Tlingit & Haida receives $100,000 in reparations towards community healing – Local First Media Group

Photo provided by Tlingit & Haida Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – The Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska has received $100,000 from Kuneix Hídi Northern Light United Church (KHNLUC) congregation of Juneau, AK. The Native Ministries Committee presented the donation on day one of the 89th Tribal Assembly.  The donation is to help support and uplift healing programs within the Community & Behavioral Services Healing Center. The funds are part of a commitment of $1 million in reparations from the congregation to repair the harm and pain the Juneau community experienced at the racist closure, more than 60 years ago, of the once predominantly Tlingit church.  President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson worked with the KHNLUC in fulfilling a formal apology to the family of Rev. Dr. Walter Soboleff, former members of Memorial Presbyterian Church and the Tlingit people, for the devastating closure of the Memorial Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church (USA), Northwest Coast Presbytery and Kunéix Hídi Northern Light United Church delivered the formal apology on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 9, 2023.  Rev. Dr. Walter Soboleff, Tlingit of the Raven, L’eeneidí clan, was one of the first Alaska Native ordained ministers and began his calling as a...