The US Navy apologized Saturday to an Alaskan native community for an October 1882 attack on Angoon, a village in the southeastern Alaska panhandle. See footage from the ceremony here.
At the time, conflict erupted when a harpoon gun exploded on a whaling ship, killing a member of the local Tlingit people. Amid tensions with Natives, the company that owned the ship called in support from the Navy, which ultimately destroyed 12 clan houses as well as canoes and local food stores. Six children died in the attack, with others later dying from starvation and lack of resources. In 1973, the village received a $90K settlement from the US Department of the Interior over the affair.
The attack took place 15 years after the US purchase of Alaska from Russia and is one of multiple conflicts between the US Navy and Alaskan Natives in this period. Last month, the Navy apologized for attacking the nearby village of Kake; the Army also plans to apologize for an attack on a village called Wrangell.
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