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TRIBUTE TO REVEREND ANNA FRANK
Reverend Frank was born in 1939 in Old Minto, 1 of 14 children. Growing up in a village of less than 200 people, all living a subsistence lifestyle, everyone in the village had to play their part to survive and thrive. Her mother taught her how to trap muskrats and set fish traps. She also had many other women in her life--her aunties, who mentored her, as she has since mentored hundreds of other young women.
After moving to Fairbanks, she married Richard Frank, a World War II veteran and respected Athabaskan leader who was also from Minto--and with whom she enjoyed a 57-year-long marriage. Together, Anna and Richard Frank raised four children. During this time, Reverend Frank earned her high school diploma. Her ability to persevere through adverse conditions instilled in her the idea that, ``You have to do things for yourself: don't live off people.''
Reverend Frank became a health aide and midwife in Minto--her grandmother and aunt were midwives who had passed their knowledge on to her--and again, she demonstrated her strength, compassion, and skill. She was hired by Tanana Chiefs Conference to create their first health education department in 1975.
Reverend Frank's job was to travel to the villages in the Interior and to talk to Alaska Natives about modern health and medicine. It was in this environment where Reverend Frank's experiences--the lessons she had learned from her elders and knowledge that she had gained from her western education--all came together. She found a way to reach out and get the help they needed, in a way that worked for them. Soon after, she was recruited to be a counselor, a position at which she excelled.
In preparation for Easter one year, Reverend Frank decided that instead of giving something up for Lent, she would volunteer at the village church. After that, she became a deacon. Nearly 10 years later, she was ordained as an Episcopalian priest, the first Alaska Native woman to be ordained. She worked for the diocese for over 12 years and traveled internationally on behalf of the church. For her work, Dr. Reverend Anna Frank was awarded an honorary doctorate of law by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 2019.
Reverend Franks spent the majority of her life doing what needed to be done. The countless problems she encountered, she tackled head on. Reverend Frank traveled around Alaska, to numerous Native villages, and held church services for anybody of any faith, who wanted to be ministered to.
``I understood two roads: our Native ways and the other world,'' she once said. She was, and still is, a bridge between the old and the new. She has served on numerous boards, including the Denakkanaaga Elders group, the Alaska Commission on Aging, as well as the Fairbanks Native Association. She continues her journey in ensuring that Alaska Natives are seen and heard. She prays with them and for them. Reverend Frank has given her all to enrich and enliven the lives of those around her.
She spoke to a reporter a few years ago about her lifelong journey.
``As long as you're breathing it's never too late,'' she said. ``So that's what I did in my life, I changed me, and I grew, and I tried to help others. From where I came from, I have moved mountains.''
We thank her for the mountains she has moved, her faith, her tireless service to our State and to her community and for all the many blessings she has bestowed on so many. ``Ana Baasee','' Reverend Anna.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 169, No. 109
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