Iñupiat leader and whaling captain Oliver Leavitt dies at 79

Whaling captain and Iñupiat leader Oliver Aveogan Leavitt has died at 79. He is remembered by his friends and fellow Alaska Native leaders as a giver, a cultural leader and a uniting force.

After struggling with health issues for several years, Leavitt died in his hometown of Utqiagvik surrounded by his family, his longtime friend Willie Iggiagruk Hensley said. Leavitt was known as not only a prominent political and corporate leader, but as a revered whaler and skin boat builder.

“He was also a cultural leader,” said Hensley, another Alaska Native leader and one of the founders of the Alaska Federation of Natives. “People like him are very rare because he was firmly rooted in the language and the culture of the Iñupiaq people but he also became effective as a business person, as a political person.”

Throughout his life, Leavitt served in many leadership positions across the state and was a key player in the negotiation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. He was treasurer of the Arctic Slope Native Association for 24 years, a board member of the Alaska Federation of Natives for 28 years and the first president of the North Slope Borough Assembly. He was also a member of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and a founding director of the First Alaskans Institute, from which he received special recognition for his service in October 2022.

“Oliver was a giver,” said former ASRC executive vice president of External Affairs Richard Glenn. “He worked for his communities.”

Growing up in Utqiagvik for most of his childhood, Leavitt used to help his family by running their dog team to scout the coastline for wood to burn, Hensley said. He knew what it takes to survive in the Arctic, and later in life, he was driven to make the life of the Iñupiaq people easier, Hensley said.

“He comes from that world, and he knew how hard it was, and he wanted to make life better,” Hensley said, “for his own people to have an easier life.”

After serving in the Army during the Vietnam War and traveling to teach across the country, Leavitt came back to Utqiagvik and started by working with youth. Then his career in municipal government began.

From coastal dredging to runway projects, building new schools and creating opportunities for North Slope residents, Leavitt’s fingerprints are on a multitude of projects, as well as provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act amendments.

“The growth of the communities, the building up of infrastructure, the recognizing of development and subsistence, the need for both,” Glenn said, “he knows all of that.”

To help North Slope residents have an accessible heating and power source, Leavitt was one of the architects of the Transfer Act of 1986, which helped the North Slope Borough secure a natural gas field, Barrow Gas Fields, from the U.S. Navy, Hensley said.

Now “they have natural gas to heat their homes,” Hensley said. “There’s no willows up there, and so, in the old days, finding driftwood for the borough was really a chore, and Oliver knew that.”

Back in the ‘70s, Leavitt was elected as the first president of the North Slope Borough Assembly, and together with other Assembly members, “they really transformed the villages of the North Slope, modernized them and provided housing and electrification, schools,” Hensley said.

After Leavitt’s death, Alaska’s congressional delegation, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola, mourned his passing and spoke about his legacy in statements on social media.

Outside of municipal government life, Leavitt was married to Annie Hopson Leavitt, and together they had three children, one daughter-in-law, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Leavitt “had really, really deep connections with people and places,” which he shared with youth in his community, Glenn said.

Growing up hunting, Leavitt would sometimes push through shallow water along the coastline, which allowed him to learn the terrain. He would pass that knowledge to other hunters he traveled with, like Glenn.

“He learned and taught me basically the geography of the Arctic coast,” Glenn said.

He also taught young people to build skin boats — a skill he learned from his father, who was a carpenter Glenn said.

“He could build a boat from scratch, you know, without a piece of paper in front of him to show him how,” Glenn said. “And he took many tasks in life similar to building a boat, you know: If you want to do something, do it right. Do it thoroughly. Make it not just work, but appear good too.”

Leavitt’s first cousin Billy Adams said he used to go hunting and whaling with Leavitt.

“I watched him harpooning a whale one time when I was a little boy -- he got the whale with one shot and inspired me to become a harpooner,” he said. “I learned a lot from Oliver about life itself -- how to take care of animals and how to communicate with people.”

Leavitt was gifted at connecting to and influencing people younger and older than him, Glenn said.

“He had a knack of reaching across the generations and befriending older people and younger people,” Glenn said. “It kept us all connected.”