Ernestine Hayes

Ernestine Saankaláxt Hayes (born 1945) belongs to the Kaagwaaataan clan, also known as the wolf house, representing the Eagle side of the Tlingit Nation. Hayes is a Tlingit author and an Emerita retired professor at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Juneau, Alaska. As an author, Hayes is a (Tlingit) memoirist, essayist, and poet. She was selected as the Alaska State Writer Laureate in 2016 and served in that position until 2018.
Early life.
Ernestine Hayes, with ancestors of Tlingit descent from the Island of Sitka, was born in Juneau Indian Village. Hayes was raised by her mother and grandmother in Juneau, where she spent her first fifteen years learning about her heritage, the Tlingit language, and the traditions of Alaskan Natives. At the age of fifteen, Hayes and her mother moved out of Alaska, to California.
Career.
Hayes returned to Alaska twenty-five years later, in 1985, where Hayes graduated "magna cum laude" from the University of Alaska Southeast"." In 2003, she graduated from University of Alaska Anchorage with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and Literary Arts. Almost immediately after earning her MFA, she began teaching at the University of Alaska Southeast, while also serving as associated faculty for the University of Alaska Anchorage's low-residence MFA program. Hayes actively promotes Native rights and culture, and strives to help decolonize the institution. For just over a year, she wrote a column, "Edge of the Village," for the "Juneau Empire". As State Writer Laureate, from 2016 to 2018, Hayes visited many small communities of Alaska, like Seward and Seldovia, where she held two-day creative writing workshops. Right now, Hayes is working on a her third Alaskan Native Memoir.
Reviews.
Blonde Indian.
"Blonde Indian," a memoir of Hayes's childhood in Southeast Alaska is written with traditional Tlingit stories, fictional character, and historic moments. "Blonde Indian" is the memoir of Tlingit writer and story-teller Ernestine Hayes. Because of Hayes' fair hair, her grandmother sang out to her "Blonde Indian, blonde Indian" as Hayes danced along. The fictional tale of “Tom,” coincides with an experience similar to Hayes, an Alaskan Native child who is separated from their traditional lifestyle and heritage. In "Blonde Indian," Hayes elaborates on her experiences in Western society, narrating her lived experience and traditional stories to honors her Tlingit ancestors and tradition, while shedding light on the impact of colonization on indigenous children and families. "Blonde Indian" has received much critical acclaim. It was awarded the American Book Award in 2007.
The Tao of Raven.
A continuation of her work in "Blonde Indian, The Tao of Raven: an Alaskan Native Memoir" weaves together traditional Alaskan Native storytelling and life lessons, with personal memories from Hayes, and legends of the Raven, and the Spider. Thematically, the book centers around redefining the meaning of “treasure,” a word that Hayes explained as the time we’ve spent on the earth, rather than any material commodity.