May 24, 2019: The Alaska House of Representatives last week passed House Resolution 11, 37-0, expressing the House’s support of renaming Saginaw Bay in Kake to its Tlingit name, Skanáx̱ Bay.
The bay is adjacent to the Southeast Alaska village and is named for the USS Saginaw, the warship that infamously shelled Kake in 1869. That incident destroyed three civilian villages and three smaller campsites. The destruction led to an unknown amount of deaths by starvation and exposure the following winter.
The bay’s current name is an affront to the local Tlingit community. The Organized Village of Kake and Representative Kreiss-Tomkins on May 9 formally proposed renaming Saginaw Bay to Skanáx̱ Bay to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the federal entity vested with the authority to make and change place names.
HR 11 affirms the name change and will be forwarded to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to supplement the name change application.