Emma Widmark Papers, 1980-2007

Title: Emma Widmark Papers, 1980-2007

ID: MS/014

Creator: Widmark, Emma Georgenia (1940-2008)

Extent: 4.0 Boxes

Date Acquired: 01/05/2009

Languages: English [eng]

This four-box collection contains the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) papers of Emma G. Widmark dating from the 1980s to 2007. Her papers consist of her correspondence for ANS (1987-2007), newsletters of the ANS Executive Committee entitled Executive Echoes (1995-2006), meeting minutes of ANS Juneau Camp 2 (2000-2001), ANS Saxman Camp 14 (1999) and those of the ANB and ANS Executive Committee. Also included are papers from the ANS and ANB Executive Committee work at the Grand Camp Conventions, including resolutions, executive committee binders with minutes, correspondence, and other. Lastly, the collection contains a mixture of Widmark’s working papers, which consist of notes, programs, a few scattered reports, and other papers documenting the work of ANS during this period. Overall, this collection documents aspects of the labors of ANS Executive Committee and the Juneau ANS camp.

While this collection documents various aspects of ANS, a significant portion of this collection documents the ANB & ANS verbal conflict with Juneau’s Territorial Sportsman during the mid 1990s. This conflict occurred as ANB & ANS felt the Territorial Sportsman was supporting legislation that hurt landless Tlingit in Southeast Alaska, whereas the Territorial Sportsman felt they supported legislation that enhanced sportsman’s rights in Southeast Alaska. As result, ANB & ANS encouraged a boycott of the annual Salmon Derby, the proceeds for which went toward scholarships. The conflict was later resolved and documents (correspondence, working papers, and clippings) in the collection discuss this process.

Note: Researchers further interested in researching Emma Widmark should be aware that additional Emma Widmark ANS papers are held by the heirs of Emma Widmark, including by Edith Jacobson of Point Hope, Alaska.

Emma Georgenia Widmark, a Tlingit Native American Indian, was born April 14, 1940 in Ketchikan, Alaska to Dr. Alfred Widmark, Sr. and Carmel Demmert Widmark. Widmark was a Tlingit Indian, her father of the Kaagwaantaan Clan and her mother of the L’eeneidi Clan. Widmark’s Tlingit name was Kinle.

During her youth Widmark grew up in Klawock and Ketchikan, but later moved to Juneau in 1967, where she lived for the remainder of her life. After graduating from high school, Widmark enrolled in Pepperdine University, but transferred to Oregon State University from where she obtained a B.S. Degree in Home Economics. She later earned a Masters of Education from Harvard University.

Throughout Widmark’s life she remained a dedicated educator. She worked for the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension as a home economist, and frequently traveled through rural Alaska for her work.

Widmark was also very active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS), serving in various ANS ranking positions and as Grand President. Widmark also created the ANS Executive Committee newsletters, Executive Echoes, from the late 1990s to mid 2000s. She remained active in ANS and in her efforts to encourage education until her death on July 7, 2008.

Source: Kimberly Metcalfe, In Sisterhood: The History of Camp 2 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood (Juneau: Hazy Island Books, 2008).

Acquisition Source: Edith Jacobsen

Acquisition Method: The material in the collection was donated to SHI by the heirs of Emma Widmark’s estate, represented by Edith Jacobsen, on Jan. 5, 2009. Accession number 2009.004.