Alan Dennis, 1991-2009

By Heather Lende

Friends and family from around Alaska gathered in the Karl Ward gymnasium to pay respects to Alan LeRoy Dennis Saturday afternoon at an Alaska Native Brotherhood service followed by a Christian memorial.

Dennis, 17, died in a canoe accident May 6. “Tell your children you love them often,” mother Ponda Dennis told mourners. “I’m still saying, ‘I love you, Alan son,’” she said.

Neighbor and music teacher Nancy Nash played selections that were Alan’s favorites in the five years he took lessons with her. She said he would often arrive at lessons fresh from snowboarding or some other outdoor activity, and that he was very musical and especially fond of classic rock.

“I enjoyed Alan’s presence and always appreciated that even in his teen years, when it might not be cool to acknowledge adults in the company of peers, he would wave or say hello,” Nash said.

Ray Dennis said his son liked to make people around him happy by telling jokes or making faces. He enjoyed “cutting up, skipping school, and hanging out with his friends,” Dennis said.

When Alan was younger he played little league baseball and youth basketball. Growing up on the waterfront helped make him a skilled boatman and fearless outdoorsman, his father said, noting that he tended his crab pots using a canoe.

He also played basketball, soccer, and poker, skateboarded, and was skilled on computers.

Alan could spend all Saturday morning watching cartoons and that on his last ferry ride with the basketball team he chose to sit with his grandmother rather than hang out with friends, his parents said.

“He respected his elders and cared for all his grandparents,” his father said.

Ponda Dennis said Alan was “a good son, and when he wanted to go somewhere or spend the night out, he would say,  ‘Hey, I’ll bring you three loads of (fire)wood before I go.’”

Alan LeRoy Dennis was born Nov. 18, 1991 in Anchorage to Raymond T. Dennis Jr., and Pondador (Smith) Dennis, and moved to Haines in June of 1999 and lived in the Raven House, because his father is the Yeil hit sa’ aati or clan leader.

 His Tlingit name was KuHaanx and he was from the Chookaneidi (Glacier Bay People) and a child of the Lukaax.adi Yadi (Sockeye clan) and a grandchild of the Daklaweidi Dachxank (Killer Whales).

On his mother’s side he was an Eyak, and his great-grandmother was Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last speaker of the Eyak language.  He was also a junior member of the Haines ANB Camp #5.

Ray Dennis said while his son was recovering from substance abuse, Alan met with him and the men of the tribe every two weeks and became more in tune with his cultural heritage. “He started to understand what it means to be a Native, and rather than feel he was not going anywhere, he started to see his future,” Ray Dennis said.

After briefly returning to Haines High this winter, he chose to pursue a GED. Stephanie Scott administers the program, which she said is not easy. “I carefully explained the process to Alan but he was undaunted. He scheduled our first appointment, doggedly but ever so politely leaving messages for me and arranging a time to meet. I knew immediately that he had the persistence necessary.”

Alan Dennis is survived by Raymond T. Dennis Jr. of Haines, mother Pondador Dennis Smith of Palmer, brother Raymond T. Dennis III of Haines and sister Melina Y. Dennis of Palmer; grandparents and step-grandparents Florence and Sergius Sheakley of Juneau, Leonard and Martha Smith of Anchorage, Merry and William Pellmen of Wasilla, Raymond T. Dennis Sr. and Marie Dennis of Dot Lake, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.