Rev. Tollef Larson Brevig worked as a missionary and teacher to the Inupiak or Inuit people in the area of Teller, Alaska for nearly 23 years. He was born in 1857 in Norway and immigrated to America ten years later. Brevig attended Luther College from 1872 to 1876. After graduation he worked as a schoolteacher until 1891 when he was ordained as a pastor in the Lutheran Church.

In 1894 Brevig was commissioned by the U.S. government to move to Teller, Alaska, 60 miles north of Nome on the Seward Peninsula. He was to serve as minister to the Inuit and to a group of Norwegian Lapplanders (Saami) who voluntarily relocated to teach the Inuit how to herd caribou. One condition the Saami people had was that a Lutheran minister be provided for their religious needs. Brevig, along with his wife and children, founded the Teller Mission and stayed with the Inuit long after the Saami had left.

T.L. Brevig was known to the Inuit as Apaurak, or "father of all." He learned to speak their language and became a member of their community where he served numerous positions including schoolteacher, doctor, postmaster, and harbormaster. He worked to improve the social welfare of the Inupiak people and developed great respect for them. Brevig left his mission in 1917 having collected hundreds of objects from the everyday lives of the people he served. His collection includes skin pouches, hunting and fishing equipment, carved ivory, wooden boxes, soapstone lamps and a variety of ritual and decorative objects. The objects pictured on the following pages represent only a small portion of the Brevig Collection.

Missionary T. L. Brevig, His Wife, and Daughter Dagny

Image courtesy of the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum