US Navy officially apologizes for bombarding a native Alaskan community in 1882

The U.S. Navy made an official apology this week for the bombardment and near destruction of a native Alaskan village 142 years ago.

Speaking Saturday in Angoon, Alaska, located about 100 miles south of the state capital of Juneau in the Tongass National Forest, Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, commander of Navy Region Northwest issued the apology on the 142nd anniversary of the attack, which happened on Oct. 26, 1882 and killed six children while leaving the village’s surviving residents without food or shelter amid a harsh winter.

“The Navy recognizes the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Tlingit people, and we acknowledge these wrongful actions resulted in the loss of life, the loss of resources, the loss of culture, and created and inflicted intergenerational trauma on these clans,” Sucato said at the ceremony, which was livestreamed by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. “The Navy takes the significance of this action very, very seriously and knows an apology is long overdue.”

An accident that led to a tragedy

While many details of what caused the destruction at Angoon have been lost to time over the years, what is known is that it began with the accidental death of a Tlingit shaman, who was killed aboard a whaling ship by an exploding harpoon gun.

According to the Naval Heritage and History Command, accounts from the time say members of the Tlingit tribe forced the whaling ship to shore and took multiple hostages from the crew, along with demanding a ransom of 200 blankets, prompting the call for help by local officials from the Navy.

When the Navy arrived at Angoon, they proceeded to destroy the village − burning canoes, food stores, and homes − leaving six children dead and the survivors stranded, entirely dispossessed.

The village received a $90,000 settlement in 1973, and in 1982 the Navy sent a letter to the Kootznoowoo Heritage Foundation acknowledging their role in the affair and writing that, “The destruction of Angoon should never have happened, and it was an unfortunate event in our history.”

The village, however, had long sought an official acknowledgement and apology for the event.

“Thank you, Angoon, for keeping our culture so and so strong,” said Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, at the ceremony.

Latest acknowledgement

Last month, the Navy conducted a similar apology, for the burning and bombardment of the Tlingit village of Kake in 1869, according to Alaska Public Media.

On Oct. 25, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to officially apologize for the abuses committed at Native American boarding schools for more than a century.

Max Hauptman is a Trending Reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at MHauptman@gannett.com