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Altona Brown
Altona Brown was born in 1904 near Kokrines, Alaska. One of sixteen children, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle in Nulato where she learned traditional subsistence activities. As a child, she survived polio and attended Mt Edgecumbe boarding school in Sitka, Alaska. At age twelve, she married John Slaveenga, and then later married "Dago Kid" Alexander Brown. She had three children, Walter, Marie, and Clyde. Altona was a good hunter and could cut 120 salmon an hour. She was still smoking fish and driving her own boats and snowmachines when she was in her eighties. Altona was known as a hard worker and cultural advisor and traditional knowledge teacher to younger people. In honor of her contibutions to her community, the health clinic in Ruby was named in her honor. Altona's life is described in the book entitled Altona Brown - Ruby: A Biography by Curt Madison and Yvonne Yarber (1983: Hancock House Publishers, Blaine, WA). (Photo courtesy of Claude Keogh.)