Certainly, people enjoy reminiscing about happy moments, inspiring stories, proud accomplishments and successful endeavors. History can be heartwarming and motivating. It can be exciting and fun.
It also can be educational, particularly when the past reminds us of the world’s mistakes, mistreatment and violence over the years. That kind of history teaches how not to treat people, lessons that may prevent some of those same bad things from happening again. Not that mankind learns everything from those examples but, in time, maybe enough to make a positive difference for the future.
History is not about blaming people today for the errors, abuse or harm inflicted by others generations ago. It is about making everyone smarter about the past so that they learn to do better and respect everyone.
There are some of those lessons from Wrangell’s past, and there are a couple of recent opportunities for people to learn more about history.
Sealaska Heritage Institute put together an hourlong historian’s presentation on the 1869 U.S. Army bombardments of the Tlingit villages of Ḵaachx̱haan.áak’w (Wrangell), Ḵéex̱’ Ḵwáan (Kake) and Xutsnoowú Ḵwáan (Angoon). It’s hard to imagine in 2023, but that was the Army’s answer to its perceived grievances more than 150 years ago.
The story of the attack also is available at Ronan Rooney’s website, “Wrangell History Unlocked.” His two-part presentation, titled “The Christmas Bombardment,” totals a couple of hours.
Rooney, who grew up in Wrangell before leaving for college 20 years ago, uses his website and podcasts to provide multiple history lessons about Wrangell, including his latest project to document life, discrimination and unhappiness for many of the students at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Wrangell Institute Native boarding school that closed in 1975.
The bombardment and boarding school histories are hard to read, watch and listen to — but that is part of learning from past mistakes, particularly if the readers, listeners and viewers were not there. The more people know about what happened years ago, the more they can understand and learn.
The presentations are available at Sealaskheritage.org and Rooney’s wrangellhistoryunlocked.com. Paying attention to the past — especially the sad or depressing parts— is time well spent to make the years ahead better.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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