Tlingit site may get historical listing

By The Associated Press

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JUNEAU — The state Office of History and Archaeology plans to submit Indian Point for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It would be the first traditional cultural property in Alaska on the register.

The site, about 78 acres that is north of Juneau's state ferry terminal, is considered sacred by the Tlingits, according to Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which prepared the application.

The land is associated with key events in the history of the Auk Kwaan, especially the Yaxte Taan L'eineidi clan, the application says. Dwellings, subsistence sites and burial sites there date to A.D. 1100 to 1300, it said.

"It's a site that was used for pulling up canoes," Worl said. "There's a burial site there. They used to gather herring eggs from this area. But perhaps the most significant thing is it's a burial site of a shaman."

The eight-member Alaska Historical Commission unanimously approved the institute's application this week. The city's Historic Resources Advisory Committee had earlier approved it, said staff member Chris Beanes of the Community Development Department.

The landowners — the city, Sealaska Corp. and the National Park Service — endorsed the application, said Jo Antonson, deputy state historic-preservation officer.

The Office of History and Archaeology plans to submit the application to the National Park Service, which oversees the register, by the end of the year, she said.

The Park Service has 45 days after that to make a decision, she said.

It's harder to get traditional cultural property listed on the historic register than other types of property, Antonson said. Applicants must establish that there is a continuing reverence for the place and use over time, she said.

"I think they have shown that after the Auk folks moved from the site they continued to return and they continue to have associations with the location," Antonson said. "And it's aided by the fact there are graves out there."
 
Worl said Tlingits seeking spiritual renewal occasionally use the area.

In the 1960s the city dropped plans to put housing on the land after meeting Native opposition. That also happened in the late 1990s, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wanted to build a fisheries center there.