Linda Sue Belarde

1947 - 2025

Satóok' Linda Sue Belarde, beloved mother, sister, aunt and friend, passed away peacefully on April 10, 2025. She was 77 years old. A Celebration of Life will be held on May 18, 2025 at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau at 2pm.
Satóok' was a T'akdeintaan woman, the first of three daughters born to Eladio Belarde and Sue Brown. She was raised in Juneau and graduated from Juneau Douglas High School in 1964. She pursued higher education at Marylhurst College, Western Washington, University of Washington and Harvard. While teaching at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, she met Hayes Lewis of Zuni Pueblo; the two were married in 1976. Linda and Hayes moved to Zuni and had two children, Miranda and Raven. While in Zuni, Linda, Hayes and others started a charter school,and created one of the first tribal publicschool systems in the country. For 20 years, Linda was the Principal of Twin Buttes High School in Zuni; she retired and returned to Juneau in 2002. Once back in Alaska, Satóok' devoted herself to learning the Lingit language, taking UAS classes, coordinating and attending immersion workshops, developing curriculum for language learners at SHI, and eventually became the Executive Director of Sharing Our Knowledge, the Clan Conference.
Linda is preceded in death by her parents, Eladio and Sue Brown Belarde; aunts Katherine Brown Mills and Irene Sarabia Lampe; uncles Frank Belarde, Ed Sarabia and Robert Sarabia, cousins Barbara Sarabia, Pat Mills, George Mills, Tony Mills, Gilbert "Butch" Mills Jr., Phyllis Mills Bean, Rosemary Mills Jimboy, Clarissa Rizal, and Robert "Bunny" Lampe; and nieces Samantha Lamebull, Laura Jane Mills, Karen A Mills, and Georgette Mills. She is survived by her children Miranda and Raven Belarde-Lewis and their families, her dear sisters Daphne Wright and Edna Lamebull and their families, her brother Mike Harper and his family, first cousins in the Mills, Sarabia, Lampe, Belarde families, nieces/nephews, friends and colleagues. She is loved and will be missed by many.