KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Daysha Eaton/ KMXT
Kodiak is getting a new park dedicated to the ancestors of Alutiiq people whose remains were removed from the Kodiak Archipelago and are finally being returned.
April Laktonen Counceller is Executive Director of the Alutiiq Museum and Archeological Repository in Kodiak. She says a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Alutiiq Ancestors’ Memorial Park will take place today at the site of the new park near the museum.
“At the groundbreaking we’re going to have some celebrations, songs from the Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers,” said Counceller.
“We will also have Pat Branson, the city mayor say a few words [be]cause the Alutiiq Museum and the City of kodiak are partnering on this project. The land belongs to the city and the Alutiiq Museum is taking care of organizing the development of the park and will also be involved in helping maintain the park after it is.”
Over the past 200 years, Counceller says, museums and archeologists removed thousands of remains of indigenous people from the Kodiak area.
The native community has been successful in getting those remains repatriated back to Kodiak where many descendants now live.
There is a long history of collecting artifacts and indigenous Americans’ remains. That’s caused them to be scattered in museums and other institutions across the country, says Counceller.
“We’re probably talking about up to 1,200 people that have been returned home so far for reburial and we want the larger community to understand the scope of this issue. But also convey it in a positive way,.” said Counceller
Last year, the museum got 100 to 150 individual remains back from the University of Indiana at Bloomington.
The Chirikof remains were repatriated under a federal act called NAGPRA, The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act [1990]. It calls for any organization that receives federal funding to return remains in their care.
The groundbreaking for the Alutiiq Ancestors’ Memorial Park will take place at the site of the new park, behind the Alutiiq Museum on the corner of Mill Bay Road and Kashevaroff Avenue, today at 4 p.m.
Counceller says construction of the park is scheduled to happen over the summer.
