Colonizing Alaska: confronting Sheldon Jackson’s legacy at Princeton

Content material Warning: The next column references settler colonialism and violence towards Alaska Natives and their cultures. 

Sitka, Alaska, a tiny, waterfront city located on the west coast of the Alexander Archipelago, is over 2,800 miles away from Princeton, N.J. But regardless of the space between them, Sitka and Princeton are inextricably linked via the actions of 1 man: Sheldon Jackson. 

Though usually memorialized (within the strategy of scripting this column, I discovered that many of the sources I consulted celebrated Jackson’s legacy) as the one that introduced Western schooling and Protestantism to Alaska, Jackson was in truth a key agent within the denial, destruction, and appropriation of Alaska Native cultures. 

In 1877, Princeton Theological Seminary graduate and Presbyterian missionary Sheldon Jackson arrived in Sitka on his first mission to Alaska. By 1878, he had based the Sitka Mission, which sought to “assimilate” Alaska Native boys within the neighborhood, who had been primarily Lingít and Haida. The college, which modified names many occasions and finally turned the Sheldon Jackson School, was the primary American boarding college for Alaska Natives the place kids had been separated from their mother and father, punished for talking their native languages, and denied entry to their cultures.  

Largely because of his efforts, Jackson was appointed the primary Normal Agent of Training in Alaska, a place he held from 1885 to 1907. As Normal Agent of Training in Alaska, Jackson helped implement a plan to divide Alaska amongst varied Christian spiritual denominations, in order that missionaries representing totally different Christian faiths would have an assigned space by which to proselytize within the territory. Jackson’s efforts had been pivotal within the institution of American boarding faculties for Native kids throughout Alaska. 

Though Jackson was not a Princetonian himself, his legacy is deeply tied to the College. Throughout his time in Alaska, Jackson collected practically 5,000 gadgets belonging to Alaska Natives throughout the peninsula. Whereas nearly all of this stuff are housed on the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, Jackson additionally despatched Alaska Native items (along with Native items from Washington and Arizona) to the Princeton Theological Seminary. These items finally had been transferred to the Trustees of what was then Princeton School. Right this moment, they’re ‘owned’ by the College’s Division of Geosciences and are at present on mortgage to the Princeton College Artwork Museum. The vast majority of the fabric acquired by the College via Sheldon Jackson stays unknown or unidentified in its origin.  

I, like many Princetonians, was unaware of the connection between Sitka and Princeton till this Might, once I had the chance to go to Alaska via a visit sponsored by Princeton’s Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Research. 

Earlier than arriving in Alaska, I used to be ready to confront Russia’s colonial legacy there. In any case, one of many key goals of the journey was to assist college students attain a deeper understanding concerning the historical past and lingering affect of the Russian Empire’s colonization of Alaska, whose 100-odd 12 months stint as a Russian territory usually goes ignored. I didn’t, nevertheless, look forward to finding that Princeton — the municipality and College alike — stays linked to American colonization of the Alaskan peninsula.

As members of the Princeton neighborhood, it’s time we collectively acknowledge that Sheldon Jackson’s legacy is tied to our college and that the Division of Geosciences holds objects he ‘collected.’ To take action would mark a key step in scrutinizing the College’s connection to the systemic racism and settler colonialism that characterizes the previous and the current of the USA. As for the gadgets held by the Division of Geosciences, whether or not they need to be returned to the descendants of those that made them or stored in scholastic establishments just isn’t for me to say: solely the individuals to whom they rightfully belong can communicate on what their future ought to maintain.

Genrietta Churbanova is a junior from Little Rock, Ark within the Anthropology Division. She is Head Opinion Editor. Genrietta may be reached at geaac@princeton.edu.