Chief Shakes VI remembered by descendants, family

With the rededication of the Chief Shakes Tribal House only a month away, two local women who are blood descendants of Chief Shakes VI, the second to last leader of the Native community in Wrangell, are remembering him with their memories and a pre-1940 Potlatch photo of the Chief, who was born George Shakes in 1878.

Nellie Gunderson-Lewis Torgramsen, the granddaughter of Chief Shakes VI, was born in 1932 in Wrangell and is related to him through her mother Margaret, grandmother Minnie Snook, and great-grandmother Mary Shakes.

Harking back to the time when Alaska was a territory of the United States – and Wrangell was estimated to be home to approximately 900 souls – Torgramsen said she recalls clearly the day when George left Wrangell for medical treatment in the Lower 48.

It was the last time George would be on the soil of his homeland, and the last time she would see him.

“I remember seeing him getting ready to go down south,” Torgramsen said. “I specifically remember him wearing black pants and a white shirt and I put my arms around him gave him a big hug. He was leaving to go get help for his health.”

According to news reports from the era, George had been in failing health for an extended period of time prior to his death at Morningside Hospital in Portland, Ore. In historical accounts he is called by his Tlingit name, Gush-klin.

Another memory related to the island that Torgramsen said sticks out for her are related to her great-grandmother, George’s mother, and time spent collecting traditional foods.

“I would go down to the island and visit a lot,” Torgramsen added. “There was a pond down there that was used for fresh drinking water, and I would go pick the wild celery and she would peel it. I had mine with sugar and she would have hers with seal grease. I always thought sugar was better. She would also always ask my father, Gunnar Gunderson, of he wanted grease on his seaweed. He’d say, ‘Yes, I will have some.’ But then he got very sick.”

Contrary to websites stating that Chief Shakes VI died in 1916, genealogical and court records show he actually died in Oregon on July 18, 1941 after an extended illness.

Another blood relative to George, Minnie Kalkins, was born in 1933 and is Nellie’s first cousin and also one of the chief’s granddaughters.

Her memory of the Native leader was clear and concise, though short.

“He had a great sense of humor,” Kalkins said.

Because of health issues, Kalkins’ daughter, Rose Johnson of Ketchikan, spoke for her and explained some of the memories she was told about growing up.

“She clearly remembers the Chilkat blanket hanging on the wall in their house,” Johnson said. “When she was small, they lived in a house where the Baptist church building is now. Their Raven totem pole was on that site too, which was dedicated to one of the Chief’s sons. One was already gone, Moses Shakes, and one was living, John Shakes.”

Bill Knecht, a Wrangellite and family to Nellie by marriage, said the life of Gilbert Gunderson, who is Nellie’s brother and Minnie’s cousin, has made a sizeable contribution to Native and Tlingit culture and cannot be overstated.

“My father-in-law, Gil Gunderson, is a descendent of George and he was involved in Native and local politics his whole life, and he is one of the founding members of Sealaska Corporation and helped with the fight for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act,” he said. “I think all the chiefs and descendants of their families should be remembered, and my father-in-law and my aunt, both lived on that island and my wife is a descendent of Chief Shakes VI. So, this is very important to our family.”

Gunderson, who served from 1982-1997 as the director of the Native corporation, said he was aggressively courted to take the helm of Chief for the Tlingits of Wrangell, but that he chose not to in order to avoid conflicts among the community.

“I had people come to me when I was actively involved in politics and tell me they thought I should step up and take a rightful place as the next leader,” Gunderson said. “I decided not to, though at that time, because there were so many people with different ideas on how the tribe should run, I wanted to avoid all of that.”

The most recent major work on the House, which took place in the 1980s, was also due to the efforts of Gunderson and another local man.

“Dick Stokes and I went up to Juneau and met with the Department of Commerce where we managed to get funding to repair the old house,” he said. “We were successful in getting money out of the Governor’s contingency fund to see that certain parts of the building were restored. Afterwards, I was chosen to dip my hands in paint and put my handprints on one of the corner posts.”

While Chief Shakes VI was the second-to-last leader of the unified Tlingit people, he was the last tribal head to reside full-time on Chief Shakes Island.