FUNTER BAY INTERNMENT CAMP CEMETERY FULL
We must learn about the scourge of Jim Crow laws that followed emancipation to appreciate the heroic work of Martin Luther King Jr.Īnd we need to know the full story of racial discrimination in Alaska to understand why the U.S. We can’t celebrate the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution unless we acknowledge the moral bankruptcy of slavery. Think about America’s civil rights history. To understand what war really is, we need to study it more completely. These stories suggest the chorus to the song Down by the Riverside that’s often sung at anti-war rallies – “I ain’t gonna study war no more” - isn’t consistent with the value of preserving these cemeteries. “That history can serve as a powerful lesson and inspiration, but only if it can be preserved.” “Our history – the good, the bad, the heroic, the regretful – shapes who we are as Americans today,” the American Battlefield Trust tells us. Like the Unangax who died while interned at Funter Bay, war’s history is incomplete without their stories. Scouring the historical record, anywhere from 50,000 to more than a quarter million innocent people lost their lives during the Civil War. Unfortunately, while such solemn verses might be studied in a literature class, they’ve been excluded from most high school history curricula.Īs are the civilian casualties of war. “The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through I examine Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard (Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death! In mercy come quickly.)” Like the one remembered by Walt Whitman in his poem The Wound Dresser: Many soldiers experienced intense suffering in their last minutes and hours. Referring to them as “living memorials,” their goal is to pass on the soldiers’ acts of heroism and sacrifice to future generations of Americans.īut battlegrounds and cemeteries contain much more than stories of valor and courage. The American Battlefield Trust is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving those and other battlegrounds. Among them are historic Civil War battlegrounds such as Gettysburg and Antietam. That’s when Congress authorized the purchase of land for final resting place of soldiers killed in the line of duty. Protecting the cemetery at Funter Bay will help accomplish that.Ĭemeteries have been given a prominent place in our nation’s history since 1862.
It means bringing the darkest chapters into the light. What he’s referring to, of course, is the idea that we study history to avoid the mistakes of the past. “The value of protecting the social and historical significance of this land will cement the history for good,” he told lawmakers last May, “and we will never have to repeat this history again.” Martin Stepetin is the grandson of four who survived and returned to St. Tragically, the Unangax at Funter Bay had no such protection. “The 700 German prisoners all returned home after the war without a single one dying during their imprisonment.” Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, wrote in her statement sponsoring HB 122.
“The Nazis, sworn enemies of the United States and allies, were treated far better than the Unangax because their conditions were guaranteed by international law,” Rep. And for the duration of the war, they endured living conditions worse than enemy officers imprisoned at Excursion Inlet just 30 miles away.
They were forcibly removed and taken to Funter Bay. government deemed it necessary to protect 480 Pribilof Islands residents from a possible Japanese invasion. If House Bill 122 is passed by the Senate and signed into law, 32 Unangax gravesites will be placed within the boundaries of Funter Bay Marine State Park. There’s one on Admiralty Island that may finally get the protection it deserves. Private and Private « lessīrother of Anna Lestenkof Petr Lestenkof Innokenty Lestenkof Theodore Lestenkof Reverend Father Michael Dimitrovich Lestenkof and 6 others Ludmilla Kashevarof (Lestenkof) Alvin Lestenkof Nicolas Lestenkof June Lestenkof Agniia Lestenkof and Matushka Elisaveta D.Most of us learn at an early age that cemeteries are the sacred places. Leva Lee Oustigoff Susie Ann Merculief (Lestenkoff) Alvin Lestenkof and 3 others Demetri Constantine Lestenkof, Sr. Husband of Agafia "Agatha" Marie Merculief (Mandregan)įather of Innokenty Lestenkof, Sr. Son of Chief Dimitri Innokentovich Lestenkof and Alexandra Feofilktovna Lestenkof (Tetoff) George Island Village, Aleutians West, Alaska Territory, United Statesįunter Bay Internment Camp, Alaska Territory, United States