<\/a>Hannahadina Kuhnert, left, plays a zebra drum while Lacey Davis reads “The Night Before Freedom: A Juneteenth Story” during a gathering celebrating the June 19 holiday Saturday at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
About a dozen people came to the jubilee, listening to a reading of “The Night Before Freedom: A Juneteenth Story” by librarian Lacey Davis as Kuhnert provided a soundtrack by playing a zebra drum. Davis, who has previously spoken publicly<\/a> about her experience with racism in local schools, also mentioned she had family members who were slaves before the Civil War.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “It’s a complicated topic to discuss Juneteenth and highlighting the origins of it,” she told the audience. Her long-ago family members “were taken from their homes, they were sold to people they did not know and they were forced to work.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Pam Verebasaga, left, and her daughters Jemima, 17, Esiteri, 21, and Taraivini, 10, make replica djembe drums during a Juneteenth celebration at the Mendenhall Valley Library on Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Those attending Saturday’s event then got a chance to observe and play a range of African instruments brought to the event, and make their own mini djembe drums with paper cups and various “shaker” sound fillings such as split peas and jingle bells.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Kuhnert then led most of those at the event in a singing and percussion procession of “When The Saints Go Marching In” outside the library, observed by only a few people entering and exiting the building.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but a bill passed by the state Senate<\/a> in early May making it a state holiday failed to make it to a floor vote in the House. Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a proclamation<\/a> on Saturday observing Juneteenth as an occasion to “recommit ourselves to the ongoing work of guaranteeing liberty for all Americans.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “This is a day to recognize the evils of slavery, honor and respect the devastating impact slavery imposed on African Americans and our country as a whole, and engage in conversation to learn from our history,” the proclamation states.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Cagney Davis, left, and her mother, Suella, play some of the percussion instruments brought to a Juneteenth celebration Saturday at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. (Mark Sabbatini \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Also celebrating their liberty on Monday is the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, since on June 19, 1935, an Act of Congress was passed to recognize the Tlingit and Haida people as a single tribe. A post on the tribe’s official Facebook page<\/a> notes the recognition came after the Alaska Native Brotherhood in 1929 passed a resolution to sue the United States government for the creation of the Tongass National Forest and the Glacier Bay National Park without the permission of the Indigenous people of Southeast Alaska.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “ANB was later advised that only federally recognized tribes can sue the United States over aboriginal land claims,” the Facebook post notes. “The ANB then petitioned the United States Congress to recognize the aboriginal people of Southeast Alaska as a tribe.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/a>