Setting it right: Military could apologize for bombarding Alaska Native villages | Juneau Empire

Meetings in Juneau this week could lead to apologies more than 150 years in the making.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom Bussiere, Commander of Alaskan Command, and Alaska Native leaders, including tribal leaders and clan leaders from Kake, Wrangell and Angoon, met at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building Wednesday to discuss a trio of 19th-century conflicts in which the U.S. military bombarded Alaska Native villages.

“Today was the beginning of a great journey, I think, in addressing some institutional events and memories from the past,” Bussiere said in an interview.


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SHI President Rosita Worl joined Bussiere for the interview. SHI is a Juneau-based nonprofit that protects and promotes Alaska Native art, language and culture.

The events referenced by Bussiere date back to the mid-1800s when the U.S. Army and later the Navy bombarded Alaska Native villages. Three village sites and two forts near present-day Kake were destroyed in 1869 when the sites were shelled by the U.S.S. Saginaw, Wrangell in 1869 was bombarded by the U.S. Army, and in 1882 Angoon was bombarded by the U.S. Navy.