US Navy apologizes for the 1882 obliteration of a Tlingit village in Alaska

Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — In 1882 the U.S. Navy shelled a southwest Alaska Tlingit village and then burned what was left of the homes, food caches and canoes. Conditions were so severe that winter, elders sacrificed their own lives so children could eat. On Saturday the Navy apologized during a ceremony in Angoon marking the bombing. A Navy spokesperson calls the apology warranted and long overdue. The attack was one of a series of conflicts between the American military and Alaska Natives in the years after the U.S. bought the territory from Russia in 1867. The Navy apologized last month for destroying the nearby village of Kake in 1869. The Army plans to apologize for shelling Wrangell, as well.