Patrick "Pat" Saylor

Patrick Saylor was born in 1966 in Fairbanks, Alaska. He is the older of two sons born to Stella Healy Saylor and Lee Saylor. Pat's genealogical links run deep in both the Healy Lake/Joseph and the Mansfield/Ketchumstuk bands as well as the Upper Ahtna. Although he greatly prefers to be engaged in subsistence activities full time, Patrick has been politically active since he was seventeen years old.  He has fought and won many battles for his people of the Upper Tanana region of interior Alaska, including tribal and subsistence rights. Carrying the mantle of his grandfather and great-grandfather, the chiefs of Healy Lake, Pat has held the position of First Chief of Healy Lake more than once. He also was one of the founders of the Arctic Athabascan Council, which serves indigenous people internationally. As a successful trapper in the Healy Lake and Tetlin areas, Pat knows his way around the country and has great knowledge of traditional ways and the subsistence lifestyle. His stories appear in Mendees Cheeg Naltsiin Keey': An Oral History of the People of Healy Lake Village (annotated and edited by Donald G. Callaway and Constance A. Friend, Revised June 2007).