A story of faith, migration, and a community rooted in Southeast Alaska

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Notes from Alex

The Tsimshian people of Alaska live today in the community of Metlakatla on Annette Island, near the southern tip of the Southeast Alaska panhandle. While Metlakatla feels deeply rooted in Alaska soil, the story of the Tsimshian here is actually one of relatively recent migration — a powerful chapter of movement, faith, and determination.

The Tsimshian people trace their ancestral roots to the coastal regions of northern British Columbia, Canada. For generations, their culture, traditions, and identity were shaped along those rich coastal waters. But in 1857, a turning point came when William Duncan, an Anglican lay missionary, settled among the Tsimshian in what was then known as Old Metlakatla in Canada.

Duncan’s presence would eventually lead to one of the most significant community migrations in Southeast Alaska’s history.

About thirty years later, in 1887, Duncan led a group of 823 Tsimshian people from Old Metlakatla, British Columbia, northward into Alaska. Seeking religious independence and the freedom to build the kind of community they envisioned, they resettled on Annette Island — a place they first called New Metlakatla.

That decision shaped the unique identity of Metlakatla that we see today.

What makes this story so compelling is not just the movement of people, but the courage it must have taken. Imagine leaving ancestral homelands, traveling the Inside Passage by canoe and boat, and starting fresh in a new land. It speaks to resilience, vision, and deep community unity.

Today, Metlakatla remains the only Indian Reserve in Alaska, and the Tsimshian culture continues to live and breathe through the people, their traditions, their language, and their stories.

Living here in Southeast Alaska, stories like this are not just history in a book — they are part of the living fabric of this region. The legacy of the Tsimshian people is woven into the identity of Annette Island and the wider Alaska panhandle.

Sometimes when we look around our communities, it is worth remembering: every town has a beginning, every place has a journey, and every people carry a story that brought them home.

— Alex