This summer, the Presbyterian Church made a formal apology and committed to pay $1 million in reparations for closing a church in Juneau in the 1960s. KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey spoke with Joaqlin Estus about her IndianCountry story on the closure and apology.
Can you tell me the story of Memorial Presbyterian Church?So, Memorial Presbyterian Church was heir to an earlier church that actually started in 1887. In Juneau, the town had two churches. They were segregated. There was a white church, and then the Native church and Walter Soboleff took over the Native church in 1940, I think it was. And by 1962, it was just the heart of the Juneau Indian Village. People thought of it as part of their extended family.
So a group at Northern Light Presbyterian Northern Light United Church formed a Native ministries committee, and they went to the National Presbytery, which is now called Presbyterian Church USA, and the Northwest Coast Presbytery and the Northern Light Church. And they asked for reparations. And the document that they used is called an overture.
So they’re also going to contribute some money to establish a memorial at the site of the former church, which was situated across from the federal building, where the fire station is now.You mentioned that the closure of Memorial was devastating for the community here in Juneau. Can you tell me more about that and what impact that had on the Lingít community here?There was something going on there seven days a week, all hours of the day and night. And not all of it was church related.
I mean, they dispersed the Native community, basically, and the people I interviewed said it was shocking, and some never went back to church. They didn’t want to join Northern Light. They didn’t feel welcome there. And they either switched to another denomination or they quit going to church completely. So it was a huge spiritual loss for many people.You mentioned that the national branch of the church is issuing an apology as a part of this process.
Native Americans and other people would like to see a more thorough repudiation of the of the idea behind the doctrine of discovery, which was basically the idea that was prevailing at the time was that Western Europeans were superior to the people who lived in these places, and therefore had the right to take over land and resources.I think that’s one thing that’s kind of interesting about this story is that it’s a church closure, that was the harm.
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