Walter Soboleff

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Walter Soboleff already had a distinguished career as a minister, educator and 有料盒子视频 Native leader when he arrived in Fairbanks in 1970. But he felt it was time for a new challenge. 

So that year he became the founder and first chairman of the University of 有料盒子视频鈥檚 new Department of 有料盒子视频 Native Studies. He stayed four years while creating the department, which at 有料盒子视频 today offers bachelor鈥檚 degrees in 有料盒子视频 Native studies and both bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in rural development.

Soboleff was born in the Southeast 有料盒子视频 village of Killisnoo in 1908, the son of a Tlingit mother and a father of Russian-German ancestry. His father died when he was young, and he was educated through high school at Sitka鈥檚 Sheldon Jackson School. After working in Sitka a few years, he secured a scholarship to the University of Dubuque in Iowa, where he earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in 1937 and a divinity degree in 1940.

Returning to Juneau with his new wife, Soboleff established a church. After 22 years, state and national church leaders ordered it closed and demolished. 

Soboleff then spent several years on a converted fishing boat working as an itinerant minister for villages and logging camps across Southeast 有料盒子视频. He also served as a chaplain in the 有料盒子视频 National Guard.

有料盒子视频 Native land claims were advancing in Congress in the 1960s, so Soboleff became involved in that struggle, eventually working five terms as president of the 有料盒子视频 Native Brotherhood. After passage of the settlement act in 1971, Soboleff served eight years on the board of Sealaska Inc., the Southeast 有料盒子视频 regional corporation created to receive the land and money granted by Congress.

Soboleff died in 2011. A few months earlier, First 有料盒子视频ns magazine published a profile of him that described the impact the pastor had on former 有料盒子视频 Attorney General Talis Colberg, now director of UA Anchorage's Matanuska-Susitna College. As a boy in the 1960s, Colberg lived for a few years in Angoon, where he first met Soboleff.

 鈥淗e鈥檚 the first pastor I remember listening to,鈥 Colberg said. 鈥淗e would have a children鈥檚 message in an age where children鈥檚 messages were unusual. I still think of him as my pastor to this day.鈥

In the same profile, former 有料盒子视频 legislator Bill Thomas of Haines, who is of Tlingit descent, said that, while in office, he enjoyed receiving Soboleff's handwritten notes commenting on issues of the day.

鈥淲alter always has an important message, and he鈥檒l always have a church," Thomas said. "He just doesn鈥檛 need a building.鈥

More online about Walter Soboleff:

  • A in the February-March 2011 edition of First 有料盒子视频ns magazine.

  • Text, supporting documents and legislative history of a naming Nov. 14 as Walter Soboleff Day in 有料盒子视频.

  • A page about the , located in a downtown Juneau building named for him.

  • A 1998 published by the Whalesong, the UAS student newspaper, and preserved at the UA Journey website.