Dozens of kids streamed into Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, singing in Lingít. Most wore red and black regalia dotted with mother of pearl buttons. One wore a fringed Chilkat robe with yellow, black and blue formline designs.
“Because of the advocacy of our ancestors, of our elders, of our leaders and of our people, these things are becoming more common, finally,” said La quen náay Liz Medicine Crow, president and CEO of First Alaskans Institute.
The performance opened the final ceremony in a weekend of events meant to acknowledge the 1962 closure of Memorial Presbyterian Church, which for decades served a primarily Alaska Native congregation in Juneau and became a vital part of Juneau’s Alaska Native community.
Last summer, national, regional and local Presbyterian Church leaders committed to paying nearly $1 million in reparations. This weekend, they began to fulfill that commitment by donating nearly $105,000 to Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
A thriving church closed
On Sunday, church leaders delivered a long-awaited apology at Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church, just a few blocks away from where Memorial Presbyterian Church once stood.
Rev. Walter Soboleff was the church’s pastor. Beginning in 1940, he led a mostly Alaska Native congregation, preaching in both Lingít and English. But in 1962, citing a new policy to end segregated churches, the Presbyterian church closed Soboleff’s church and loaned money to a non-Native congregation to build a new one.
Rev. Bronwen Boswell leads the U.S. denomination of the Presbyterian Church. On Sunday, she said the racist closure had followed “decades of Memorial Presbyterian Church’s thriving ministry and Dr. Soboleff’s unmatched record of transformative service.”
“The Presbyterian Church USA apologizes for the act of spiritual abuse committed by the Presbyterian Church’s decision of closure, which was sadly aligned with nationwide racism toward Alaska Natives, Indigenous nations, Native Americans and other people of color,” Boswell said.
House of healing
Sunday’s apology came after years of advocacy. In the 1990s, a group of Alaska Native church members started discussing Memorial Presbyterian Church’s closure and possible reparations.
In 2021, the church’s Native Ministries Committee wrote an overture outlining the actions and monetary contributions that could make up an apology for the closure.
Some have already happened. For example, the church has been renamed Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church. Ḵunéix̱ Hídi means “people’s house of healing” in Lingít. They’ve also committed to funding scholarship programs, incorporating Lingít language into church services, and adding Alaska Native art and architecture to the building.
Freda Westman, a member of the Native Ministries Committee, said those efforts will offer the next generation a chance to celebrate their culture within the church.
“What I’m excited about is bringing in younger people and children with the language, with the cultural practices and seeing how those can be woven together,” she said in an interview.
‘This is the beginning’
At Monday’s event, national church leaders gave $100,000 to Sealaska Heritage Institute to support language revitalization efforts. Church council member Jim Alter also presented Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson with a check for more than $4,400 for the Tribe’s cultural programs.
Future reparations payments will fund cultural opportunities for Alaska Native youth, support Tlingit and Haida’s reentry programs for people returning from incarceration, and pay for educational materials about the closure at Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church.
In an interview, Peterson said it’s important to acknowledge the role churches have played in colonization and language loss throughout Alaska.
“This is the United States Presbytery taking accountability for one instance,” he said. “I hope that the churches really do step up and take their role in the healing, as they took their role in the damage.”
Medicine Crow said this weekend’s events offer a framework for “other entities and institutions who were complicit in the efforts to eradicate the Native people of this place.”
“What happens here is going to shape, impact and give more foundation to all the other apologies that are due,” she said. “This is the beginning. We are setting a table together.”
This weekend’s events also included the unveiling of a sign at the site of Soboleff’s church, now occupied by the Juneau Fire Hall. It describes the church’s closure and the Presbyterian Church’s commitment to reparations.
The sign also says Ḵunéix̱ Hídi Northern Light United Church “hopes to create a more fitting memorial at this place” in the future.
