Help put Kumang to Rest

This is our dear friend, Venessa Menegak, Yup’ik name Kumang, pictured with her daughter, Alanis, who was her reason-for-being.

We met Kumang when she was in kindergarten. I was the principal of her school in the Native Village of Tununak, Alaska. My daughter was a life-long friend with Kumang starting then. They and others played in the “car wash” (the deepest puddle you ever saw) long into summer nights. In winter they went sliding on towers of snow. Kumang…kind, loving and quiet…knew she should walk away if people bothered her – a Yup’ik life instruction.

Late in elementary school, Venessa’s father passed away and the nuclear family, Mom Dora, Clarissa, Venessa, Bryson and Michael moved to the largest “city” in southwestern, Alaska: Bethel pop. 7,000. Within a year, our family also moved to Bethel so Kumang and Autumn formed a mutual support system. Life was not so easy in Bethel. Kids in the city sometimes bully kids from the villages for speaking Yugtun or “village English’, or for wearing the same clothes multiple days in a row. Kumang and Autumn stayed at Rose’s (Kumang’s aunt) or hung out a trailer on the road heading out of town. They were loners without a true home except the village they left behind.

In these last few years, the Menegak family moved to Anchorage. Anchorage is a big city. With out resources: money, cars, houses, jobs, city- living skills, it is hard to survive here.

On January 14, 2023, Dora Menegak, mother, had her last contact with Venessa. On January 17 a policeman knocked on Dora’s door and told her Venessa Menegak, age 29, was deceased. Dora does not know where Venessa was found, who found her or under what circumstances. Dora knows Venessa has been to the Medical Examiner’s Office and the cause of death is not yet determined.

Venessa Menegak, Yup’ik name Kumang, has now been in a local funeral home for 25 days. The direct costs at the funeral home are estimated to be $4,830. When asked if a short funeral service could be added to family viewing, I heard this: “I tell people singing and preaching add to the expense” ($895). We all know the cost of dying is high. But in this case, there are NO resources to pay for funeral expenses. A cousin posted a “GoFundMe” and contributed $900. A Native Corporation contributed $500. We are asking for contributions to off-set the remaining $3,430. Even small amounts will help. If this GoFundMe exceeds the amount needed for the funeral home, the remaining funds will be put in a trust for Alanis Diamond Foss, Vanessa’s eight year-old daughter.