Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl received the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Tlingit and Haida Tribal Assembly. Worl has a long and varied history as an authority in tribal matters.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized by your tribe and your people,” said Worl. “My mother always taught us that we don’t need to speak about ourselves because if you’re worthy of being known, people who you are. I guess I’ve arrived at that point in my life.”
This point comes from a lifetime of exemplary work, and even adventure. In Alaska, she served as Special Staff Assistant for Native Affairs to Gov. Steve Cowper when he formulated the first state-adopted policy on Native people. It was titled “The State of Alaska’s Policy on Alaska Natives.” She also served on the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska Economic Development Commission, and she chaired the Subsistence Committee while working to amend the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
Worl is also on the Board of Directors for the Alaska Federation of Natives and Sealaska. In addition, she’s on the Alaska Native Brotherhood Subsistence Committee.
She also served as a special advisor to Thomas Berger of the Alaska Native Review Commission, studying the impacts of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and was also a social scientific researcher at the University of Alaska’s Arctic Environmental Information and Data Center while teaching at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Worl received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University, a subject she taught at the University of Alaska Southeast.
Worl has been published on a number of Native topics from subsistence to women’s issues. She and her children founded the Alaska Native News Magazine in the 1980s.
At the national level, Worl was a member of President Bill Clinton’s Northwest Sustainability Commission and a founding member of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. She remains a member of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Arctic Committee.
She was appointed to the National Census Board in 1990 to focus on American Indian issues. She continues to serve her second term as the Chair of the National Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee and is on the boards of the Indigenous Language Institute and the National Alliance to save Native Languages.
Worl’s accomplishments started before her professional life when she became one of the few Tlingit females in the 1950s to fish commercially. She is also a recognized feminist.
Worl is an Eagle from the Shangukeidí Clan and the House Lowered from the Sun in Klukwan. Her Tlingit names are Yéidiklats’okw and Kaahaní. She credits her success to her mother, Bessie Quinto; children, Celeste, Rod and Ricardo Worl; Native rights leader William Paul Sr. and scholar Walter Soboleff.
• Contact reporter Jonathan Grass at 523-2276 or jonathan.grass@juneauempire.com.
Comments (12)
Add commentDr. Worl ....
.................. as a university-trained anthropologist, ought to be the first to recognize that the Tlingit people came to America through Beringia (the land bridge) and the Tlingit peoples' true roots are sunk deep in Eastern Asia. We are all immigrants in America, and should be treated as such. No racial lines should be drawn as to who gets what ........... we are all equal. Lisa Murkowski's Sealaska Lands Bill is a wedge meant to split us apart. It's more political than humanitarian.
That's kind of a ridiculous
That's kind of a ridiculous argument. If we take it one step further, we can claim that all apes are equal because we all share a common ancestor from Africa. Native Americans were here long before Europeans, and they established cultures and civilizations distinct from those of Asia that have subsequently been all but eradicated by those Europeans. And that's what this is about. There wouldn't be any talk of who was here first if one group of "immigrants" hadn't immediately taken it upon themselves to wipe out the other.
Even accepting the "we're all immigrants" argument, Native Americans still have seniority.
"Hoonah's Legacy"
Rosita is named as one of the people responsible for the clear cut at Hoonah, by the Hoonah Indian Association.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRQre80IVj4&feature=player_embedded
For the unlearned, ownership
For the unlearned, ownership of the southeast has withstood several Supreme Court tests. The courts have repeatedly determined that the Tlingkit and Haida communities are the original landholders of southern Alaska. Several acts of Congress, beginning with the Statehood Act have taken much of their land away. There has never been a question of immigration or who got there first. The invaders are from Europe. The land belongs to these two tribes. For further enlightenment, find a copy of David Case' handbook on Alaska Native Law. Where we came from and when who arrived has no bearing on the character of Rosita Worl and this award.
I've seen her on different
I've seen her on different occasions publicly acknowledge corporate people (even interns) but not give any mention to traditional Elders and clan leaders from Auk Kwaan who've been in the audience too. Very disrespectful by Tlingit law. But hey, who seems to care anyway because corporate law rules the land! Congratulations Rosita.
congratulations Dr. Worl!
Congratulations Dr. Worl, my Klukwan Tlingit Shangukeidi sister!
What this really is
Its one Sealaska board-member-for-life getting an award from another Sealaska board-member-for-life. Only this board-member-for-life also is on the company payroll.
Nothing to see here, carry on. Just the same old corrupt back scratching that happens in the Sealaska building on a daily basis.
Carry on.
First Americans
In regards to who were the "First Americans," that question has not yet been answered by good scientific research. What has been proven beyond a doubt is that the people who are here as "Natives" today had ancestors who were here many generations before the newcomers arrived from Europe or other places. At the time of their arrival, this was indeed the land of the present Native people.
Yes, there can be and is, a lot of controversy over the management of the lands Natives retained under the ANCSA. But I think the descendants of the people who were here before the newcomers arrived from Europe or elsewhere, have a right to honor and respect those who have worked to achieve a place in the "modern world." If they wish to honor Dr. Worl, that is their right. As an "outsider," all I can say is Congratulations.
Congratulations Rosita Worl!
Congratulations Rosita Worl!
Known and Remembered
“My mother always taught us that we don’t need to speak about ourselves because if you’re worthy of being known, people know who you are. I guess I’ve arrived at that point in my life.”
Rosita, Its not that people know who you are that is important, its how people will remember you.
What will you be remembered for Rosita ? Clear Cutting Southeast Alaska's way of life ?
Mowing down the forrests that harbor our Heritage ?
Invading another persons back yard and destroying their livelihood and way of life for money
nepotism. greed. indifference ? the list is getting larger and larger for what you will be remembered for.
Shakespeare ....
........... wrote:
"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones" .
No matter how many awards the "takers ' of the world give themselves, their legacy will always be the harm they have done. Worl's instrumental involvement with the logging of the home of the Hoonah people will be remembered far longer than any cheesy award.
Worked less than 2 years for Cowper
In fact only about 17-18 months, but she is responsible for Cowper's policies on Natives? Let's see, she started for Cowper in 4/87 and quit in around 8/88. Could it be that she had to deal with this problem out by Lemon Creek?
http://tinyurl.com/3h5acnc