Bob Sam is running for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Tribal Council. He first served in the mid-90s. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Bob Sam is one of five candidates running for four open seats on the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Tribal Council. He is the only candidate running who is not an incumbent. The last time he served on the council was from 1994 to 1998. At age 60, he returns to the ballot an older man. And, if elected, he says, a more wise and prudent council member.
Bob Sam wanted part of our interview to take place outside, among the moss-covered headstones of the Russian Orthodox Cemetery. The clearing is lush and filled with bird song. He points upward to a Raven’s nest.
“That’s a fourth-generation nest of the Raven I made friends with 30 years ago,” Sam said.
Sam points to a raven’s nest amid the three branches. In his 30 years of work restoring the cemetery, he has seen four generations of ravens inhabit the nest. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
For the past 30 years, Sam has been restoring and protecting the local cemeteries of Sitka. It’s his life’s work, something he was trained to do as a kid.
“You know most young men, they want to know, ‘Who am I and what am I going to do in life?'” Sam says, adding, “I never had that.”
Sam says that each family used to have someone to take care of graves, but as people moved away, this role fell by the wayside. Not Sam. He stayed in Sitka, unearthing headstones once forgotten and washing them by hand. He has worked with the state to repatriate bodies, returning them to their place of origin, and helped families rebury their relatives.
“Somebody has to do this work,” Sam says. “Somebody needs to be available to handle bodies to make sure that they’re properly respected. A sign of a healthy community is a clean cemetery.”
Maintaining a connection with the past, as a way of enriching the present — that’s Sam’s philosophy in a nut shell and one he says he would bring to the Tribal Council.
When Sam first saw the Orthodox Cemetery, many of the headstones were knocked over and buried under the earth. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
As he considers serving again, he says the biggest challenge is providing a secure financial base for Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
Sam says, “Keeping the quality of services available for the tribal citizens is a balancing act that for me, the tribal citizen comes first.”
To that end, Sam says his biggest priority will be finding ways for tribal citizens to thrive, especially in the job market.
“We have to be very innovative. Whether it’s tool making or a skill that you have known your whole life and take for granted, you could possibly use it to thrive.”
Sam also sees opportunities for creating more jobs in tourism and subsistence. But he stresses that simply creating jobs is not enough and considers cultural and spiritual fulfillment equally important
“We don’t do enough for young people,” Sam says. “We have a tendency to let them grow up on their own out there, but there’s a lot of good mentors who have good life skills to share with young people. We should do more of that.”
He notes that elders were once more active participants in the council. Now that many have passed away, he considers it his duty as an older person to share the wisdom he’s gathered.
“It’s not the 15 minute of fame,” he says. “It’s the background work that’s most important. You’re uplifting the tribal citizen to service work.”
And to those tribal citizens, Sam has a message:
“We can do it. If we put our mind to it, we can do it. We are contributing members of society and we should remain that way.”
Bob Sam is on the ballot for tribal council, along with Wilbur Brown, Lillian Feldpausch, Michael Miller, and Rachel Moreno. Tribal Citizens can visit the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi between 8 AM and 8 PM on Election Day, November 11th to vote. Absentee ballots are available at the Sikta Tribe of Alaska. Voting opened yesterday and will continue through the 10th.
