In Klukwan in the town of Klukwan which is 20 miles to the northwest of Haines in the northwest of Haines, a Presbyterian Church was recently restored to Chilkat Indian Village following more than a century of being owned by Presbytery USA.
The KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey spoke with Lex Treinen from the Chilkat Valley News about what this new change will mean for Klukwan.
The transcript was edited to improve clarity and length.
Lex Treinen: It’s a location that people would just go to, particularly a few generations back. It was pretty normal to go there. One church elder I talked to, Lani Hotch, talked about her first memories throughout her life, she went to congregation with her grandma. She recalled her grandmother’s blue polka-dotted gown and walking through the wooden boardwalks that were once used as walkways in Klukwan. So it appears to me that Klukwan is an essential part of the small town.
Yvonne Krumrey: And in your account you wrote about how a few of the leadership in the church are grappling with the negative effects that the church has caused to the community over the years. Do you know what negative effects resulted from members of the Presbyterian Church throughout the region?
Lex Treinen: Yeah, that’s an interesting subject, since there’s an Presbyterian Church presence in Haines which is thought by some as a more negative influence than the boarding school located in Haines and was called The Haines House. The school, as many other schools of this type, was a place where Alaska Native children from their homes in various areas of in the State and brought them to Haines to receive an Western education.
In Klukwan There wasn’t any clear negative historical record. I asked a couple of elders about this. They told me, which was interesting they said that in Klukwan in itself, there not a single instance of anger over the activities of the church there.
It always felt slightly strange, to me, for some of us to experience this influence of a church which was a foreign entity. In this way there’s an general negative perception of certain things that the Church does at a minimum. That’s the thing that Klukwan attempted to come to terms with during this transfer deed.
Yvonne Krumrey: I know that some of the leaders within the church have been looking at the possibility of reparative work for some time recently. Do you know what prompted the work? And who was the first person to look at what could be done to to reconcile the role of the Presbyterian Church as a church in Southeast Alaska?
Lex Treinen: The person who was interested in the project was a pastor who moved in Klukwan in the year 2017. The name of the pastor is Jami Campbell. She was a the pastor for a couple of years. She said it was only a few months after her arrival that she was aware of the apology made by Presbyterian USA — that’s an organization within the Presbyterian Church — that these leaders addressed before an Alaska Federation of Natives conference in the year 2016.
in May 2019, the pastor Campbell made the decision to issue some sort of public apology for Klukwan church. Klukwan congregation or church’s leadership Klukwan church. The pastor apologized broadly. As I said before there were no specific instances of abuse specifically within Klukwan’s Presbyterian Church at Klukwan. However, she did speak about the sexual, physical and emotional abuse that occurred in the context of assimilation practices.
It seemed like it was an important occasion in the history of the church. Campbell claimed that she’d seen friends from the congregation approach her later in life and read portions of her apology to her even though they weren’t present at the time.
Yvonne Krumrey Do I inquire what’s happening in this church?
Lex Treinen: All this kind of reckoning lead to this notion that the property belonging to the Presbyterian Church to Klukwan’s tribe. Klukwan The entire area is part of the tribe with any exception from the church. Pastor Campbell approached members of the Presbyterian leadership. It was interesting to note that his Presbyterian leadership was agreed. They didn’t consider it.
In the beginning it wasn’t an important event. It was at a time when there were some COVID issues. So they did not decide to hold an event. However, this changed in the past year. And they took the decision to officially recognize it.
Yvonne Krumrey What exactly does mean to be part of the village today?
Lex Treinen Pastor Campbell talked about the way it felt like an event of healing. She spoke about that it was an intense emotion that came from broken pieces being restored. It’s interesting to compare her perspective of the event with the other perspectives from other members of the community. Lani Hotch, whom I mentioned in the past is one of our elders when I talked to her about regarding the apology in 2019 she kind of spoke about it as something she had in fact moved past. It’s not to say that she doesn’t like it, but she thought that it existed from the past. Here’s what she said about it.
Lani Hotch: Why don’t you sit and wait? Since someone has done me wrong and have never apologized? You have to let it go and go on with your life. It’s great to hear that an apology was offered following the incident. In my heart, I’ve moved on.
Lex TreinenSo I think there was intriguing feelings that were being expressed by some of the church members I believe.
