In a significant gesture of reconciliation, Rear Adm. Mark Sucato, the commander of the Navy’s northwest region, issued a formal apology for the US Navy's role in the 1882 bombardment of Angoon, a Tlingit village in southeastern Alaska. The apology, delivered during a ceremony on the anniversary of the atrocity, acknowledged the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Tlingit people, resulting in loss of life, resources, culture, and intergenerational trauma.
Angoon, a village of about 420 people, was devastated when sailors landed and burned homes, food caches, and canoes, leading to dire conditions that forced elders to sacrifice their lives to save food for surviving children. The attack, part of a series of conflicts between the American military and Alaska Natives in the post-1867 era, caused deaths, loss of resources, and multigenerational trauma.
