Auntie Min Bartels

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Wednesday, 30 April 2014 13:06

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A celebration of the life of Auntie Min Bartels will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, May 3, at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi community house.
Min walked into the woods April, 24, 2014. She was 61.
She was born Aug. 1, 1952, in Sitka, the daughter of  Agnes Marie (Nielsen) and Harry Bartels Sr. She spent most of her life in Sitka, except for eight years when the family lived in California.
She graduated from San Pedro (Calif.) High School, and in 1970 returned to Sitka, where she graduated from Sitka Community College.
In the early 1970s she was a dorm aide at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, and later worked with SEARHC alcohol treatment services and chemical dependence unit. She worked for TANF programs in Southeast villages with Tlingit & Haida.
On a statewide level she served on the Marine Mammal Commission, RuralCap board, the Harbor Seal Commission, UAF Rural Education Board, and the Board of Fisheries, where she held a subsistence seat.
Throughout her life Min fought for  subsistence rights and way of life. She took foods to Native elders, and she helped to pass on the culture at Dog Point Fish Camp – she loved the children, and they loved her.
Other activities  included performing with the Noow Tlein Dancers.
She was a member of Sitka Tribe of Alaska, Shee Atika Inc., and Sealaska.
Min retired from her work a few years ago for medical reasons.
Auntie Min – the name her family called her and which she preferred – is survived by her sisters, Doris Biggs of Sitka and Christine Bartels Clingenpeel of Long Beach, Calif.; brothers Douglas Bartels and Clyde Bartels, both of Sitka; and her life-partner, Meg Williams, Sitka.
Also surviving are her step-siblings Marge Bartels, Melissa Bartels and Sam Bartels; uncles James John Nielsen Sr. of Sitka and Frederick Archie Nielsen of Anchorage; aunts Katherine Williams of Sitka and Susan Tumbleson of Anchorage; nephews Richard Biggs Jr., John Bartels Jr., Steven Bartels, Scott Carroll, Shaun Carroll, Craig Carroll and Kenneth Bartels; nieces Kristen Bartels, Stefanie Clingenpeel and Mandy Clingenpeel; grandchildren Rikki Ann Biggs and William Jay Allen Biggs; and great-granddaughter Annmarie See.
Numerous other nieces and nephews in Tyonek and Anchorage, and cousins in Everett, Wash., and around Alaska also survive.
She was preceded in death by her parents Agnes (Nielsen) and Harry Bartels Sr.; brothers Carl David Bartels, John Bartels Sr. and Harry Jay Bartels Jr.; a niece, a nephew, and several uncles, aunts and cousins.
Those who wish to make contributions may send them to Doris Biggs, 2309 Halibut Point Road, Space 20, Sitka, AK 99835.