FAIRBANKS — The small community of Nenana is mourning the passing of longtime Native son and leader Mitch Demientieff while making preparations for his Saturday funeral, burial and potlatch.

Around town cooks are preparing and delivering a variety of foods, such as duck and moose soups, salads and baked goods to feed the steady stream of visitors attending a daily tea at the Demientieff family home while paying respects to his widow, Kathleen.

Today, a site is being selected in the Native cemetery across the Nenana River on Toghotthele Hill where men of the community will begin the arduous tasks of clearing, shoveling snow, and chipping out a grave in the frozen ground.

Others are constructing a wooden coffin in the local boat shop. When completed, the coffin will be padded and lined with a soft, satiny fabric by women in the community.

And a few men will go hunting for moose to feed the hundreds of people who are expected to attend Demientieff’s funeral and potlatch.

The long-standing Native tradition of providing moose for a funerary feast was something Demientieff had participated in since he was a young man, said Victor Lord, who often hunted with Demientieff across the years on the same quest.

“Even when he was living out of town, he always came home and provided for potlatches,” Lord said.

A natural leader, Demientieff was elected chief of the Nenana Native village when he was 18, and a year later was elected president of Tanana Chiefs Conference.

“He was an amazing person,” said the Rev. Marilyn Coghill Duggar, who was two years behind Demientieff in the Nenana school. “He was an amazing source of information and had a wealth of knowledge.

In later years, Duggar worked with Demientieff on the Nenana School Board and on committee issues where, she said, he always had good ideas.

“He was a smart and an eloquent speaker and very sincere which let people believe him and trust him,” Duggar said.

“I can always see him with his hands out and saying ‘Let’s talk about this.’ That is part of why he would be so favored by his own people to be a leader. You would never find him speaking angrily. He was willing to work with things and at the same time protecting his own people and culture and respecting yours.”

But what impressed Duggar most was how Demientieff and Kathleen worked so hard to preserve their culture, their songs and their dances.

“They have taken such great efforts to go to the elders and listen with ears open and mouths shut to listen to what the elders teach them,” Duggar said.

“He was on a lot of committees but capturing his culture the way he did, I think is his biggest legacy.”

Demientieff walked both modern and traditional paths. He knew and understood the value of both and with Kathleen, his wife and partner of 24 years, worked to retain the old traditional ways.

“His goal was to save the culture,” Kathleen said. “I just stood behind him; that’s what chiefs’ wives do.”

Kathleen said their work was spurred on by their grandparents, and they taped and wrote it down, accumulating three books of stories, cultural information, Mitch’s history — everything from moose hunting to medicine people, to spooks to spaceships, to Bigfoot, traditional ways of running things and clans.

“Mitch had a lot of stories,” Kathleen said. One of her favorites was when he told about reading the dictionary and debating with another student in high school.

Later, when he was in the political realm, attending meetings and conferences, he would fall back on those skills.

“He’d hear words he didn’t know and write them down on his hand. Then he’d go back to his hotel and look them up to see what they meant and come back with fighting words to make the policies,” Kathleen said.

Another childhood friend and Native leader Orie Williams traces Demientieff’s early political interest to his youthful involvement with the American Indian Movement, complete with long hair and headband.

He recalled how Demientieff stopped a power line from being run through the Native cemetery.

“He organized young people and got it stopped,” Williams said.

“He got involved young and learned from others, like his sister Shirley (deceased). He wasn’t afraid to become involved and help other people. He was so quick on his feet and he grasped things so quickly. He learned fast and wasn’t afraid to ask the questions and lead the charge,” Williams said.

Demientieff, 57, served for many years on the Federal Subsistence Board.

“He was one of the best subsistence leaders from the word go,” Williams said. “He lived it, and loved it and protected it as best he could.”

Williams said Demientieff “was a hell of an athlete,” before he blew out his knees. He played basketball, baseball, coached, mentored and agitated. He was a rabid sports fan.

Williams was in Nenana Tuesday morning and shared breakfast with Demientieff, Kathleen and one of their daughters in their blended family of six children and 14 grandchildren.

“He was in a great mood,” Williams said.

Later, Demientieff went wood gathering and upon his return home died while resting of a massive heart attack.

Kathy Morgan describes her older brother as being “the rock.” “He always knew what to do,” she said.

“The one special thing I will always remember about Mitch is hunting with him. We had some of our best brother-sister talks during moose hunting season.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer, Mitch was right there with me. Next to my husband Pat, Mitch was there with me throughout it all. He came up one day and just sat and visited and we played Sorry and Parcheesi for a better part of a day. “

Jerry Isaac, TCC president, said Demientieff’s passing leaves a big void.

When Isaac was a young man, he said, Demientieff was among a number of top Interior Native leaders he looked up to.

“They were brilliant, full of life, hardworking,” Isaac said. “They had a powerful influence in how I looked at myself as a Native American man.

“I wanted to emulate how he spoke up and believed in the freedom of speech, and how he believed he was as good as anyone else.”

Demientieff served as TCC president from 1973-74 and again from 1987-1990 as well as on numerous local, state and national organizations during his lifetime.

“He is going to leave some big holes in Nenana and the Alaska community,” Duggar said.

Tea is being served today and Friday at the Demientieff family home in Nenana.

On Friday, a rosary will be recited at 5 p.m. at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, followed by a traditional potlatch and covered dish at the Tribal Hall.

Demientieff’s body will lie in state at the church until Saturday and a 10:30 a.m. family Mass.

Visitation will be at noon in the Nenana Tribal Hall, followed by a funeral service at 1 p.m. with burial at the Nenana Native Cemetery. A potlatch will take place in the evening at the hall.