Obituary - Dorothy A. Jorgensen

Sunday, March 18, 2001
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

Longtime Juneau resident Dorothy Ann Jorgensen died March 5, 2001, in Sitka.

Services will be noon Saturday, March 24, at Northern Light Church.

She was born Nov. 5, 1948, in Juneau.

She grew up in Juneau and attended local schools, graduating from Juneau­Douglas High School in 1967. She studied business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and ran the mile in track.

Her Tlingit name was Shaaw-Daa-Geiy. She was a citizen of the Tlingit and Haida Nation and a tribal member of the Gaa Naax Teidi (Whale House) family from Klukwan. She was the daughter of the Killer Whale Fin House in Klukwan, and a Naakaani (in law) of the Thunderbird Clan.

She loved the outdoors and fishing, hunting, camping and the subsistence lifestyle. She enjoyed putting up Native food, berry picking and smoking salmon. As a girl in the 1960s, she fished for king crab with her dad, which they donated to Minnie Field's Children's Home. She sang and traveled with the original Juneau Native Prayer Group. She enjoyed skiing and biking. Her friends wrote that she was loyal and compassionate.

She was a shareholder in Goldbelt, Inc. and Sealaska Corp. She worked as a full-time mother, and as research consultant with Katzeek and Associates. She also worked with Sealaska Heritage Foundation, and helped develop the scholarship program there.

Her maternal grandparents came from St. George Island in the Pribilofs. Along with other Aleut families, they were forcibly relocated in the early 1940s from the Aleutians to Southeast Alaska.

She is survived by her husband Edwin Miller of Illinois, her children Margaret Ruth, Gabriel, Shaan Jiaa Eesh, Brian, Aaron J. and Israel G. Katzeek, all of Juneau and James, John and Jeremy Katzeek of Seattle, David Katzeek of Hoonah and Luke Katzeek of Anchorage; also her granddaughter Jamie Katzeek of Seattle; her sister Ida (and Gina) Darrow of Missouri, her brothers Robert Chercasen of Kansas, Dan (and Sue) Jorgensen and Gene Jorgensen of Juneau and George Jorgensen; her cousins Olga Makaily and Louise Cochran of Juneau; her nieces Christine Darrow of Missouri and Ursula Jorgensen of Juneau and nephews Bobbie Slauter, Jessie Darrow of Nebraska and Jason Prokopiof of New Mexico, and her grandparents Stefanida and Peter Prokopiof.

Her tribal relations include Tom and Smith Katzeek, Ruth Kasko and the late George Katzeek of Klukwan. Her Raven grandparents were the late James Klanott and Austin Hammond.

She was preceded in death by her mother Helen Prokopiof, her father Christopher Jorgensen and her other father Robert Louden, her brother William Prokopiof and James Katzeek.

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