wfn.org | Highlights of The History of Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church - part 2

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19-March-1999 
99105 
 
    Highlights of the 100-Year History of Barrow's 
    Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church - Part Two 
 
    compiled by John Filiatreau 
                                
1935 - Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post are killed in a plane 
crash about 12 miles southwest of Barrow; Greist prepares their bodies for 
shipment home. 
 
1936 - The Greists retire and return to their home in Indiana. 
 
1937 - The Rev. and Mrs. Fred Klerekoper move into the manse. The Rev. 
Klerekoper serves until 1945. 
 
During World War II, the Barrow missionary begins ministering to the (U.S. 
Navy) SeaBees at Camp Barrow. 
 
1941 - Services held in the home of Andrew Akootchook are the beginnings of 
the Kaktovik Presbyterian congregation of Barter Island. (Of the 43 Eskimos 
living on Barter Island, no fewer than 29 belong to Akootchook's family.) 
 
1944 - Roy Ahmaogak is licensed as a lay preacher and assigned to the 
Wainwright church. He and Klerekoper collaborate on a phonetic alphabet and 
dictionary of the Inupiaq language. 
 
1945 - The Klerekopers close up shop and are succeeded by Rev. and Mrs. 
Samuel Lee. Ahmaogak attends the General Assembly and stays on in "the 
lower 48" for a year of special work and study. 
 
1947 - Ahmaogak is ordained and becomes missionary pastor of Olgonik 
Presbyterian Church in Wainwright. 
 
1949 - Pilings are set for a new, 450-seat sanctuary, the church that 
stands today. 
 
1950 - A New Jersey doctor presents a small airplane to the Utqiagvik 
church, which wants to launch an airborne ministry to other isolated 
villages along the coast. It turns out that the Rev. Lee isn't experienced 
enough as a pilot to undertake these flights. 
 
1951 - Dr. William C. Wartes, a former World War II combat pilot, replaces 
Lee and takes to the air. 
 
1951 - Shortly before his scheduled ordination to the ministry, Native lay 
preacher Andrew Akootchook is shot and killed in a hunting accident. A 
witness writes, "He was buried in six feet of blue ice, and will be there a 
thousand years from now - just as good as the day we put him in." 
 
1953 - Utqiagvik Church undertakes a mission to Anaktuvuk Pass. 
 
1954 - Samuel Simmonds, a Barrow native, is commissioned as a lay preacher. 
 
1955 - The church's "air force" steps up to a six-seat Cessna. 
 
Mid-1950s - Wartes and Simmonds, with the help of several youngsters in the 
congregation, plan and execute the colorful mural that still graces the 
rear wall of Utqiagvik Church. It portrays the preaching of the Gospel 
around the globe to people of all generations and all cultures. 
 
1958 - Wartes draws up a design for a chapel at Anaktuvuk Pass. Local 
Eskimos like it so much they immediately begin hauling logs in by dogsled 
from forests 40 miles away. Later in the year Wartes resigns and is 
replaced as senior pastor by the Rev. John R. Chambers. 
 
1959 - Alaska becomes the 59th state of the Union. 
 
1961 - Simmonds is named associate pastor. 
 
1963 - Ground is broken for Kaktovik United Presbyterian Church of Barter 
Island. (Worship commences in 1964, and the congregation organizes in 1966 
with 45 charter members who join by transfer of letter from Utqiagvik 
Church.) Total membership of churches at Barrow, Anaktuvuk Pass and 
Kaktovik reaches 755. 
 
1965 - Chambers resigns. 
 
1966 - The Alaskan Federation of Natives is formed to press natives' claims 
to Alaska land. Eskimos of the Arctic coast and Northwest Alaska form the 
Arctic Slope Native Association, one of the federation's more radical 
member organizations. The first executive director of the native 
association is Eben Hopson, a Barrow native and Presbyterian elder who 
later will become executive director of the Federation of Natives. 
 
1968 - A Christian Education building is constructed near the Utqiagvik 
Church. 
 
June 1968 - Native groups have staked claims to about 340 million of 
Alaska's 375 million acres. The Arctic Slope Native Association presses its 
case with the help of a $95,000 gift from the United Presbyterian Church. 
 
1968 - Simmonds becomes the first native pastor of the Barrow Church. 
 
1971 - The U.S. Congress passes the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 
The legislation grants Alaskan natives 40 million acres of land, including 
mineral rights, and about $1 billion in cash over 20 years. The settlement 
also creates 13 regional corporations and about 220 village corporations to 
control the land and monies granted to the natives. The Arctic Slope 
Regional Corporation opens offices in the Christian Education building of 
Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church. 
 
1971 - James Nageak, an Inupiat from Barrow, is commissioned as a lay 
preacher. 
 
1972 - Rev. Charles White becomes pastor. 
 
1972 - The people of Barrow and four other North Slope villages vote to 
form a local government that takes in 56.5 million acres and includes the 
Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Charter members of the 88,000-square-mile North 
Slope Borough say their principal goal is to finance regional high schools. 
(Since the days of Sheldon Jackson, native children wanting more than a 
grade-school education have been forced to travel a thousand miles or more 
to schools in "the lower 48.") When the new borough tries to borrow money, 
the oil companies threaten to take their deposits out of any bank that 
lends money to the Eskimo borough. One of the groups that comes to the 
natives' aid is the United Presbyterian Church, which lends the borough 
$150,000. (Today the borough employs more than 700 people and has an annual 
budget of more than $100 million. The North Slope Borough is the only 
Eskimo settlement in the world that has full political self-rule. It also 
has excellent schools (with classes in Inupiaq), a state-of-the-art 
long-term medical care facility, an excellent Search and Rescue squad and 
reliable underground utilities.) 
 
1973 - Elder Nelson Ahvakana, an Inupiat, is installed as a commissioned 
lay pastor. 
 
1974 - John Upicksoun of the Arctic Slope Native Association hand-delivers 
a check in the amount of $245,000 to the General Assembly of the United 
Presbyterians - repayment of a gift of $95,000 and a loan of $150,000. 
 
1976 - James Nageak, having gradauted from Dubuque Theological Seminary, is 
ordained, becoming the first fully seminary trained Inupiat Presbyterian 
minister. 
 
1977 - The first Inuit Circumpolar Conference is held in Barrow, with 
representatives from Greenland, Canada and the United States. The 
Presbyterian Church is asked to send official observers. Two hundred 
delegates from Alaska, Canada and Greenland attend. The Soviet government 
won't allow Siberian Eskimos to come. 
 
1987 - The Revs. James and Willa Roghair are installed as pastors. Willa 
Roghair serves until her death in 1994; James resigns in 1995. 
 
1990 - Mary Ann Warden, the first native woman candidate for the ministry, 
is ordained and called as associate pastor of a church in Juneau. 
 
1998 - The Rev. Michael Stuart becomes pastor of Utqiagvik Prestyterian; 
Rev. Warden becomes associate pastor. Membership is a little over 300. 

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