People

There is a wide range of people who have lived in and around what is now known as Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. We invite you to learn about the people who have explored the Copper River Valley, made this place their home and whose stories have helped to shape the history of the area. This list is not comprehensive and more people will be added to the page over time.

Katie John

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve joins other Alaskans in celebrating Katie John Day on May 31st.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/dena-history-katie-john-day.htm (NPS article by Erik Johnson, Denali Historian)

In 2019, the Alaska State Legislature designated May 31st as an official state holiday in honor of Katie John for her contributions in defense of Alaska Native customary and traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.

Katie John exemplified the qualities of grit, determination, and perseverance. Katie's family grew up living a subsistence lifestyle, fishing for salmon in the upper Copper River drainage, near Batzulnetas on Tanada Creek. In 1964 the newly designated state of Alaska closed this traditional fishing site. Through years of litigation, Katie John petitioned the state and the federal government to allow for traditional fishing at Batzulnetas. As a result of her determination and vision, her name is synonymous in Alaska with rural subsistence rights. Katie is gone now, but her legacy lives on. She was an exceptional steward of her tribal traditions and was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2014 for her advocacy and leadership.

http://alaskawomenshalloffame.org/alumnae/name/katie-john/ (Alaska Women's Hall of Fame website)

Alaska Park Science article by Vicki Penwell (pages 83 - 85, pdf format, 4.8 mb)

Alaska Native Rights Champion Katie John Lived What She Believed: Honesty, Trust, Love, and Forgiveness (NPS article by Ahtna, Inc.)

Frederica de Laguna

Dr. Frederica de Laguna was an influential archeologist and anthropologist who worked extensively throughout Alaska. Her trailblazing career spanned more than three decades. Her research not only helped lay the groundwork for modern archeology in Alaska, it helped to open the male dominated field of archeology to women in the early 20th century. An example of one of her publications relevant to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the following link to Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology:

Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, 1972

Abstract:

The field data on which this report is based were gathered at Yakutat in 1949, 1952, 1953, and 1954. On my first exploratory visit, June 8 to July 13, 1949, I was assisted by Edward Malin, then a graduate student at the University of Colorado, and by William Irving, then an undergraduate at the University of Alaska. At that time several old village sites and a number of well-informed, friendly natives gave promise that combined archeological and ethnological investigations would be fruitful. Furthermore, I learned that there were two persons in the community who could speak Eyak, a language which I had feared was extinct.

In the summer of 1952 (June 6 to September 13), I returned to Yakutat with a larger party. Dr. Catharine McClellan, who had worked with me at Angoon in 1950, collaborated in the ethnological investigations at Yakutat, and Francis A. Riddell, who had also been with us at Angoon, now directed the archeological excavations at Knight Island near Yakutat under my general supervision. He was assisted by Kenneth S. Lane, Donald F. McGeein, and J. Arthur Freed, then all students at or graduates of the University of California, Berkeley. For part of the summer, Dr. Fang-Kwei Li, Department of Far Eastern Studies, University of Washington, undertook linguistic research on Eyak, both at Yakutat and at Cordova.

The following summer, Riddell returned to continue the archeological work, with another party from the University of California consisting of Lane, McGeein, Albert H. Olson, and Robert T. Anderson. During the summer some ethnological information was gathered, although this was not the primary aim of the expedition.

In the winter and spring of 1954 (February 13 to June 16), I was able to resume ethnological work at Yakutat, assisted by Mary Jane Downs (now Mrs. Benjamin Lenz, then Fellow in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College). We were accompanied by my mother, Professor Emeritus Grace A. de Laguna, although she took no active part in our investigations.

For hospitality in the field I am indebted to Paul Stout, manager of the cannery in 1949, and for other courtesies to Robert Welsh, manager in 1952 and 1954. J. B. Mallott, owner of an independent store, was also very helpful. The Alaska Native Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Public Health Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard, all rendered invaluable assistance.

Research at Yakutat was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (1949, 1952), the Arctic Institute of North America, with funds from the Office of Naval Research (1949, 1953), the Social Science Research Council, the American Philosophical Society (1954). The Department of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, and Bryn Mawr College have all supported the fieldwork and aided in the preparation of this monograph. A Faculty Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council in 1962-63, and the hospitality of the Berkeley campus have enabled me to write much of this volume.

A grant from the National Science Foundation (G-4875) made possible assembling the illustrative and bibliographic material. In preparation of this monograph, I have received the help and advice of many persons. For bibliographic assistance, especially in finding unpublished materials, I am indebted to Dr. J. Ronald Todd, Chief Reference Librarian, University of Washington, Seattle; to Dr. Willard E. Ireland, Provincial Librarian and Archivist, Victoria, British Columbia; to Dr. Wilson Duff, then Curator of Anthropology, and Donald N. Abbott, then Assistant Anthropologist, both at the Provincial Museum in Victoria; to Dr. John Barr Tompkins, and to Assistant Director Robert H. Becker, indeed to all the staff of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Kenneth Lane, who had copied many rare items in the Bancroft Library, generously turned over to me his complete notebook, and Dr. Robert F. Heizer, Department of Anthropology.

More about Frederica de Laguna at Lake Clark National Park & Preserve:
www.nps.gov/people/frederica-de-laguna.htm

Dora Keen

In 1912, Dora Keen at 41 years of age was the first to climb 16,390 ft. Mt. Blackburn. On a clear day in Kennecott, you can see the mountain that she conquered. Her expedition was attempted multiple times and eventually she made it with her future husband and hiking companion, George Handy. As a philanthropist and frequent alpinist, Keen was the first person to reach the summit, the first expedition to use dogs on a mountain, the first to succeed without Swiss guides, the first to camp in snow caves, and the first to make a prolonged night ascent. The twenty-seven-mile long Kennicott Glacier begins at Mount Blackburn and ends near present day McCarthy, with the Kennecott Mines NHL along its eastern edge.

After her ascent, she said, “That I was only five feet tall would matter very little. Success would depend rather upon judgement, endurance, courage, and organization…I was going again because I had need of courage and inspiration and because on the high mountains I find them as nowhere else.”

Ethel LeCount

Historical photos at Kennecott, Alaska