Gov. Sean Parnell has signed legislation honoring the late Tlingit elder Walter Soboleff.
HB217 designates Nov. 14 of each year as Dr. Walter Soboleff Day in Alaska. That date was Soboleff’s birthday.
The bill signing ceremony was held in a downtown Juneau park, not far from where work is underway on a cultural center bearing Soboleff’s name that is being built by the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
Soboleff’s children were on hand for Wednesday’s bill signing, which also featured Alaska Native dancing.
Soboleff died in 2011 at age 102. He was a respected spiritual leader, remembered by Parnell as a man who loved all Alaskans.
