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Timeline / Defining Rights and Responsibilities / 1885: Alaska regions assigned to religious denominations

1885: Alaska regions assigned to religious denominations

Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the head of the Presbyterian Mission in Alaska, is appointed U.S. General Agent for Education for Alaska. He implements a plan to divide Alaska geographically among the various religious denominations for mission work and to establish industrial schools for Alaska Natives. The U.S. has already used this approach to assign reservations to various missionary groups in an effort to assimilate Indians through religion.

In 1819, Congress appropriated $10,000 to pay missionaries or people of “good moral character” to “civilize” American Indians and suppress Native traditional practices. Dr. Sheldon Jackson takes the same approach 66 years later in Alaska, dividing the state among Christian churches.

Theme
Federal-Tribal Relations, Native Rights
Region
Arctic, Northwest Coast, Subarctic

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Peter Simpson, Sheldon Jackson (seated), and Edward Marsden, ca. 1896–1913

Courtesy Alaska State Library, Alaska Native Organizations Photograph Collection

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Photograph of an Alaska Native student's slate tablet with a handwriting sample and sketches. The photograph may have been made at the request of school administrators, to show the progress that missionaries were making toward educating Native peoples.

Courtesy Alaska State Library, William H. Partridge Photograph Collection

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McFarland Home (on right) for Native American girls. In an earlier progressive effort, Presbyterian missionary Amanda McFarland opened this school for Native girls at Fort Wrangell in Southeast Alaska in 1877.

Courtesy Alaska State Library, Sheldon Jackson College Photograph Collection

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Sheldon Jackson and family

Courtesy Alaska State Library, Sheldon Jackson College Photograph Collection