On October 26, 1882, a Tlingit village of approximately 420 people in southeastern Alaska was destroyed. On Saturday, October 26, 2024, the US Navy, the perpetrator of the bombing, apologized. As part of the ceremony, a Navy member sprinkles tobacco on the killer whale clan’s hat, believed to bring good luck. (Nobu Koch, Sealaska Heritage Institute, via AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As winter approached, shells fell on an Alaskan native village, and then sailors went ashore and burned what was left of homes, food stores and canoes. In the following months, conditions deteriorated so much that the elderly sacrificed their own lives to provide food for the surviving children.

The date was October 26, 1882, in Angoon, a Tlingit village of about 420 people in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. Now, 142 years later, the US Navy, the perpetrator of the bombing, has apologized.

Rear Admiral Mark Sucato, commander of the Navy’s northwest zone, apologized during an at times emotional ceremony Saturday, the anniversary of the atrocity.

“The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted on the Tlingit people, and we recognize that these wrongful actions have resulted in loss of life, loss of resources, loss of culture, and created and sustained intergenerational trauma within these clans,” he said. During the ceremony broadcast live from Angoon. “The Navy takes the significance of this action very, very seriously and recognizes that an apology is long overdue.”

While the rebuilt Angoon received $90,000 as a result of a 1973 agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs, village leaders had also sought an apology for decades, beginning each annual commemoration with the question “Is there anyone who will apologize to the Navy?” three times. They started by asking:

Daniel Johnson Jr. said: “You can imagine the generations of people who have died since 1882, wondering what happened, why it happened, and wanting some kind of apology, because we did nothing wrong.” ., a chieftain in Angoon.

The attack was one of a series of clashes between the American military and Alaska Natives in the years after the United States purchased the territory from Russia in 1867. The U.S. Navy issued an apology last month for destroying the nearby village of Kake in 1869, and Alaska Natives said the Army plans to apologize for bombing Wrangell, also in southeast Alaska, that year, although no date has been set.

The Navy recognizes that the actions it took or ordered in Angoon and Kake caused deaths, loss of resources and intergenerational trauma, Navy civilian spokeswoman Julianne Leinenveber said in an email before the incident.

“An apology is not only necessary but long overdue,” he said.

Today, Angoon remains a quaint village of about 420 people with colorful old houses and totem poles clustered on the west side of Admiralty Island, accessible by ferry or seaplane, in the nation’s largest Tongass National Forest. Residents far outnumber grizzly bears, and the village has been trying to develop its ecotourism industry in recent years. Bald eagles and humpback whales are abundant, and salmon and halibut fishing is excellent.

Accounts of what led to its destruction vary, but they generally begin with the accidental death of Tith Klane, a Tlingit shaman. Klane was killed when a harpoon gun exploded aboard a whaling ship owned by his employer, North West Trading Co.

The Navy’s version states that the tribesmen forced the ship ashore, possibly held it hostage, and demanded 200 blankets as compensation in accordance with their custom.

The company refused to provide the blankets and ordered the Tlingits to return to work. Instead, in grief, they painted their faces with coal tar and tallow; company employees saw this as a harbinger of an uprising. The company chief then requested assistance from the Navy Commander. E.C. Merriman, the senior US official in Alaska, said the Tlingit uprising threatened the lives and property of white residents.

The Tlingit version suggests that the boat’s crew, including Tlingit members, probably stayed on the ship out of respect, planned to attend the funeral, and no hostages were taken. Johnson said the tribe would never seek compensation so soon after the death.

Merriman arrived on October 25 and insisted that the tribe provide 400 blankets by noon the next day as punishment for disobedience. When the Tlingits surrendered only 81 men, Merriman attacked, destroying 12 clan houses, smaller houses, canoes, and the village’s food stores.

Six children died in the attack, and “countless numbers of old people and babies died of both cold and hunger that winter,” Johnson said.

Tith Klane’s nephew, Billy Jones, was 13 years old when Angoon was destroyed. He recorded two interviews around 1950 and later included her account in a booklet prepared for the 100th anniversary of the bombing in 1982.

“They left us homeless on the beach,” Jones said.

Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, described how some elders “walked into the woods” that winter, sacrificing themselves to death so the young could have more food.

Although the Navy’s written history contradicts Tlingit oral tradition, the Navy delayed the tribe’s statement “out of respect for the long-lasting effects these tragic events had on the affected clans,” Navy spokesman Leinenveber said.

Johnson said Tlingit leaders were stunned when Navy officials told them during a Zoom call in May that an apology would eventually come and no one spoke for five minutes.

Eunice James of Juneau, a descendant of Tith Klane, said she hopes the apology will help her family and the entire community heal. He expects her presence at the ceremony.

“Not only his spirit, but the spirits of many of our ancestors will be there because we have lost so many,” he said.