How Alaska Natives Turned Missionary Assimilation Against Itself
In 1880 Protestant leaders divided Alaska into denominational spheres and ran federally funded English-only schools that suppressed Native languages and ceremonies. Tlingit graduates of those mission schools then founded the Alaska Native Brotherhood and won the first anti-discrimination law in the United States. The episode ends with the Presbyterian Church's apology and reparations for the 1962 closure of Juneau's Memorial Presbyterian Church.
Who's who
- Sheldon JacksonPresbyterian missionary who convened the 1880 Comity Agreement
- Ivan VeniaminovRussian Orthodox priest who built a written Aleut language
- Hudson StuckEpiscopal archdeacon of the Interior; led first ascent of Denali
- Walter SoboleffTlingit; first Alaska Native ordained Presbyterian minister
- William PaulTlingit attorney and Alaska Native Brotherhood leader
- Elizabeth PeratrovichTlingit leader whose 1945 testimony helped pass an anti-discrimination law
Where it happens
- Alaska+11 more episodesTerritory divided into denominational spheres in 1880
- Sitka, Alaska+3 more episodesHome of the Sitka Industrial Training School and Brotherhood founding
- Kodiak, Alaska+3 more episodesRussian Orthodox mission from 1794
- Wrangell Institute, AlaskaFederal boarding school, 1932-1975
- Juneau, Alaska+1 more episodeSite of Memorial Presbyterian Church
Timeline
- 1794Russian Orthodox mission established at Kodiak
- January 19, 1880Jackson convenes the Comity Agreement in New York
- 1888Jackson orders no books in any Indian language be used in instruction
- 1912Alaska Native Brotherhood founded in Sitka
- February 16, 1945Peratrovich's testimony helps pass Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act
- 1962Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau closed (some sources say 1963)
Still debated
The church's closure is dated 1962 or 1963 depending on the source, and early reparations disbursement figures differ though the roughly $1 million commitment is consistent. Historians differ on how to weigh sincere benevolence against assimilationist coercion, and the full toll of church-run schools has no complete official accounting.
