Old Sitka News Today

It’s Alaska Day, commemorating this date in 1867 when Russia officially transferred Alaska to the U.S. after the $7.2 million sale (approximately $151 million in today’s dollars).

A luxury Ocean cruise on board Seabourn ship Seabourn Sojourn, visiting destinations that include Calgary, Sumner Strait, Ketchikan and Vancouver.

Sitka is a common port on Royal Caribbean cruises to Alaska, located on the western side of Baranof Island and directly facing the Pacific Ocean....

Sitka is a consolidated city-borough situated on the western side of the Baranof Island and the southern half of Chichagof Island in the Pacific Ocean’s Alexander Archipelago.

Posted by Robert Woolsey, KCAW | May 24, 2021 Holland America, Princess, and Carnival have all scheduled cruises to Alaska beginning at the end of July, according to the office of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. But with the summer season already underway, staffing Sitka’s port facility for the big ships could be a problem. And passenger volumes are a complete unknown. (Photo courtesy of Chris McGraw) The news that a bill allowing cruise ships to sail to Alaska later this summer is both a welcome ...

Researchers confirm location of 200-year-old Kiks.ádi fort Posted by Erin McKinstry, KCAW | Jan 27, 2021 The site where Shís’gi Noow , or the Fort of Young Saplings, once stood in Sitka National Historical Park. A plaque commemorating the spot reads: “The Kiks.ádi clan of the Tlingit Tribe fought here against invading forces in 1804. The Kiks.ádi men and women sought to preserve and protect their land and its resources for this and future generations. At this point, the Kiks.ádi mark ...

SITKA, ALASKA— NBC News reports that archaeologist Thomas Urban of Cornell University and his colleagues have discovered traces of Shiskinoow, or "sapling fort," in southeastern Alaska’s Sitka National Historical Park on Baranof Island. The thick-walled fort, which was trapezoidal in shape, measured about 240 feet long and 165 feet wide, and was built by Tlingit people of the Kiks.adi clan to resist a Russian attack. In 1799, Russian fur traders established a settlement at what is now know...

5:00 The Sitka School Board recently decided to send the question of the name change to the Sitka Tribe, in hopes of identifying a “significant local cultural educator.” The hardest part about renaming the Baranof Elementary School will be who to name it for. At their last meeting on January 6, Sitka School Board members reported that their email was running near 100-percent in favor of naming the building after someone other than the 18th-Century fur trader who, as the first chief manager ...

There was interest in changing the name of Baranof Elementary even before the last summer’s demonstrations to remove a statue of the 18th Century fur trader from in front of Harrigan Centennial Hall. Although Alexander Baranov was a major figure in Alaska’s colonial history, former Sitka School Board member Dionne Brady-Howard considers him ruthless. “He would have annihilated my ancestors if he had been able to,” she said. (KCAW file photo) Sitka’s Baranof Elementary School appears l...