and ask questions of BIA management on important program management issues.

Niles was particularly proud of his many years of advocacy as a member of the Federal Subsistence Board in Alaska.

“Almost half the federally recognized tribes in the United States are in Alaska and Niles made great, great strides in helping them to contract out these government services,” Charles Bunch, a BIA colleague, said in an interview about Niles’ efforts to open the door provided by the self-determination act. Bunch also eulogized Niles’ efforts while serving on the Federal Subsistence Board. “Niles worked hard to ensure that way of life was continued in Alaska.”

Niles was a Tlingit & Haida tribal citizen, a shareholder and previous board member of Sealaska and Goldbelt Inc., and a proud member of the Filipino community.

Niles very much enjoyed boating and fishing. For a number of years, he would take his boat and I would take mine and we would run down to Basket Bay (across Chatham Straits from Angoon) to harvest sockeye. He periodically invited me to go out on his boat to pull king crab pots. I love king crab, so it was always a good experience going out crabbing with him and it always concludes with a great crab dinner at his house with other friends of his.

Dennis Demmert (Gunkasíxht), Teeyeeneidi of the Raven Dog Salmon House of Tuxekan, was born and raised in Klawock, Alaska, and is the son of Joseph and Isabelle Demmert. His father was a successful salmon purse seine fisherman and Dennis spent most of his summers fishing on his father’s boat, the F/V Barney. His parents were well known for their active participation in a subsistence way of life and were knowledgeable and skilled at nearly every aspect of living on subsistence resources.

The Demmert family, originally of the Klawock area, summons to mind educators such as Bill, Leroy, Art, Embert, and Larry, all first and second cousins of Dennis. Professor Dennis Demmert carries on the family tradition. He graduated from Sheldon Jackson High School and attended Junior College before transferring to the University of Chicago. He went on to study for his master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dennis has been active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) since 1957 and was elected ANB Grand President in 2012. He has since served on the Executive Committee. He helped revise the constitution that now governs both the ANB and ANS. Dennis joined Ketchikan ANB Camp 14 in 1957 and was a member and officer of Juneau Camp 2 and Sitka Camp 1 when he lived in those communities. He was also a member of

Klawock Camp 9.

Dennis reminds Native people that our predecessors in the ANB and ANS fought for Native citizenship, civil rights, and Indigenous rights. “They won, but those rights don’t automatically put us on par with other Americans educationally or economically, nor do they solve our social problems,” he said. “There is still much to be done.” He encourages the present generation of Native leaders to work together to improve the education, employment, and the well-being of all Native people and to do so through Native organizations, especially the ANB and ANS.

In the mid-1970s Dennis and his wife Jane worked with the United States Forest Service and others in relocating totem poles from old, abandoned Native villages to the Ketchikan Heritage Center, which now houses one of the world’s largest collections of unrestored 19th century totem poles. The poles were recovered from uninhabited Tlingit settlements on Village and Tongass Islands, south of Ketchikan, as well as from the Haida village of Old Kasaan.

Among many other notable public service roles, Dennis served as an Elder Advisor to Tlingit & Haida to help lay the groundwork for the development of a Southeast Alaska Tribal College.

Dr. Dennis Demmert

Dennis was elected as a Tlingit & Haida Delegate in 1961 when Andrew Hope and Frank Johnson were President and Secretary. When Andrew Hope and Frank Johnson retired in 1966, Ted Denny of Saxman was elected President, and Dennis Demmert was elected as Secretary. As a Tlingit & Haida officer, Dennis made many trips to Washington, lobbying for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) settlement. He continued with Tlingit & Haida until 1972.

Dennis was awarded the Tlingit & Haida President’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2020) in recognition of all the work he has done on behalf of and for the Tlingit and Haida people.

His career mainly focused on education as the Director of Native Students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dennis taught courses on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and tribal rights as well as parliamentary procedure.

Among his many contributions to higher education, Dennis was head of the Rural Student Services Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In honor of his service to the Alaska Native community, the university created the Dennis Demmert Appreciation and Recognition Award. Dennis also served as president of Sealaska Heritage Institute.

He served as Director of Native Studies at Sheldon Jackson College then, when Walter Soboleff retired in 1974 as Director

of Native Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Dennis succeeded him. With funding advanced through the influence of Alaska Native legislators, Native programs grew to include the Elders-in-Residence Program, which brought Native elders to campus to share their knowledge, and the Rural Alaska Honors Institute (RAHI), which has successfully prepared hundreds of Native high school students for college. Many RAHI graduates now have baccalaureate and graduate degrees. The courses he taught focused on ANCSA and tribal rights, and many students he taught now have college degrees and graduate degrees, and several are lawyers.

For many years, Dennis taught parliamentary procedure and served as parliamentarian for annual meetings of Doyon, Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI), and Koniag Native regional corporations.

Dennis was a prolific reader. In 2019, he donated more than 300 books from his personal collection in support of Tlingit & Haida’s effort to establish a library. His book collection was built over the course of his life and represents his interests and areas of scholarly study. It is certainly a challenge for him and his wife to move hundreds of books whenever they have moved from place to place in their retirement.

In 2009 he and his wife, Jane, moved to Klawock, his home village; they now live in Ketchikan.

Dr. Albert Kookesh

Yíkdeiheen • Kasháan

1948–2021

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Teik weidí Clan

Xóots Hít

Albert Kookesh was born November 24, 1948, in Juneau, Alaska to Matthew Albert Kookesh of Angoon and Ramona Delores (Herrera) Kookesh, of Carrizozo, New Mexico. He was Eagle of the Teikweidí (Brown Bear) clan, child of the L’eeneidí (Dog Salmon) clan. His Tlingit name was Kaasháan, and he also had the name Yikdahéen.

Albert graduated from Mt. Edgecumbe High School in 1967, where he remains on the school’s basketball Hall of Fame. In 1972 he graduated from, and played basketball for, Alaska Methodist University (now Alaska Pacific University) and in 1977 earned his Jurist Doctorate from the University of Washington School of Law.

Albert married Sally Marie Woods, of Manley Hot Springs, on May 28, 1970, in Angoon, where they raised their family and he lived his entire life. He was the proud owner and operator of Kootznahoo Inlet Lodge and store, and a life-long subsistence hunter and fisherman.

In his professional career, Albert worked for Kootznoowoo, Inc.; was elected to the Alaska Legislature where he represented Angoon in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1997 to 2004, before moving over to the Alaska Senate for another seven years; and was an advisor to former governors Bill Walker and Tony Knowles.

His public service was extensive. He was a member of the Sealaska Corporation board from 1976 until his passing, serving as chair for 14 years; was on the Alaska Federation of Natives board where he served as co-

chair for 16 years; was on the Alaska Native Brotherhood and served as Grand Camp president and as an Executive Committee member; was a trustee for the First Alaskans Institute; and a trustee for the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Albert’s Senate territory (District C) was a huge, mostly rural district covering 250,000 square miles and 126 communities – from Metlakatla to the Bering Sea. His district was branded “The Iceworm District” for its resemblance to the long, skinny relative of the common earthworm that lives in glacial ice.

The district was split during redistricting in 2012 when Southeast Alaska lost its third senator to population growth in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Albert and his colleague, Sitka Senator Bert Stedman, were forced into a showdown that year that neither really wanted.

In 2014, I issued a proclamation and presented Albert with Tlingit & Haida’s President’s Lifetime Achievement award to honor him for his dedication to the issues and concerns of the Tlingit and Haida people.

In addition to his public service, Albert was known for his love of basketball, especially the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament, where he helped win 11 championships and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was also known for his love of life as a fisherman; of hunting; his practice and protection of the traditional way of life, subsistence; his mentorship and wisdom;

his jokes and “true stories”; and for his extreme love and devotion to his home village of Angoon and his family.

My wife, Cathy, and I would join up with friends on an annual boat trip from Juneau to Basket Bay (across Chatham Straits from Angoon) to fish sockeye salmon for subsistence purposes. One year we got all the way down there and the person who was going to bring the fishing net wasn’t able to make it down there and so we had no net to fish the sockeye. I called Albert to see if he had a beach seine we could use; he lent us his net and when we returned it he had his brothers come down to his boat float and they cleaned all of our fish for us.

It is worth noting that Albert once put his political career at risk in protection of Native subsistence rights while he was a state senator. He and two other men from Angoon were subsistence fishing for sockeye at the mouth of a nearby stream when a state fish and game agent came out of the forest and cited them for having too many sockeye even though they held subsistence permits for several elders from Angoon as well as their own. Albert could have simply paid a $500 fine and the case would have been over. He chose to go to court as he felt it was important to not only win the case but to draw attention to the need to have subsistence policies that favored the subsistence users who need subsistence rights to provide for their families. He won the case and there were positive changes to subsistence policies after that case was over. He so loved his time with his children,

grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. In his final days, he was so proud of his grandchildren for winning the regional high school 1A basketball tournament.

Edward K. Thomas presents Dr. Albert Kookesh with President’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)

James W. Price

Sha.aan

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Wooshkeetaan Clan

Tóos’ Hít

James (Jim) W. Price’s Tlingit name is Sha. aan and he is Wooshkeetaan, Tóos’ Hít (Shark House) of the Aak’w Kwáan.

Jim was born and raised in Sitka, Alaska and is the son of Jessie [Weir] Price (Keinasxíx) and Frank D. Price, Sr. (Sataan Éesh). His mother was in the first graduating class from Sheldon Jackson School and father was one of the founding members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood. Desiring to follow in his parents’ steps, Jim joined the Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 1 in 1962.

Jim graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

He served as a Sitka Delegate to Tlingit & Haida while living in Sitka and when he moved to the Seattle area in 1968 he became an active member of the Seattle Tlingit & Haida Chapter. Jim has helped to grow the Seattle Tlingit & Haida Community Council as one of the longest serving Delegates to the Tribe. He has served in several positions, including three terms as President and diligently attends all cultural events.

Jim has not only been a strong voice each year during Tribal Assembly but has also mentored new Delegates on parliamentary procedures and the importance of resolutions and budgets. He has always been on point while implementing Robert Rules of Order. He gives great advice on election rules and regulations and enjoys and always participates in the caucus groups during voting. He was honored by

being selected as the Tribal Host for the 2019 Tribal Assembly for his many years of service to Native people and his loyalty to Tlingit & Haida.

Jim worked over 20 years for the Seattle Indian Center helping American Indians and Alaska Natives further their education and advance their careers. He also served as chair of the Seattle Indian Center board of directors. He made many long-term friends and was recognized for his professionalism, ethics and compassion.

“There are numerous shining examples and qualities I can speak of but what stands out most is his fight for the American Indian/ Alaska Native (AI/AN) people...Education programs for AI/AN students would produce a vigorous fight because of Mr. Price’s commitment to young people who often struggled with a system rife with institutional racism. Fighting the unpopular fight for justice and equality is how James W. Price lives. The Seattle Indian Center is proud that such a man as this has graced our landscape and our world.” – Camille Monson, Seattle Indian Center Executive Director.

Joseph E. Kahklen

• Yéil

Joseph (Joe) Edward Kahklen and I first met when we were on salmon purse seiners working out of Craig and Klawock. He was fishing with his cousin, Byron Skinna, and I was fishing with Nick Charles. The boats would tie up together in between fish openings. The skippers were not directly related but considered each other brothers.

There was an unspoken competitiveness between Joe and I that helped inspire our paths in life. Competitiveness seemed a common characteristic of Klawock families, especially the rivalry between the Peratrovichs and Demmerts: these and other Klawock families, motivated by the competition, aspired to educational and other advancements and, as a result, individuals in these families became important leaders and contributors to their communities.

Joe’s mother was a Demmert, a family with so many members their reunion in the early 1970s is remembered for having doubled the population of Klawock.

Although our paths diverged, throughout our subsequent careers, Joe and I often interacted. He has been an important contributor to our people. He remains involved as chairman of the Healing Hands Foundation, a charitable organization that helps provide unfunded medical and health expenses for beneficiaries of the Southeast Regional Health Consortium.

Joe was a founding director of Goldbelt Corporation. He looks back on the difficult years in the 1970s when Goldbelt was in its

infancy with rueful fondness, recalling how everyone assumed the corporation had tons of money when in fact it had virtually no start-up cash, operating entirely on a small amount of borrowed money. Goldbelt has done much better in recent years. Even he and his most optimistic cofounders never expected the heights the corporation has reached. “It’s exceeded my wildest dreams,” Joe said.

Founded in 1973 and incorporated on January 4, 1974, Goldbelt was organized under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Sealaska, one of a dozen regional corporations, was incorporated two years before Goldbelt and helped the new corporation get on its feet financially, Joe said.

Joe had been involved in the Juneau Native community leading up to that point and was chosen to be the first chairman of Goldbelt’s board. He said his main task was raising money, which was a tall order. He expressed gratitude for the financial help Goldbelt received from Sealaska in those early days.

A Tlingit from the Dog Salmon clan of the Raven moiety, his Tlingit name is Kookesh. Joe has roots that extend throughout Southeast. His father, Joe Kahklen, Sr., was born in Kake and his mother, Vivian Demmert (her father was Charlie Demmert), was born in Klawock. The family lived in Killisnoo, Angoon, Haines, Klawock, Sitka, following Joe Kahklen, Sr.’s teaching assignments by the federally run Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) school system.

Joe remembers living for about a year in Killisnoo during World War II when the people from the Aleutian Island village of Atka were evacuated to the small village a few miles south of Angoon, where they were more or less dumped on the beach and had to make do by living in the longabandoned buildings associated with the Killisnoo herring reduction plant. Joe earned degrees in chemistry and biology at Northern Arizona University and began work as a chemist in Phoenix, serving Veterans Administration hospitals. He transferred to the Human Resources department in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1966, and four years later found his way back to Alaska by accepting a job with the BIA in Juneau where he was promoted to Assistant Area Director for Administration.

Joe remained active in the ANCSA world as a director of the Goldbelt Board of Directors, and was elected to the Sealaska board, serving as a director from 1977-1988. Joe accepted appointment as President/ CEO of Goldbelt in 1980. He served for seven years. He was then appointed to run Sealaska Timber Corporation (STC), a subsidiary of the Sealaska Corporation created to harvest its own and village corporation timber in Southeast Alaska.

In 1991, he returned to federal employment by accepting a Department of the Interior position in Washington, DC, serving as Alaska Liaison Officer to Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.

roles for Goldbelt, from chairman to CEO to director. In his positions with Goldbelt and as a timber executive for Sealaska, he traveled all over the world overseeing operations and working with other organizations. His business trips to Japan left a lasting impression on him. “It was amazing on my first trip there, how similar their culture was to our Native culture from the perspective of elders, the extended family,” Joe said. “It was just amazing.”

In 2017 he was replaced in the Goldbelt election. Despite his disappointment, he understood that the time comes for leadership to be transferred to the younger generation. He remains dedicated to the success of Goldbelt.

Joe continues his community service through his membership on the board of First Things First Alaska Foundation, which aims to promote economic opportunities and the reasonable use of natural resources in the region.

Joe’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2017, the Juneau Chamber of Commerce honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He has stepped aside from spotlight, he said, after decades representing Goldbelt and the Alaska Native community.

For over 35 years, Joe served in several

I first met Richard “Dick” Stokes when he was the president of the Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA) and the Stikine Native Organization (SNO). The WCA is the federally recognized Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) tribe of Wrangell and the SNO is an organization formed by the local Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB), local Tlingit & Haida Community Council, and WCA.

The SNO was formed to build an office building with a meeting room. The ANB had the property; the local Tlingit & Haida Community Council received its share of Tlingit & Haida community development funds of $40,000; and the WCA had the leadership and capacity to manage a building project and its operations once built.

One of the financial weaknesses of the SNO Building was they had to borrow money to build it. The SNO borrowed the money from the Tlingit Haida Credit Union, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tlingit & Haida.

Soon after I was elected president of the Tribe, I realized the SNO had not made much progress on paying off the loan. Most of the payments had only covered the interest and not the principal. Dick brought a proposal to me to get credit for the money paid in interest since interest rates had dramatically dropped since the inception of the loan. We reviewed the loan history and found that the amount of interest paid cumulatively added up to nearly the amount of the original loan. I presented this to the Executive Council, suggesting that we simply remove the loan from our books. The proposal was approved unanimously. This freed SNO of the debt and

reduced administrative costs to the Tribe.

Dick was a pastor at the Wrangell Assembly of God Church in the 1950s then he went to work for the Wrangell Institute for over 15 years. He and his wife, Wilma, were teachers at the Institute. He went to work for Alyeska on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline after the Wrangell Institute closed. While he was home in 1975, a totem pole he was working on fell on his shoulder injuring him so badly that he could no longer work for Alyeska.

Dick formed the company Alaska Waters Inc., and was a Native History consultant for 20 years. His daughter, Wilma, worked a lot with him on several of his projects. He generously shared his knowledge with family and friends.

Following is a statement from his daughter, Heidi Stokes-Armstrong: “He considered himself a Native Historian. He was raised by his uncle (his mother’s brother) as was tradition. My dad was born on December 17, 1924. He was born at home with a Tahltan midwife helping his mother. His Tlingit name is ‘Voice of the Sealion’ (Sei.Taan) He was L’ukwnax. ádi, Coho clan. His mother was Lillian Pearl Desmond Tlingit, his father was John Henry Stokes, known as Jack. He was Irish.

The boundaries of the Stikine Tlingits extended over a great territory. From the time of early migration, it was probably the most numerous and powerful group ever to populate Southeast Alaska. I am sure there must have been a migration down other rivers besides the Stikine, the Nass to the South and North to the Taku and Copper Rivers.

The boundaries of the Kwaan ran from Mill Creek (Chuga-saan) on the mainland, up along the Stikine River to ten or fifteen miles beyond present-day Telegraph Creek, B.C., down river still on the mainland to Cape Fanshaw and Farragut Bay, and across a portion of Kupreanof Island to Prince of Whales Island right about to Buster or Red Bay. Then it went down the shore to Thorne Bay, across the straights to Cleveland Peninsula, Behm Canal back up the mainland shore to Chuga-saan.

This included all the islands and rivers in this described area. The Stikines claimed all the major waterways of inland passages. Goldschmidt and Haas confirmed these boundaries in 1946 when they did their survey in a book called Ha Aani ‘This is our Land’ That is why I have a difficult time with how we got left out of the land claims settlement in 1971!”

Dick was a tireless advocate for the community of Wrangell. When the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (P.L. 93-638) was passed in 1975, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) held a series of consultation meetings in Alaska and Dick attended nearly every one of them. In those days, I was president of the Ketchikan Indian Corporation (KIC), the IRA tribe, and often collaborated with Dick on BIA policy issues.

Dick was very comfortable speaking in public. When we, at KIC, decided to have a Ketchikan Native Citizen of the Year event, I invited him to be the Master of Ceremonies for the inaugural dinner. He did a great job, and the audience very much enjoyed his sense of humor. One remark I well remember provoked a hearty laugh from all, including

me: “Some folks said it looks like Ed is getting fat. He’s not fat he’s just short for his weight!”

Dick ran a Stikine River tour on his river boat during summer months. He often bragged about how beautiful and scenic these trips were. I was a commercial purse seine fisherman during the summers at that time, and I regret that I never had the opportunity accept his standing invitation to go up the river with him.

Heidi continues with some input from her sister, Wilma, “He was boxer while he was in the Navy, the Wrangell ANB President, American Legion President, American Legion Chaplin, on the Federal Subsistence Board for many years, IRA board member. My dad would often travel to Washington DC to help with the Smithsonian Museum set up History for Wrangell. I am not sure with what board he traveled with. I once visited the museum as they hosted a luncheon for me because I was Dick Stokes’ daughter. Oh, how I could have understood then what I do now. He was instrumental along with other members securing funding for our current museum. He also secured many artifacts.

He would often offer to show how to skin a deer, clean fish, smoke fish, and clam dig to the classes in Evergreen Elementary School his grandchildren were in and would frequently do the same at Tlingit and Haida Head Start. He and my mother were appointed Missionaries by the Assembly of God as well as the Salvation Army. He was on the Board at the Assembly of God Church as well. He was also an Eagle Scout Commander.

He started the first tourism to Anan Creek, the Stikine Bird Migration, and later became a sports fishing guide. I think later when he was in his 80’s he really did not appreciate the United States Forest Service (USFS) and their young people at Anan.”

Dick Stokes was constantly on the move fighting for Native rights. “It’s a fight to maintain our heritage and I wish more Natives would take the time,” he said, “there is nothing more important!” He was especially passionate about making sure the Native petroglyphs on the beach north of Wrangell were treated with respect. He spent several weeks carving replicas of the most popular petroglyphs. The replicas became part of the interpretive program along the new boardwalk and viewing platform built by the City of Wrangell. More than 5,000 people visit Petroglyph Beach annually. As member of the Southeast Alaska Regional Subsistence Council, Dick put for the first proposal to make sockeye salmon a subsistence priority on the Stikine River. This was significant for it required coordination with the British Columbia fisheries management officials.

Herbert Didrickson, Sr.

Jínkutéen

1926–2017

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Chookaneidí Clan

Herbert (Herb) Didrickson, Sr. was given the perfect Tlingit name, Junkhateen, which translates in English to “fast or quick hands.”

A great all-around athlete of mixed ancestry — Tlingit and Norwegian — the 5-foot-10 Didrickson outran, out passed, outshot and even out-jumped opponents almost a foot taller.

Considered by many as the Jim Thorpe of Alaska, Herb dominated in basketball, baseball, track and field, and cross country while growing up in the Southeast community of Sitka. He ruled the courts, diamonds and fields at Sheldon Jackson High School and Sheldon Jackson Junior College in the 1940s.

His reputation spread across the state as an iconic player on a great Sitka Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) team in the Gold Medal Basketball Tournament and other local, regional and national events. Born in 1926, Herb helped lead teams to victory until 1990.

Legendary Alaska sportscaster Steve Agbaba called him “the most exciting athlete I have ever watched in any sport.”

Many believe Herb could have competed professionally – the Seattle Rainiers wanted him to play minor league baseball – but he chose to remain in Sitka with his wife Pollyanna, his friends and his neighbors.

When he wasn’t working as a fisherman or teacher, he volunteered as a coach, referee and mentor to many.

Herb was the first person inducted into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame, a member of the first class to enter the Alaska High School Hall of Fame and received similar honors from Sitka ANB and the Sheldon Jackson schools. Sitka residents named a street and school gymnasium after him. Longtime friend and former high school athletic director Gil Truitt called Herb “the ultimate good guy,” a humble man who exhibited “the finest sportsmanship of anyone I know.”

His athletic fame was known by many; many did not know that he very much enjoyed singing on the Sheldon Jackson School Choir. He had an excellent singing voice and trained himself to read music so that he could excel in singing his part.

Herb was also a councilman on the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, a federally recognized tribe per the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). He received the Tlingit & Haida President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Yeeshxá 1927–2020 Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Wooshkeetaan Clan

Gilbert Allen Truitt, who chronicled and helped shape the history of Sitka throughout his life, was born in Sitka, Alaska June 2, 1927, the son of Dorothy James Truitt and Joseph Truitt. He grew up in the Cottages settlement, the Christian Native community on Presbyterian mission land, on Kelly and Metlakatla streets.

His maternal great-grandmother, Amelia Cameron, was one of the Sloan sisters, Kiks.ádi Point House women who were matriarchs of Cottages families. His grandparents, Albert and Paulina James, were graduates of the mission school, as was his mother. She died in 1943, when he was 15, and the siblings were split up to live with other families.

Gil attended the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) elementary school on Katlian, and SJ School, then wanted to attend the BIA school in Wrangell but didn’t have money for transportation. SJ charged tuition, but he was recruited by Miss Kuykendall, the boys matron, and spent a year there, working for Peter Simpson in exchange for his tuition. He still wanted to go to Wrangell because he felt there were more students there like himself, who had been orphaned. He made it the next year and found out years later that his steamship fare had been paid by local businessman Art Franklin.

In February 1947, Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS) opened in the former Navy facilities on Japonski Island, replacing Wrangell Institute and the BIA school at Eklutna. Gil was one of the first students to arrive and was always proud of the fact he

was in the first graduating class – his email handle was originalbrave48. He went on to Harding University in Searcy, AR, getting a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957, and later earned a Master of Arts degree in education from Arizona State University in 1972.

Gil served in the U.S. Army, stationed in Juneau and Ft. Richardson. He married Shirley Guilford May 26, 1962, at the Sitka Presbyterian Church.

He returned to Mt. Edgecumbe in 1957, where he taught history and physical education, was basketball coach, activities/ academic director and administrator until retiring in 1990.

Gil overcame a difficult childhood with grace, dignity and gratitude, and made important contributions to Alaska that included researching and discovering that the deed for the former BIA school property on Katlian Street could go to the City of Sitka as long as it was used for Native education. The property was duly transferred to the Sitka Tribe of Alaska and now it’s the site of the Sheet’ká Kwáan Naa Kahídi community house.

His compilation of a map of the Sitka Indian Village 1920-1945 was another major achievement. Working with Herb Didrickson, Buddy Widmark, Ellen Hope Hayes, Bill Brady and Ray Perkins, with Charlie Joseph and Esther Littlefield, he made a map identifying the nearly 300 residential and clan houses in the Sitka Indian Village.

Gilbert A. Truitt

After the BIA closed MEHS in 1983, Gil played a major role in getting it reopened, lobbying the Congressional delegation, governor, legislators, education boards and other elected officials and helping with a letter-writing campaign he credited former MEHS teacher Cathy Sutton with leading.

Gil tirelessly documented and shared the history of Sitka, especially basketball, never failing to give credit to those who contributed to education and community. He told how within an hour of arriving from Wrangell, Sitka teams were inviting them to play, and how the ANB team loaned them uniforms and a ball. He documented genealogy of the Cottages and shared the “good times,” the musical talent and sense of community.

He led a successful campaign to induct Herb Didrickson into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. Herb had turned down offers to play pro, and so his unbelievable talent had to be documented in alternative ways.

Gil did the trimming and artwork for the MEHS framed class photos, starting with his own graduating class. In the 1960s, a superintendent decided students were spending too much time looking at them and had them all taken to the dump. Gil and a friend retrieved them and repaired the glass and frames; the pictures are now on view in the appropriately-named Gil Truitt Activities Center on the MEHS campus.

The naming of the center was only one of many honors the school bestowed on “Mr. Edgecumbe.”

“One he was most proud of and mentioned often was that the Mt. Edgecumbe students honored him with a total of five MEHS Yearbook (TAHETA) dedications in 1961, 1966, 1972, 1975 and in 1990,” said Mt. Edgecumbe Academic Principal Bernie Gurule. “He was also the first student athlete to be inducted into the Mt. Edgecumbe Hall of Fame.”

Gil was also involved in youth baseball as a coach/manager for many years and was a basketball referee for 18 years. As an active participant in civic affairs, especially involving education, he was instrumental in the creation of the Mt. Edgecumbe Advisory School Board.

Gil received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of AlaskaAnchorage, a Meritorious Award from the University of Alaska Southeast, and a citation and commendation from the Alaska Legislature, and a Sitka street is named after him.

The Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) inducted Gil into the very first cohort to be honored as members of the prestigious ASAA Hall of Fame, in 2001. In 2009, the Alaska Federation of Natives named him “Elder of the Year.” And in 2018, Tlingit & Haida presented him with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

For years, Gil wrote his column, “Gilnettings” for the Sentinel, in which he recounted stories, illustrated by photos, about the Sitka he’d known since the early 1930s, the places, individuals, sports and historical events. His last column ran March 20, 2020.

“Routinely, MEHS alumni come on campus to visit their children and grandchildren. One of the first questions they ask is ‘How is Gil Truitt?’” Gurule said. “Stories often follow of how he instilled in them the values of high standards and high expectations in the classroom, in the dorms and on the playing courts. Many stories carried the same theme: when I was a junior or a freshman... Mr. Truitt did not give me a break when I earned demerit points. He never allowed me to make excuses for my behaviors, he never accepted my hardship alibis, he never accepted my academic weaknesses as reason for failure in my studies. Instead, he disciplined us appropriately without making it personal. He encouraged us to accept our challenges with more dedication and hard work. He convinced us Mt. Edgecumbe High School is a special place and we were encouraged to make our families proud in everything we do. We are a family here, too. We are the Mt. Edgecumbe FAMILY.”

In February 2019, Mt. Edgecumbe High School designated Thursday of Founders Week as “Mr. Gil Truitt Day.”

Gil Truitt with fellow ASAA Hall of Fame member Representative Chuck Kopp

Byron I. Mallott

Dux da neik • K’oo del ta’

1943–2020

Tlingit • Yéil Kwaashk’ik waan Clan

Byron Ivar Mallott was born on April 6, 1943 in Yakutat, Alaska. He was Tlingit, Raven of the Kwaashk’i Kwáan (Humpback Salmon) Clan. In 1987, he was named clan leader of the Kwaashk’i Kwáan, a position he held until his passing.

One of my fondest memories of being with Byron is when he invited me to Yakutat to fish for steelhead just after I retired as President of Tlingit & Haida. I had my own fly rod and fishing gear, and he lent me water waders. We saw dozens of steelhead in the river but after fishing for most of the morning decided we were skunked. He had heard that the hooligans were running toward the mouth of the river. Having learned that long-time Sealaska director Clarence Jackson was in town, we invited him to join us. Byron found boots for Clarence and the three of us went hooligan fishing equipped with dipnets. We were very successful and packaged our fish up at his home before boarding our plane back to Juneau that same day.

Byron was married to Antoinette (Toni) Mallott, who spent most of her career teaching elementary grades in the Juneau School District. They had five children— Byron J. and Meredith (Stout), from Byron’s previous marriage, and Anthony, Joe, and Benjamin. The Mallotts lived in West Juneau.

Byron suffered a heart attack at his home in Juneau on May 7, 2020. He was flown by a medical charter to Anchorage where he died the following day at the age of 77.

If there was a more articulate man, I haven’t met him. Byron gave voice to who we are as Alaska Natives, able to explain at length fully formed ideas without the “umms” and “you knows” typical of most speakers. Here, in a complete, verbatim paragraph, he summarized the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood:

“While Christianity was a part of the ANB, a meaningful part of it, the ultimate success of the ANB is that it reflected Native values and priorities and sought justice and achieved what it did by using what the larger society expected of us while staying true to who we were. It was a way to build relationships, to communicate; it was a way to teach, to be an example; a way to show the world that no matter what way we go we have the ability to be successful and to do it in a way that is based on respect, good manners, and the ANB and ANS taught all this.”

He had all the attributes that would give rise to arrogance — tall, slender, handsome, self-assured, and deeply intelligent — yet anyone who knew him well could perceive the underlying humility that comes with self-awareness. “When I look at myself,” he said in an interview, “I have a hard edge to me, I have anger inside me, I work very hard to tamp it down, keep it down, I work very hard to be objective, I work very hard to be a good and decent person.”

Another strong characteristic was his empathy, which had its roots in witnessing many Native people, some of his own family, who had suffered significant trauma with a consequent sense of inferiority that

too often led to substance abuse, resulting in “being unemployable, being looked down upon. It was a real part of their lives,” he said.

At age 13, Byron was sent to Pius X Mission, a Catholic boarding school located in Skagway. He graduated from Sheldon Jackson High School, then attended Western Washington State College.

Byron’s political career began in 1965 upon the death of his father, who had served as Yakutat’s mayor for most of the position’s existence. Byron left college, returned to Yakutat, and was elected to succeed his father, becoming one of the youngest mayors to serve an Alaskan community. Before completing his term, Bryon joined Governor Bill Egan’s administration in local government affairs.

In 1969, Alaska’s newly elected U.S. Senator, Mike Gravel, appointed him to serve as a special assistant.

During Egan’s second term (1970-74) Byron became the first commissioner of the newly organized Department of Community and Regional Affairs, serving until 1974.

Bryon was instrumental in the formation of the Alaska Federation of Natives and was an early member of Sealaska Board of Directors, elected chairman in 1976 and appointed president/CEO in 1982, serving for 10 years until his retirement, though he continued serving as a director through 2014.

In 1982, Byron was appointed to the board

of trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation by Governor Jay Hammond to replace Elmer Rasmuson. In 1985, he was selected to serve as the chairman of the permanent fund and later served as its executive director from 1995 to 2000.

Byron ran for and won election as Juneau’s mayor in 1994. He resigned from office after being selected to serve as the executive director of the Permanent Fund.

In the 2014 primary election he ran for and won the Democratic nomination for governor of Alaska with 80% of the vote. He and Bill Walter, who had declared non-partisan, faced Republican incumbent governor Sean Parnell. The two merged their campaigns with Byron running as lieutenant governor. Walker/ Mallott went on to win in the general election.

Bryon’s many contributions and achievements will not be forgotten.

Governor Bill Walker and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott

Dr. Rosita Worl

Yeidiklasókw • Kaaháni

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Shangukeidí Clan

Kawdliyaayi Hít

Dr. Rosita Worl has two Tlingit names: Yeidiklasókw and Kaaháni. She is of the Ch’áak’ (Eagle) moiety; Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered from the Sun) in Klukwan.

Rosita Worl is an American anthropologist and Alaska Native cultural, business, and political leader. She is president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Through her leadership and vision, Dr. Worl successfully raised the funds to build the beautiful facilities that now house the institute and the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in the center of downtown Juneau.

Rosita’s work has been recognized with numerous honors, including a Ford Foundation Fellowship, the Gloria Steinem Award for Empowerment, Governor’s Award for the Arts & Humanities, the Lifetime Achievement Award by Tlingit & Haida, the American Anthropological Association Solon T. Kimball Award for Public and Applied Anthropology, and the Alaska Federation of Natives Citizen of the Year Award.

To say this remarkable woman came from humble beginnings would be an understatement.

Rosita’s mother Helen Marks moved from Haines/Klukwan to Petersburg where Rosita was born in 1937. Her mother married a Filipino man there, a disastrous relationship that led to his imprisonment for attempted murder. “He tried to burn the house down, with me in it, and he went to jail,” she recalled in a 2015 interview. When Rosita was four,

her mother died, and she went to live with her grandparents.

“My grandparents didn’t want me to go to school with white kids,” she recalled. Welfare took custody of Rosita and sent her to the Presbyterian boarding school in Haines. “It was terrible. I would cry and had emotional issues, but I was a fighter and wouldn’t do what they would tell me to do. I was always getting punished, some were very cruel punishments. I was just six years old, and these were missionaries, Christians!”

Rosita was adopted by her mother’s sister, Bessie Quinto. Bessie told her children they did not have cousins, only brothers and sisters.

“In Tlingit style there were 12 of us. I was probably about the third oldest. Marcello, Ventura, Sami, and so on.”

Ironically, Rosita’s educational salvation may have been another mission school, this run by the Catholic sisters of St. Ann’s in Juneau. “They had great education there. If you did a study of the kids who went to St. Ann’s, you’d see that they did very well.” After two years in the upper grades of the school, Rosita got rheumatic fever and was in the hospital for a year. “The nuns prayed over me. In those days, to get into high school, I had to pass a test. Miraculously, I got in.”

Bessie Quinto taught her children they had an obligation to serve the Native community and the common path was through the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

As a young girl, Rosita traveled with Bessie, who organized workers at salmon canneries throughout Southeast Alaska. Rosita was tasked with taking meeting minutes.

After graduating from high school in 1957, Rosita ran a program that recruited Alaska Natives for higher education. One of her success stories was herself. She started college by taking one class at a time.

Rosita studied at Alaska Methodist University in Anchorage in the 1970s where she met language and folklore professor Richard Dauenhauer who, with his wife Nora Marks, was to later publish the Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature series through the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Rosita went on to earn a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University. In 2012, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

She was a professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, and authored papers on subsistence ways of life, Native women’s issues, Indian law and policy, and Southeast Alaska Native culture and history. She has been associated with the Smithsonian Institution and was among four editors of “Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska,” published in 2010 by Smithsonian Books. It features more than 200 museum objects representing the artistry and design

traditions of 20 Alaska Native peoples.

Rosita also served on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) National Review Committee from 2000-2013, including as its chairperson. The committee monitors the process of repatriation of Native remains and artifacts from museums to the original Indigenous owners.

In 1982, she and her children founded Alaska Native News, a monthly statewide magazine, which contained in-depth feature articles on Alaska Native corporations, art, culture, transportation, energy, and other topics. It operated through 1987.

Rosita served as an adviser on Alaska Native and Rural Affairs to Alaska Governor Steve Cowper in the mid-1980s, where she formulated the first State of Alaska Policy on Alaska Natives. In that role, she analyzed federal legislation, revising parts of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to reduce the chance that Native corporations created by the act could be taken over by non-Native interests. Rosita made the case that the revisions did not fully protect those corporations.

She also served as a member of President Bill Clinton’s Northwest Sustainability Commission. She has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Indigenous Languages Institute, the National Science Foundation Polar Programs Committee, the Alaska Eskimo

Whaling Commission Scientific Committee, and the National Museum of the American Indian.

In recent years, Rosita has taken the Sealaska Heritage Institute in new directions: in 2015 the brand-new Walter Soboleff Building became its headquarters, and in June 2022, a three-unit arts campus was completed that stands directly across the street from the Walter Soboleff Building. It is her stated ambition to make Juneau the “Northwest Coast arts capital of the world” and to designate Northwest Coast art a national treasure.

Raymond E. Paddock, Jr.

Kaax’a.eech

1935–1987

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Dakl’aweidí Clan

Raymond (Ray) Edwin Paddock, Jr. had a hand in bringing to fruition much of what we now take for granted. He provided support that helped us win federal recognition of Alaska tribes, inclusion of Alaska Natives in the Self-Determination Act, and the creation of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Corporation (SEARHC), and, as an early Tlingit & Haida executive director, then president (term of office 1976-1980), he ushered the Tribe into federal contracts that allowed it to dramatically expand services.

Ray was born and raised in Southeast Alaska. From 1955 until 1968 he served as analyst and electronics technician in the U.S. Air Force Intelligence. Following his military service he settled near Washington, D.C. His first employment as an analyst.

In 1971 he was hired by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) as a publicity director. Other responsibilities soon followed, most notably an assignment to eliminate the serious debt of the organization. Early in 1972 Ray was hired by U.S. Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, as legislative aide. The following year he went on to serve as a full-time staff member of the U.S. Senate Public Works Committee, working on a number of important subcommittees assignments. In August of 1973 Ray returned to Alaska to become executive director of Tlingit & Haida, serving until late 1975. During this tenure, Gordon Jackson was working as an executive vice president of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN). “Ray pushed me make sure the AFN was lending its weight to

get P.L. 93-638, the Self-Determination Act, passed so Alaska Natives could have contract responsibilities through the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian affairs.”

I was the president of the Ketchikan Indian Corporation (Community) at the time when the Department of the Interior was debating who was to be prioritized as tribes for BIA grants and contracts and Ray asked Congress to pass legislation that would recognize Tlingit & Haida as the “Supreme Tribal Governing Body” for Southeast Alaska. That legislation, if passed, would have placed Tlingit & Haida ahead of IRA tribes in priority for getting federal grants and contracts under P.L. 93-638. I was one of the only local IRA officials invited to testify on this proposed legislation. My testimony was in opposition to the legislation and the legislation failed.

In early 1975, as executive director of Tlingit & Haida, Ray signed the incorporation papers and saw to it that SEARHC had office space and administrative help during its early years. He asked David Leask, then representing Metlakatla on the Tlingit & Haida Executive Committee, to get SEARHC organized.

“I was at the meeting that really got SEARHC started,” Leask said, recalling the first board meeting held on April 26, 1975, in Juneau. “Bob Willard was shepherding this thing through, and they were looking for an executive director. Ray Paddock felt I could do the job without bothering the (Tlingit & Haida) Executive Committee too much.”

During the 1976 Tlingit & Haida Convention Ray ran successfully for the presidency. His knowledge of federal contracting and availability of federal programs to tribal governments was very useful in his efforts to expand Tlingit & Haida’s presence in Southeast Alaska.

Prior to being elected President, Ray came to Ketchikan and met with Tlingit & Haida Delegates to share with us his reason for running for President and not just remaining Executive Director. His direct approach made sense to our Delegates and they pledged support for his candidacy and stuck to that pledge.

Ray was a strong believer that an elected President of the Tribe needed to be directly answerable to elected Delegates; he, therefore, brought about change to where the tribal President was the political spokesman to also acting as elected Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tribe.

Dr. Walter Soboleff and Raymond Paddock, Jr.

Janie Leask

Gyetm Wilgoosk

Tsimshian • Haida

Eagle Clan

Janie Leask has devoted her personal and professional life to creating honest and respectful connections among diverse people. She is a bridge between communities. The characteristics that permeate her career include: leading complex organizations, creating opportunities for diverse communities to engage in meaningful conversation and mentoring young people.

Raised by a Haida/Tsimshian father and Irish/German mother in Metlakatla and Anchorage, Janie initiated her 15-year career with the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) in 1974. During this time, she grew her understanding of public policy and the political system with the encouragement of a supportive mentor. She was selected and served as the President/CEO of AFN from 1982-1989.

These were tumultuous years for the Alaska Native community as they built organizations to implement the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), participated in drafting the federal land management policies of Alaska in Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Ac (ANILCA), and fought for state laws governing access to subsistence resources for rural residents.

Under Janie’s leadership, and in a largely male-dominated environment, AFN began to formally listen to young people and engage in dialogue with many diverse communities of interest, while continuing legislative efforts in Juneau and Washington, D.C.

During the AFN years she often felt limited by her own her personal self-doubts based on her lack of a college degree and her mixed heritage. Over time, she conquered her concern about lack of formal education as she saw the results of her drive to “get something done.” Her self-doubt about not being “Native enough” was resolved through her continued work with Alaska Native people and capped off when Janie and her son were formally adopted into the Eagle Clan of the Tsimshian tribe – the clan of her father, the late Wally Leask. At this ceremony, she was given her Tsimshian name of “Gyetm Wilgoosk” meaning “person of wisdom.”

After AFN, Janie turned her professional attention to the private sector for 15 years and served as the Vice President of Community Development at the National Bank of Alaska as well as the Manager of Community Relations for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

Her community involvement included serving on the boards of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, Commonwealth North and the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce; from which she received the Chairman’s Award for her work in organizing trips to rural villages to foster understanding between urban and rural peoples. Later, she and former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom co-chaired Commonwealth North’s “Urban-Rural Unity Study”.

Janie’s work on urban-rural issues earned her several recognitions including the

Alaska Governor’s Award, the Alaska Village Initiative’s Chief’s Knife Award, and Shareholder of the Year from Cook Inlet Region, Inc. In 2000 she was named a YWCA Woman of Achievement. In 2006, she was ATHENA Recipient and, in 2001, she was identified as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Alaskans.

In 2006 Janie returned to work within the Native community as the President/CEO of First Alaskans Institute, where for four years she focused on intergenerational leadership development and public policy issues impacting Alaska Native peoples and communities.

In the past decade, she has invested much energy nurturing friendships among women, where common experiences with balancing family, work and service to the community are shared and valued. She finds great strength in a community of capable women who trust each other. Universally, Janie believes every person has a gift to contribute. Her advice to young people is: find your gift; nurture it and use it. Network as much as possible and recognize and act upon your obligation to give back to the community.

I had the honor and privilege to work with Janie when I was early in my presidency of Tlingit & Haida while serving on the AFN Board. I was impressed when on trips to Washington, D.C. how well she was able to not only secure appointments with important people in Congress but was able to keep their attention. I recall specifically a meeting with Senator Ted Stevens and

he was defensive on our discussion on healthcare in Alaska for Natives. By the time Janie got done sharing information she had gathered pointing out the limitations of healthcare for Natives in Alaska the senator thanked us for coming to D.C. Indian Health Service (IHS) funding has gradually increased since then.

Janie is proud to be the mother of David Moore, a son who has become a wonderful and sensitive man.

She is married to Don Reed and together they are making their new home in Homer, Alaska. In her recreational time, Janie is a talented ice hockey player, who demonstrates finesse and fierceness on the ice. She is a great team player.

Andrew Hope, III

Xaastánch • Néech

Deiw

1950–2008

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Sik’nax.ádi Clan

X’aan Hít

Andy Hope was heir to a tradition of leadership. His grandfather, Andrew Percy Hope was President of Tlingit & Haida from the early 1940s to 1966. These years were known as the “wilderness years,” the uncertain times when the litigation that was its reason for being languished in the courts and in the halls of Congress. Andy’s father, Andrew “John” Hope, led as President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) the modern Tlingit & Haida from 1980 to 1984. I was elected President in 1984.

Both Andy’s grandfather and father served, among their many leadership positions, as Grand Camp Presidents of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.

Rather than feeling entitled by this legacy of leadership, Andy endeavored to do the hard work of organizing, promoting, and advocating to advance the interests of Alaska Natives.

It is now commonplace for our people to know his or her Native name, matrilineal clan, and clan house as well as their father’s clan associations. Andy had a role in this revival of such Indigenous knowledge through his years of research and advocacy.

Andy’s great contribution to those studying clan lineages is the “Traditional Tlingit Country” poster he published. It includes a map and lists of Tlingit clans and clan houses. It is an essential guide, the Rosetta Stone, by which Tlingit social organization is revealed. To look at this poster, one could be forgiven for not appreciating the decades it took Andy to complete the

research, find consensus among Native tradition bearers, achieve agreement on a spelling system (orthography), and then raise the money to pay for successive printings as increasingly minor typos and errors of omission were corrected.

Andy led by example and persistence. As low-key as he was, Andy never withheld his opinion about anything, including baseball, politics, jazz, poetry, Tlingit history and culture, and Alaska Native education. I credit Andy for putting the idea of tribal ordinances (statutes) into my thinking. I held a meeting with a small group of Southeast Alaska tribal leaders when I was President of Tlingit & Haida to discuss BIA budget contracting issues and in the meeting, Andy said that he was surprised that a tribe as large as Tlingit & Haida did not have ordinances. While it was intended to be a criticism I knew of tribes in the “Lower-48” that had ordinance and so I asked our attorney for some samples and proceeded to write statutes for our Tribe. I chose using the term “statutes” as opposed to “ordinances” because in the non-Native world cities have ordinances and states and the federal government have statutes… tribes are on the level of the federal government. Tlingit & Haida now maintains a complete set of statutes that are used in tribal governance.

Andy was one of Alaska’s first community based tribal leaders during the SelfDetermination era. He was a guiding light of the tribal re-awakening of federal program management. The Sitka Community Association (SCA) (now

the Sitka Tribe of Alaska), under Andy’s leadership as manager, became the model for other tribal organizations. There are 231 federally recognized tribes in Alaska and in the early 1980s, only a few tribes, especially community-linked tribes, were as advanced as SCA with its social service, economic development, employment, and housing programs, as well as a tribal court, preschool and cultural education, and energy assistance. Andy was quick to seize on the mandates of new federal laws that empowered tribes.

In 1972, Andy co-founded Tlingit Readers Inc., the non-profit publishing house that produced seminal books on Tlingit culture, language, and oral history. Several years later he organized the first Conference of Southeast Alaska Tradition Bearers. In 1983 he co-founded the United Tribes of Alaska and in the early 1990s the Southeast Alaska Native Educators Association; and all along, from the early 1970s forward, he organized seminars on Native culture, arts and language, tribal courts, and Alaska Native education.

With the assistance of his colleagues Richard and Nora Dauenhauer, Andy organized the “Sharing Our Knowledge” (aka, Clan Conference) symposiums about the peoples Indigenous to Southeast Alaska. The first biennial conference was held in 1993 in Haines/Klukwan and the most recent in 2022 in Wrangell. These fourto-five-day conferences attract scholars from around the world.

death was in 2007, held in Sitka where over 500 people attended the events at several Sitka venues. Culture bearers who live Southeast Native languages, traditions, and cultures shared their knowledge with academics from leading universities in Canada, Europe, and the United States.

Andy, amid the college-like hustle and bustle in Sitka was heard to remark, “There’s a hunger for this.” And true to that observation the seven biennial symposiums that followed his death grew in interest, complexity, and products. Including all Sharing Our Knowledge conferences, there are two published books, uncounted papers, and now over 350 hours of video recorded presentations, most available on the SharingOurKnowledge.org website, a veritable encyclopedia of Indigenous culture.

For most of his adult life, Andy championed the concept of a tribal college. Considering the Sharing Our Knowledge conferences and the topics presented that include linguistics, archaeology, museum studies, cultural anthropology, education, ethnohistory, art and music, traditional ecological knowledge, Indigenous law, and fisheries — it appears Andy’s vision has been achieved.

Whenever I hear a young person speaking Tlingit, or reciting their clan lineage, or talking about Northwest Coast culture, or whenever I look at the Traditional Tlingit Country map, I will think of Andy. He will not be forgotten.

Andy’s last conference before his untimely

Haa-gaan-gaxh

1950–1987

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Kaagwaantaan Clan

Ivan Gamble, Sr. was the president of Angoon Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Camp 7 when I first began working with him. He was an ANB Delegate to the ANB/ ANS Grand Camp convention in Ketchikan when I was the Ketchikan ANB Camp 14 president and we were the host camp. Near the end of the convention, we met and he told me that Angoon would like to host the convention the following year and would like our support. They became host camp the following year and Ivan invited me to go to Angoon a few days early if possible and then we could go hunting before the start of the convention. I went early but the weather got cold and froze some pipes in the ANB Hall and so we decided to just work on hall issues in preparation for the convention.

I was grateful to be a guest in his home that week. He took pride in sharing his subsistence foods with me throughout the week. The first year of my tenure as President of Tlingit & Haida he invited me to Angoon to go hunting again. He gave me the first shot at the first deer we saw, and I missed it; Ivan shot it without hesitation and so we were successful.

Ivan was a Delegate to the Tlingit & Haida Tribal Assembly for a number of years and during his first year he initiated a lawsuit against the Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) over the fact that THRHA was collecting rent but not maintaining routine and nonroutine maintenance on the homes as prescribed in Housing and Urban Development (HUD) home purchase agreement. This quickly became

a class action suit where nearly all of the communities in Southeast Alaska who had HUD housing joined in for the same reason. The suit was settled with national HUD intervention which led to a detailed THRHA management improvement plan and additional federal funding to do repairs on the homes and bring them all up to building code.

We can’t help but question the divine plan that takes young, promising Alaska Native leaders from us. To quote Byron Mallott: “Ivan was unquestionably a man destined for greatness. The deep grief we feel is because we ask ourselves, ‘What might have been?’ ”

Ivan’s passing provoked many others who noted his promise in tributes that poured into Angoon from across Alaska and United States following his death in the early morning hours of June 21, 1987. He was killed in a two-car collision when Ivan’s vehicle was hit head-on by a drunk driver. A bitter irony was that Ivan did not drink alcohol; his friends recalled one bad habit: his near addiction to Coca-Cola.

Virtually all who commented recognized his already remarkable accomplishments and noted with certainty that he was destined to rise in the ranks of Alaskan leaders.

Ivan was raised in Angoon, the home village of his father, Andrew Gamble, Sr. His mother Matilda was from the Paul family of Sitka.

At the time of his death, Ivan was President of Kootznoowoo Corporation which is

Ivan Gamble, Sr.

the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) village corporation for Angoon, Alaska. He had championed the Kootznoowoo Permanent Fund, had supervised the negotiations that led to the inclusion of special provisions for his corporation and community in the Alaska National Lands Conservation Act of 1981, and guided Kootznoowoo through some of its most challenging years, bringing it from the edge of bankruptcy to prosperity.

In terms of a legacy, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of his leadership in directing Kootznoowoo’s successful (and largely solo) lobbying effort to amend sections of the Small Business Act that opened the minority preference “8(a)” program to ANCs, which brought many billions of dollars in government contracts to Alaska Native corporations throughout Alaska.

Ivan was well known for his skill and leadership on the basketball court. He helped lead an Angoon basketball team to several championships in the Juneau Lions Club Gold Medal Tournament and was inducted into the Gold Medal Hall of Fame in 2008. You had to admire his excellent physical conditioning…he put forth maximum effort into each and every game and never seemed to become tired.

I’ll let the tribute of others help define our loss of such a promising leader:

“Ivan was a young man who rolled up his sleeves and went to work, not just for little Angoon, but also for other communities in

Alaska.” – Cyril George, Kootznoowoo. “His life revolved around his love for his family, community and his concern for the future.” –Peter Jack, Sr.

“His was of the highest caliber of leadership. He was a fair man with a strong sense of right, who was respected wherever he went.” –Robert Loescher, Sealaska.

“His outstanding contributions to his community, to Southeast Alaska, and to the state as a whole are an inspiration and will be long remembered.” – Janie Leask, AFN.

In every way, at every time that I came into contact with Ivan, I became more and more aware of his goodness, his wisdom and his genuine desire to achieve two simple goals: to make this life a little better for his people and to be true to his traditions and culture. Clearly, this was a man who had achieved the maturity, the wisdom and the grace to live life as it should be lived. – Daniel J. Piliero II, Attorney, Washington, D.C.

“We must strive, with all our might and all our heart and all our soul, to become better human beings. To become more like Ivan. We must become better men and women, to fill the unfathomable void he has left ... We must, we must become better, or we will have only the tragedy.” – Durwood Zaelke, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, Washington, D.C.

“Ivan was a superb athlete ... he led his team to victories and championships throughout the region and the state.” – Congressman Don Young in the Congressional Record.

The pity is that he didn’t live long enough to become a larger force in Alaska... Ivan had the knack of bringing together warring forces on such matters as the 1991 issue. It would be a fitting memorial to Ivan if those of differing opinions on amending the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act could come together and present a united front. –Vern Metcalfe, Juneau, Alaska.

Ivan left behind a grieving family that included his wife Jeannie, son Ivan Jr., his mother Matilda, as well as numerous close family members and uncounted friends.

Marjorie V. Young

1933–2020

Haida • Ts’áak’

Kuus Gaa Díi • SGalaants

Marjorie “Marge” Verle (Thompson) Young was born in Ketchikan, Alaska on November 9, 1933. She is the daughter of the late Jessie (Cogo) and Tommy Thompson of Craig, Alaska.

Marge was a successful business owner in her hometown of Craig. She operated Thompson House Grocery Store and the Hill Bar & Liquor Store for nearly five decades. She was a kind, generous and communityminded leader who supported the local schools and personally donated money to help teams from Prince of Wales Island attend the Gold Medal Tournament and many other events over the years.

Marge served on the Sealaska board from 1979 to 2009 and held positions as chair and vice chair during her 30 years of service.

As a director, Marge was a steadfast and trusted voice in the boardroom. She advocated creating opportunities for shareholders and was influential in several initiatives that still benefit the corporation to this day. In 2009, the Sealaska board of directors unanimously voted to name the Sealaska Permanent Fund in honor of Marge.

“Marge’s foresight on financial stewardship is something that will guide the corporation for years to come,” said Sealaska President and CEO Anthony Mallott, upon her passing. “She will be missed but she leaves a lasting legacy on Sealaska shareholders.”

She was also a founding member of the Shaan Seet Corporation (SSI) which is the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) village corporation for Craig, Alaska. Besides being a director on the SSI board she served as former president and board chair.

Marge was also very active in the local Tlingit & Haida Community Council. She helped the local chapter in getting several acres of land that made it possible to have Housing and Urban Development (HUD) low-income housing in Craig.

She served on the local school board for many years and was president for several of those years.

A. Millie Schoonover

Kaakwdagaan

Tlingit • Ch’áak’ Kaagwaantaan Clan

Alberta (Millie) Schoonover is the daughter of Elwood and Helen Thomas and granddaughter of Sam and Bessie Thomas. She is of the Kaagwaantaan (Eagle/Wolf) clan and at birth was given the Tlingit name of Kaakwdagaan. She was born and raised in Craig, Alaska and went to live with her older sister in San Bernardino, California in her mid-teens. Early in life, Millie learned the value of a subsistence way of life from her parents.

Millie’s political career started at the age of 13 when she joined the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS). It was then that she realized she wanted to make a difference in her community and the lives of her people and by the age of 18 she was elected ANS Grand Camp President. She is proud of the ANS which continues to raise money that funds scholarships for graduates and assists those in need. The ANS Grand Camp Executive Committee in January 2023 voted to bestow upon her the title of Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand President Emeritus.

From her early start in the ANS, her political career snowballed. She served as the tribal president of the Craig Tribal Association for 17 years, 20 years as a council member for the City of Craig, on the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium’s (SEARHC) board of directors, Shaan Seet President and board member, Tlingit & Haida Craig Delegate and Executive Council Vice President, and countless committees and advisory boards. Her greatest accomplishment though was to be elected as the first Native woman mayor of Craig in 2009.

Millie was also honored by the Tlingit Haida Executive Council to serve as the 2022 Tribal Assembly Tribal Hostess. Although she has retired as a Tlingit & Haida Delegate, she continues to work on behalf of our people and currently serves on the council for the City of Craig, tribal council for Craig Tribal Association and Prince of Wales Community Advisory Council as chair.

She has been an employee of the Prince of Wales Tribal Enterprise Consortium (POWTEC) for the past six years. POWTEC Holding Company, LLC is a state-chartered Limited Liability Company that was founded by two federally recognized tribes, the Craig Tribal Association (CTA) and the Organized Village of Kasaan (OVK) to provide management oversight to its subsidiaries that provide information technology and facilities support services to tribal, commercial and government clients. She is a form employee of the Tlingit Haida Purchasing Association in Seattle, Washington.

Andrew Ebona

Lsaguháa • K’oox.aan

Tlingit • Yéil

Kiks.ádi Clan

Tináa Hít

Andrew (Andy) Ebona was born in Juneau, Alaska, on September 26, 1943. He has spent most of his adult life active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB). He served as president of the local Juneau ANB Camp 2 and served as an officer of the ANB Grand Camp.

Kiks.ádi clan leaders took the opportunity to reactivate an “empty house,” in October 2004, during events in Sitka to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battles between Russian forces and the Kiks.ádi Clan. The Kiks.ádi of Sitka were known to have had eight houses. At the time of the ceremonies, no one was known to be a member of the Tináa Hít (Copper Shield House). In the past, when people still occupied the longhouses, those from an over-populated house often established a new house. It was determined that some members of the Clay House would ceremonially re-populate Tináa Hít. Andrew Ebona, son of Amy Nelson and grandson of Sally Hopkins, prominent Kiks. ádi matriarchs, would become the house leader. Andy had the Tlingit name of Lsagu Haa (Notable Voice), a name originally held by Peter C. Nielson, an older brother of Andy’s mother. With his ascension to house leader, Andy was given the name Kooxx’áan, historically associated with the Tináa Hít.

He has been elected numerous times as Delegate to the Tlingit & Haida Tribal Assembly. He has served on the Executive Council of the Tribe.

returned to Juneau where he made a name for himself by running for Mayor in 1970. He lost to Joe McClean, a fixture in Juneau politics. Soon after, Andy was hired by the Citizen’s Participation Committee (CPC), an organization that advised the Juneau Model Cities Program, a product of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society initiatives. The designation as a “Model City” put Juneau at the head of the line for federal programs. The CPC, led by Andy, was a diverse group that included 27 representatives elected from Juneau nine neighborhoods within the former city limits, and 12 representatives from Alaska Native and other minority organizations, forming one of the most diverse groups to ever have a say in the spending of serious money for Juneau. Among the projects funded were low-income housing, a minibus system that was the precursor of Capital City Transit, seed money for Juneau’s first indoor pool, neighborhood parks, and funding for projects like the Head Start Program and the Zack Gordon Center.

Following his three-year tenure with the CPC, Andy attended college at the University of Washington.

After service in the U.S. Navy, Andy

Over my career, I often interacted with Andy through his participation in Tlingit & Haida as a Delegate and council member, and through his long association with the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (now the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall), located on the ground floor of the Andrew P. Hope Building. More than once Andy and I have crossed paths in various cities of the Lower 48 when we attend national Native

American conventions or meetings. Since childhood, Andy took an interest in Tlingit culture. His mother Amy was Clan Mother of the Kiks.ádi, and Camp Mother of ANS Camp 2 of Juneau. While Andy was a child, she taught him the genealogy and Tlingit names of his ancestors, which were passed on to Nora Dauenhauer, names that can now be found in publications like the book “Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká: Russians in Tlingit America.”

He is a founder and current president of the Yaaw Tei Y Dance Group, which has performed from Hawaii to New Zealand to Europe. The Tlingit dance group has performed at important cultural functions throughout North America and has won acclaim for its education of audiences in the history and ownership of songs.

For four consecutive terms, Andy served as president of the Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RurAL CAP). Founded in 1965, RurAL CAP is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors that represents every region of the state of Alaska. It is one of the largest and most diverse nonprofit organizations in Alaska.

Native voices, viewpoints, and stories historically excluded from mainstream media; develops audiences for the works; and advocates for authentic representation of Indians in the media.

In 2020, Andy narrated a Smithsonian Institute video documentary of the project that recreated from a 3-D scan a ceremonial hat of the Kiks.ádi Clan. It had been discovered in deep storage within the institution’s collections, too ancient and fragile to handle. The hat was gifted by the Smithsonian to the Clan during a 2019 ceremony in Juneau.

Andy serves as a board member of Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO), a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The AIO draws upon traditional Indigenous philosophies to foster value-based leadership, inspire stakeholder-driven solutions, and convene visionary leaders to probe contemporary issues and address challenges of the new century.

its mission, IGA works with the Federal government and Congress to develop sound policies and practices and to provide technical assistance and advocacy on gaming-related issues. In addition, IGA seeks to maintain and protect Indian sovereign governmental authority in Indian Country.

Andy is the president and owner of the Copper Shield Consulting, LLC, a 100% American Indian owned company which promotes and advances Tribal/village/ municipal economic and community development services, and markets consumable and durable goods and services to tribes and tribal enterprises and municipalities.

Andy is a board member of the American Indian Film Institute (AIFI). AIFI encourages filmmakers whose work expresses the

Andy has served for many years on the board and currently serves as the Treasurer for the national Indian Gaming Association (IGA). The mission of IGA is to protect and preserve the general welfare of tribes striving for self-sufficiency through gaming enterprises in Indian Country. To fulfill

Floyd Manuel Kookesh was one of nine siblings born to the late Matthew and Ramona (Herrera) Kookesh in Angoon, Alaska. He was Teik weidí (Eagle Brown Bear clan) of Angoon, Alaska. His Tlingit name was Daak Na Keen.

Floyd M. Kookesh

Daaknakeen

1955–2013

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Teik weidí Clan

Xóots Hít

Floyd met his lifetime partner Lena Woods of Tanana, Alaska in May of 1970 when she came to Angoon to babysit for her sister Sally and Albert Kookesh. Following the summer they met, both Floyd and Lena returned to their boarding schools to complete their high school education. Floyd graduated in 1973 from Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska. He and Lena reunited in 1975 and moved to Washington State to pursue their college education. Floyd received his Associate Degree in Arts & Science from Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, WA.

After living six years in Washington State, Floyd and Lena returned to Angoon where they made their home and raised their three beautiful daughters: Melissa, Ramona and Kristi. He was extremely proud of his family and very proud of the fact that he raised his children in the community in which he grew up.

Floyd believed in the preservation of Our Way of Life. He and Lena lived a subsistence lifestyle teaching his daughters, nephews, dear friends, and favorite grandson; showing them the way our grandfather’s people lived off the land and waters. Floyd not only provided for his family, but he also provided for many others in need of our customary and traditional foods. He

was a firm believer in only taking what was needed and this was very important as a true steward of the land.

Floyd will always be remembered as a leader who had the courage and conviction to petition and challenge the Federal government to live up to their end of the bargain struck under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 relating to property and subsistence rights of Alaska communities and Alaska Natives. He stated, “Failure on our part in not assuring hunting and fishing knowledge is properly passed on to the next generation is not an option; it is our responsibility. This petition addresses water rights essential to maintaining our traditional values.”

He recalled, “I grew up in a household where my father was the leader of his community until the time of his death.

The influence my father and his father had on our family politically as we were growing up is evident in the fact my brothers and I continue to play strong roles in the corporate, legislative, and subsistence arenas. We do it out of the love for our father’s people as their suffering is our suffering. I am reminded

about our role as advocates for our people by one of my community members stating to me the other day, ‘the Kookesh boys are out there fighting for our subsistence!’ I take a lot of pride in the fact that public service for the betterment of all is a value my family holds as honorable and worthy of sacrifice. If I had to do it all over, I would do the same thing, but better. There is one thing I learned about public service, there are problems before you get there, there will be problems when you are there, and there will be problems after you are gone, so grab the bull by the horns and make the best of it.”

Floyd was the Chairman of Board of Directors, Kootznoowoo, Inc. (20102013); member and vice-chairman of the Southeast Regional Advisory Council (19992013); owner and operator of Kookesh Charters (1980-2013); and member of ANB Grand Camp Subsistence Committee.

His past service includes Tribal Administrator of Douglas Indian Association (2007-2009); Subsistence & Sustainable Development Coordinator of Tlingit & Haida (2010); Mayor of Angoon, AK (1994-1996 and 1999-2002); Advisory School Board Member for Chatham School District (1994-2002); Chairman of the Angoon Indian Education Program (19782002); and Juneau Delegate of Tlingit & Haida (2008-2010).

Jacqueline Pata was elected several times as Vice President on Tlingit & Haida’s Executive Council. Her Tlingit name is Ku.seen and she is a member of the Lukaax.ádi clan (Raven/ Sockeye) in Haines, Alaska.

Jackie is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA). Prior to her appointment at THRHA in April 2019, she served as the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) - the oldest and largest American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization in the United States (20112019). She served longer than any other Executive Director in the history of NCAI. She successfully moved the NCAI offices from rental office space into a building purchased for and functions as the Embassy of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Native American Programs for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where she was responsible for the implementation of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA), and Executive Director of THRHA (1989-1998).

on the Native American Advisory Council for Boys & Girls Club of America and is a board member for the George Gustave Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Jackie served as a member of the Sealaska Board of Directors from 1999-2019.

Jackie attended Utah State University and Snow College in social work and computer science, the University of Alaska Southeast in business and Tlingit language, and Rockwood Leadership Institute.

Jackie has been a strong and tireless advocate for the preservation and enhancement of our Tlingit culture. She not only attends summer culture camp annually at the Austin Hammonds Culture Camp on the Lutak River, but she also regularly attends or teachers culture classes in Juneau all year round. At the culture camp she, along with other adults knowledgeable on the Tlingit culture teach the youth and teenagers in attendance how to jar salmon, smoke salmon, make clan regalia, and learn Tlingit songs, language, and dances.

Lúkaax.ádi Clan

As Vice President, Jackie chairs the Tlingit & Haida Addiction Action Committee and the Governmental Affairs (State and Federal) Committee, in addition to serving as a member of the Investment and Audit Committees.

Among other positions she holds, Jackie serves as a Vice President for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights,

Jacqueline Pata

Richard J. Peterson

Chalyee Éesh

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Kaagwaantaan Clan

Ch’áak’ Kúdi Hít

Richard (Chalyee Éesh) Peterson of the Kaagwaantaan clan was born to Leo and Paula Peterson in Ketchikan, Alaska. He was a toddler when his family moved to Kasaan, Alaska where he was raised. He is a lifelong resident of Southeast Alaska.

Following my retirement in 2014, Richard won election to succeed me as President of Tlingit & Haida.

I suspect virtually every executive who has ever retired has issues with the decisions made by his or her successor, but with Richard I can truthfully say that while I may have done some things differently, his intentions and most often the results of his decisions meet with my heartfelt approval.

With the passing of Ethel Lund, we learned of when she first met Richard at the Kasaan airplane float when he, an eight-year-old, gave her a memorably exciting ride into Kasaan on his threewheel ATV. She was proud of having recognized Richard’s potential then when he was just a boy. It was not too many years later that Richard was elected as Mayor of Kasaan at age 19, the youngest mayor in Alaska. He has certainly lived up to Ethel’s expectations.

Richard’s accomplishments, all the better.

Prior to 2014, Richard served as Chief Executive Officer of Prince of Wales Tribal Enterprise Consortium, LLC (POWTEC), President of the Organized Village of Kasaan (OVK), and in addition to his service as Mayor he was a city council member for Kasaan, and a Southeast Island School District Board of Education member. Richard has succeeded in merging culture and business values, and in forging collaborative and proactive partnerships with federal, state, tribal, and municipal government. His knowledge and experience in 8(a) government contracting is very important and valuable in his presidency of Tlingit & Haida. I like the term that he frequently uses when talking about tribal enterprises, “tribal economic sovereignty!”

A mantra he attributes to Ethel is to grow more leaders, not followers. I encourage Richard on that mission. We need leaders, and the more who aspire to

Among the initiatives he has championed has included a language immersion day care, 8(a) certification for the Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation, and a multimillion-dollar government contracting company.

Richard has received numerous awards for his leadership and dedication to preserving culture and community including the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s Native American 40 Under 40 award.

Richard J. Peterson receives cherished photo with Ethel Lund

I admire him for praising others, as when he said, “Credit can never belong to one person. I work with an Executive Council composed of true leaders… We work hard to uphold the mission of the Tribe and our true strength is in our vision for tribal selfgovernance.”

Richard currently serves as Chair of the Alaska Tribal Unity. He also serves on the Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation board, U.S. Forest Service Alaska Tribal Leadership and Tongass Advisory committees, and in various other appointed positions to represent tribal interest on Alaska Native issues.

David F. Leask 1928–2020

Haida • Tsimshian

Kuus Gaa Díi • SGalaants

David Frances Leask, Jr. was born in Metlakatla, Alaska. His father, David Leask, was among the second wave of people who moved from Old Metlakatla to Annette Island with Father Duncan. His mother, Lillian John, was born in Klinkwan then moved to Howkan and Hydaburg, Alaska. His parents attended Sitka Training School, married in 1908 and had nine children –Ronald, Myrtle, Dorothy, Bert, Selina, Wally, Irving, David, and Kenneth.

David attended his first Tribal Assembly in 1973 and served as a Delegate for 38 years (1973-2011), Executive Council member for 5 years, Chair of the Enrollment Committee for many years and Tribal Assembly Parliamentarian for 13 years. He was also selected by the Executive Council to be the Tribal Host for the Tribal Assembly held in 2012. Tlingit & Haida is grateful for David’s many years of leadership, service and dedication to the Tribe. David was the first to present Robert’s Rules of Order training to the Executive Council.

to McChord Field in Washington State. During his 27 years of active duty, David served at Kimpo Air Base in Korea with the 4th Fighter Group (1952); at the Armament School in Denver, CO (1953); on the F-100 test at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California and Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada (1954-55); as an Instructor at the Armament School (1956); was stationed at Itazuke Air Base, Japan (1960); Yokota Air Force Base, Japan (1964); returned to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada’s Air Force Fighter Weapons School (1967); assigned to Phan Rang Air Base, Vietnam (1968); transferred to Misawa Air Base, Japan (1969); and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa (1970).

After retiring from the Air Force in 1972, David moved to Metlakatla where he worked as a Power Plant Operator for Metlakatla Power and Light (1973-74) and as a Purchasing Agent and Captain of a fish tender for Annette Island Packing Company (1975-89).

David entered the United States Army Air Corps in 1946 and attended Aircraft Armament School that same year. He taught in the school until 1948 and was stationed in Bangor, ME; the Aleutian Islands, and Anchorage, Alaska. In 1950, he transferred

David and his wife V. Juanita were married in 1959 and have five children – Gary, Laurie, Steven, Paul, and Thomas.

David Leask representing Metlakatla at convention

Isabella G. Brady

Yéidikook’aa

1924–2012

Tlingit • Yéil

Kiks.ádi Clan

X’aaká Hít

Isabella Grace (Sing) Brady was born on Feb. 18, 1924, to Peter Sing and Jenny (Simpson) Sing. She grew up near what is now Sitka National Historical Park in the area known as “The Cottages.” She often regaled her family with stories of the struggles of that time but did not let the tough times of her early life define her. Instead, she took to heart from her early life the teachings of her grandfather who raised her, Peter Simpson, known as the “Father of Alaska Native Land Claims and of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.” In the forefront of the teachings, she held onto was the importance of education, a lesson she would later stress to her own children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

At age 16, Isabella suffered the loss of her mother, whom she dearly loved. At this time, she met the woman who would become her lifelong mentor and friend, Louise Weeks. To Louise’s question of whether she could pray for her, she replied, “Go ahead. It can’t hurt anything.” After this point, she gave her life to Jesus Christ, an event which shaped the rest of her life. Prayer, tithing, and service to her church were central in her life, as was witnessing to people about her faith in God and the power of prayer.

She attended Jamestown College in North Dakota after graduating from Sheldon Jackson High School. She would talk about how when she got off the train, the President of the college had come to greet the “little Eskimo girl from Alaska.”

She briefly interrupted her schooling to join

the U.S. Navy and joined the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), answering the call to “free up a man for active duty.” Even at 5’1” she was on the starting six of the Western Navy WAVES Basketball team. She finished college on the GI bill, becoming one of the first Alaska Native women to earn a college degree.

When she left Sitka, she used to say she would never return to Sheldon Jackson, never get married, and never have children. Upon her return to Sitka, she worked at Sheldon Jackson, married Bill Brady (1950), and had five children. She had 17 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Her family was of utmost importance to her, hosting family dinners for every holiday and family birthdays.

She found herself grateful for her college degree early in their marriage when she had to support their family while Bill was hospitalized long-term for tuberculosis. She worked at Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS) for 14 years in several capacities: as a social studies teacher, a counselor, and as the head of the dorms, in which position she started the Girls Honor Quarters. Her family continued to host groups of students in their home for Sunday School and Sunday brunch even after she left MEHS. To this day, she is still loved by many of her students from the 1960s and ’70s from across the state who visited her during her recent eight-week radiation treatment for breast cancer in Anchorage.

Growing up in a household where it was believed that assimilation was the

best way to make a living and go about advancing Native rights, she did not have the benefit of knowing her culture. In 1974, she became the Executive Director of the Sitka Indian Education Program (IEP), a federally funded program available for Native education. She started the program so that Native youth could learn about their culture and thereby gain the positive selfimage that would enable them to pursue whatever goals they wished in their future. Her knowledge of the Native community in Sitka was invaluable in recruiting elders knowledgeable in the Native culture to lead afterschool culture classes. She always gave credit to the elders who shared their knowledge, and it was her vision to preserve the Tlingit songs, dances, stories, language, and traditions, which are now used by several dance groups in town and even throughout Southeast Alaska.

The Gájaa Héen Dancers was made up primarily of young people who attended the Sitka IEP Native language and dance classes at one time or another. They performed so well that they were invited to perform at Native functions throughout Alaska.

The Sitka IEP also included a school counselor position that was designed to serve as a liaison between the schools and the Native families. It also had the responsibility of coordinating a student peer tutoring program whereby academically proficient students would tutor Native students in specific school courses. I have always considered myself very fortunate to have been hired by

Isabella as the first Sitka IEP counselor. I was fresh out of graduate school at Penn State and had no practical experience as a school counselor. She told me what was expected of the program and, with some guidance, left me to carry out the intent of the program. She taught me the importance of being timely and keeping good records. There were absolutely no living places to rent when I got to Sitka. I lived out of the hotel for several weeks until she and her husband, Bill, invited me to stay at their home until I could find a place to rent. A true gesture of kindness and compassion. The experiences of working with Isabella paved the way for me to becoming the Executive Director of the Ketchikan Indian Education Program.

She was a loyal member of the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) and served countless terms as President and Chaplain of the ANS Sitka Camp 4. When she became the Executive Director of the Sitka Indian Education program, she made sure the program offices were in the Sitka Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Hall rather than renting office space elsewhere in the community. That decision provided a positive income to the ANB and provided valuable space for culture programs in the main part of the hall. At the time of her death, she was the president of the ANS Camp 4.

Over the years, she served on many boards and committees: The Alaska Native Education Council, the Sheldon Jackson College Board of Trustees, American Association of Retired Persons, the Native

American Consulting Committee for the Alaska Presbytery, as well as for the Synod of Alaska-Northwest. She served on the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) Tribal Council, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Board, a delegate to Tlingit & Haida Tribal Assembly, and on the Tlingit and Haida Community Council. She also served many terms as both Deacon and Elder in the Presbyterian Church.

She began the Sitka Community Dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas so that “people who didn’t have anywhere else to go would have somewhere to enjoy a meal.”

Her many awards over the years include STA Tribal Citizen of the Year, Shee Atika Charlie Joseph, Sr. Culture-Bearer Award, Tlingit and Haida Living Cultural Treasure Award, SAFV Honoring Women and Jamestown College Hall of Fame, among many others too numerous to list.

William Micklin

Yaan Yaan Éesh

Tlingit • Ch’áak’

Teik weidí Clan

Kaats’ Hít

William (Will) “Yaan Yaan Eesh” Micklin is Shangukeídi (Wolf People), Teik weidí, Kaats’ Hít, Tantakwaan (Tongass tribe), Dleit Kaa Yadi, and Ganax.ádi duchxaan. He is the son of Michael Micklin and Barbara “Aaneisu” McGrath Bower. Will was raised in Washington and lived in various places as his father pursued advanced academic degrees. His maternal grandparents are Percy and Margaret “Kasi Yei Yaa Yee” Lauth Sherar, and paternal grandparents are Thomas Micklin and Doris Watt.

Will was first elected as a Delegate to the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska (Tlingit and Haida) Tribal Assembly in 1994. He was elected in 2008 to serve on the Executive Council and has been serving as a Vice President since then. Will has been a strong leader on important Alaska Native issues such as selfgovernance, trust lands, political relations with the White House administration and Congress, taxation, business development, tribal courts, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and international relations.

He is a member of the Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation (THTBC) board and also serves on the Tribe’s Finance and Judiciary committees. He has also been appointed to tribal advisory committees for the Department of Energy (Indian Country Energy & Infrastructure

Workgroup), Department of Interior (Self-Governance Advisory Committee), Department of Health and Human Services (Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee), and Federal Communications Commission (Native Nations Broadband Task Force). He is a proud member of the Ketchikan Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Camp 14.

Will graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and has been the Chief Executive Officer for the Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians since 1995. Will is married to Linda “Kaan Shaa Wu” Fong who was adopted into the Deisheetaan Arched Rock House of Basket Bay by the late Cyril George of Angoon. Linda is adored by Tlingit and Haida’s staff for the wonderful food and care she provides every year during Tribal Assembly. Will and Linda have two children and two grandchildren.

Will is proud of his familial heritage which includes great auntie Matilda “Neechk’” Johnson and Joe Hernandez of Wrangell; uncle Albert Lauth and auntie Mary Snook of Klawock (daughter of Thomas Snook of Kuiu and Fannie Anniskette of Tuxekan); auntie Alice Eyon of Wrangell (daughter of John Eyon of Japan and Jessie Kake of Auke Bay); auntie Ellen Lauth and uncle Ben Duncan of Hydaburg; uncle Philip Lauth and auntie Olive Anna

Ross (daughter of John Ross and Eva Skultka of Howkan); uncle Frank Lauth and auntie Amanda Duncan of Hydaburg (daughter of Klinowan or Duncan and Mary Cogo of Klinqwan); auntie Flora Chuck of Klawock (daughter of Billy Chuck and Fannie Thomas); aunties Esther “Taa’lyei” Harris Shea and Martha “Naas Aat” Harris Casallo (daughters of Alice Brown and John Harris of Ketchikan); maternal greatgrandmothers Mary “Tlak’ waa” Johnson of Old Tongass and Fannie Johnson of Ketchikan; great-grandfather Jacob Lauth from Germany; maternal great-greatgrandparents John “Chantakoo” Johnson and Annie “Tlaa Da Kaa” Brown Johnson of Old Tongass; and great-great uncle Robert Hunt of Port Hardy and great-great auntie Mary “Anislaga” Ebbetts of Old Tongass.

Council and, if appropriate, to the Tribal Assembly.

In 2014, a great many indigenous peoples and their representatives, including tribal and indigenous governments, were directly involved in conversations and consultations with United Nations (UN) countries to develop the content of the outcome document throughout the entire process, from 2012 onward.

Will stated, “It was an honor to represent the Central Council of Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska at the World Conference and to be a part of the 136 indigenous nations and 23 organizations that proposed the four measures to include in the outcome document.

indigenous nations, accountable to our indigenous peoples, we should work to turn these commitments into action in the coming months by working directly with UN member states and relevant UN bodies. I invite many more tribal leaders to join the fight in this important international political arena.”

Will has always advocated in the best interest of the tribe throughout all his years as a delegate to the Tribal Assembly and especially while serving on the Executive Council. He often represented the tribe at Congressional hearings and at meetings with federal officials when the tribal President was not available. He was well respected by tribal leaders throughout the United States as a person who took the time to become well versed on Native American topics and a person willing to listen and learn. Any time he represented the tribe at an important meeting he would provide a detailed report to the Executive

We must assert our rights as indigenous governments at the UN, a body of governments, and we should remain engaged in the world community. Both the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the decisions made in the outcome document enjoy the support of UN member states for implementation, and they are two practicable and realizable positive developments that are useful and advantageous to our indigenous peoples and to our indigenous governments.

Further, these documents can be particularly useful to empower and to prevent abuses against our indigenous brothers and sisters around the world. As leaders of our

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Signing of the Native American Policy. Will co-chaired the workgroup responsible for developing the updated policy.

References

Reference 1: Historic Chronology

This chronology is a list of activities and events important to Southeast Alaska Natives. It is not intended to be a complete definition of the events.

1841– Vitus Bering discovers Alaska. Bering was a Danish navigator who was on an expedition on behalf of Russia when he discovered Alaska.

1867 – United States purchased Alaska from Russia. On October 18, 1867, the United States formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents and acre.

1902 – The Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve was established by Theodore Roosevelt in a presidential proclamation August 20, 1902.

1905 – Nelson Act, passed by Congress in January 1905, provided that Native and White children in Alaska would be educated in separate school systems.

1907 – The Tongass National Forest was created. President Roosevelt proclaimed this a national forest on September 10, 1907.

1908 – The Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve and The Tongass National Forest were joined. On July 1, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt additionally proclaimed these two forests would be combined and

be the new Tongass National Forest. This expansion covered nearly all of Southeast Alaska.

1910 – The Buy Indian Act of 1910. Authorized Interior’s BIA and the Department of Health and Human Services’ IHS to award federal contracts to Indianowned businesses without using the standard competitive process.

1912 – The Territory of Alaska or Alaska Territory became an organized incorporated territory of the United States. August 24, 1912. The territory was previously Russian America.

1912 – The Alaska Native Brotherhood becomes is established. 12 Native leaders met in Sitka and made the decision to form the Alaska Native Brotherhood as a Native rights advocacy organization.

1915 – The Alaska Native Sisterhood is established. The Alaska Native Sisterhood was established by a group of women meeting in Wrangell as a subordinate support organization supporting the work of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.

1915 – Chapter 24, Session Laws of Alaska, recognizes Native peoples as citizens of the Territory of Alaska if they obtain endorsements from five white citizens and have “severed all tribal relationships and adapted the habits of a civilized life.”

1924 – Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, (43 Stat. 253, enacted June 2, 1924) was an Act of the United States Congress that granted US citizenship to the Indigenous peoples of the United States. This allowed Alaska Natives the right to vote, run for public office, and own land as well as participate in public meetings on public policies.

1924 – First Alaska Native elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature. William Paul was the first Alaska Native elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature. He had run earlier in 1922/1923 but those were challenged and the challenges were moot once the Indian Citizenship Act was passed.

1924 – The Snyder Act (P.L. 67–85) arose from New York State’s challenge to congressional authority to spend funds on education and health for Indians in the state. It was sponsored in the U.S. Congress by Representative Homer P. Snyder of New York.

1925 – Glacier Bay becomes a national park. October 26, 1825, United States President Calvin Coolidge issued a proclamation creating the Glacier Bay National Park.

1929 – Alaska Native Brotherhood passes Resolution to Sue the United States for land. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood meeting in annual convention in Haines passed a resolution to sue the federal government for the taking of our homeland. The resolution passed by only one vote; many members were concerned that this action could jeopardize newly acquired citizenship or get our people placed on a reservation as happened to Indians in the Lower-48.

1934 – Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (amended to include Alaska tribes in 1936) is a federal law that secured certain rights to Native Americans, including federal recognition. The purpose of the act is to: a. conserve and develop Indian lands and resources; b. extend to Indians the right to form business and other organizations; c. establish a credit system for Indians; d. grant certain rights of home rule to Indians; and e. provide for vocational education for Indians.

Although the act did not require tribes to adopt a constitution, if the tribe chose to do so, the constitution had to: a. allow the tribal council to employ legal counsel; b. prohibit the tribal council from engaging any land transitions without majority approval of the tribe; and c. authorize the tribal council to negotiate with the federal, state, and local governments.

1935 – Jurisdiction Act of June 19, 1935. Act of Congress recognizing the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska as a “federally recognized Indian tribe.”

1944 – The National Congress of American Indians. The oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.

1953 – Congress seeks to terminate tribal governments status as nations. This became known as the “Termination Era.”

1959 – Alaska became the 49th State. Alaska was granted statehood on January 3, 1959.

1966 – The Alaska Federation of Natives is created. In October 1966, more than 400 Alaska Natives representing 17 Native organizations gathered for a three-day conference to address Alaska Native aboriginal land rights.

1968 – Second Supplemental Appropriation Act. Act of July 9, 1968. Appropriated $7,500,000 as a settlement of the suit filed by Tlingit & Haida for the taking of Southeast Alaska from the Tlingit and Haida people without fair compensation as required by the United States Constitution.

1971 – Federal policy of termination of tribal governments reversed. Senate Concurrent Resolution 26: Reversed the federal policy of termination and develop a government-wide commitment to enable Indians to determine their own future.

1971 – Tlingit & Haida negotiates the first Buy Indian Act contract with the federal government. The tribe signed a contract with the United States Department of the Interior to manage all Bureau of Indian Affairs programs previously known as the BIA Southeast Alaska Agency. This was the first such contact ever in Alaska.

1971 – The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). 1971. The federal government transferred 44 million acres – land to be held in corporate ownership by Alaska Native shareholders – to Alaska Native regional and village corporations. The federal government also compensated the newly formed Alaska Native corporations a total of $962.5 million for land lost in the settlement agreement.

1972 – The Indian Education Act (Title IV Public Law 92-319). One of the most important pieces of legislation that broadly expanded special culturally based education for Indians and Alaska Native. Part A created programs within the school districts and the programs were administered by public school administrators. Part B authorized tribal organizations to manage education programs outside of local school district authority and oversight.

1973 – Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority (THRHA) established. THRHA is Southeast Alaska’s largest provider of affordable housing. The private non-profit housing authority owns and manages approximately 815 housing units located throughout the region and provides

services to both Native and non-Native Alaskan families and seniors.

1975 – The Indian Self-determination and Education Assistance Act (P.L. 93-638). A program to provide maximum Indian participation in the government and education of the Indian people; to provide for the full participation of Indian tribes in programs and services conducted by the Federal Government for Indians and to encourage the development of human resources of the Indian people; to establish a program of assistance to upgrade Indian education; to support the right of Indian citizens to control their own educational activities; and for other purposes.

1975 – SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARCH) was established. A non-profit tribal health consortium of 18 Native communities, SEARHC serves the health interests of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian people, other Native American people, and other residents of Southeast Alaska. It is one of the oldest and largest Native-run health organizations in the United States.

1975 – The Tlingit-Haida Regional Electrical Authority was established. A nonprofit corporation and a subdivision of the state that operates small rural electric utilities in Alaska. This company has been renamed Inside Passage Electric Cooperative (IPEC). IPEC’s operations are funded by loans from the Rural Electrification Administration.

Heritage Institute was originally incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit arm of the Sealaska Corporation with a mission of enhancing Southeast Alaska Native culture and increasing educational opportunities for shareholders and descendants of shareholders.

1994 – Tribal Self-Governance Act passed. This legislation authorized “mature” tribal contractors to negotiate annual funding agreements without having to write new contract proposals to federal agencies every year to manage tribal compacts. This dramatically reduced bureaucratic oversight and intervention in the program administrative process and tribes were able to negotiate for administrative funds saved by the reduced government oversight.

1994 – Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act passed. This Act (PL 103-454) restored the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska back onto the list of federally recognized tribes published in the Federal Register and required the Department of the Interior to consult with Congress before moving any tribe off of the published list.

1980 – Sealaska Heritage Foundation (Institute) was established. The Sealaska

Reference 2: Southeast Alaska – Our Homeland

Our creator has provided our people with a land of beauty and bounty that we called our home from the beginning of time.

Research by Andrew Hope, III.

Reference 3: Common Myth

It has been wrongly suggested that the Indigenous people of North America came to this land via a “land bridge” between Alaska and Russia. Our people have been in Southeast Alaska from the beginning time. Our people have legends of creation, being driven from our land by the Ice Age and then returning once the ice had receded.

Pleistocene maximum, Late Wisconsinan and modern glacier extents, Southeast Alaska

Reference 4: Arguments Against the Myth

ƒ Human remains aging 10,000-year-old were found on Prince of Wales Island.

» Ice Age wiped out earlier traces of occupancy.

ƒ A 14,000-year-old village in western Canada

ƒ When people migrate, they take their language with them.

» There are very few linguistical ties to languages in Asia or Russia

ƒ Tlingit legends.

ƒ No logical reason why humans could not exist on the Western Hemisphere as it did on the Eastern Hemisphere.

Pre-contact distribution of North American language families north of Mexico

Image: Classification of Indigenous Languages of the Americas” from WikipediaGlottolog 4.1

Closing

There have been so many people who have made positive contributions to the betterment of our people whose profile is not included. I have tried to include in this publication not only those who have made an impression on me, personally, but also those who have contributed more broadly to the Native community and there is reasonable documentation of their work.

A number of important leaders are not profiled due to the absence of easily accessible records, or oversights on my part. It is regrettable that there is not enough written about them, and I have had difficulty in securing information about them from those who knew them best to help in this publication.

It is my hope that this publication will inspire future writings of profiles of others who have made and/or continue to make meaningful contributions to the wellbeing of the Native community.

In closing, this is an appeal to you for further contributions, as well as insights, corrections, or suggested sources of information that will help provide an accurate and more complete history of those who have done so very much for us.

Gunalchéesh / Háw’aa, Edward K. Thomas Tlingit & Haida President Emeritus

Edward K. Thomas

Tsa Xoo • Shaans Kadake

Skil Kwidaunce

Tlingit • Yéil

Sukteeneidí Clan

President Emeritus Profile

Written by Rosita Worl

We used to call Ed Thomas “Indian Ed.” First, he was a teacher, then in Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District he worked as the Director of the Indian Education program.

With Ed’s long service as the head of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida), it is all too easy to take his contributions for granted, but when I look back at his career in its entirety, we should not overlook his early accomplishments on behalf of our people.

He was among the first to recognize the importance of Alaska tribes and the need to win federal recognition at a time when federal recognition of Alaska tribes was at best vague and few of our tribes were operational.

It was Ed, in the mid-1970s, who was among the first to draw our attention to the potential of the Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and the role Alaska tribes could have. In the 1990s, he was among the first tribal leaders to recognize the opportunities presented by compacting, and, as Tlingit & Haida president, the first to enter a compact agreement by which tribal entities (including health corporations) could take a decisive step beyond existing contracting arrangements with federal agencies and take control of their budgets.

More recently, I have been inspired by Ed’s work on behalf of his clan. In 2022, he had his clan initiate the creation and then raising of a totem pole that now stands as a tribute to those laid to rest in the Craig Memorial Cemetery and provides comfort to their families. The clans in the southern communities hadn’t been holding traditional ceremonies, but Ed brought the traditional ceremonies back — as a clan member, not as a Sealaska director, nor as president of Tlingit & Haida. I can think of no other clan that has sponsored a totem pole in recent memory— most poles have been created through funding provided by public, nonprofit, or private sources.

The pole raised in Craig was done on behalf of the Sukteeneidí clan who are Raven/Dog Salmon and resided in Tebenkof Bay on Kuiu Island. As a clan leader, Ed commissioned Tlingit master carver Jon Rowan to create the totem.

An ancient spirit dance complemented the Sukteeneidí dedication ceremony. Ed also presided over the ceremony bestowing Dog Salmon names to those adopted and those born into the clan who had not yet had the opportunity to receive a Tlingit name.

Ed was born and raised in Craig, Alaska, where he graduated from high school in 1960. He began his more than 25-year commercial fishing career as a cook at the age of 13 on the FV Verness of Klawock. He would go on to skipper a seine boat and later a power troller; he currently owns a hand troller permit.

His college education began at Sheldon Jackson College where he earned an Associate in Science degree and then went on to earn his Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. In 1974, he accepted a fellowship from Pennsylvania State University where he earned his Master’s in Education Administration (1977). Ed was awarded a Doctorate of Laws honorary degree in 2016 from the University of Alaska Southeast.

During the early 1970s, Ed taught junior high school and coached the boys’ junior high basketball team in Klawock. He was also a high school counselor and coached the boys’ junior high basketball team in Craig and served as the Indian Studies counselor for the Sitka School District.

In the spring of 1975, he was hired by the Ketchikan Gateway School District as the executive director of the Indian Studies program and remained in that position for nine years. He helped reactivate the Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC, the IRA tribe) and was elected its president for four years. He voluntarily relinquished the office of president to become its executive director, a position he held for an additional four years.

With the able assistance of his executive secretary, Mary Jones, Ed wrote the very first Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Self-Determination grant to be accepted and funded in the state of Alaska. These funds served as the nucleus for the tremendous growth in KIC’s programs over the duration of his tenure with the tribe.

Ed also served as the president of Ketchikan Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Camp 14 and was elected as first vice-president of the ANB Grand Camp. He was also president of the Ketchikan Tlingit and Haida Community Council and represented Ketchikan on the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Board.

In 1976, Ed was elected as a delegate to the Central Council Tribal Assembly and in 1978 elected to the Executive Council as the Third Vice-president.

In 1984, he was elected the president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida). He served as president of the Tribe from October 1984 until April 2007. He was reelected president in 2010 and served until his retirement in 2014. He has since served as president emeritus.

One of Ed’s proudest accomplishments as Tlingit & Haida president was to get the Tlingit & Haida reinstated as a federally recognized tribe through congressional action after the secretary of the Interior removed it from the list as published in the Federal Register.

I also had the privilege of serving on the Sealaska Board of Directors. He was a strong director advocating for environmentally safe, sustainable development, and reasonable board election policies. He led the way in the creation of a Board Youth Advisor on the Sealaska Board as well as supporting the resolution to enroll Natives who were born after 1971. He was also a staunch advocate for shareholder hire and for their advancement into management positions particularly in Sealaska Timber Corporation.

Ed Thomas demonstrated his leadership at the statewide and national levels. He served as an Alaska Federation of Natives Director and at the National Congress of American Indians where he advocated tirelessly for tribes and Alaska Natives. Through his stature, his knowledge and skills, he brought great pride to us as a Tlingit leader.

And, Ed is the only Tlingit in history to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC on a horse in full regalia during a United States Presidential Inauguration (Clinton Inauguration in 1993).

We owe a debt of gratitude to President Thomas for his dedication and service to his people and for his acumen in navigating through political institutions and fiscal policies to ensure some of the benefits that we take for granted today.

Sources

Introduction

Thomas, Edward K.

The Story

Thomas, Edward K.

Hall of Fame Profiles

Page 18–19 | Rudolph Walton

Henrikson, Steve, “’Kaawootk’ Rudolph Walton and the art of ‘Survival Time,’” Sharing Our Knowledge Conference, November 9, 2015, video recording 11.b.1, www.sharingourknowledge.org.

Raibmon, Paige. Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter from the Late-Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

Shales, Joyce Walton, “Rudolph Walton: One Tlingit Man’s Journey Through Stormy Seas, Sitka, Alaska, 1867–1951,” (Doctoral Thesis, 1998), 176.

Page 20–21 | Peter Simpson

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 665–676.

Metcalfe, Peter. A Dangerous Idea: The Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2014. See endnote #50, which references the 2008 interview with Martin Strand.

Mitchell, Donald Craig. Sold American, The Story of Alaska Natives and Their Land, 1867–1959. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 1997.

Page 22–23 | William L. Paul

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 503–524.

Haycox, Stephen. Alaska: An American Colony. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2002. 238240, 254.

Metcalfe, Peter. A Dangerous Idea: The Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2014. See endnote #79, which quotes the letter by Mrs. Thomas (Paul Family Archives, courtesy of Ben and Eileen Paul).

Page 24–25 | Louis F. Paul, Jr.

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 483.

Haycox, Stephen. Alaska: An American Colony. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2002. 238.

Metcalfe, Peter. A Dangerous Idea: The Alaska Native Brotherhood and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2014. 20.

Page 26–27 | Matilda Paul Tamaree

William Lewis Paul, The Alaska Tlingit: Where did we come from? (2011), 9.

Mary Lee Davis, We Are Alaskans, (1931), 21736.

Nora Marks Dauenhauer & Richard Dauenhauer, Haa Kusteeyí: Our Culture, Tlingit Life Stories, (1994), 469-502.

The Presbyterian Historical Society https://www.history.pcusa.org/blog/2020/09/ tillie-paul-tamaree-tlingit-community.

Page 28–29 | Judson Brown

Beers, Carole. “Judson Brown, Native Leader,” Seattle Times, May 18, 1997, https://archive.seattletimes.com/ ate=19970518&slug=2539959.

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 131.

Hawaiian Voyaging Traditions. ”Judson Brown, Tlingit Elder.” https://archive.hokulea.com/index/ founder_and_teachers/judson_brown.html.

Hope, Andrew, III. “On the Organization of the Tlingit and Haida Central Council, An Interview with Judson Brown.” Raven’s Bones Journal. Sitka: Sitka Community Association, 1982.

Page 30–31 | Andrew P. Hope

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 251–267.

DeArmond, R.N. A Sitka Chronology, 1867–1987, With Index. 2nd ed. Sitka: Sitka Historical Society, 2009, 101.

Metcalfe, Peter. Earning a Place in History: Shee Atiká, the Sitka Native Claims Corporation, 2nd ed. Sitka: Shee Atiká Inc., 2011, 15.

Mitchell, Donald Craig. Sold American, The Story of Alaska Natives and Their Land, 1867–1959. Lebanon, NH; Dartmouth College Press, 1997.

Page 32 | Frank G. Johnson

Dauenhauer, Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, eds. Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories. Juneau: Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 1994, 525–544.

Hope, Ishmael. Alaska Native Storyteller (blog). http://alaskanativestoryteller.com/2011/08/ youre-going-to-hear-about-this-frank-johnsonlouis-shotridge-and-civil-rights/.

Page 33 | Charles W. Demmert

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 34 | Helen Sanderson

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 35-36 | Roy Peratrovich

The letter was reprinted in the Sitka Sentinel, with permission from the Sitka Historical Society and Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories, edited by Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, 1994, Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 525-544.

Page 37–38 | Elizabeth Peratrovich

The letter was reprinted by the Sitka Sentinel, with permission from the Sitka Historical Society and Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories, edited by Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, 1994, Sealaska Heritage Foundation, 525-544.

Page 39–40 | Mark Jacobs, Jr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 41–42 | Frank Peratrovich

The letter was reprinted by the Sitka Sentinal, with permission from the Sitka Historical Society and Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Haa Kusteeyí Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories, edited by Nora Marks and Richard Dauenhauer, 1994, Sealaska Heritage Foundation. 525-544.

Page 43 | Robert A. Cogo

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 44 | Victor Haldane

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 45 | Joseph M. Kahklen

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 46-47 | Dr. Walter Soboleff, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 48 | Adeline (Skultka) Garcia

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 49 | Lonnie E. Demmert

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 50-51 | Mary E. Jones

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 52-53 | John Borbridge, Jr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 54-55 | Richard J. Stitt, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 56-57 | Clarence M. Jackson, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 58 | Stella Martin

In Sisterhood: The History of Camp 2 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, 2008, by Kimberly L. Metcalfe.

Stories in the News (SitNews) of Ketchikan, August 30, 2002.

Page 59 | Robert Sanderson, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 60-61 | Ethel M. Lund

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 62-63 | Andrew J. Hope, Jr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 64-65 | Marlene Johnson

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 66-67 | Nora Dauenhauer

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 68–69 | Dr. Delores Churchill: Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Delores_Churchill.

2007 Sharing Our Knowledge Conference, #27

DVD, Basketry, #4 presentation.

Interview of Evelyn Vanderhoop, February 6, 2023.

Page 70-71 | Dr. Erma Lawrence

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 72-73 | Nathan Jackson

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 74-75 | Dr. William Demmert, Jr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 76-77 | Niles Cesar

www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/juneauempire/ name/niles-cesar-obituary?id=25702676.

“SE Native leader, former Alaska BIA chief Cesar passes away” by Joaqlin Estus: https://www. ktoo.org/2012/03/20/se-native-leader-formeralaska-bia-chief-cesar-passes-away/.

Gumboot Determination, by Peter Metcalfe, SEARHC, 2005, 81.

Page 78-79 | Dr. Dennis Demmert

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 80-81 | Dr. Albert Kookesh

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 82 | James W. Price

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 83-84 | Joseph E. Kahklen

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 85-86 | Richard Stokes

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 87 | Herbert Didrickson, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 88-89 | Gilbert A. Truitt

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 90-91 | Byron I. Mallott

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 92-93 | Dr. Rosita Worl

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 94-95 | Raymond E. Paddock, Jr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 96-97 | Janie Leask

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 98-99 | Andrew Hope, III.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 100-101 | Ivan Gamble, Sr.

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 102 | Marjorie V. Young

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 103 | A. Millie Schoonover

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 104-105 | Andrew Ebona

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 106-107 | Floyd M. Kookesh

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 108 | Jacqueline Pata

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 109-110 | Richard J. Peterson

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 111 | David Leask

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 112-113 | Isabella G. Brady

Daily Sitka Sentinel; Raven Radio.

Page 114-115 | William Micklin

Indianz.com, October 7, 2014 (https://indianz. com/News/2014/015285.asp); Tlingit & Haida.

References

Page 116-118 | Reference 1:

Historic Chronology

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 119 | Reference 2:

Southeast Alaska - Our Homeland

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 120 | Reference 3:

Common Myth

Thomas, Edward K.

Page 121 | Reference 4: Arguments Against the Myth

Thomas, Edward K.

Closing Page 122

Thomas, Edward K.

President Emeritus Profile

Page 123-125 | Edward K. Thomas

Worl, Rosita

Photo Credits

Page 6:

Ano-Thlosh, Chief of the Taku Tribe (ASL-P39-0076), Case & Draper Photo Collection.

Indian Doctor’s Graves, Howkan, Alaska (ASL-P39-0063), Winter &Pond Photo Collection.

Page 7:

Rudolph Walton, Peter Simpson and William L. Paul, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 8:

ANB Founding Fathers in 1912 (ASL-P33-01), Alaska Native Organizations Photo Collection.

William L. Paul, Sr. (William Paul Sr.-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Charlie Demmert, courtesy of Peter Metcalfe. Judson Brown, courtesy of the Brown family.

Page 9:

Frank Johnson, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Roy Peratrovich, photo courtesy of Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Elizabeth Peratrovich (Elizabeth Peratrovich-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Andrew P. Hope, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Robert Cogo, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas. Helen Sanderson, courtesy of Rob A. Sanderson Jr.

Page 10:

Byron Mallott, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Janie Leask, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Mark Jacobs Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Andy Ebona, photo by Peter Metcalfe.

Jim Price, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Marlene Johnson, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Page 11:

Dr. William Demmert, photo courtesy of the Demmert family.

John Borbridge Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Ethel Lund, courtesy of Wrangell Sentinel.

Andy Hope, courtesy of Peter Metcalfe.

Niles Cesar, courtesy of Juneau Empire.

Ivan Gamble, courtesy of Lucinda George (Facebook).

Page 12:

John Borbridge Jr. and Byron Mallott, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Robert Sanderson and Marjorie Young photos, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Mark Jacobs Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Walter Soboleff, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Page 13:

Ray Paddock Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Dick Stokes, courtesy of Heidi Armstrong.

Andrew Hope, courtesy of Peter Metcalfe.

John Borbridge Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 14:

Rudolph Walton, courtesy of Peter Metcalfe.

L. Embert Demmert, courtesy of Lonnie Demmert.

Joseph Kahklen, courtesy of Kahklen family.

Dennis Demmert, photo by Tlingit & Haida.

Gil Truitt, courtesy of Truitt family.

Herb Didrickson, courtesy of Bing.com.

Page 15:

Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood, Bessie Visaya Photo Collection.

Mary Jones, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Roy Peratrovich, photo courtesy of Roy Peratrovich Jr.

Stella Martin, photo courtesy of Kim Metcalfe.

Millie Schoonover, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 16:

Rosita Worl, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Nathan Jackson, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute.

Delores Churchill, courtesy of Churchill family.

Erma Lawrence, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Clarence Jackson, courtesy of Goldbelt, Inc.

Page 17:

William Lewis Paul, Sr. (William Paul Sr.-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Jacqueline Pata and Floyd Kookesh, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Rosita Worl, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Page 18:

Rudolph Walton, courtesy of the Walton family.

Page 19:

Rudolph Walton with bike circa 1901, courtesy of the Walton family.

Page 20:

Peter Simpson, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Peter Simpson with wife (Peter Simpson Family-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 21:

ANB convention at Sitka, Alaska, 1914 (P014570), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 22:

William L. Paul, Sr. (William Paul Sr.-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

William L. Paul - Attorney (ASL-P492-IV-1-21), David & Mary Waggoner Photo Collection.

Page 23:

William Lewis Paul Sr., Sealaska Heritage Institute Archives photo.

Page 24-25:

Louis Francis Paul, Jr., photo by William Paul, Jr., courtesy of Ben Paul.

Pages 26-27:

Matilda Paul Tamaree, photos courtesy of Ben Paul from the William L. Paul Jr. collection.

Page 28:

Judson Brown, courtesy of the Brown family.

Page 29:

Judson Brown seated in regalia, Sealaska Corporation Archives photo.

Page 30:

Andrew Percy Hope, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Andrew Hope seated (ASL-P421-038), Dora M. Sweeney Photo Collection.

Page 31:

Andrew Hope, Sitka, 1959 (P01-4457), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 32:

Frank G. Johnson, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Territory of Alaska House of Representatives (Groups-Alaska Leg.-1940s-6), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 33:

Charles Webster Demmert, courtesy of the Demmert family.

Page 34:

Helen Sanderson, photos courtesy of the Sanderson family.

Page 35:

Roy Peratrovich, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas. Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich, photo courtesy of Roy Peratrovich, Jr.

Page 36:

ANB and ANS Leaders (ASL-P33-30), Alaska Native Organizations Photo Collection.

Page 37:

Elizabeth Peratrovich (Elizabeth Peratrovich-1), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 38:

Governor Gruening (seated) signs AntiDiscrimination Act of 1945 (ASL-P274-1-2), Alaska Territorial Governors Photo Collection.

Governor Steve Cowper signing the bill that created Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, Juneau, May 26, 1988, (ASA_A1_RG_SR612_AS7457_ EP_001), Alaska State Archives Collections.

Page 39:

Mark Jacobs, Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Mark Jacobs, Jr. and brother Harvey, photo courtesy of the Jacobs family.

Page 40:

Mark Jacobs, Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 41:

Frank Peratrovich, courtesy of Bing.com.

Frank Peratrovich (ASL-P33-19), Alaska Native Organizations Photo Collection.

Page 42:

Alaska Territorial House of Representatives (Groups-Legislature-1960s-03), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

Page 43:

Robert A. Cogo, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas; ANB/ANS 1951 Convention, courtesy of A. Millie Schoonover.

Page 44:

Victor Haldane, Ancestry.com - Crystal Fierro photos.

Page 45:

Joseph Matthew Kahklen, courtesy of Joseph Edward Kahklen.

Page 46:

Dr. Walter A. Soboleff, Sr., courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Page 47:

Dr. Walter A. Soboleff, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 48:

Edward K. Thomas and Adeline Garcia, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 49:

L. Embert Demmert, courtesy of Lonnie Demmert; L. Embert Demmert seated, Sealaska Corporation Archives photo.

Page 50:

Mary Elizabeth Jones, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 51:

Mary Jones and Edward K. Thomas, photo courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Page 52-53:

John Borbridge, Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 54:

Richard J Stitt, Sr., photos courtesy of the Stitt family.

Page 55:

Richard J. Stitt, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Pages 56:

Clarence M. Jackson, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Clarence jackson Sealaska Corporation Archives photo.

Pages 57:

Clarence M. Jackson, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 58:

Stella Martin, photo courtesy of Kim Metcalfe.

Page 59:

Robert Sanderson, Sr., Sealaska Corporation Archives photo.

Young Robert Sanderson, photo courtesy of the Sanderson family.

Robert Sanderson, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 60:

Ethel Marie Lund, courtesy of Peter Metcalfe.

Page 61:

Ethel Lund, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Pages 62-63:

Andrew John Hope, Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 64:

Marlene Johnson, photo courtesy of the Johnson family.

Page 65:

Marlene voting in Tlingit & Haida elections, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Pages 66-67: Nora Dauenhauer, photos courtesy of the Dauenhauer family.

Page 68:

Dr. Delores Churchill, photo courtesy of the Churchill family.

Page 69:

Dr. Delores Churchill, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 70:

Dr. Erma Lawrence, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 71:

Dr. Erma Lawrence, courtesy of the Lawrence family.

Erma and Edward K. Thomas, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 72:

Nathan Jackson, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute; Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson carving at totem pole, Sitka (ASA_SR1231_No.1968), Alaska State Archives Collection.

Page 73:

Nathan Jackson, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 74:

Dr. William Demmert, Jr., photo courtesy of the Demmert family.

Page 76:

Niles Cesar, courtesy of Juneau Empire.

Page 77:

Niles Cesar, photo by Peter Metcalfe.

Pages 78-79:

Dr. Dennis Demmert, photos courtesy of the Demmert family.

Page 80:

Dr. Albert Kookesh, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 81:

Dr. Albert Kookesh, photo courtesy of the Kookesh family.

Page 82:

James W. Price, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 83:

Joseph E. Kahklen, Photo by David Sheakley.

Page 84:

Joseph E. Kahklen, photo courtesy of Goldbelt, Inc.

Pages 85-86:

Richard Stokes, photos courtesy of the Stokes family.

Page 87:

Herb Didrickson, Sr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Herb with basketball and on magazine cover, courtesy of the Didrickson family.

Pages 88-89:

Gilbert Allen Truitt, photos courtesy of the Truitt family.

Page 90:

Byron Ivar Mallott, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 91:

Governor Walker and Lt. Governor Mallott at inauguration (ASA_A1_RG348_SR612_0206_ GOAVID01_Year1Reflections (4), Alaska State Archives Collections.

Page 92-93:

Dr. Rosita Worl, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Pages 94-95:

Raymond E. Paddock, Jr., Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 96:

Janie Leask, courtesy of the Leask family.

Page 97:

Janie Leask, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 98:

Andrew Hope, III., photo by Peter Metcalfe.

Page 99:

Traditional Tlingit Country poster, published by Andrew Hope, III.

Page 100:

Ivan Gamble, Sr., photo by Peter Metcalfe.

Page 101:

Ivan Gamble, Sr. memorial, Kootznoowoo Corporation.

Page 102:

Marjorie V. Young, Sealaska Corporation Archives photos.

Page 103:

A. Millie Schoonover, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

A. Millie Schoonover in regalia, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Page 104-105:

Andrew Ebona, photos by Peter Metcalfe.

Page 106:

Floyd Manuel Kookesh, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 107:

Floyd Manuel Kookesh, photo courtesy of the Kookesh family.

Page 108:

Jacqueline Pata, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Jacqueline Pata, photo by National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

Page 109:

Richard J. Peterson, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 111:

David Leask, photo by Richard A. Beasley David Leask, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 112:

Isabella Brady, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Page 114:

William Micklin, Tlingit & Haida Archives photos.

Page 115:

William Micklin at World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo.

Signing of Native American Policy, photo by United States Fish & Wildlife Service.

Page 119:

Traditional Tlingit Country poster, published by Andrew (Andy) Hope, III.

Page 120:

Reference 3: Common Myth charts, courtesy of Edward K. Thomas.

Page 121:

Classification of Indigenous Languages of the Americas map, Wikipedia - Glottolog 4.1.

Page 123:

Edward K. Thomas, Tlingit & Haida Archives photo; Totem raising, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Page 124:

Edward K. Thomas, courtesy of Sealaska Corporation.

Edward K. Thomas, courtesy of the Thomas family.

Page 125:

Edward K. Thomas, courtesy of the Thomas family.

Page 126:

Old Kasaan Village (Kasaan-01), Alaska State Library Photo Collection.

The Tlingit & Haida Hall of Fame book is an ongoing, evolving resource. Updates will be made periodically to incorporate new information and developments. For inquiries, corrections, or to submit updates, please contact Tlingit & Haida’s Communications Department.