“Though Katie was our Elder, she was known and respected throughout Alaska and the world,” said Michelle Anderson, President of Ahtna, Inc.
MENTASTA, AK—The tiny village of Mentasta, Alaska, population 100, was bursting at the seams on June 8, 2013, as family and friends gathered to say goodbye to a beloved Ahtna Athabascan elder.
Katie John died May 31 at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage at the age of 97.
“Though Katie was our Elder, she was known and respected throughout Alaska and the world,” said Michelle Anderson, President of Ahtna, Incorporated. “We know we are not alone in our sadness and appreciate the outpouring of support from all those who knew her. Katie was a strong, traditional Athabascan woman who spoke the truth from her heart. She lived what she believed. If not for Katie John and her fighter spirit, we would not have the subsistence rights we are still fighting to retain today.”
John was born and raised in Slana and Batzulnetas, Alaska, just a couple of hours west of the Canada border. She was just 16 years old when she married Mentasta Traditional Chief Fred John, Sr. Together the couple had 20 children, six of whom they adopted.
Yvonne Echohawk is an adopted daughter of John.“I used to tell my sisters and brothers, ‘She got stuck with you. She chose me.’”
John was known throughout the state of Alaska and Native community for fighting for the subsistence hunting and fishing rights after the state shut down her fish camp in the abandoned village of Batzulnetas, located within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on the Copper River. It took more than 17 years, but she eventually won the right to continue the traditional fish camp despite being on federal land.
Despite the lawsuit, John was not vindictive, Echohawk said. “Katie always told us to live life beautifully, to never be bitter. She always said bitterness would destroy you.”
John raised her children with a love of the Ahtna Athabascan culture, and continued that by helping to create the Ahtna alphabet and teaching her language in the Mentasta School as far back as the 1970s. She is credited with starting the school, which now bears her name, after being forced to send many of her own children away to boarding school. In 2011, John was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
According to an Ahtna press release, John’s family now includes more than 250 grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.
More than 450 people turned out for a memorial service for John in Anchorage. They came from around the world, including New Zealand and Hawaii.
The funeral in Mentasta, the small community southwest of Tok, drew as many as 1,000 people, attesting to the legacy that John leaves behind.
