US navy apologizes for razing of Native Alaska community in late 1800s

The US navy’s Saginaw, which bombarded and destroyed the village of Kake in 1869. Photograph: Naval History and Heritage Command

In a ceremony Saturday afternoon, the US navy apologized for firing upon and torching the Alaska Native village of Kake in 1869.

Surrounded by tribal Chilkat weavings, historic photographs and other Lingít artwork in the Kake elementary and high school gymnasium, R Adm Mark B Sucato expressed the military’s regret, in the first of two apologies planned by the military for bombardments of Alaska Native communities in the late 1800s.