Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

Denise Marie (Deane) White, 68, Hogansburg, N.Y., passed away January 17, 2019 at St. Mary's Hospital Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., of complications resulting from her battle with pancreatic cancer.

Respecting her expressed wishes, there will be no wake, funeral, or burial and she received immediate cremation.

A memorial service is being planned for later in 2019.

Denise was born June 5, 1950, in Kansas City, Kan., to the late Kenneth Deane Sr. and Betty Dubois Deane. Her grandparents were Elsie and Alvah Dubois and William (Bill) and Leona Deane. Her father, a career Navy Chief Petty Officer, was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Olathe, Kan. at the time. Upon his retirement in 1963, the family returned home to live in the Six Mile Creek area of the East Segment of the Fort Berthold Reservation/Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation in North Dakota. Denise attended White Shield High School and graduated in 1968.

Denise attended Dartmouth College as an exchange student where she met her husband, Hollis. She subsequently obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Oberlin College in Ohio. She went on to obtain a Master's in Education at St. Lawrence University and was a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota.

Professionally, from 1973 to 2007, Denise had a lengthy and distinguished career in the field of Native American education and work for her native community. She worked as an ethnic counseling coordinator at Oberlin College, as Director of St. Regis Mohawk Adult Higher Education at St. Lawrence University, Associate Director, Division of Multicultural Affairs and Director of Native American Affairs at SUNY Potsdam. Before retirement, Denise served for three years as the Director of the Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club in Akwesasne. Denise served on many boards and committees including the National Indian Education Association, Native American Indian Education Association, St. Regis Mohawk Education Committee and the Frederick Remington Museum Board of Trustees.

In retirement, Denise continued her avid love of reading, bird watching with her husband Hollis, and bead working projects. Later in her life, Denise created amazing pieces of beaded jewelry that she shared with her many friends and relatives. She was a member of the ladies auxiliary of the Andrew W. Cook American Legion Post 1479.

Denise is survived by her loving husband of 46 years, Hollis White; brothers and sister-in-law, Victor Deane and Kenneth Deane Jr. and his wife Shelley, Bismarck; nephew, Stuart Deane and wife, Doris, Bismarck; niece, Victoria (Jeff) Abramowitz, Las Vegas; aunts, Delores Wilkinson and Kathy Real Bird; and uncle, Matthew Mason. She is also survived by brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Dean and Rosemarie White, North Carolina, and Dale and Marilyn White, Massena, N.Y. In New York, she is also survived by Ryan, Rowen, Maizie, Moss, Oren and Warren and many other nieces and nephews.

She also leaves behind a large extended family residing on and off the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota and other states. This includes her first cousins who are also sisters and brothers too: the White family, the White Bear family, the Wells family, the Gerald Deane family, the Wilkinson family and Real Bird family.

She was predeceased by her father, Kenneth Deane Sr. in 1967; her mother, Betty Deane, in 2015; and sister Dani Sue Deane, in 2018.