Carol Kaach Ku.aakw (Sam) Breece
Cultural and funeral services will be held this weekend in Sitka for former resident Carol Kaach Ku.aakw (Sam) Breece, a member of the L’uknax.ádi/Raven Coho clan, who passed away Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, in Anchorage. She was 66.
Cultural services will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, with funeral services at St. Michael’s Cathedral at 3 p.m. She will be laid to rest at the Sitka Cemetery on Monday, Dec. 10.
Carol was born in Sitka on Oct. 9, 1952, the daughter of Katherine (Johnson) of the L’uknax.ádi clan and Henry Sam Sr. of the Kaagwaantaan clan. Her maternal grandparents were Tom and Lillian Johnson, and paternal grandparents were John and Isabel Sam.
She was raised within the Tlingit culture and came from Kayaash Ka Hit (the Platform, or Mother Coho House), on Katlian Street. She graduated from Sitka High School in 1971, then traveled all over the country for several years, eventually returning home and marrying Robert (Bob) Breece in 1992. They welcomed their son, Benjamin (Ben), the same year.
Carol loved her culture and was very active in Sitka’s Noow Tlein Dance group. She taught beading and sewing to Sitka Native Education Program and Mt. Edgecumbe High School students, and was a very committed and busy Coho. She sewed and beaded priceless regalia for family and friends, often for Sealaska’s biennial Celebration, pay-off parties, and holiday gift-giving. She was an accomplished seamstress, making clothes for herself, her siblings, and Ben until he was seven years old. She even made Barbie clothes for her niece, nice enough to be handed down to the next generation.
She put up subsistence foods, which she greatly enjoyed sharing.
The family jokes that while her seamstress skills were unmatched, Carol’s cooking was entertaining. Large family dinners included her overflowing pies covering oven burners which created billowing smoke. Her rice was either mushy or burned, her gravy lumpy, and one time her chili didn’t cook at all, since she forgot to turn on the stove. Her reputation was so well known that even with dish-washing gloves busy in a sudsy sink, she had to quickly exclaim her innocence over a random smoke alarm that had nothing to do with her dish-washing, “It wasn’t me this time!”
She easily laughed with the family through the never-ending teasing, but the arrangement worked well that she should sew while others cooked.
Over the years, she worked for the Sitka Hotel; Shee Atiká Inc.; and Prewitt’s school bus service.
She was a Sealaska shareholder; Shee Atiká Inc. shareholder; and a Sitka Tribe of Alaska member.
Pallbearers will be Edward Young, Henry Johnson, Paddy Hansen, Donny Garrity, Kyle Young, and Leonty Williams. Honorary pallbearers will be Ed Mercer Sr., Marla Kitka, Bob Breece, Andy Gamble, Lynn Alexander, James Button, Ronald James and John Howard.
Carol was preceded in death by her mother, father, step-father Herman Maberry, and very close Aunt Elizabeth Garrity, among others in her large family.
She is survived by her son, Ben Breece, and siblings Henry Sam Jr., Lillian Saldivar (Henry), Gilbert Sam Sr., Richard Sam, Catherine Lindoff, Betty Jo Edenshaw, Lorraine Maberry Sommers, Troy Cantrell (Cathe), Tommy Maberry, Sharon Maberry Kelly and Stacy Maberry (Kathy).\
Also surviving are several cousins, nieces, great-nieces, nephews, great-nephews, loving aunties, uncles, and dear friends close enough to be family. Her clan leader is her special Uncle Herman Davis Sr.
While her son struggles with her death, funds are immediately needed to bring her home from Anchorage for services and burial. A donation jar is at the Sitka Moose Lodge Family Center, and Ben is accepting donations at his ALPS Federal Credit Union savings account for those unable to attend the cultural services where contributions also will be graciously accepted.
Ben and family expressed thanks for the words of encouragement and strength, and welcome friends and family to the services.
