Letters to the Editor

Landless Natives deserve

support of communities

The folks who are working on legislation in regard to the landless Natives need the support of our city councils and residents to allow the acquisition to occur.

I am 80 years old and was born in Petersburg, as was my mother. Thirty years ago, Spencer Israelson, who spent his youth at Point Agassiz, took me to the mainland and showed me petroglyphs he and his friend had found as they grew up in the area. He also showed me evidence of a Native fish trap at Muddy River.

My grandfather, Carroll Clausen, took me to Sandy Beach when I was 8 years old and showed me the petroglyphs there and the fish traps which have been carbon dated and documented to have existed at least 2,000 years ago.

Several years ago, a fish net at the south end of Blind Slough revealed a fish trap carbon-dated 5,000 years of age. Tlingit fish traps have been found at several places in Wrangell Narrows and Duncan Canal. The Tlingit people called the Petersburg area home for thousands of years. To imply that they only came here during the summer to use the area for fish camps and to not have resided here is ridiculous.

I can’t imagine they would travel from Kake, which has access to fish as well as other foods in their own backyard, just gather food. They wouldn’t have come here from Angoon or Wrangell either. They gathered food, built fish traps and carved petroglyphs because they lived here. To question their right to own 23,000+ acres in this area is ridiculous.

I’ve been hunting, fishing and living on Native land all of my life. It brings tears to my eyes to know what has been taken.

When I was 24 years old and living in Sitka, I became close friends with an 85-year-old Tlingit from Angoon. Bob Zuboff was born around 1880 and was taught by his grandfather and his great-grandfather. He said this land is sacred, to be lived on and to be respected. It is a great part of what we leave to those who follow us. We leave this spiritual place as we have found it.

We are questioning now about giving the Tlingit people a small portion this area. This land is where they have existed for thousands upon thousands of years. The landless Natives in this area are asking for approximately 36 square miles. As we know, they resided on both Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands, which encompass a total of 1,286 square miles. It doesn’t seem like an unreasonable expectation for a people who have resided here for thousands of years.

Mike Schwartz, Petersburg