{"id":109884,"date":"2024-06-07T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/home\/us-navy-will-apologize-for-1882-bombardment-of-angoon-murkowski-says\/"},"modified":"2024-06-07T21:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T05:30:00","slug":"us-navy-will-apologize-for-1882-bombardment-of-angoon-murkowski-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/us-navy-will-apologize-for-1882-bombardment-of-angoon-murkowski-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy will apologize for 1882 bombardment of Angoon, Murkowski says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

An apology for the bombardment that destroyed Angoon in 1882 will be offered by the U.S. Navy, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said while appearing with a dance group from the Tlingit village at Celebration on Friday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The attack<\/a> when the Navy opened fire on and burned the village, leaving few structures intact, and resulting in the death of at least six children and “countless” more due to its impact during the winter, according to the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Historical narratives by Natives in Angoon and the Navy<\/a> differ, but both agree the attack resulted from the death of a Native on a whaling ship that resulted in the whaling company reaching out to the Navy to intervene.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

Murkowski, who in 2011 was adopted into the Deisheetaan clan of the Tlingit tribe with the name Aan shaawátk’i (“Lady of the Land”), made the announcement about the apology while appearing with the Xudzidaa Ḵwáan Dancers on Friday evening at Centennial Hall. Invoking the “Together We Live in Balance” theme of this year’s Celebration, she said “sometimes when trying to find that balance apologies need to be made, to say ‘I am sorry we failed you,’ and sometimes it is your government that needs to say those words of apology.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

“I share with you today the news that the Navy, our military, our country will be offering that apology to the people of Angoon for your loss, so that the stories that have been told of the anguish and the trauma for so many years, that you may begin to finally heal when those words of apology and respect are finally afforded to you,” she said. “So together we celebrate, we honor and we live for our children’s children.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski exits the stage at Centennial Hall with the Xudzidaa Ḵwáan Dancers from Angoon during Celebration on Friday. (Laurie Craig \/ Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

Details of how, when and what form an apology from the Navy to Angoon will take were not immediately available Saturday from Murkowski’s office in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The bombardment “followed a pattern the American military had established not long after the U.S. took possession of Alaska from Russia in 1867,” according to a SitNews article<\/a> published on the 125th anniversary of the attack. Fatal conflicts between the military and Tlingits in 1869 resulted in the bombardment of Wrangell and destruction of unoccupied villages near Kake.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

However, public reaction to the Angoon bombardment was a factor in the passage of the First Organic Act of 1884, where the Department of Alaska was organized into the District of Alaska, putting it under civilian rather than military control.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

The death aboard the whaling vessel occurred when bombs used for whaling accidentally exploded and killed an Alaska Native crew member from Angoon, according to historical accounts.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t