A U.S. Navy commander on Saturday offered what he called a “long overdue” apology for a bombardment of a native Alaskan community 142 years ago that killed six children and led to widespread suffering during a winter in which residents lacked food and shelter.
The commander, Rear Adm. Mark B. Sucato of the Navy’s northwest region, apologized at a ceremony on the anniversary of the bombardment in Angoon, Alaska, which is about 100 miles south of the state capital of Juneau.
The bombardment of the community, on Oct. 26, 1882, killed six children and left residents stranded, according to the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit in Juneau that works to preserve the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska.
“Children perished, houses burned and winter food stores were lost,” according to Alaska.org, a travel website about the state, and blankets and ceremonial objects were taken.
Though it is not precisely clear what led up to the attack, it is generally agreed that it started with the accidental death of a Tlingit shaman, who was killed when a harpoon gun exploded on a whaling ship owned by his employer, the North West Trading Company, according to The Associated Press.
By the Navy’s account, tribal members forced the vessel to shore, possibly took hostages and, in accordance with their customs, demanded 200 blankets in compensation, The A.P. reported.
According to the Naval History and Heritage Command website, the Navy sent an expedition to provide help and after the hostages were freed, the Navy “shelled and burned the village of Angoon.”
Among other acts of destruction, the Navy gathered all the canoes in the village, chopped them up and burned them. One canoe, which was probably out to sea at the time, survived. That canoe was used to gather timber to build housing and new boats.
In a 1982 letter to the Kootznoowoo Heritage Foundation, the Navy acknowledged its involvement in the attack, saying, “The destruction of Angoon should never have happened, and it was an unfortunate event in our history.”
At the ceremony on Saturday, Admiral Sucato said, “The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Tlingit people, and we acknowledge these wrongful actions resulted in the loss of life, the loss of resources, the loss of culture, and created and inflicted intergenerational trauma on these clans.”
He added that “the Navy takes the significance of this action very, very seriously and knows an apology is long overdue.”
The ceremony included local leaders who spoke and accepted the apology.
Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, thanked the people of Angoon for “keeping our culture so alive and so strong.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said at the ceremony: “This is a moment that is long, long overdue. Your journey has been 142 years in coming.”
She added that she and other leaders were gathered on Saturday “in ceremony and recognition and reconciliation.”
In 1973, Angoon received $90,000 in a settlement with the U.S. government after lawyers for the Tlingit tribe filed a claim for damages arising from the attack. The amount was the estimated value of the tribal property destroyed in the bombardment.
Still, leaders have long sought an apology from the Navy.
Dan Johnson Jr., a representative of the Deisheetaan clan who spoke at the ceremony, said, “We’ve reached the point that many of our grandparents had only dreamed of,” adding that the Navy’s apology was something that their grandparents “had yearned to hear.”
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