History of The Tlingit - The Bombardment of Angoon

The Bombardment of Angoon

At a rendering plant located near Angoon in October 1882, a shaman and aristocrat named Til'tlein was killed in an accident that involved the factory's boats and harpoon bombs. Another man had been violently killed recently, and his relatives had not been compensated by the factory managers for his death, a customary Tlingit practice that they had honored previously. The Tlingits had let the previous matter rest, to maintain friendly relations. However, when Til'tlein was killed and the owners again refused to compensate his survivors, the Angoon residents followed traditional Tlingit practice: they seized the boats and weapons involved in the death and took a few whites hostage until the factory managers repaid them for the deaths. They claimed compensation of two hundred blankets from the factory.

Incensed at the theft and perhaps misunderstanding the situation as a threat, the owners sent word to the US Naval Commander Merriman in Sitka. Merriman came to Angoon aboard the revenue cutter USS Corwin and demanded that the Angoon people return the boats and men and pay a fine of four hundred blankets in twenty-four hours or suffer bombing from the cutter's cannons. The following morning only 80 blankets were produced and Merriman proceeded to destroy the canoes on the beach, shell the houses and storehouses, and send a landing party in to loot and burn the remaining town.

The looting and burning of the storehouses destroyed most of the Angoon people's possessions and food they had put up for winter, and that year many people died of starvation. It took five years for the town to rebuild to the size it was before the bombing. This incident, concomitant with the gold rush in Juneau, forced the US government to recognize the need for a formal Territorial Government to replace the martial law that had been in place since the Alaska Purchase.

The residents of Angoon have long held out for a formal apology for what they consider was undue terrorizing punishment for a cultural misunderstanding. In 1973 the US government offered a ninety thousand dollar settlement to the village of Angoon in response to the bombardment, but the government and the US Navy declined to offer a formal apology. In 1982, on the centennial of the bombing, Angoon held a memorial potlatch. Tlingit dignitaries from all across Southeast Alaska and Governor Jay Hammond attended. The people of Angoon formally made public their feelings and opinions on the matter, and demanded an apology from the US Navy. No representatives of the Navy attended, despite a formal invitation, and neither the Government or the Navy made an apology, despite repeated requests from the town government, the Tlingit tribal organizations, and representatives of the State of Alaska.