More than 400 Sitkans turned out Saturday (10-18-25) to speak out against what they call an escalating abuse of power by President Donald Trump. They joined thousands of others across the state and country, from Maine to Kotzebue.

In Sitka, the “No Kings” protest fell on Alaska Day — also known as Reconciliation Day — the anniversary of the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States.

On top of Noow Tlein, also known as Castle Hill — where on this day, in this spot more than 150 years ago, Alaska was transferred from Russia to the U.S. — Tory O’Connell reads a land acknowledgement. She recognizes Indigenous peoples for their stewardship, as hundreds of Sitkans mill about holding signs reading “Stand Up for Democracy” and “Hate Never Made America Great,” the Russian flag flying in the wind above their heads, marking the spot of the land sale. 

Sitkans chant in unison, “Sitka says no czars, no kings on Lingít Aaní,” as they pose for a photo.

Cindy Litman is with Sitkans for Peace and Democracy, a group of about 40 locals who, for about two years, have been holding weekly vigils, protesting the war in Gaza and, more recently, President Trump’s policies. Litman says she was struck by how many people beyond the weekly attendees showed up. 

“I think things have reached such a critical threshold now that people who normally participate by voting or participate in their communities in different ways, are concerned enough that our country and our way of life and the things that we value are in jeopardy now, and I think that’s why we have the 400 plus people who came out,” she says. 

Mariah Warren is one of the many Sitkans who braved the cold, wet weather to rally on Castle Hill. She carries her baby nephew in a carrier at her front. Her young niece stands by her side carrying a fish-shaped sign reading, “No Kings, Except King Salmon.” Warren says she brought the kids with her because she’s concerned about preserving democracy for the next generation. 

“I think that Alaska Day, Reconciliation Day, is an incredibly good reminder that there are so many of us coming from so many different backgrounds, that we’re an incredibly diverse city, state, country, and that we really need to all work together and make sure that we continue being a democracy by the people, for the people, and that everyone is represented, no one is left out, let alone excluded, let alone persecuted,” she says.

Every year in Sitka, Alaska Day is marked by a massive parade, a pie and quilt sale, and a historical reenactment of the transfer. 

For the last eight years, many have begun to recognize the day as “Reconciliation Day,” acknowledging the sale of stolen Lingít land from one colonial power to another. 

Litman sees a connection between what was happening in 1867 and what’s happening today. 

“People in power who were appropriating land, appropriating people who didn’t belong to them, without any respect or any consideration for including those people in any kind of decision making that was going on. And in that way, I see parallels,” Litman says. “People who are in power and who just make decisions that profoundly impact the lives of all the rest of us, without any consideration, without any understanding.”

That history wasn’t lost on 84-year-old Jerry Deppa, who came to Alaska at 20 years old as a wildlife biologist, and moved to Sitka five decades ago. Now, he sits on his lawn chair in the middle of the crowd, holding a sign that reads, “No Kings in America Since 1776.”

“We’re not going to tolerate anybody getting into a position of responsibility and authority undercutting our system,” Deppa says. “No, we are in charge as citizens, and that was our statement today. No czars, no kings, no. A big no.”

Deppa says people all over the country are sharing that message now, speaking out against what he calls an “undercutting of democracy by the current administration.” 

“It’s shameful what’s been done,” he says. “So many vital agencies have lost staff, have lost funding. It’s criminal, and we can’t tolerate it. This is a nation of citizens, where we are in charge. We put people in power and we take people out of power.”

Alaskans turned out for No Kings protests across more than a dozen communities on Saturday, with crowds of 2,000 in Anchorage, to about 17 in Port Alexander — more than half of the 31-person town.

The multi-day festival included everything from formal balls and concerts to the annual pie sale and beard contest, and culminated in the Sitka Historical Society’s seventh annual Brewfest. 

The state holiday commemorates the day in 1867 when Alaska was formally transferred from Russia to the United States during a ceremony atop Noow Tlein, or Castle Hill.

For the last six years, many have begun to recognize “Reconciliation Day” on October 18, with a mourning ceremony acknowledging the sale of stolen Tlingit land from one colonial power to another. Between traditional sorrowing songs, Yeidikook’áa Dionne Brady-Howard spoke to the crowd of about 100 people at the ceremony.

“I would take the parade not as a celebration of the day that our property and our land that we hold so dear was transferred by someone who didn’t own it to begin with,” she said. “I just took it as an opportunity to celebrate all the people in the parade and our community, to celebrate what it means to be Sheet’ka, and to celebrate what it means to be Indigenous.”

An abbreviated list of Wednesday’s events:

11 a.m. – Sitka Lutheran Pie Sale and St. Michael’s Cathedral Fish Pie Sale

1:30 p.m. – AK Day Parade

2:00 p.m. (or immediately after parade) – In recognition of Reconciliation Day, a mourning ceremony will be held behind Beak Restaurant

2:00 p.m. – Transfer Ceremony

2:00 p.m.- Brewfest and Chili Cookoff

2:00 p.m. – New Archangel Dancers perform at Pioneers Home

6:00 p.m. – AK Day Auction

The seventh annual Alaska Day Brewfest is coming up on October 18. This year’s event will feature a chili cookoff, limited release Harbor Mountain Brewing Co. beer, and family-friendly live music. Organizers Tiffany and Bridget joined KCAW’s Darryl Rehkopf to talk about the brews, music, and treats that will be available this year. Listen to the full interview here:

The event will start at Centennial Hall immediately following the downtown parade. Adult tickets are $25, and admission for children is free. Tickets are available at Old Harbor Books or at the door. For more information, contact Tiffany Pearson at 907-738-8161.

Besides the usual marching bands and parade floats, this year’s Alaska Day Festival in Sitka will have an unusual participant: The Alaska State Commission for Human Rights.

The commission, which investigates discrimination across the state, is renewing a tradition of public outreach that has been dormant for years, and Sitka is the first stop.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey spoke with the commission’s executive director Rob Corbisier about the team he’s bringing to Sitka, and what they hope to accomplish.

Corbisier – Yes, myself, our commission secretary, and our admin officer are going to be there to support the meeting. I’m also going to be doing some outreach with the Trooper Academy on Monday morning, and then Tuesday for Alaska Day, since particularly, Alaska Day is a big celebration in Sitka. That’s why we thought this would be a good thing to dovetail in, to hold the commission meeting. But we’re doing a bit of an outreach event during the parade: We’re going to be set up in the Aspen lobby area, that’s right along the parade route. And we’re hoping that people can want to come in and talk to us a little bit about what they see going on in their community, you know, if they’ve experienced discrimination, if they’re interested in filing a complaint,  that would be the better opportunity for them to come in and talk to us kind of in a smaller one on one, as opposed to during the public meeting. We are more than just a complaint-taking agency; the Alaska Supreme Court has said that we’re to be more than a complaint-taking agency. And that’s why we’re doing some of the outreach. But we’ve also got a series of guidance documents to help businesses, the business community, HR professionals, to avoid discrimination complaints. You know, if we can head off a case, by making sure that a business has good policies in place, then that’s great. That means we’re doing our job, too.

KCAW – Do you have categories of discrimination that your investigators look to when when they’re deciding whether something is actionable, or whether it’s frivolous? (For lack of a better word).

Corbisier – So it’s, it’s the things that you think of. It’s age, race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity when it comes to employment cases only. Pregnancy, parenthood, physical or mental disability, religion, national origin, those are the protected classes. So we get jurisdiction over employment cases – that’s by far and away our biggest caseload. But we also have cases of places of public accommodation. And that statute is the one that is the genesis of the Human Rights Commission, I suppose you could say, and goes back to Elizabeth Peratrovich. And actually, her husband, Roy Peratrovich, was one of the very first commissioners for the Human Rights Commission when it was created in 1963.

KCAW – It strikes me as a process that ultimately leads to improvement in the system. I think that’s probably the the objective of all this is to make things better to reduce the amount of discrimination in Alaska? Isn’t that the mission statement of the Commission?

Corbisier – It is. And we’re not a punitive agency. Our goals are to educate. If we have a respondent that comes in and simply was not aware of the law, and didn’t know that they were required to provide a reasonable accommodation for a disability, the goal is to educate and prevent that from happening in the future. And we also want to make the complainant whole. So we’ve got the ability to get a damages award for a complainant. It’s kind of the same way you could do it by hiring a private attorney, but we are a state agency. And so this is just a service that is a component of what our mission is, and what our constitutional function is.

KCAW –  I hope this experiment with the quasi-hybrid meeting and outreach and Sitka is successful. I hope this conversation has defanged it a little bit for people and that they’ll come out and see you, and I hope you’re okay with bagpipes because we got a lot of that going on in Sitka on Alaska Day.

Corbisier – I’ve been just a couple times. One of my best friends from high school lives there, and I’m really looking forward to this meeting.

Monday’s meeting of the State Commission for Human Rights in Sitka will begin at 1 p.m. October 17, in the Aspen Hotel, with public comment at 1:30. Two commissioners will be in-person at the meeting; the other four will attend via Zoom, as can members of the public. Public comment is scheduled for 1:30. If you wish to attend by Zoom, please contact the Commission office at 907-276-7474 by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 14, 2022, to make arrangements.

On Tuesday, October 18 – Alaska Day – the commission have a booth open in the lobby of the Aspen, along the parade route, for any individual or business who would like to learn more about preventing discrimination in Alaska.

After the coronavirus threw a wrench in most of the Alaska Day celebrations last year, in 2021 the festival was back in mostly full-swing. Sitkans gathered from Lake Street to Lincoln Street on Monday (10-19-21) for the annual parade.

Sitkans participated in a variety of events to mark the state holiday, which recognizes the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States.

In recent years, a movement to recognize “Reconciliation Day” in place of Alaska Day has gained support. Read about the weekend’s Reconciliation Day activities here.

If you have a story you would like to share, please reach out to storytelling@kcaw.org.

The radio version of Our Grandparents’ Teachings airs live on 91.1 & 104.7 FM on the first Tuesday of the month at 7 PM AKST (8 PM Pacific Time) on KCAW from Sitka, Alaska, on Lingít Aaní land. Produced in collaboration with the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, Artchange, Inc. & KCAW. Raven RadioTechnical support for Our Grandparents’ Teachings was made possible in part with funding from the Rasmuson Foundation administered by the Alaska State Council for the Arts and Artchange Inc.

The annual Alaska Day Festival is back in full swing this year, after a year off in 2020 due to COVID-19. Festival organizers Hal Spackman and Ted Allio joined KCAW’s Erin Fulton to discuss the activities planned for the weekend. Listen here:

Sunday (10-18-20) was Alaska Day, and in any other year, Sitka’s downtown would’ve been packed with visitors and locals celebrating the town’s biggest event. 

This year, the Alaska Day organizing committee cancelled the parade and other public events because of the coronavirus pandemic. But, the growing effort to rebrand the holiday “Reconciliation Day” continued.

On October 18, the top of Castle Hill in Sitka is usually filled with sounds of gunfire, the national anthem and cheering crowds.

Castle Hill is where Alaska was formally transferred from Russia to the United States during a ceremony in 1867. A focal point of Sitka’s Alaska Day celebrations is a re-enactment of that transfer. 

But with events cancelled this year, a different sort of ceremony took its place. Before it was known as ‘Castle Hill,’ it was known to the Tlingit Kiks.ádi clan as Noow Tlein. Noow Tlein was once the site of Kik.sadi clan houses, which were later taken by the Russians and destroyed. On Sunday afternoon, a small group of Sitkans gathered there to acknowledge that history.

Dionne Brady-Howard is a teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe High School and was one of the organizers. 

“There are a lot of really difficult and negative things that have come from social distancing and COVID-19 risk, but one of the things that came from it that could have a more positive spin was that Noow Tlein was available,” Brady-Howard said.

For many members of Sitka’s Native community, Alaska Day isn’t a day of celebration, it’s a day of mourning. The holiday commemorates the sale of stolen land from one colonial power to another. Since 2017, a growing group of Sitkans has held a mourning ceremony at the bottom of the hill while the transfer ceremony takes place at the top. Around 100 people attended the mourning ceremony last year to acknowledge the loss of Tlingit land and grieve lives lost to colonization. 

This year, Brady-Howard said, the mood was different.

“Because we were at the top where we really belong, rather than having the mourning song or sorrowing song, we actually had songs of celebration,” she said. “And so it was a slightly different incarnation than it has been the last few years.”

Matthew Jackson was one of around 25 masked attendees at Sunday’s event.

He said he attended because he feels it’s important that non-Native people like him publicly acknowledge the past injustices and trauma caused by colonization. 

“I think settlers acknowledging that and owning up to it is a really important step toward healing some of those divisions in our state — healing some of those wounds that have been caused by colonization of Alaska,” he said.

And that’s the idea behind the name Reconciliation Day, said Louise Brady of the Kiks.ádi clan. Brady was an organizer of Sunday’s ceremony. 

“Our way of life was systematically taken apart, so I think it’s time that the truth is told because I think if we don’t acknowledge the truth,” she said. “We can’t get to that place where we can acknowledge it and we can start healing.”

Brady said she hopes that moving forward, there can be more dialogue between her group and the organizers of the Alaska Day celebrations.

Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.