 In November 2010 she was given the title Naa Tláa (Clan Monther) as the ceremonial leader of the clan.Emma's maternal grandfather had been Frank Italio (1870–1956), an informant to the anthropologist Frederica de Laguna whose knowledge was incorporated into De Laguna's 1972 ethnography of the northern Tlingit, "Under Mount St.Elias""."