(Left to Right): John Sarabia, Mrs. Sarabia, Grandma McKinley, Tootsie Fawcett, Amy Marvin

Juan "John" Sarabia was born in the Philippines in 1895.  According to Irene Lampe, he was a member of the Visayan tribe from Aklan province of the Philippines on the northwest portion of the Panay Islands in the Western Visayas Islands.

John Sarabia left the Phillipines and signed up with the U.S. Army in Hawaii in 1918.

He traveled up the Pacific Coast to Alaska where he jumped ship with another soldier for a short time period, met Mary Brown (born Mary Wilson, daughter of Bill Wilson, Sr. and Jennie Edna White) from Hoonah (who was widowed) and married her on April 7, 1930.  He worked in a lumber mill. 

Juan built a house for Mary in Excursion Inlet and it stands there today. He was adopted into the Kaagwaantaan and given the name Deixyaanteen.

Mary Sarabia was born Mary Wilson, daughter of Bill Wilson, Sr. and Jennie Edna White in 1891 in Hoonah.  Her Tlingit name was L Xe'is', she was of the T’akdeintaan clan, Kaa Shaayi Hít (Man’s Head House).  She married Paul Brown in 1906 and had two children with him; Katherine Brown and Susan Brown.  When Paul Brown passed away, she married Juan Sarabia in 1930.  They had three children; Edward, Irene and Robert.

Lilian “Lily” “Tootsie” Fawcett was born May 5, 1898 in Hoonah.  Her Tlingit name was Cow du klaa, her clan T’akdeintaan
Kaa Shaayi Hít (Man’s Head House).  Her father was Paul Brown and mother Winnie Moore. 

She attended the Sheldon Jackson Training School as a young girl.  She married John George Fawcett.  Together they had 11 children.

Tootsie was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Hoonah and Camp No. 12 of the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

She was a noted culture bearer and was mentioned as an honored Tlingit elder in the acknowledgments in the chapter Mother as Clanswoman: Rank and Gender in Tlingit Society by Laura F. Klein in the book Women and Power in Native North America. 

She passed away December 29, 1976 in Sitka.