Hundreds of children poured through Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall during Indigenous Peoples’ Day, singing in Lingit. The majority wore black and red regalia, dotted with mother of pearl buttons. One was wearing fringed Chilkat gown with black, yellow, and blue formsline designs.
“Because because of the influence of our ancestors, our elders of our leaders, from our own people,” these issues are becoming more prevalent eventually,” said La quen Naay Liz Medicine Crow, president and CEO of First Alaskans Institute.
The performance kicked off the ceremony that concluded the course of a week-long series of events to mark the closing of Memorial Presbyterian Church, which was for a long time a major Alaska Native congregation in Juneau and was an integral part of Juneau’s Alaska Native community .
This summer there was a time when national, regional, and even local Presbyterian Church leaders committed to paying more than $1 million in compensation. On Saturday, they took the first step to fulfill their commitment by donating more than 105,000 dollars towards Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
A vibrant church was closed
The following Sunday the church’s leaders gave an lengthy apology at Kuneix Hidi Northern Light Church, a couple of blocks from the site the site where Memorial Presbyterian Church once stood.
Rev. Walter Soboleff was the church’s pastor. In the 1940s, he was the leader of an Alaska Native congregation, preaching in both Lingit and English. However, in 1962, as a result of an updated policy that sought to end church segregation The Presbyterian church shut down Soboleff’s congregation and provided the money of a foreign church to construct a new one.
Rev. Bronwen Boswell is the head of the U.S. church from the Presbyterian Church. In a statement on Sunday, the Presbyterian Church stated that the closing of the racist church had come after “decades in the Memorial Presbyterian Church’s vibrant ministry as well as Dr. Soboleff’s unparalleled track record of transformational services .”
“The Presbyterian Church USA apologizes for the acts of spiritual abuse that was committed by its decision to closing, which was in line with the nation’s racism towards the Alaskan Natives, Indigenous nations, Native Americans and other people of ethnicity,” Boswell said.
The House of Healing
Sunday’s apology was a result of many years of campaigning. In the 90s an assemblage members of Alaska Native church members started discussion about the closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church and the possibility of restitution.
In 2021 in 2021, the Church’s Native Ministries Committee wrote an announcement of the church’s actions and financial contributions that could be used to provide an apology for the closure.
A few have already occurred. For instance the church was changed its name to Kuneix Hidi Northern Light United Church. Kuneix Hidi is “people’s home that heals” In Lingit. They’ve also vowed to fund scholarships, incorporating Lingit language in church services, as well as the addition of Alaska Native art and architecture to the church.
Freda Westman who is a participant in the Native Ministries Committee, said these efforts will give the next generation an opportunity to honor their heritage in the context of church.
“What I’m looking forward to is getting younger people and children who speak the language, as well as the practices of culture and how these can be weaved into one,” she said in an interview.
“This is the beginning.”
The event on Monday saw church leaders across the country donated 100,000 to Sealaska Heritage Institute to support initiatives to revitalize the language. Council chairman Jim Alter also presented Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Eesh Richard Peterson with an amount of $4,400 for Tribe’s cultural programming.
Future payments for reparations will provide cultural opportunities that are available to Alaska Native youth, support Tlingit and Haida’s reentry program for those who have been released from prison and will provide educational materials on the closure of Kuneix Hidi Northern Light United Church.
Interview with Peterson declared that it’s crucial to recognize the part churches played in the settlement and loss of language across Alaska.
It is a style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”This is the United States Presbytery taking accountability for a specific case,” he said. “I would like to see the churches get involved and play their part in healing process, just as they did responsibility for the damage they caused. .”
Medicine Crow said this weekend’s events provide a structure for “other organizations and entities that participated in the effort to eliminate the Native peoples of this region.”
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”What transpires here will form, affect and provide an additional foundation for all the other excuses required,” she said. “This is where we begin. We’re setting up a table .”
The weekend’s festivities included the unveiling an announcement at the location of the church that was Soboleff’s that is now home to the Juneau Fire Hall. The sign explains the church’s closing as well as the church’s pledge to make repairs.
It also reads Kuneix Hidi Northern Light Church “hopes to design an appropriate memorial at this location” in the near future.
