Olaf Abraham
X’agat̲keen · Yaan Yaan Eesh · c.1870–1972
Hereditary chief of the Aantlein River Teikweidí, Golden Eagle moiety. Born on Khantaak Island, three miles from the present village of Yakutat, around 1870, the son of Yakooda Kad, the last chief of the Yakutat area. The Russians had been gone half a century, and he would be nineteen before white men again visited the Yakutat people.
His handprint is on every phase of the area’s history: he helped build the first cannery, helped build the railroad and held the first spike that was driven, worked on the hospital and the school. During the gold rush he packed a hundred pounds up mountains without complaint.
He selected what he valued from the new culture without abandoning his own, and as an active charter member of the Alaska Native Brotherhood his influence was felt in its goals. He did not betray his beliefs, and so kept the standing of his position.
Even in his final years, a hush fell upon the hall as Olaf rose to speak.
In 1973 he published Yakutat History. I carry his name.
Obituary by William Diebels.
Susie Bremner Abraham
1901–1990s · Raven moiety, K’ineix Kwáan, Owl House
Born on the Bering River near Cordova in 1901, daughter of Chief John of the Galyex Kagwaantaan. Sent to the Salem Indian Training School in Oregon as a child; came home a teenager. Lost both parents to the influenza in 1918. Married Olaf Abraham in a marriage arranged by her aunt, in the manner of her people.
A lifetime member of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 13 and its president when Yakutat hosted the 1930 Grand Camp Convention. A commercial fisherwoman for most of her life. A member of the St. Elias Tlingit Dancers. A contributing author and informant to published works on Eyak and Chugach history. Through her, much of the history of the Yakutat–Katalla region is preserved.
In 1991, at eighty-nine, she was on the cover of We Alaskans talking about growing up Native in Alaska.
Elaine Abraham
Chew Shaa · daughter of Olaf and Susie
The first Tlingit registered nurse. She trained, worked several years on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, then returned to Alaska, serving in Juneau, Mt. Edgecumbe, and in Bethel during a diphtheria epidemic, and helping open the Alaska Native Health Service Hospital in Anchorage in 1954.
In Sitka she was school board president during the desegregation of the village school. She organized the Southeast Health Aide Program, which became the model for the statewide Alaska Native Health Aide Program, and organized the Southeast Native Board of Health.
At Sheldon Jackson College she served as Associate Dean of Students, Director of Social Services, and Vice President for Institutional Development. She developed the Tlingit and Haida Language Teachers Training program and helped create the Alaska Native Language Center. From 1976 she served the University of Alaska as Vice President for Rural Education Affairs.
She placed a high value on education. She would love to count degrees around the dinner table.
Peter Howard, Sr.
My grandfather · Juneau
Born in Hoonah, raised in Juneau, and by his own account mainly self-educated. He left school after a beating from a second-grade teacher and decided he deserved better. “Whatever I had to learn later, I asked people about and, well, I just learned it.”
He fished with his father, drove cab, worked the dock crew for Alaska Coastal Airlines and became a mechanic, earning his A&E license despite the lack of schooling. Tour bus driver, heavy construction, three winters on the North Slope. In 1977 he decided Juneau needed another cab company and founded Haida Cab, which by 1980 had a payroll of $297,000 and twenty-six employees.
He was also, according to the newsletter that profiled him, a highly skilled dead-pan humorist. I love that.
Profile reprinted from a 1980 Goldbelt newsletter.
Cornelia and Lloyd Morgan Howard
My father spoke Tlingit well, because it was the only way to speak to his grandfather Olaf. My mother, Cornelia Devlin (Anesu), was adopted as an Eagle of the Teikweidí clan, as was her mother, Pauline Henry.
My parents grew up together in Yakutat and went to high school together at Sheldon Jackson. But, only started dating years later in Seattle, Washington.
In Tlingit villages, folks will ask you who your parents are, your grandparents. We are all related.
Tell me what you’re working on.
I would love to help you out, even if you don’t retain our services. Just call, email or text.