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Sheetka / New Archangel / Sitka

16. Alaska Day celebrations

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park, we don’t want it to overshadow or deflect (…). I think there is certainly an undertone that deserves recognition: the community leaders at that time who didn’t want to trump or overshadow the 1804 Battle with a Russian American theme. They wanted to make sure that we get a good balance. It’s certainly not well-recognized today. It is amazing how thoughtful the community members were about what I think is a very contemporary issue340.

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The Sitka Tribe of Alaska along with a loose group of various activists advocate for the renaming of the holiday. They suggest the name: Reconciliation Day343. Such a name would shift the principal dimension of this celebration. The emphasis would no longer be on the territory transfer but rather on the uneasy relations between different groups (whom we can consider as memory agents) and finding solutions to improve them. A similar idea emerged around the Columbus Day. It is arguably the most widely recognized case of controversies surrounding a commemorative practice in the US that relate to its colonial past. Columbus Day is observed on October 11th as a federal holiday. Various activists advocated to change the form of a celebration and to rename the holiday. It is considered that the idea to rename it into an Indigenous Peoples Day (IPD) dates to 1977, when it was presented at the International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the America which took place in Geneva, Switzerland as a part of a United Nations Conference344. It was met with a backlash from many people often identifying with traditionalist views but was become more and more broadly discussed and accepted.

Throughout the second decade of 21st century the renaming started to take place officially on the level of municipalities and states. Alaska officially renamed the holiday in 2016345. In 2021, the White House provided a solution, which it considers a compromise. IPD became officially a federal holiday. President Joe Biden signed a Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples Day on October 8th, 3 days before the holiday. At the same time, Columbus Day remained a federal holiday observed at the same day, receiving a new presidential proclamation as well346. IPD emphasizes the role of Native American culture and their struggle throughout the last few centuries with colonialism and its legacy until today. The idea of Reconciliation Day shares this vision. Additionally, it stresses the intercultural relations of the Tlingit, Russians, and Americans throughout history. The

343 https://www.ktoo.org/2021/10/21/reconciliation-day-celebration-in-place-of-alaska-day-in-sitka/ [Access: May 27th, 2022].

344 T. Kubal, Cultural Movements and Collective Memory. Christopher Columbus and the Rewriting of the National Origin Myth, New York 2008, p. 67.

345 https://www.adn.com/afn-coverage/article/berkowitz-renames-columbus-day-anchorage/2015/10/12/ [access: May 27th, 2022].

346 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/10/08/a-proclamation-on-columbus-day-2021/ [access: May 27th, 2022].

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most burning issue is the Transfer Ceremony reenactment. Chuck Miller from Sitka Tribe of Alaska explains:

I think they should get rid of the reenactment. Back in the day when it happened one of the families’ grandmothers was in the canoe in the channel and they were wondering (please forgive me): “what are all the white folks doing up there?” They didn’t even know what was going on. Nobody was told. They were seeing a flag going down and a flag coming up. They had no idea what going on. Were the Tlingit people acknowledged? Were they given any type of opportunity to speak? No. They weren’t given anything. They weren’t consulted at all. Even in the 1930s the US District Court said that this whole Sale of Alaska was a sham. They said it on the record. The Russians only had occupied inside the blockade. That’s all they had control over. The reason why they had a blockade is because they still feared our people. They had cannons pointed at our village. That’s all they had control over. It always blew my mind when they talk about the Sale of Alaska and Seward’s Folly being a tiny sum: how much was it – a 7 cents per acre? Yes, he had a ‘tiny sum’ for it because he only got what was inside the blockade. How can you sell something if you didn’t have control over it? They didn’t have control over borough, over Fairbanks or Anchorage or any of those villages. They had no occupation at any of this. So how did they sell all of it to the United States?347 Basically, the US said: “hey, thank you for the sale. Now we’re just going to occupy the whole territory”. That’s how that happened. So it’s a sham. They need to get rid of that reenactment thing. It’s always like a slap in the face. Like:”hey Natives, guess what? We bought your land. You had no says on it”. That’s what I think on it. (…) I’m not opposed to keeping the name “Alaska Day”. I get the word

“Reconciliation Day”. I think it can go the either way348.

The reenactment has been a visible indicator of conflicted memory in town for many years.

Even though the entire celebration is problematic for many, it is the reenactment that brings most of the controversy. Firstly, as explained by Chuck Miller, Indigenous population was not a part of the deal and sees that as a transfer between one colonial

347 To learn about the actual Russian territorial possessions in Alaska see: A. Postnikov, M. Falk, Exploring and Mapping Alaska. The Russian America Era, 1741-1867, Fairbanks 2015.

348 Interview with Chuck Miller, conducted online by Kacper Dziekan on November 5th, 2021.

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empire and the other. Secondly, it is their traditional land that was sold without their involvement. Therefore, October 18th is not a day to celebrate for the Tlingit. It is a day that symbolizes something quite opposite. A loss of their land. For that reason, a group of activists surrounding a Kiks.adi community leader Dionne Brady-Howard started a separate event in 2017. That year marked a sesquicentennial anniversary of the Alaska Purchase. The official celebrations were exclusively rich and the debate around whole historical Russian America, Russian colonization, and the sale itself more visibly present than usual. Brady-Howard-led party organized a traditional Tlingit celebration at the foot of the Castle Hill / Noow Tlein that began right after the official ceremony349. The group consisting of both Tlingit and other residents of Sitka gathered to perform dances and sign mourning songs. The Alaska Day Committee, an official organizer of the event invited the Tlingit representatives to take part in the official celebration350. However, the latter didn’t find the format proposed by the former suitable and thus they organized their own event.

The mourning celebrations continued throughout the next years, although conflicted parties sought to reach a common ground. The Alaska Day Committee was adjusting the official celebration in order to give as much credit as possible to the Tlingit. But, as of the last anniversary in 2021, no Tlingit representative was among the speakers during the event. In 2021, mourning celebration took place one day before the official reenactment.

This way, the activists intended not to interfere with the joyful commemoration taking place on the hill. The future of Alaska Day and its form of celebration is unclear.

349 https://www.kcaw.org/2017/11/24/indigenous-voices-call-new-kind-alaska-day/ [access: May 31st, 2022].

350 https://www.kcaw.org/2017/10/17/150-years-making-kiks-adi-gather-commemorate-loss-land/ [access: May 31st, 2022].

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An interpretive panel at Castle Hill in Sitka during Alaska Day celebrations in 2022 with a piece of paper sticked to it.

"Gunalcheesh" means "Thank you" in Tlingit language. Photo by K. Dziekan