Jones
was born in Ketchikan in 1931 to Joel and Elizabeth Baines. Her Tlingit
name was Jaad-gaa and she was Tlingit/Tsimshian from Cape Fox
(Neix.adi). Her mother was Tlingit and her father
was Tsimshian.
She attended primary school in Metlakatla and then went to Sheldon Jackson school in Sitka.
"One of my brothers was to be a senior at Sheldon Jackson," she told the
Ketchikan Daily News in 2008. "So I talked my mother into letting me go
up for seventh and eighth grade."
She stayed for high school as well and graduated as the salutatorian at
Sheldon Jackson in 1949. After high school she worked as a nurse's aide
in the tuberculosis ward at Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. She started her
post-secondary studies in medical transcription
and terminology via correspondence classes and then attended George Fox
College in Oregon before completing her Associates Degree at Sheldon
Jackson Junior College.
In Sitka in March of 1951, she married Willard Jones
of Kasaan whom she had known since high school at Sheldon Jackson. They
would be married for 56 years until his death in 2007. Over the next
several years, they lived in Kasaan, Ketchikan, Metlakatla and
Sitka. Two children, Eleanor and Laird, were born. In 1961, they moved
to Oakland, California where Willard completed his studies in diesel
mechanics in four years.
"Willard enjoyed the area and was ready to stay there," Mary
told the Daily News in 2008. "We were like tourists the whole time we
were down there. we did a lot of driving around. But the kids kept
asking 'when are we going home, when are we going home?' "
The family returned to Southeast where Williard was a fisherman, diesel
mechanic and a teacher at both Ketchikan High School and the Ketchikan
Community College.
Willard became involved in the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1965 and Mary joined the Alaska Native Sisterhood the next year. Mary Jones
told the Daily News that the big project they worked on with ANB/ANS
was the purchase of the land on Deermont that eventually
became the first offices for the Ketchikan Indian Corporation and is now
the KIC training and education center. The federal Bureau of Indian
Affairs school had been on the site for decades and was scheduled to be
demolished. ANB took ownership of the site and
leased it KIC.
Mary
spent 20 years working in the health care field as a records clerk,
secretary, office manager, transcriptionist and records tech. She
continued her community interests by serving on a wide variety of boards
such as the Indian Health Services Native Health
Board, the Alaska Native Health Board, the Health Systems Agency Board,
the SouthEast Alaska Health Consortium Board, the Sheldon Jackson
Teacher Aide Board and the KAVILCO Board. She was also the Ketchikan IRA
Council Chair and a Central Council Tlingit Tribes
of Alaska Delegate.
Mary
was working as a medical transcriptionist at the Ketchikan General
Hospital in 1967 when the ANB/ANS convention was held in Ketchikan. She
agreed to take the minutes.
"I had no idea what parliamentary procedure was then but I ran and won
the office of Grand Secretary," she said. "Then in 1968 it was my first
experience with convention in Juneau and they just threw me to the
lions. It was much faster. Fast, fast, fast."
She would spend the next six years as grand camp secretary. In those
days, ANS had a "crew" of typists on hand to produce documents during
the convention.
"There were no computers," she said in 2008. "So we just had two steno
notebooks and we just wrote and wrote and wrote. And you would send your
used one (book) to the boiler room (for the typists) and start on your
second book. "
She said that her time listening to the discussions the conventions
taught her about fisheries, education, health care and other important
ANB/ANS issues.
She was a lifetime member of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp #14 in
Ketchikan and served numerous terms as either president or secretary.
"Sister Mary"
as she was called was also a six-term secretary for the ANS Grand Camp
and served three terms as Grand
Camp president. In 2007, she was named ANS Grand Camp President
Emeritus, which is considered the highest honor that ANS bestows. Mary was the first Ketchikan resident to be named president emeritus
In 2008, she was among the Native leaders honored by the US Forest
Service for their help designing the Alaska Native historical and
curltural exhibits at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center.
In 1984, she created the Southeast Alaska Native Women's Conference
which brought together women from through the region to discuss Alaska
Native issues and concerns.
Edward Thomas - in a statement last week on Facebook - noted that Jones was invaluable to him as his administrative assistant when he was the Ketchikan Indian Education Program Director in the 1970s.
"Together we not only set up an Indian Education Program at each school
(we) set up and after school and summer cultural classes," he said. "We
also re-stablished the local ANB and ANS, the local Tlingit Haida
Community Council and the Ketchikan Indian Corporation
(now Community). Through those experiences she taught me the importance
of keeping good records and minutes of meetings, rules of order,
organizational history and who was important in the Native community for
getting things done."
He called Jones a "close friend and an inspiration."
"Our lives are better for the life of Mary Jones," he concluded.
Paula Shedlosky Peterson of Kasaan remembered serving on a board with Jones that brought together various Native health committees from Prince of Wales, Metlakatla and Ketchikan.
"She was very sweet and was very passionate about providing the best
health care to all tribal citizens," Shedlosky said this week. "When she
spoke about health issues you could see the passion and how dedicated
she was. She always was positive, productive
and proactive."
Nancy Stone Hudson - a former Ketchikan School Board member who now is an educator in Arizona - agreed.
"Mary
was a role model for many," she said this week. "She was a strong woman
with abundant leadership and service. She exemplified to me what strong
leadership looks like. I carried those lessons through my teacher and
principalship. She and Willard encouraged
me to run for school board back then."
Jones also valued the personal touch, Hudson noted
"Mary
was kind," she said. "She was always a gracious hostess as was her mom.
When visiting, she served yummy treats and foods with tea. In
hindsight, I see how endearing those visits were. That tradition, I
believe, has been lost through the generations."
Hudson also noted that both Mary and Willard became interested in genealogy.
"Family and friendships were important to her," Hudson said. "Her
tenacity in creating our family tree was incredible. She put a lot of
work into it by studying, researching, and visiting countless museums."
Diane Douglas-Willard also noted the genealogy became a passion for the Jones' especially in their later years. Her father had attended Sheldon Jackson with both Mary and Willard.
"She even went to the East Coast (for genealogy purposes)," Douglas-Willard said this week. "Mary was always so nice. Always had something good to say. But she wasn't a pushover. Mary was always at the clinic where she worked, she did good things there. She
will be missed by everyone she was in touch with."
Irene Dundas said this week that Mary Jones
was descended from Chief Ebbits and the Kinninook family of the Tongass
Village Taanta Kwaan on one side of her family and the Cape Fox Village
Saanya Kwaan as well
"Mary was passionate about her family lineage and was extremely detailed in her research," Dundas said, adding that Mary
had worked with Ester Shea, Emma Williams and Dr. Judith Berman to
trace the Taanta Kwaan Ganaxadi ineage all the way back to 1550. "She
was very thorough, to me she was serious because we worked on serious
projects. She was very thoughtful. I loved working with her because she
was so organized and sharp as a tack. Very punctual, committed and very
passionate for the care of her Native people,
family, and friends."
Dundas that Jones'
research discovered that a great aunt had been sent to and subsequently
died at the Carlise Indian School in Pennsylvania and that she also
helped Dundas research her own family.
"Even though Mary
lived in the same community as me, she wrote many letters to me and
often there were little notes attached to a letter with a scarf," Dundas
said. "The notes had specific explanations of family lineages and
names, dates, she even sent me original
documents such as court records, affidavits and tape recordings and so
on. Mary
also very direct with me about the state of Tlingit culture and
peoples' understanding of protocols and the ways that she was taught or
how she remembered them. It was always serious
business when we had those chats."
Eleanor Hadden, Mary's daughter, said Mary was always there for her family as well.
"Mom
expected us to do our best at all times, to remember to thank people for
their help, and their comfort," Hadden said this week. " She was a
loving mother, grandmother and loved her great-grandchildren
(they gave her great joy while she was here in Anchorage). She worried
about us, to make sure we were all safe and happy. She taught me to be
independent and to fight injustices. Mom made sure we knew where our
family came from and who our relatives are, to
take care of our Elders. She encouraged me to finish met college
education and helped me with my masters thesis of which she was a
subject. She made sure she was at all of our accomplishments. She made
sure we knew that she loved us by being there when we needed
her. She would make daily calls to ensure that we were home, safe and
sound."
Hadden said that there are two scholarships in Mary Jones' name. One with Ketchkan Indian Community for health related training and one from the ANS Camp #14 for education.
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