The City and Borough of Juneau and the Douglas Indian Association are partnering to add a Tlingit name to Gastineau Elementary, to further acknowledge racial atrocities against Alaska Natives that occurred there and on Douglas Island.<\/p>\n
In 1956, the city paved over a Tlingit burial ground in order to build a highway and the school. In 1962, the city of Douglas burned down the Douglas Indian Village to make way for Douglas harbor.<\/p>\n
The gravesite underneath the school was unearthed inadvertently in 2012 when contractors for the city were doing renovations on the school. Afterward, the city has worked with DIA to acknowledge the historic events and to also begin a journey of healing and reconciliation for the future.<\/p>\n
One of the components of this healing process is adding a Tlingit name to the school’s front sign, which is intended to remind students of the site’s history. At an Aug. 18 meeting of the DIA board, the group unanimously approved the name “Sayéik,” which means “Spirit Helper.”<\/p>\n
DIA board member Barbara Cadiente-Nelson said Tlingits have called the area Sayéik for generations already.<\/p>\n
“This name is specific to that particular area,” Cadiente-Nelson said at the meeting. “It’s not a name the council or any elder chose to describe the event or locale. It’s an indigenous name of the Áak’w Kwáan and the T’aaku Kwáan.”<\/p>\n
The proposal to augment the name is now going through a process with the Board of Education, which began at Tuesday night’s meeting. The proposal will be on the agenda for the Oct. 17 board meeting as well, where the board members will vote on whether or not to adopt the name.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the sign in front of the school will read “Gastineau Elementary School: Sayéik” and the website will be updated. According to materials provided at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, the new signage will “have minimal budget impacts” and will likely be done with school renovation bond funds if available.<\/p>\n
DIA briefly considered other names, such as Anax Yaa Andagan Yé, which means “where the sun rays hit first,” but that name was more appropriate for Douglas Harbor, Cadiente-Nelson said. Another name under consideration was X’áat’ T’áak, which is the Tlingit name for the entirety of Douglas Island.<\/p>\n
The name augmentation isn’t the only change happening at the school, as DIA and Goldbelt Heritage collaborated to raise a 26-foot Raven healing totem pole<\/a> in front of the school in May. DIA and the city have also been in talks to raise a separate monument<\/a> on the site in honor of the burial ground.<\/p>\n