Renaming Baranof Elementary School is submitted to the school district’s Leave Your Footprint site. In a healthy community public places, spaces, and buildings are welcoming and inclusive for everyone. In the 1940s the Sitka School District decided that the name for the public school that serves our youngest students would be Baranof. This Baranof, the Russian colonist who led an armed assault on locals in 1804, earned the nickname “No Heart” from the Tlingit who have called this place home for thousands of years. Baranof deserves a place in history but not a place of honor. A Tlingit name for the school would be much more respectful and inclusive. See previous coverage on changing the name of the school from 2015.
Renaming Baranof Part 1 – Leaving Footprints