The Alaska Native Heritage Center’s Ngíisdla Garden was glowing with fall foliage on Sunday as dozens of veterans gathered for the unveiling of a new monument honoring their service and healing.
“This monument creates a permanent place here at the Heritage Center to recognize that service – your service, sacrifice, strength, and your legacy,” said Kelsey Ciugun Wallace, the center’s president and CEO.
The monument depicts a large Tlingit dagger in a sheath covered with quilt-style Athabaskan designs. Yéil Ya-Tseen Nicholas Galanin, a Tlingit and Unangax̂ artist from Sitka, hand-carved the sculpture.
“The intention of this work is to have this dagger in the sheath, so it's representing peace in that sense,” he said. “Not really violence, but maybe vigilance, memory and resilience.”
The day started with veterans posting the colors and lighting a seal oil lamp. Some reflected on their service and shared memories of friends and family who died in wars.
Vietnam veteran Bill Smith, the chief of the Valdez Native Tribe, said he wears a Vietnam hat “to find other brothers and sisters and welcome them home.” He said coping with his experiences has been a slow and complicated process.
“We'll never be cured, but we can always walk that healing journey,” Smith said.
Tlingit elder George Bennett from Sitka also served in Vietnam. He spoke about the importance of healing through culture and said treating loved ones well was like “medicine to your soul.”
“You know who else got hurt?” he asked. “We don't speak of them. It's the family of that veteran. Their veteran came home – they didn't recognize him. The military changed you. It changed how you think” he said.
Organizers said a group of Alaska Native veterans met every month over the past year to discuss the monument and offer feedback to Galanin. They say more monuments will be developed in the next two years and placed in the garden.
