TLINGIT ELDER/LEADER KAA KATLIN (ELLEN HOPE HAYS) BORN
Ellen’s Tlingit name meant “Raven Looking Forward.” Born in Sitka, Alaska (AK), in 1966, she became the 1st woman to be accepted as a member of the AK Native Brotherhood (ANB). In 1972, she helped found the AK Humanities Forum. Beginning work with the National Park Service in 1967, on July 9, 1974, Ellen became the 1st woman and 1st AK Native appointed superintendent of a national park in the Pacific Northwest, serving through 1978. She was instrumental in ANB’s operation of the Visitor Center craft shop wing of Sitka National Historical Park, which eventually became known as the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center. Ellen promoted the values of art and the humanities. She served on many boards and commissions that were dedicated to these causes, both in AK and in Bainbridge, Washington, where she moved with her husband in 1994. She returned to Sitka in 2013. She believed one should always be learning. Ellen passed away in Sitka on October 8, 2013.
Sources:
“Helen Hope Hays,” Sitka Daily Sentinel, 10/11/2013. Retrieved 7/22/2020, http://sitkasentinel.com/7/2012-05-10-22-08-43/obituaries/6389-ellen-hope-hays
Linda Blanken and Scott Sanborn, “Helen Hope Hays: Alaska,” Humanities: National Endowment for the Humanities, V. 6, No. 1 (February 1985). Retrieved 7/22/2020, https://books.google.com/books?id=INK_y5hvyHMC&pg=RA2-PA22&lpg=RA2-PA22&dq=%22Ellen+hope+hays%22&source=bl&ots=S0YnHsOpo5&sig=ACfU3U0JclUK6MXmXmmfpbvLshEi8p6TJw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA0_StoOHqAhWjVN8KHacEDnY4HhDoATAJegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=%22Ellen%20hope%20hays%22&f=false
Photo: Sitka National Historic Park, 8/21/2015. Source: https://www.facebook.com/SitkaNationalHistoricalPark/posts/821153541316479. Public Domain. Photograph taken by an officer or employee of the United States Government.
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