Baranof Statue
Dear Editor: I was 9 years old in 1989 when the Baranof statue was erected. At that time, I remember hearing stories from my elders about the atrocities Baranof committed against the Aleut and Tlingit peoples. However, I was taught the colonial version in the Sitka school system. My own son is now 9 years old and I am thankful to the Sitka Native Education Program and the recent Sitka School District administration for the increase of culturally relevant curriculum in our schools.
I hope that trend continues to improve so that a more accurate history is taught to my own children. In addition to being descendants of Cherokee ancestors that walked the trail of tears, my children are also German citizens. My mother-in-law was 12 years old when WWII ended and my husband was educated in Germany before becoming a U.S. citizen.
I was surprised by G.L. Hammons’, a former teacher of mine, comments about Germany in her Friday, June 26, letter to the editor. She states that “the majority of Germans would like nothing better than the removal of all reminders of the concentration camps the Nazis built under their noses during WWII.” In fact, it is part of German history school curriculum to take all German children to either Dachau or Auschwitz as a series of lessons about what their ancestors did and what must never happen again. Germany took down their statues of Hitler as did Poland and France and many other countries. They did this, not to negate their history or try and cover it up, but because Hitler did not deserve the honor that those statues confer. In his own writing, Hitler admired and followed the examples of the British and U.S. governments’ genocidal practices against the Native American Tribes.
Baranof is of the same ilk as Hitler, Columbus. Baranof not only does not deserve the honor that the statue confers, he deserves a Tlingit shaming pole. I was also shocked by the statement from Dr. Fred H. Everest in his Friday, June 26, letter to the editor when he states that “removing statues and monuments that may offend a few people (in this case apparently less than 10 percent of our population) does not change history.” He continues: “If Baranof is to be removed it must be put to a vote, not the whim of a few.” I think it interesting that Dr. Fred wants to put it to a vote after the Tlingit have been reduced to 10% by a reign of colonization and genocide.
Baranof didn’t bring democracy to Sitka, he brought horror. James Maddison said that the U.S. Constitution, without the Bill of Rights, is the perfect document for the tyranny of the majority. That is because the U.S. Constitution was written by and only for white men who owned property. Native Americans, African Americans, and women didn’t get the right to vote until the 20th Century. Native Americans weren’t even counted in the U.S. Census until 1934, they were instead counted as ‘‘wildlife’’ by the Department of Interior.
You don’t get to vote on the truth or fundamental human rights. G.L. Hammons’ use of euphemisms like revisionist or negationist obscures the truth. What is being and has been taught by the mere presence of the Baranof statue and its plaque is revisionist history because all the murder, rape and slavery of which Baranof was responsible, was revised to portay Baranof as a benevolent merchant. It is negationist history because it virtually erases the Tlingit and the Aleut from the mainstream historical narrative of Southeast Alaska. It is high time to end the European colonization of the Americas. It is high time to respect the original inhabitants of this place by taking back the original place names like they do in New Zealand and Hawaii. The Baranof statue was and is a mistake. At the very least we must relocate the Baranof statue to a museum where it can become a part of the whole historical record.
Chohla Moll, Sitka