A group of about two dozen people sang traditional songs while marching along the waterfront in celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. (Photo by Henry Leasia)

About two dozen people gathered for a celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day in Haines on Monday. Alaska Natives decked out in their regalia sang traditional songs as they walked along the waterfront from the Raven House to Picture Point.

Skweit Jessie Morgan was one of the organizers of the gathering. In an interview with KHNS she shared her thoughts about what Indigenous Peoples’ Day means to her. 

Can you introduce yourself? 

My English name is Jesse Morgan and my Tlingit name is Skweit. I am Raven Sockeye, and I am a child of the Eagle Killer Whale clan. I come from Chilkoot, and I’m under the G̱eisán hit house. So y’all know that as Mt. Ripinski, but the original peoples of this land, the Tlingit people, new it as G̱eisán with stories behind it that are very important to our clan.

Can you tell me a little bit about today’s celebration and how it all came together?

Well, I just moved back to town, and I’ve been missing my homelands and gathering together and song. I just wanted to celebrate this day because it’s important to remind ourselves that we’re still here and gathered together. Even if we can’t be together, we can wear face masks and social distance and be safe and take care of each other and still have good medicine.

What did today’s celebration consist of? 

Well, we met at Yéil hit, the Raven House, which used to stand out Yandeist’akyé out the road a little bit and is known as a two door house. We met there and just marched to Picture Point. We invited elders to meet us there. We had the community come out and march and celebrate. It was a good day.

What do you think of Indigenous Peoples’ Day? What does the holiday mean to you?

Well, yesterday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day, today’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day and tomorrow’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Today, we’re reclaiming it from Columbus. He just showed up on a boat one day. He was lost. We took care of a lot of the Europeans who showed up on our shores and promised things that weren’t provided.

We want to go back to our traditional ways and take care of ourselves and be sovereign peoples on our lands. These are our lands that we’ve taken care of for tens of thousands of years. We had knowledge systems and relations with the waters and the salmon and the bears and the eagles. There are colonial forces that are threatening our sovereignty. The Tongass is threatened for logging and development. We have mines that are threatening the Chilkat River and the salmon that have used that and provide for the eagles and provide for our people.

It’s important that we show up and be who we are and sing our songs and make use of the land and just remind ourselves that we’re still here and remind the people that we’re still strong in our language, and we’re still strong in our songs and our ability to gather. We survived the 1918 pandemic, and we’re stronger because of that. We have to remember the strength of our ancestors in order to move forward from the things that colonial forces are threatening us.