"K'alyaan Pole in the Fort Site" by NPS , public domain
![]() | SitkaSitka's National Historic Landmarks |
featured in
![]() | National Parks Pocket Maps | ![]() |
![]() | Alaska Pocket Maps | ![]() |
covered parks
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Alaska Regional Office
SITKA’
A’SS
NATION
ONA
AL HIS
HIST
TOR
ORIIC
LANDM
NDMA
ARKS
A Window into Alaska’s Past
National Historic Landmarks
S
itka is among the most historical and picturesque communities in Alaska, and its residents take
pride in the preservation of this rich heritage. Recognition for Sitka’s historic places includes the
listing of more than 20 properties on the National Register of Historic Places.* Eight of these properties
which includes individual buildings, sites, and districts are of national significance and are designated
National Historic Landmarks (NHLs). NHLs comprise some of our nation’s most important prehistoric
and historic cultural resources.
The National Park Service administers the NHL Program for the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. The
NHL Program focuses attention on historic and archeological resources of exceptional value to the nation
‡ Russian Bishop’s House
by recognizing and promoting the preservation efforts of private organizations, individuals, as well as local,
NHL window detail. Pho
state, and federal agencies. Designation of NHLs also furthers the educational objective of the Historic
tograph Historic Ameri
Sites Act of 1935 by increasing public awareness and interest in historic properties. Of the 2,500 NHLs
can Buildings Survey.
nationwide, 49 are in Alaska. They are an irreplaceable legacy.
Artifacts and historic archeological sites are an important part of our national heritage and are protected by federal and state laws.
It is illegal to excavate, damage, remove, sell, or transport archeological and historic resources located on federal or state land without
proper permits.
For more information on the National Historic Landmarks Program please visit http://www.nps.gov/nhl/
*The Sitka Historical Society and Museum provides an “Historic Sites of Sitka” map that identifies the National Register listed properties
in Sitka and is available at: http://sitkahistory.org/index.shtml
Credits: The National Park Service-Alaska Regional Office, National Historic Landmarks Program prepared this booklet with contributions by Chris Allan
and edited by Janet Clemens. Design/layout by Archgraphics. Booklet photographs are courtesy of NPS except as noted. Historical source information
is from the Sitka National Historical Park brochure and the National Historic Landmark nominations. Copies of the NHL nominations, as well as Alaska NHL
related publications, are available at: http://www.nps.gov/akso/history/nhl-main.cfm.
Printed 2013
‡ Facing Page: Detail, Looking Southeast from Sitka, Alaska, 1891. Oil painting by James Everett Stuart.
Image courtesy University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Ha
libu
tP
I
oin
To Old
Sitka,
7 miles
tR
Swan
Lake
DeGroff
oa
d
oad
ek R
re
mill C
Saw
Cresent Harbor
at
h
W ed
ay ra
l
D
t
e
tre
S
C
C
Str
ill
C
re
ek
Ro
ad
ln
Str
ee
E
t
ive
et
oln
c
Lin
B
m
sitka
national
Historical
Park
co
re
St
Sitka
Channel
w
Lin
n
ard
Sew
eet
Sa
t
et
tlia
Ka
re
St
G
et
Stree
n
to
et
an
tre
w
eS
re
ry
aste
Mon
Lake
rin
Ma
g
Ko
St
Street
rb
or
Dr
F
Ind
i
Ha
e
ell Bridg
O’Conn
H
DesignateD national Historic lanDmarks:
Japonski
Island
N
p
0
0
0.1
0.2 Kilometers
0.1
Miles
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
an
Kiks.ádi Fort Site
russian Bishop’s House
sheldon Jackson school
Battle of
Sitka Site
st. michael’s cathedral
1804
Building no. 29
american Flag raising site (castle Hill)
alaska native Brotherhood Hall
sitka U.s. naval operating Base and U.s. army coastal Defenses
old sitka
Sitka
Sound
Riv
er
Sitka’s National Historic Landmarks: A Window into Alaska’s Past
S
itka’s National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) provide a truly unique look into Alaska’s past.
Collectively, Sitka’s eight NHLs illustrate significant stories and events that occurred over a 200-year time
span. Sitka is also remarkable for its geographic concentration of NHLs. The authenticity of these places is
further enhanced by Sitka’s natural coastal splendor and lack of major modern developments which provides a
continuity of setting, inviting the Sitka visitor to slip back into its history.
Sitka
The Tlingit Indians were well established in the region when representatives of the Russian-American
Company arrived in 1799. The Tlingits were at once welcoming and wary of the strangers who brought desir
able trade items, like iron tools and cotton clothing, but who also violated Tlingit territorial claims. Old Sitka NHL, seven miles north of
town, serves as a dramatic reminder of the clash between Alaska Natives and the Russians. The Tlingit initially prevailed. Two years later,
the Tlingit fought the Russians in the Battle of Sitka, commemorated by today’s Sitka National Historical Park. This was the last major act
of resistance by the Tlingits.
Once the Russians gained a foothold in Sitka (known by the Tlingit as Shee At´iká) they opened the door to additional colonizing
forces. The Russian Bishop’s House NHL and St. Michael’s Cathedral NHL represent the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on
Alaska’s Native peoples. Building Number 29 NHL, a structure that served as kitchen, bakery, laundry, and residence to dozens of Rus
sian-American Company employees, is a reminder that Sitka was the Russian-American capital and a major Pacific Rim trading center.
Castle Hill, once a Tlingit village site and subsequently a Russian fortress, played a pivotal role in Sitka’s history as the American
Flag Raising Site NHL. It is where, in 1867, Russian officials officially transferred ownership of Alaska to the U. S. The Sheldon Jackson
School NHL reflects the missionary educational philosophy of the early 20th century, when children were compelled to leave their Native
villages and abandon their cultural traditions. The school’s emphasis on self-improvement, however, also helped to foster a new political
movement. Many Alaska Native leaders were graduates of the Sheldon Jackson School such as the founders of the Alaska Native Brother
hood (ANB). The Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall NHL is the physical legacy of ANB’s instrumental role in fighting discrimination and
securing rights for Alaska’s Native people. And, across Sitka Channel from the ANB Hall is Japonski Island and the former Sitka Naval
Operating Base and U.S. Army Coastal Defenses NHL which remains a prominent reminder of Alaska’s role in defending the North Pacific
against enemy attack during World War II.
Ownership of Sitka’s NHLs is diverse and includes private individuals, non-profit organizations, and state and federal agencies.
A
rrival of the Russians prompted an uneasy relationship with
the established Tlingit residents. The first clash came in 1802, at the
Old Sitka site. The Tlingit and Russians also fought again two years later,
as depicted in this illustration. The site of the 1804 battle is just south of
today’s downtown and within Sitka National Historical Park.
‡ Detail: Battle of Sitka (1804) painted by Louis S. Glanzman, 1988.
Image courtesy of D. Curl, Sitka National Historical Park collection..
Old Sitka National Historic Landmark
T
hen: Old Sitka NHL is the former site of a fortified fur trading post called New Arch
angel Saint Michael, established by the Russians in 1799 under the direction of Rus
sian-American Company manager Alexander Baranov. Baranov who came to Southeast Alaska
from Kodiak with a contingent of Russian traders and Aleut and Alutiiq hunters, negotiated
with the local Tlingits for land on which to build a fort. Though Baranov initially favored the
Castle Hill site within present-day Sitka, he agreed to settle at the Old Sitka site in the hope
of preserving amicable relations with the Tlingit. The Russians hoped that by establishing the
post they would be able to sustain their profits from sea otter fur and gain an enduring foothold
in this region. The physical layout of the post included several log structures clustered tightly
around a stockade and surrounded by a fort wall.
Though at first the trading post seemed to benefit both parties, relations between the
Russians and the Tlingits quickly deteriorated. Historians have identified several of the causes
of increasing Tlingit animosity toward the Russians which included incidents of grave-robbing,
desecration of graves, arresting and holding Tlingits in iron, as well as the Russian and Aleut
exploitation of Tlingit hunting grounds. A final incident sparked the coming together of several
Tlingit groups who joined forces, estimated at 600 warriors, to attack Fort St. Michael in 1802.
The Russians and Aleuts at the fort were unprepared for the assault and many were killed as
their settlement was ransacked. Survivors fled to the Russian outpost on Kodiak Island.
A larger force of Russians returned to the island in 1804 to avenge the Tlingit attack and
to establish a new community at the present-day townsite of Sitka. Old Sitka was never again
home to a major settlement. In the years that followed, the site was used periodically as a Native
camping area. An American salmon cannery operated at the site from 1878 to 1883.
Old Sitka was designated an NHL in 1962; this status was reaffirmed in 2009, based on
new documentation as a battlefield.
‡ As Russian fur traders advanced eastward
along Alaska’s southern coast, they buried
metal plates to consolidate their claims. The
plate above, which reads “Land of Russian
Possession,” was excavated near the site of
Old Sitka.
N
ow: Old Sitka is managed as an Alas
ka State Historical Park located at Star
rigavan Bay. Visitors can learn about the his
tory of Old Sitka from the interpretive panels
located at the site of New Archangel Saint Mi
chael (Fort St. Michael). The historical park is
located seven miles north of downtown Sitka,
via Halibut Point Road.
For more information about the Old Sitka
State Historical Park visit: http://dnr.alaska.
gov/parks/aspunits/southeast/oldsitkaahp.
htm
‡ Right: Painting of Saint Innocent (Veniaminov) who spent 15
years in Alaska (in Unalaska and Sitka) as a Russian Orthodox
Church missionary and leader. His work included learning
and translating several Alaska Native languages, designing
cathedrals, and providing oversight of the Russian school
(Russian Bishop’s House). Image courtesy of the Alaska State
Library, ASL Portrait Files, Veniaminov-Ivan-3.
‡ The Russian Bishop’s
Bishop’s House, commonly known as the Russian school or orphanage. c. 1890.
Photograph courtesy Alaska State Library,
Library, Early Prints of Alaska, P297-105.
Russian Bishop’s House National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The two-story log Russian Bishop’s House served as the headquarters of the Russian
Orthodox Diocese of Sitka and the residence of the bishop, as well as office, mission
school, and the bishop’s personal chapel.
The first officials of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in Sitka in 1834 with Father
Veniaminov, a priest who had spent 10 years at Unalaska studying the language and customs of
the Aleut people. In 1838, while raising funds for the Alaska missions, Veniaminov so im
pressed Nicholas I with stories of the American Colony that the tsar ordered the creation of a
new diocese encompassing Kamchatka and Alaska. He then named Veniaminov the first bishop
of the diocese. During the same trip, Veniaminov took monastic vows and, before returning to
Alaska, adopted the name Innocent.
The chief manager of the Russian-American Company at the time, Adolf Etolin, directed
the construction of the Russian Bishop’s new home in 1843. Finnish shipwrights used local
spruce and Yellow Cedar in addition to energy saving elements such as sand-insulated subfloors
and ceilings. Bishop Innocent was pleased with the result, stating that, “[The house] is in its
architecture one of the best, most solid and most beautiful structures in New Archangel.” The
building included priests’ quarters, seminary classrooms, a kitchen, and the office of the con
sistory of the North American Bishopric. The upper floor of the building, reserved for Bishop
Innocent, included a private chapel in addition to living, and eating quarters.
The Bishop’s House was owned by the Russian-American Company until the U.S. pur
chased Alaska, at which time the building was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church
in North America. Though Russian governance and commercial interests in Alaska ceased in
1867, Russian Orthodoxy continued to have a lasting impact in Alaska, especially among the
Native people.
The Russian Bishop’s House was designated an NHL in 1962.
N
ow: In 1972, the Russian Bishop’s
House was purchased by the Nation
al Park Service and restoration work began.
There have been no major changes in the ba
sic plan of the building since its construction,
though the side galleries were demolished and
rebuilt in 1887.
T
oday the Russian Bishop’s House is
part of Sitka National Historical Park.
After 15 years of work, much of the building
has been restored to its 1853 appearance. It
is among the best surviving examples of a
19th-Century Russian residence in the U.S.
Visitors are encouraged to tour the bishop’s
quarters and chapel and to view exhibits on
Russian-America.
For information on Sitka National Historical
Park, please visit: http://www.nps.gov/sitk/
index.htm.
‡ Model of St. Michael’s Church, Sitka,
ca. 1908. Detail of photograph cour
tesy Alaska State Library, Elbridge W.
Merrill, photographs, P57-046.
‡ Early Russian Orthodox Church,
Church, Sitka, Alaska 1886.
Photograph courtesy Alaska State Library,
Library, William R.
Norton, photographs, P226-361.
St. Michael’s Cathedral National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The original St. Michael’s Cathedral was designed by Bishop Innocent and con
structed between 1844 and 1848, with funding from the Russian-American Company.
The bishop designed and built a wrought-iron clock for the cathedral’s tower, where bells, cast in
a local foundry, were rung.
From 1840 to 1872, Sitka was the seat of the Russian Orthodox Diocese, which governed
all of North America and, thereafter, it continued as the Seat of the Diocese of Alaska.
In 1966 a fire swept through downtown Sitka. Residents managed to save most of the
cathedral’s icons, furniture, and other valuables before the inferno claimed the building. Regret
tably, Innocent’s clock and the church bells were lost. Soon after the fire, workers meticulously
reconstructed the cathedral using drawings that had been prepared as part of an Historic Ameri
can Buildings Survey (HABS).
This outstanding example of Russian church architecture was by far the largest and most
imposing religious edifice in Alaska until well into the 20th century.
St. Michael’s Cathedral is significant for its association with Bishop Innocent, its role in
the expansion of Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska, its icons and artifacts, and its importance as a
centerpiece to the community of Sitka. The plan of the single-story church takes the shape of
a cruciform, with the main altar at the center and wings at either side accommodating second
ary altars. A steeple with a gilded cross tops the cathedral. The building’s design incorporates
elements of Italian Rococco, a style popular in Russia during the early 19th century.
The chapel on the left side of St. Michael’s Cathedral was dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan,
and the chapel on the right was dedicated to St. John until 1978, when it was rededicated to the
canonized Bishop Innocent. Between the main chapel and the back of the cathedral is a screen
called an iconostasis, adorned with silver, icons, and religious objects.
St. Michael’s Cathedral was designated an NHL in 1962.
N
ow: Located in the heart of down
town Sitka, St. Michael’s Cathedral
continues to attract a loyal congregation. It is
frequently the first stop for visitors eager for a
chance to glimpse the icons and liturgical fin
ery that reflects its Russian past.
M
any of the icons in St. Michael’s were
donated by wealthy Russians and
Imperial officials when Innocent travelled to
Moscow in 1838-1840. Perhaps the most no
table icon portrays Our Lady of Kazan, also
known as the Sitka Madonna. Visitors are
asked to respect the sanctity of the altar.
‡ Right: An iconic image during the Rus
sian America time period was this sym
bol for the Russian coat of arms - a dou
ble-headed eagle with imperial crowns,
and a depiction of St. George slaying
a dragon. Photograph courtesy of the
Alaska State Museum, Juneau [ASM
III-R-150].
‡ Background: View of Sitka before 1884. Main street view photographed
from the Russian Orthodox Church. Building 29 (#1), with its four gable
dormers, is circled. Original photograph taken by Will Lockwood, The Photo
Shop Studio, Juneau. Photograph from Sitka National Historical Park Collec
tion, Negative number 1662.
B
Russian-American Building No. 29 National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The Russian-American Company constructed Building Number 29 (locally known
as the Tilson Building and the Log Cache) to house company employees in the early
1850s. The stout, two-story log structure is one of only four surviving buildings constructed
during the Russian-American colonial period in North America. Three are in Alaska, including
the Russian Bishop’s House in Sitka and the Russian-American Company Magazin (Baranov
Museum) in Kodiak, and the fourth is the Rotchev House at Fort Ross, California. Building
No. 29 is also a rare example of Russian-American colonial architecture. At the time of its con
struction, the Russian capital at Sitka was the center of civil administration, trade, and manufac
turing for Russia’s American colonies, stretching from the Aleutian Islands and Interior Alaska
to Fort Ross in California with fortifications in Hawaii. During the 1850s, the Russian-Ameri
can Company sold ice to gold seekers in San Francisco, fish and lumber to Hawaii and Califor
nia, and engaged in whaling and coal mining enterprises.
Life for the employees of the Russian-American Company was largely communal. Building
No. 29 accommodated multiple living quarters, as well as a corporate kitchen, bakery, laundry,
and storage facilities. The building was constructed of massive spruce logs, harvested, hewn, and
assembled by company craftsmen. Sawdust and gravel behind sailcloth served as insulation, and
mosses from local muskeg were used as chinking. The craftsmen were likely Finnish shipbuilders
brought to Sitka in the early 1840s by Adolf Etolin, a Russian-American Company manager
originally from Finland.
When the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia, Building No. 29 became home to several
important government officials. In the 1880s, the building underwent extensive renovations
in a Colonial Revival style. Early in the 20th century the building was used (as it is now) with
commercial retail space on the lower level and living quarters above.
Building No. 29 was designated an NHL in 1987.
N
ow: The building on Lincoln Street
is privately owned and continues to
serve as a commercial building in down
town Sitka.
I
t is still possible to view the original log
construction on the left side of the build
ing, where the siding has been cut away and
see-through plexiglass put in place.
‡ Photograph courtesy of Dirk HR Spennemann,
2010.
‡ New Archangel (Sitka) drawing by Aleksandr
Postels, 1827, from Fedor Petrovich Litke’s voy
age of the Senyavin. Image courtesy of the Alas
ka State Library, Alaska and Arctic-Related Illus
trations, P62-278.
American Flag Raising Site National Historic Landmark
T
hen: On October 18, 1867, Russian and American dignitaries gathered at Castle Hill. Amidst
cannonades and official proclamations, the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag
raised, signaling the transfer of Alaska to the United States (officially known as the American Flag Rais
ing Site). This event also marked the U.S. government’s first expansion into non-contiguous territory.
Castle Hill has long been recognized as an important historic place. When Russian ships arrived
in 1799, the Kiks.ádi Tlingits were living in a village near the base of Castle Hill and had built defensive
structures atop the promontory they called Noow Tlein or “Big Fort.” Alexander Baranov, the chief
manager of the Russian-American Company, saw the strategic advantage of the site but appeased the
Tlingits by establishing the Russian fur trading fort several miles to the north instead. In 1804, after
Tlingit warriors attacked and destroyed the Russian redoubt at Old Sitka, Baranov returned from
Kodiak to retaliate against the Tlingits at Castle Hill, only to find the Sitka village had been evacuated.
The Tlingits had retreated to a newly constructed fort at the mouth of the Indian River (located within
today’s Sitka National Historical Park). After claiming the Sitka village and Castle Hill, the Russians
managed to drive the Tlingits from Indian River, and they withdrew from the area, at least temporarily.
Between 1806 and 1867, the Russians made Sitka the seat of government for Russian America,
constructing administrative and residential buildings on Castle Hill. In 1837, a two-story timber resi
dence was constructed atop the hill and became known as Baranov’s Castle, though Baranov had died
almost two decades earlier. In the decades that followed the U.S. purchase of Alaska, Castle Hill served
as the U.S. military headquarters and as an administrative center. An U.S. Department of Agriculture
headquarters building, constructed in 1900, served many uses in the growing community before its
demolition in 1955.
After Alaska was admitted to statehood in 1959, a flag with 49 stars was raised for the first time
on Castle Hill. In commemoration of Alaska’s centennial, a flag pole, six Russian cannons, and a stone
parapet were installed on Castle Hill in 1967.
The American Flag Raising Site was designated an NHL in 1962.
‡ Photograph courtesy Alaska State Parks.
N
ow: Castle Hill is managed as an
Alaska State Historic Site and contin
ues to be a popular viewing site.
I
n 1997, while preparing to build a ramp
to the top of Castle Hill, investigators
uncovered a treasure trove of artifacts from
Tlingit, Russian, and American occupation
of the site, including lead seals bearing the
Russian-American Company logo, spruce
root baskets, timbers and bricks, shoes,
ceramic shards, blown glassware, cannon
balls, gunflints, trade beads, and tools.
I
n 2011, the State prepared the Baranof
Castle Hill State Historic Site Preser
vation Plan available at: http://dnr.alaska.
gov/parks/plans/finalcastlehillplan.pdf
‡ Industrial Training School group, Presbyterian
Mission, Sitka (Sheldon Jackson School), ca.
1890s/early 1900s. Photograph courtesy of the
Alaska State Library, William A. Kelly, P427-71.
‡ Sheldon Jackson School, 1931. Photograph courtesy of Alaska and Polar Regions
Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library,
Library, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Sheldon Jackson School National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The history of Sheldon Jackson School begins with the arrival of Presbyterian missionaries
after the 1867 U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia. Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary and
theology graduate from Princeton University, was one of the first to recruit fellow missionaries for work in
Alaska. Jackson’s belief in the need to assimilate American Natives made him a tireless advocate of Alaska
Native education. Before the construction of the existing campus, Sheldon Jackson’s school was known
as the Sitka Mission, Sheldon Jackson Institute, the Industrial Home for Boys, and the Sitka Industrial
Training School. The school operated under Jackson’s direction with the support of the Presbyterian
Women’s Board of Home Missions, providing academic education and industrial training for Native
students throughout Alaska, though primarily for Southeast Alaska Tlingit and Haida. As was the case
elsewhere in the U.S., the cultural ramifications of missionary education were profound for both the Native
students and their communities. Christian dogma, a prohibition on Native languages, and the school’s
Western curriculum required students to adopt the newly dominant Euro-American culture and economic
system at the expense of their traditional cultures. At the same time, the school’s emphasis on self-improve
ment helped to foster a new political movement among the Tlingit and Haida of Southeast Alaska. Many
of Alaska’s Native leaders were graduates of Sheldon Jackson School, including the founders of the Alaska
Native Brotherhood and members of the territorial legislature.
Built in 1910-11, Sheldon Jackson School remains the only formal campus plan in Alaska. The architec
tural firm of Ludlow and Peabody designed the campus, overlooking the harbor, by incorporating Craftsman
and Western Stick architectural elements and arranging the buildings around a central quadrangle.
Over time the school amended its original charter to become a junior college, began admitting
non-Native students, and changed its name to Sheldon Jackson College. The college closed in 2007
and subsequently transferred the historic core campus buildings to Alaska Arts Southeast Inc. The
community maintains a strong interest in preserving the historic campus, with support by the Sitka
Historic Preservation Commission.
Sheldon Jackson School was designated an NHL in 2001.
‡ Allen Auditorium on the former Sheldon
Jackson College campus. Photograph courtesy
of Katherine Ringsmuth, October 2012.
N
ow: Located off Lincoln Drive and
adjacent to Sitka National Historical
Park, several of the largest historic buildings
are used by the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, with
activities that include a program to rehabilitate
the buildings. Also contributing to the histor
ic district is the Sage building, owned by the
Sitka Sound Science Center, several privately
owned cottages, and the octagonal-shaped
Sheldon Jackson Museum. Built in 1895, it is
the oldest museum in Alaska and is renowned
for its Alaska ethnographic collection.
‡ Pictured are most of the founders of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, 1912. Left to Right: Paul Liberty, James Watson, Ralph Young, Eli Kalanvok
(Katinook), Peter Simpson, Frank Mercer, James C. Jackson, Chester Worthington, George Fields, William Hobson, and Frank Price. Photograph
courtesy Alaska State Library, Alaska Native Organizations, P33-01.
Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, Sitka Camp No. 1, is the original local chapter of
this Alaska-wide Native organization that, for most of the first half of the 20th-century, was the
only such group representing Alaska Natives.
The Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) organization was founded in 1912 by a group of pre
dominately Tlingit and one Tshimshian who were determined to battle discrimination against Alaska’s
Native people. The ANB encouraged Natives to educate themselves, to adopt Christian ways, and to
use the political system to push for citizenship and land rights. In the ANB constitution they stated
their desire “to oppose, discourage, and overcome the narrow injustice of race prejudice, and to aid in
the development of the Territory of Alaska, making it worthy of a place among the States of North
America.” The Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS) was established a few years later.
In 1914 the Sitka ANB meeting hall was built on land donated by the prominent Sitka Tlingit
Katlian (K’alyaan), the grand-nephew of Chief Katlian, a leader of the Tlingits at the time of the Rus
sian invasion. Most of the length of this 40 x 60 foot, two-story frame building projects over the waters
of Sitka Channel and is supported by rows of pilings. The hall provided a venue for conventions and
fundraising, as well as for social events and ceremonies such as weddings and funerals.
Initially the ANB had local camps in Sitka, Juneau, and Douglas. By 1925 there were chapters in
nearly every Southeast Alaska village.
During its first years, the ANB along with its counterpart the ANS achieved many victories in
extension of rights to Alaska’s Natives that should have been common to all citizens of the U.S. This in
cluded the right to Workmen’s Compensation and the right of Native children to attend public school.
In 1929, ANB/ANS initiated what became the first Alaska Native land claims court suit. The ANB/
ANS were also successful in pushing the Alaska legislature to pass the first antidiscrimination law in the
nation in 1946, twenty years before the national Civil Rights movement.
The Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall was designated an NHL in 1978.
N
ow: The Alaska Native Brotherhood
on Katlian Street continues to serve as a
community hall. It is a gathering place for Sit
kans and hosts numerous programs and events
including the Sitka Native Education Program
and the annual Elizabeth Peratrovich Day cel
ebration. A 2010 appropriation by the Alaska
State Legislature for $150,000 is supporting
some much needed building repairs including
structural work on the piling foundation.
‡ Sitka Naval Operating Base, World War II era. Photo
graph courtesy of Isabel Miller Museum, Sitka, Alaska.
Sitka Naval Operating Base National Historic Landmark
T
hen: The Sitka Naval Operating Base was the site of the U.S. Navy’s first air station in Alaska,
built to defend the U.S. during World War II against the threat of Japanese attack. In the 1930s,
when military strategists began to recognize the need to defend the Pacific coast of the United States,
Alaska was made the apex of a defense triangle that included Panama and Hawaii.
Japonski Island, located a short distance from downtown, over the O’Connell Bridge that spans
Sitka Channel, was initially set aside as a U.S. Naval reservation in the 19th century. In 1939 the Navy
formally commissioned Sitka Naval Air Station. Designed primarily for seaplanes, construction in
cluded a radio station, a naval section base, Marine barracks, and naval shore facilities. The Army Coast
Artillery Corps protected the Navy Air Station. In 1942 the Air Station was redesignated a Naval
Operating Base (NOB).
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Sitka NOB was placed on alert.
Planes from the Sitka base patrolled Southeast Alaska waters looking for the enemy. Following the
Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor and subsequent occupation of Kiska and Attu islands in June 1942,
the U.S. military focused on reclaiming these islands by establishing a series of airfields progressively
west. As the Aleutian Campaign unfolded, Sitka NOB declined in strategic importance. U.S. forces
retook Attu in May 1943, and the Japanese evacuated Kiska on July 28, 1943. By 1944 the Sitka NOB
was decommissioned.
In 1946, the property was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which opened Mt.
Edgecumbe School for Alaska Native children the following year.
Several key features of the base remain today, including a concrete aircraft parking area and run
way located near the water’s edge; inland are two large metal aircraft hangars. Other features include
piers, industrial buildings, administrative buildings, a recreation center, barracks, a mess hall, bachelor
officer’s quarters, and family housing units.
The Sitka Naval Operating Base and U.S. Army Coastal Defenses (includes Fort Rousseau and
the Causeway) was designated an NHL in 1986.
‡ World War II boat house with railway.
Photograph courtesy of Dirk HR Spennemann,
2010.
N
ow: The former WWII base buildings,
located on Japonski Island, consists
of multiple owners, most of who are involved
with preservation efforts including: the Alas
ka Department of Education (maintaining
the public boarding high school); U.S. Coast
Guard (construction of the Cutter Support
building); Sitka Maritime Heritage Society
(rehabilitating the boat house); and Sitka Trail
Works, Inc. (instrumental in seeing the estab
lishment of the Fort Rou