Title:
Father William Duncan's Funeral, Metlakatla, September 1, 1918
Photographer:
Harriet Elizabeth Hunt
Description:
By the 1870s, Metlakatla, British Columbia, was the thriving home of the Anglican North Pacific Mission and over 1,000 Tsimshians. Led by Anglican lay missionary William Duncan, Metlakatla was designed as a "utopia" to promote Christianity and self-sustainability. Duncan was dismissed from the Church Missionary Society due to a conflict with a bishop and split from the church to create a new, non-denominational Native church.
Over 800 members of this new church left Canada, seeking refuge from the government's discriminatory land rights policies. Duncan and his Tsimshian group founded New Metlakatla, on August 7, 1887 at the site of Tàakw.àani, an abandoned Tlingit winter village on Annette Island. An Act of Congress made the island the only Alaskan reservation on March 30, 1891.
Over 800 members of this new church left Canada, seeking refuge from the government's discriminatory land rights policies. Duncan and his Tsimshian group founded New Metlakatla, on August 7, 1887 at the site of Tàakw.àani, an abandoned Tlingit winter village on Annette Island. An Act of Congress made the island the only Alaskan reservation on March 30, 1891.
Collection:
Ketchikan Museums: Tongass Historical Society Collection, THS 86.1.35.152
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Father Duncan's Funeral, 1918
Father Duncan's Funeral, 1918