Anchorage Daily News

A solitary drum covered by a beaded Tlingit blanket and accompanied by an empty chair and single drumstick sat in the middle of the Wasilla High School gymnasium during a powwow on Saturday afternoon -- a silent tribute to Walter Austin, who died Friday in Anchorage. He was 89.

"Uncle" Walter, as he was called by his many Native and non-Native friends, was born Oct. 5, 1918, in Juneau. He worked as a fisherman and served in the Civil Defense during World War II, patrolling the beaches of Southeast with an antique Eddystone rifle that he later used for seal hunting.

When a bout of tuberculosis sent him to the hospital in Wrangell, he heard Yup'ik patients playing their drums and singing in the Western Alaska language. Though he was Tlingit, he knew little about the traditions of the tribe. However, the energy and enthusiasm of the Yup'ik drummers inspired him. He became fascinated by Native American music, acquiring tapes of Lower 48 Indian drumming and singing.

"I learned those songs and got to liking it," he told the Daily News in 2000.

In the 1980s, he moved to Anchorage and encountered a variety of Native performing styles at Spirit Days. The late Yup'ik elder William Tyson noted his interest and invited him to drum with his dancers.

Over time, Austin performed with groups ranging from the traditional Yup'ik Miracle Drummers and Dancers to the Lower 48 big drum of the Sleeping Lady Singers and the award-winning new-age/Native rock band Medicine Dream. He was a regular presence at Native events, performances, forums and tribal gatherings in the Anchorage area and outside Alaska.

He believed that sharing music and songs and culture would help create a more peaceful world and pointed to himself as an example. In his early days, he told the Daily News, he was a drinker and a brawler. But as he found himself drawn to drumming, he said, "I came to understand the need to eliminate anger, excessive passion, greed, ignorance, envy, suspicion. These are the diseases plaguing all of mankind, not only Natives."

A new generation took counsel from his calm and persistent advocacy of peace, prayer, sobriety, community and communication.

A full obituary will be published later.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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