{"id":27107,"date":"2016-10-19T02:02:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T09:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/on-alaska-day-its-a-local-party-in-sitka\/"},"modified":"2016-10-19T02:02:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T09:02:14","slug":"on-alaska-day-its-a-local-party-in-sitka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/on-alaska-day-its-a-local-party-in-sitka\/","title":{"rendered":"On Alaska Day, it’s a local party in Sitka"},"content":{"rendered":"

SITKA<\/strong> \u2014 Walking down a line of parade floats and bedecked trucks, a steady drizzle didn\u2019t wash the grin from Duane Vilandre\u2019s face, nor did it dampen the enthusiasm of thousands of people here who attended the 67th annual celebrations of Alaska Day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a holiday celebrated across the state \u2014 school is canceled and government offices are closed \u2014 but no other place in Alaska celebrates like Sitka, which hosts a week of events culminating in a parade and re-enactment of the 1867 ceremony that officially transferred Alaska from Russian authority to American hands. (Alaska Natives weren\u2019t considered at that original event.)<\/p>\n

In Sitka, the day might be labeled \u201cAlaska,\u201d but it\u2019s a local celebration.<\/p>\n

Take Vilandre, who for the past several years has taken the lead in organizing the parade. It\u2019s a volunteer job he took over from his father and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore people want to get involved all the time,\u201d said Vilandre, who works for Alaska Airlines. \u201cIt just keeps getting bigger and bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Baine was one of the people helping Vilandre maneuver parade entries into position. He works at the city scrapyard and said Alaska Day in Sitka brings people together.<\/p>\n

\u201cEx-Sitkans actually come home for Alaska Day,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people fly home for it. It\u2019s kind of a homecoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winter in Alaska\u2019s coastal communities is locals\u2019 season. The tourists are gone, and so are the snowbird seasonal residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cBesides the military and stuff, there\u2019s no more cruise ships. It\u2019s just us,\u201d Baine said.<\/p>\n

That means the people who celebrate Alaska Day in Sitka are more likely to be the people you see in the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Harvey Brandt is one of the founders of the 9th Infantry, which helps host the re-enactment of the transfer ceremony every year. Brandt, a former history professor and former park ranger, wears a Civil War-era sergeant\u2019s uniform in the re-enactment and parade. He\u2019s been doing it for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019s insanity; I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and his wife live in Sitka and enjoy the festivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live here \u2014 we\u2019re not coming back (just to do it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anne Lankenau has portrayed a Russian sailor in the re-enactment for several years. She said that for her, \u201cit\u2019s about including everybody in the story,\u201d even the Russians, who several re-enactors referred to as \u201cthe bad guys\u201d of the transfer.<\/p>\n

Ron Conklin, who has donned a Russian officer\u2019s uniform for the past 17 Alaska Days, disagrees with that assessment to some degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t show all sides, it\u2019s going to be forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forgetfulness was on the mind of Paulette Moreno and Andrew Roberts. During the recreation of the transfer ceremony, Roberts held a small sign thanking the Sitka Tlingit for their stewardship of Tlingit country.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, gave brief remarks at the transfer re-enactment and reminded attendees of the prominence Alaska Natives deserve in the state\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Moreno said she was disappointed in the re-enactment because it wasn\u2019t a \u201ctrue representation of this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the original transfer ceremony nor this year\u2019s re-enactment prominently mentioned the area\u2019s original inhabitants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t agree to this,\u201d Moreno said of the transfer.<\/p>\n

For most celebrating the holiday, concerns like Moreno\u2019s \u2014 if present \u2014 didn\u2019t stop them from enjoying the festivities.<\/p>\n

Along the parade route, Ally Witherspoon held her 15-month-old daughter Vera.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon moved to Sitka a few years ago with her husband, who works with the Forest Service, and she said she\u2019s still amazed by Sitka\u2019s enthusiasm for Alaska Day and local events in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just so much more enthusiasm for parades,\u201d she said of the town.<\/p>\n

Why? Local spirit. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone just loves living here so much,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Watching from the windows of a local thrift shop, Carin Adickes said there\u2019s no comparison between Sitka and Juneau when it comes to Alaska Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in Juneau for a while, and I was just appalled at the lack of festivities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sitka has a better community spirit, she said, and that shows up in events like the Alaska Day festivities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I love living in Sitka. I liked living in Juneau, but (Sitka is) just a little smaller, a little friendlier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SITKA \u2014 Walking down a line of parade floats and bedecked trucks, a steady drizzle didn\u2019t wash the grin from Duane Vilandre\u2019s face, nor did it dampen the enthusiasm of thousands of people here who attended the 67th annual celebrations of Alaska Day. It\u2019s a holiday celebrated across the state \u2014 school is canceled and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":27108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27107"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}