Regional residents receive prestigious AFN awards

By Megan Gannon
Last Thursday afternoon at the convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives, Alaska’s Gov. Mike Dunleavy took the stage with his wife Rose to present the annual Shirley Demientieff award to Stebbins City Administrator Daisy Lockwood Katcheak.
Lockwood Katcheak made sure her community was prepared for September’s historic and devastating storm, and when the floodwaters receded, she began navigating the complex bureaucratic process of getting relief funds. Dunleavy described visiting villages across western Alaska after ex-typhoon Merbok. He said when he got to Stebbins, he and his team were “beyond impressed” when they saw Lockwood Katcheak’s level of organization.
“She answered the call like nobody,” Dunleavy said. “Because of her diligence, because of her hard work, because of her focus, I have absolutely no worry about Stebbins being in great shape in his recovery from the storm.”
The award is named in honor of the late Athabascan leader Shirley Demientieff, whom Rose Dunleavy described as “a compassionate advocate for all Alaskan people” who “cared for women, children, the homeless, the incarcerated, the forgotten.” She added that the award was reserved those who exemplified the best values of Alaska.
Lockwood Katcheak wasn’t the only attendee from the Norton Sound and Bering Strait region to bring home an award from the AFN convention.
On Friday afternoon, the AFN President’s awards were handed out in a ceremony.
Roy Ashenfelter of White Mountain received the Katie John Hunter-Fisher Award, which honors someone who is ensuring that the next generations of providers will carry on the traditions and customs that will sustain their extended family.
“This is a precious award—I’ll remember it forever,” he said.
Ashenfelter works for Kawerak assisting those with Native allotments and has been a longtime advocate for fish and caribou in the region. He thanked his current and former bosses at the organization, including his wife Loretta Bullard, Kawerak’s former president.
“She’s a super hunter,” Ashenfelter said. “She’s my hunting partner. Just to give you an idea, she’s got her own bear, she’s got her own moose, she got her own musk ox last winter.”
BSNC shareholder Elizabeth Aarons received the AFN President’s Health Award. Aarons is Inupiaq from Unalakleet and a registered nurse at the Alaska Native Medical Center in the oncology and infusion center. She also works in critical care and COVID-19 testing and results.
“I’m very honored to accept this award and have the privilege of feeling honored every day that I care for my fellow Alaska Native people,” Aarons said. “I want to take this opportunity to encourage Alaska Native people to pursue careers in health care. We hold a sense of who we are, and how to care for one another that cannot be taught in a textbook or classroom. But it can be shared through advocacy and our leadership.”
The Glenn Godfrey Law Enforcement Award went to retired Alaska State Trooper Brian Wassmann, the son of Suzanne Fagerstrom whose family has a lot of history in the Nome area.
“As you get older and you start to realize that you have more and more appreciation for folks that had some significance in how you view things and your progression and how you mature,” Wassmann said when accepting the award. He wanted to acknowledge two of his Elders in the room. “One of them happens to be my dad, Wendell Wassmann, the other happens to be my uncle Charles “Chuck” Fagerstrom. Their values and their character…you guys don’t know the influence that you have on me.”