The youngest son of Alutiiq leader Trefon Angasan Jr. died Tuesday night in a single-vehicle rollover near Dillingham, family members said.
Trefon "Trapheme" Angasan, 29, was thrown from a 2002 Dodge Durango on Aleknagik Lake Road after the SUV drove off and then back on the road and rolled several times, Alaska State Troopers said. Angasan was traveling "at a high rate of speed" and wasn't wearing a seatbelt, troopers said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Angasan's older brother, Brad, said he woke up at his Anchorage home Wednesday on little sleep and hoped it was all a bad dream. The family got a phone call around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
"He was a kid at heart. Everybody loved him for his playful, loving personality," Brad Angasan said of his brother. "He was quite a bit younger than me, 12 years. I have this constant memory of him in my mind being this chubby little baby. It's just extremely heartbreaking."
Trapheme had recently moved back to Dillingham, Angasan said.
Their father, Trefon Angasan Jr., has played prominent roles with the Alaska Federation of Natives and Bristol Bay Native Corp. More recently, he served as chairman of Alaska Peninsula Corp., representing shareholders in the Bristol Bay watershed near the proposed Pebble mine site.
"It's a big shock to dad," Brad Angasan said. "It's been a tough year for loss. I lost my mother in April."
The State Medical Examiner Office is planning to conduct an autopsy.
Reach Zaz Hollander at zhollander@adn.com or 257-4317.
By ZAZ HOLLANDER