 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Sitka's genuine survivors
By STANTON H. PATTY © St. Petersburg Times, published February 4, 2001
And it is a story that was not told here until the Tlingit Indians of Sitka decided to form their own tour company. Now visitors are escorted to sites connected to the hearts of Tlingits and are entertained with traditional dances handed down through the generations. The guides' narratives are neutral, not bitter, as they describe how the Tlingits have coped with centuries of hardships. "We want to share our culture with visitors," says Ferguson, operations manager of Sitka's Tribal Tours. "We don't fluff up things; we just tell the truth. "We were here first. We are survivors." Sitka, a jewel of a city on Southeastern Alaska's Baranof Island, is best known as the onetime capital of Russian America. But, for the Tlingits of Sitka, that is recent history.
"They came here in canoes, led by the steam of the volcano that the white people call Mount Edgecumbe." Ferguson smiles and continues: "Our people still go village to village by boat, but now the boats are the state ferries that connect the villages. "And the white people are doing some Indian lifestyle things by fishing from their boats." Ferguson learned Tlingit history from her grandmother, Mary Marks, who died in 1994 at age 100. "I am so blessed to be born here and to have had a grandmother who taught me many things," she says. "They gave a potlatch (a native gathering) for my grandmother. We still have potlatches, memorials to honor those who are gone. Clans come together to help pay funeral costs and share the grieving." Things changed forever for Alaska's native peoples when voyagers for czarist Russia "discovered" Alaska in 1741. The natives enjoy telling travelers that they already knew where Alaska was before the Russians sailed over from Siberia. Russian hunters began sweeping Alaskan waters for the valuable pelts of sea otters and fur seals. They built fortified trading posts at Kodiak, Sitka and other places. Ferguson leads visitors to a clearing six miles north of Sitka, not far from where Alaska Marine Highway ferries tie up today. Locals know the area as Old Sitka. "There was a battle here that the Russians did not win," Ferguson says.
On a Sunday afternoon in June 1802, Tlingit warriors charged the fort and killed most of the Russians. "It was a clash of cultures," Ferguson says. "And it was inevitable. The Tlingits simply didn't want the Russians here." Now a Russian Orthodox memorial cross marks the battlefield. Next, Ferguson guides visitors to a melancholy place, a forest of spruce and hemlock spreading like a dark curtain behind present-day Sitka. This is where Sitka's Tlingits lost their homeland to Russian troops in 1804. "Our people knew that the Russians would return," Ferguson continues. "This time the Tlingits were overwhelmed. They retreated to the other side of the island." Sitka remained in Russian hands until 1867, when the United States purchased Alaska from the czars for $7.2-million. That figured out to about two cents an acre. The 1804 battlefield now is Sitka National Historical Park. A trail through the forest is framed with lofty Indian totems. Another tour stop: St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Sitka's centerpiece. The first St. Michael's was completed in 1844, when Alaska was Russian America. It burned in 1966, then was rebuilt almost exactly like the original. Ferguson introduces travelers to the Rev. John Zabinko and his wife, Maggie, the cathedral's devoted custodians. Candles flicker by icons veiled in gold and silver as Zabinko and Camille Ferguson chat in whispers. "There was an awful time here after the ceremony that transferred Alaska to the United States," Ferguson says. "There was no real government for awhile. Most of the Russians elected to return to Russia. The Tlingits stayed, and today we make up 95 percent of the church members." Bottom line: St. Michael's Cathedral, built by Russian invaders, now is a Tlingit church. "Like I said, we are survivors," Ferguson says. Finally, visitors on this tour gather in the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center, a replica of a Tlingit clan house. Hosts kindle a fire in a pit in the center of the building. Sparks flicker as the first drum beats are heard. And then the Tlingit Native Dancers, wrapped in bright ceremonial blankets, make their entrance. Elders, young parents, children -- all blending into a Tlingit time line. "Traditions are cherished and shared here," says Ferguson. Jessie Johnnie, a Tlingit elder, says this is a better time for her people. "We are not really warriors," she tells a visitor. "When we fought with the Russians, we were only protecting what was ours." * * * Stanton H. Patty, born and reared in Alaska, is the retired assistant travel editor of the Seattle Times. If you goFOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Tribal Tours, 429 Katlian St., Sitka, AK 99835. Call (888) 270-8687; the Web site is http://www.sitktribe.org
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times Travel page
From the AP |
