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An opera performed entirely in Lingít finished its run in Juneau, Alaska on Sunday.
The opera is about a series of battles in Sitka between Southeast Alaska Native peoples and Russian invaders.
One Lingít clan was especially involved in that history, and texts about the battles say this is their story, but members of that clan say they were never asked for permission to tell this story in the first place.
KTOO’s Yvonne Krumrey reports.
Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles debuted in Juneau earlier this month, after nearly a decade of work.
The opera was produced by Sealaska Heritage Institute in partnership with Perseverance Theatre.
Members of the Kiks.ádi clan in Sitka, whose ancestors died and on whose land the battle took place, say SHI did not consult them about the project.
In August, SHI Director Kahaani Rosita Worl said at a public panel at SHI that the story does not belong just to the Kiks.ádi.
She said SHI had conversations about the ownership of this story back in the early 2000s, when the organization was compiling the written history of the battles.
“We came to the conclusion that since all of our clans and the Haidas united to battle the the Russians in 1802, we believed that these this story was owned by all of the clans and the Haidas, so we moved forward in that way.”
But Kiks.ádi clan members in Sitka see it differently.
Yeidikook’áa Dionne Brady-Howard is the Kiks.ádi clan mother. She holds important clan knowledge like songs and stories and clan members can consult her on protocols.
“When it comes to the Battle of 1804 in particular, that story is very much ours.”
She said asking for permission is not just about protocol, it is about respecting the power of these stories.
“It’s important at the very core to remember who we are and where we came from when we approach doing these kinds of things.”
Lduteen Jerrick Hope-Lang says Worl’s position contradicts with the written history of the battles, which was published by SHI.
“I think she saying that publicly, which is revisionist from what the SHI published history is, that she is doing that to allow herself the freedom to be able to tell the story.”
The creators of the opera based its story on an exhaustive tome of research about the battles.
That book is called “Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká Russians in Tlingit America: the Battles of Sitka 1802 and 1804”.
The book states that this history “belongs primarily, if not exclusively to the Kiks.ádi” and “(f)rom the Lingít point of view, an unauthorized telling constitutes stealing.”
But in a phone call with KTOO, Worl reiterated her stance on the ownership of this story.
When asked about the book’s claim that the Kiks.ádi own the story, she attributed that discrepancy to one of the three authors of the book, the late Richard Dauenhauer.
“I don’t think he understood the complexities of Lingít law and ownership, so that was his assumption, and I think it’s because he was interviewing primarily the Kiks.ádi in Sitka.”
Worl added that SHI has a council of traditional scholars, which ensures the nonprofit maintains cultural integrity.
Hope-Lang said he does not agree with Worl’s position on who owns the story.
“No one individual can alienate our history from us, although she’s certainly trying. So even I, a Kiks.ádi member, could not say to Rosita, ‘because you’re friends with me, or you’ve studied this, I’m going to give you this history, and you can mark it as whatever.’ I can’t alienate my history from my own people. It’s collectively owned.”
And Hope-Lang said he does not want this to take away from the work so many people put into this project.
“We have something in Lingít language, telling our history in 2026. That should be the celebration.”
He sent a letter to SHI and the Sealaska board outlining his concerns and asking for an apology.
Worl said SHI will respond to that letter.
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