Chief Aanalahaash
Primary Name: Aanalahaash
Filed as: aanalahaash
Also known as: Anna-Cla-Ash
Occupation / Association: Tlingit Chief
Born:
Died:
Parents:
Spouse:
Children:
Associated places: Douglas, Alaska
Keywords: Chief Aanalahaash, Anna-Cla-Ash, Douglas Indian Cemetery, Douglas Alaska Tlingit leaders
Biography
Chief Aanalahaash, whose name has been misspelled in historical records as Anna-Cla-Ash, is one of the prominent individuals buried in the Douglas Indian Cemetery in Douglas, Alaska.
The cemetery contains the graves of many early Tlingit residents of the Douglas and Juneau area and represents an important cultural and historical site documenting the Native community associated with the early mining settlements in the region.
Sources
Survey and Inventory of Douglas Historic Cemeteries (1995); Find-A-Grave
Tags: Aanalahaash, Anna-Cla-Ash, Douglas Indian Cemetery, Douglas Alaska, Tlingit leaders
Douglas Indian Cemetery
Records were not available to confirm the establishment of the Douglas Indian Cemetery, the earliest burial date noted was June 9, 1901.
The earliest identifiable grave marker was in 1909 of Mrs. Gilbert Jackson. Her burial marker lies within one of the two grave houses that exist on the site. These hexagonal buildings were constructed of wood, with wood shingles, and one features wooden columns.
The cemetery site is located within the boundaries of the City of Douglas across from the Gastineau Elementary School. It is surrounded on three sides by residential development and on the fourth side by Third Street.
The site includes a wooden sign which refers to the cemetery as the burial site for the Taku Tribe, Crow Clan. A representative of the Douglas Indian Association indicated that persons other than Taku Tribe members were buried there and that the local Natives refer to it as the Douglas Indian Cemetery.
Identifiable markers indicate a Tlingit chief, wife of a chief, and a member of the Kaagwaantaan-wolf clan buried in the cemetery. Several of the markers are rather elaborate with relief carvings of the individual's clan crest.
There are numerous family plots surrounded by low concrete walls. One grave marker has rounded low pillars at the comers of the concrete walls. Several of the graves have solid concrete covers with no identification. Some of the concrete tops have an open section in the center in the shape of a cross. Others have small smooth stones embedded in the concrete.
Known Individuals Interred in the Cemetery:
Mayflower School
The Mayflower School aka the Douglas Island Community Center is a two-and-one-half story, wood frame structure is at the corner of St. Anns and Savikko Road on the northwest corner. The building sits on a banked slope overlooking Gastineau channel, and Juneau can be seen to the northwest.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs built Mayflower School in 1933-1934 to serve as a model for Native schools in Alaska. The Bureau wanted the school to provide vocational education for Native children and to serve as a community center for the Douglas Tllngits.
The Daily Alaska Empire (10/13/35) informed its readers that the operation of Mayflower School was a "radical departure from the old."
The handsome building represents a significant tie with the past for many in the Douglas Native community and is the only Native school building in the Juneau-Douglas area still standing. It is the only Colonial Revival Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Alaska.
Education of Alaska Natives began when the Russian-Amerlcan Company and Russian Orthodox Church opened schools in Alaska at their major posts to provide education and vocational training for Creole and Native children. After the transfer of Alaska to the United States in 1867, the church continued to support several schools around Alaska.
The U S Government did not undertake responsibility for educating all Alaska Native children although it required the Alaska Commercial Company to operate schools for the Aleut children on the Pribilof Islands as a condition of the company’s 20-year exclusive lease to hunt fur seals on the Islands. Shortly after the transfer, the residents of Sitka supported a public school for all children interested in attending, but it closed in 1870 when the city's economy declined.
The Presbyterian Home Mission Society was the first American missionary group to open schools in Alaska for the Native children. In 1877, their first school opened at Fort Wrangell, and by 1884 the Presbyterians had schools at Sitka, Haines, Hoonah, Fort Tongass and Howkan.
Finally, in 1885 Congress provided for the establishment and support of public schools in Alaska "for Native and non-native children and appropriated $25,000 for this purpose. After Alaska became a territory, the Territorial Legislature established a Department of Education in 1917. Most of the schools supported by the Territory were in the larger non-Native communities. Control of education for Alaska Natives was transferred from the Secretary of the Interior to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The community of Douglas started as a mining camp in 1881 and grew due to the success of the adjacent lode gold Treadwell Mines. Many Natives moved to Douglas and worked at the mines.
The Friends Society of Kansas sent Elwood W. Weisner and Francis W. Baugham to Douglas to establish a school and home for Natives in the summer of 1887. The home accommodated 14 boarding students and the same number of day students. Because it was the only school on Douglas Island, it was attended by both Native and non-Natlve children. It operated until 1902, when the missionaries moved to Kake, another Southeast Alaska community.
The federal government built a school in Douglas for Native children in 1890 at a cost of $900. In 1902, a second school was constructed on the beach near the Native village that served until it burned in 1926. In their annual reports to the Bureau of Education, teachers repeatedly complained about the poor condition of the school.
The fire of October 11, 1926 burned the entire Douglas Indian village that included 42 homes, the school, stores and churches, as well as a number of homes outside of the Native village. After the fire, the teacher, Rose Davis, requested permission to rent quarters for herself and the school.
From 1926 to 1934 Native children in Douglas attended school in a variety of locations. One informant recalls classes being held in the upstairs of an old theater. In 1933-1934 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs constructed a number of school buildings throughout Alaska from a Public Works Administration grant of $175,000 supplement ed by $30,000 in Territorial funds. By September 1934, new schools stood at Teller, Buckland, Little Diomede Island, Hydaburg, and Douglas. The Douglas School cost $9,500.
The name Douglas Indian Community Center was replaced with Mayflower School. This name was derived from Mayflower Island, a tiny island located in Gastlneau Channel off Douglas Island. The school built by local citizens under the direction of the Southwestern District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Alaska region, was a handsome white-bodied, green-shuttered, Colonial Revival building. Mayflower School operated as a school for Douglas Native children only for six years.
In 1940, it merged with the Juneau Government School. Native children from Douglas and Juneau were divided by grades between the two schools. In 1948, the school system for Native children merged with the local public school system. The Bureau of Indian Affairs turned over the school to the City of Douglas to be used for school purposes. Douglas and Juneau public schools consolidated in 1955, Juneau and Douglas city governments consolidated in 1970, and Mayflower School was added to the real estate holdings of the new political incorporation.
Rose Davis taught Native children in Douglas for 20 years, and was the principal teacher at Mayflower School from 1934 to 1942. The Dally Alaska Empire reported on June 2, 1934 that starting July 1st Mrs. Davis would advance to all-year service because the Bureau of Indian Affairs envisioned Mayflower School as a "real community center in connection with the wonderful facilities of the new school building."
The newspaper quoted Charles W. Hawkesworth, Chief of the Bureau, in its October 13, 1935 issue on the new approach to education that Mayflower School would pursue. It would have a more home like setting, and emphasize "a practical type of education." Children would learn vocational skills such as taxidermy, boat and furniture building, coffin making, weaving, and rug making. In the classroom, the children had tables and chairs suited to their size instead of benches and desks.
Mrs. Davis opened the library to the community in the evenings. The recreation room had a basketball hoop, and was also open after school hours. The Native community was encouraged to use the showers, laundry facilities, and kitchen in the school. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood regularly held meetings at the school, and the organizational meeting of the Douglas Indian Association took place in the recreation room.
Douglas Historic Cemeteries
A 1995 historic sites and structures inventory identified three non-continuous cemetery sites on Douglas, known generally as the Douglas Catholic Cemetery, Eagles Cemetery, and the Douglas Indian Cemetery.
All three cemeteries are located along Douglas Highway within a mile and a half of each other. While documenting the cemeteries, it was uncovered that two of the cemeteries were actually made up of a grouping of smaller cemeteries.
The Catholic Cemetery includes the Catholic Cemetery, the Odd Fellows Cemetery, the Masons Cemetery, the Native Cemetery, the Asian Cemetery, and the Russian Orthodox Cemetery.
The Eagles Cemetery is made up of the Douglas City Cemetery, the Eagles Cemetery, and the Servian Cemetery.
There was no cemetery in Douglas in the early 1880's and 1890's. In 1887 there were no newspapers except in Juneau and little mention was made of deaths in Douglas or Treadwell, unless it was a major mine accident. The Douglas Island News was established in 1898 and vital statistics were recorded.
One article states that Douglas people were buried in Juneau before 1900. Some may have been buried in the "Ridge Cemetery" (Chicken Ridge) as early as 1887 and in the Evergreen Cemetery which was developed in 1888-89. A few deaths were recorded in 1899, and in August of 1900 people were reported as being "buried in the old cemetery." It is not clear whether or not they meant Douglas. There may have been some burials near the outskirts of town before the establishment of the "new" cemetery.
The first issue of the Douglas Island News in 1898 stated that a movement to start a cemetery occurred at a public meeting. In the August 1900 issue the editor commented, "In constructing a cemetery on Douglas Island a very peculiar condition presents itself Will Douglas citizens bury their dead on Douglas Island?" He goes on to say that there "are numerous graves tended and fenced by Douglas relatives (in Juneau) and would families want to be separated." The old cemetery was known all over Alaska as the Juneau-Douglas Cemetery. Yet the citizens of Douglas wanted their own burial ground.
In 1899 mining engineer W.A Sanders, W.A Thompson, and Minnie Ross Holman applied for a patent to mining claims which took in the northwest end of the town of Douglas, including streets and buildings. The ground consisted of over 50 acres which included 13 lode claims and some mill sites. A committee was formed to protest this patent.
Sanders agreed that if the committee did not protest his application for patent he would deed back "all lots, easement of streets, etc. and other points in which his patent interfered with the town of Douglas." This was later agreed to in writing.
The committee asked for ground for a cemetery. Sanders agreed to give the people of Douglas "the dry knoll this side of Lawson Creek" if they would not object to his patent.
He also agreed to build a road to the grounds, but declined to put it in writing and said his word was good.
Immediately after the meeting, a Cemetery Committee consisting of P.H. Fox, M.J. O'Connor, Reverand Peplogle and W.C. Boyd took possession of the knoll and ran a line from Third Street in Douglas to the area.
Shortly after Sander's verbal agreement the Cemetery Committee hired three men and started clearing a trail, which later became a gravel road, from Third Street in Douglas to the knoll.
The land claimed was "to the left' of the gravel road on the bench from the gulch where the road strikes the bench, to Lawson Creek." The road was approximately one-half mile in a straight line. About 30 feet of planking was done from the end of Third Street to the "Old Indian Graveyard" (Douglas Indian Cemetery) and three small bridges were constructed. Two acres were cleared and between four and five acres were enclosed by a wire fence. This description fits the location of the current City Cemetery.
Though W.A Sanders was a noted mining engineer, it was felt among the citizens of Douglas the Sanders' claims were not valid because he was a resident of Nova Scotia, Canada. Apparently the patent office did not agree. In 1900, Sanders obtained a patent to part of the mining claims.
He kept his written word and deeded back the land and buildings, but refused to honor his verbal agreement regarding the cemetery, in fact he denied making it.
Eventually he admitted he had made the agreement but "he wasn't going to buy land and pay out money for it and then give it away." Mr. Sanders was informed that the people of Douglas had earned the cemetery ground because they did not interfere with his patent. They even offered to pay him the government price of $5.00 an acre. He did not feel that was enough. It is not stated what the final outcome was.
Sanders did post no trespassing notices as late as 1903 threatening to prosecute any person using the ground for burial purposes, but they soon disappeared. Douglas residents claimed that they had been in "legal and peaceable possession of the premises for about three years."
Fund drives began in 1900 to raise money to pay for the gravel road and other improvements. Over $1,000 was collected in two months through musical benefits and subscriptions. Donations were as high as $30 per individual when the average day's wage was around $3.00.
The cemetery land was eventually divided into nine sections which were sold to various groups. The main ones being the City Cemetery, Eagles, Odd Fellows, Masons, and Catholics. Smaller sections were dedicated to the Servians, Asians, Natives, Russian Orthodox and one source claims there were separate sections for prostitutes and suicides.
In November 1900 pioneer Douglas resident W.C. Boyd was appointed clerk for the Cemetery Committee and was to keep all records. He also was in charge of the road gang and later appointed as grave digger because previous diggers were not "observing the plan of the streets and alleys as marked out."
Persons wishing to bury their dead in the Douglas Cemetery were required to apply for a permit with the description of the deceased, name, age, and birth place. Records were kept for future use.
A charge of $5.00 was made for a burial permit and a plot (this fee was still in affect as late as 1933). Families could secure a lot sufficient for five burials for $10.00. Societies (lodges, etc.) could obtain a lot from $50.00 upwards, depending upon the size. The ground was to be cleared and fenced and a yearly fee was charged for road repairs and other maintenance.
One source reported that in 1907 there was unrest at Treadwell because of rumors that if a man died and had no relatives, his body would end up in the mill tailings piles. That same year John Yamanoi, a Japanese kitchen worker was murdered. A week later the "Treadwell Funeral Riots" began. The men demanded special caskets and funerals complete with the Treadwell Band, marked graves and notification of their deaths to their relatives. In 1913 the Treadwell Company agreed to funeral expenses not to exceed $125 per interment.
There were over eight mining related deaths at the Treadwell mines in 1901. The greatest loss of life was on March 2, 1910 at 11:30 PM on the 1,100 foot level of the Mexican Mine when the powder magazine exploded. The men were gathered at their station wiring to be hoisted to the surface for their midnight meal. All 36 men died except one who was badly injured. At the 900 foot level a man was killed by the shock of the explosion and others were injured.
Numerous graves have been found in the city cemetery and one in the native cemetery of these mining accident victims. The average age of the 1910 victims was twenty and most of them appeared to be single. The men were from all over the world including Austria, Italy, England, Norway, and Finland Only two were listed as being from the United States.
There were no morticians as we know them today. Cabinet shops were established that included the making of furniture and caskets. The owners of these shops became the undertakers for the town. Advertisements were in the Douglas Island News reading "Undertaking ... Manufacturers of Furniture, Carpentering, Jobbing, Store & Office Fixtures."
Others read, "Douglas Undertaking Parlors, Funeral Directors and Embalmers." Some of these undertakers were H.V. Sully, POA Juneau Igloo Charter Member John.A McKanna, T.P. Sheldon, and L.G. Thomas and Merle Thomas. Some of the deceased were shipped to Juneau to C.W. Young and POA Juneau Igloo President Charles W. Carter and then returned to Douglas for burial.
Laura McCarley, author of "Treadwell, Alaska" says that blanket burials in unmarked graves were the standard practice of the mining companies. She also reports that the new Douglas cemetery, presumably the City Cemetery, was laid out in 20' by 20' plots, with streets and alley ways and that a German cabinet maker and hardware merchant, John Feusi, went into
the undertaking business. Reportedly a partially blind Tlingit from the Taku Village, Frank Weaver, was carving tombstones out of Tolkeen Marble.
An undetermined number of graves in the Servian, Asian, and Native cemeteries were moved when the Bureau of Public Roads constructed Douglas Highway to Cowee Creek in 1934. A news article stated that the bodies were interred in the present City Cemetery.
In February 1937 disaster struck as a fire burned businesses on Front Street and moved up D Street into the heart of the townsite along Third Street. Blocks of business property were destroyed along with the school, city offices, churches, and many residences. Among the items burned were the city records dating back to the 1890's. 
Among them were vital statistics records from 1909 to 1920; old cemetery records by W. Boyd from 1900 to 1910; numerous burial lists, records and papers; revised cemetery record 1927; and chart and burial lot plat of the cemetery.
In 1967, due to a road project, eight graves containing 13 bodies in the Douglas Indian Cemetery were removed and interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Juneau.
In 1972 graves were disturbed at the Eagles Cemetery due to the widening of Douglas Highway. About 25 graves were moved to Alaska Memorial Park in the Mendenhall Valley. The exact number of burial sites disturbed or moved is difficult to document as the records are not readily accessible or don't exist.
In the early 1970's the City and Borough of Juneau agreed to survey cemetery land in Douglas as part of an effort to investigate, clear title to the property, and gather information to acquire, survey and maintain the cemeteries.
One assemblyman agreed that an inventory should be made and that the city should assume responsibility for the Douglas land. It was even suggested that additional land around the cemetery be purchased to accommodate new burial sites.
It was also suggested that individuals who had relatives in the cemetery be asked to maintain the grave sites or donate money to have them maintained.
The Ross Estate was to be contacted and asked for transfer of ownership of the cemetery land. If they could not be contacted, a quiet title action was to be initiated and the grave sites were to be inventoried. There is no evidence that the Ross Estate was ever contacted and the quiet title action has never been completed.
In July of 1979 foundations were being constructed for a private home allegedly on the western edge of the City Cemetery. The owners of the property in question reportedly took extraordinary measures to make certain there was no problem. A group of Douglas residents were extremely upset, and tried to halt construction.
The attorney for the individuals said there was no evidence that the site was part of the Douglas Cemetery, even though the house is surrounded by graves.
Investigations were made by the Alaska State Troopers and the State Attorney General's office. An archaeologist was also called in to investigate.
It was later proved that the house was not within the cemetery boundaries. The proof sought was a quiet title action, dated in 1964, by the O.T. Corporation versus the City of Douglas that indicated the land was not part of a cemetery.
In the judgement and decree of the court the O.T. Corporation got title to the lot which was eventually sold. The lot was described as adjacent to but not in a cemetery.
During the controversy, numerous Douglas residents turned out to clean away the brush and debris in the Douglas Cemetery. Residents also asked the Borough Assembly to stop the construction project, but this request was turned down.
Survey and Inventory of Douglas Historic Cemeteries
Alaska Native Brotherhood & Alaska Native Sisterhood Resolution
Pioneers of Alaska Resolution in Support of CBJ Taking over Care of Cemeteries
Douglas Indian Village Historic Neighborhood
Tlingit families settled in the area from around Southeast Alaska, many from the Taku River area. They lived along the waterfront between the mine and the town of Douglas in the Douglas Indian Village on houses set on pilings.
They named the village Anx Yaa Andagan Ye', which translates to the place where the sun first hits.
The Natives were employed as laborers at the Treadwell mines and for construction of the Treadwell Ditch which brought water to the mills.
