Wilbur Brown is running for his second term on tribal council. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Wilbur Brown is running for his second term on the Tribal Council. Born in Kake, Brown has worked in a variety of fields throughout the region and state.
He says that this experience, coupled with the ability to ask tough questions, makes him a force for good on the Tribal Council.
Wilbur Brown has worn a lot of uniforms throughout his life. He was in the army for three years. He served as the police sergeant in Kake. And now, Brown is the assisted living coordinator at the Sitka Pioneer Home.
“When I first started working there, it was always button down shirt and a tie,” said Brown. “I came in to work one day in a polo – business casual, it’s a Friday – and one of the elderly ladies up there, she pulled me aside and said, “Are you okay?”
It was a lesson for Brown, who now wears a shirt and tie every day to work.
Brown said, “I remember my elder Jessie Johnnie telling me that, ‘You need to look the part if you’re going to be in the part. Don’t come up in jeans and shirt.'”
Brown is running for his second term on the Tribal Council. He was first elected in 2012 and has seen the Tribe stabilize financially. He wants to continue that growth by developing working partnerships within the region.
“There’s been a movement across the state, especially within Indian Country, about more collaboration and working together,” said Brown. “I think I could really be a strong key player in that as I’ve built with a lot of relations with Sealaska, Tlingit and Haida, and SEARHC.”
Many of these partnerships hinge on job creation. With Sealaska, Brown is exploring the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program, which would allow small businesses to bid on federal contracts. And with SEARHC, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Brown says the phone lines are open.
“I’m able to call the SEARHC board chair directly if we have concerns that are coming up or if there are issues floating to the top,” Brown said. “I’m able to call the SEARHC CEO. So I think even with that relationship, we’ve been able to ease a lot of tensions that we’ve had with them in the past.”
Brown is the Chair of the Health Committee and has a longstanding relationship with SEARHC as a former employee. When asked if hospital services will migrate to Juneau and the Mt. Edgecumbe facility close, his answer is firm.
KCAW: Is there a possibility it will leave Sitka?
Brown: No. It will be here. They do work for us as a tribe and we can ask them questions and hold them accountable in areas that we need to.
Brown has worked in health care for both the public and the private sector. He was the health disparities coordinator for the state. In 2007, he won the Alaska Health Achievement Award for developing tobacco-free policies in Southeast. Pushing this agenda forward wasn’t always easy. But Brown says he’s not afraid to look critically at prevailing systems and to question them. It’s a leadership style he says he brings to the Tribal Council.
“I’ve managed budgets. I’ve managed people,” said Brown. “When it comes down to it, the big thing for me is we’ve got to communicate with one another.”
Brown stresses this throughout our discussion.
“People want to know the real me that’s talking with them,” he said. “They don’t want some fake plastic person talking there. So, I try to bring who I am to the table every time.”
Wilbur Brown is on the ballot for tribal council, along with Rachel Moreno, Lillian Feldpausch, Michael Miller, and Bob Sam.
The Tribal Council elections will be held Tuesday November 11. You can find profiles of most candidates here.
