AK HR11

Expresses House support for renaming Saginaw Bay to Skanáx̱ Bay, a bay situated on the north coast of Kuiu Island in the Alexander Archipelago across from Kake in Southeast Alaska

Notes the bay is currently named after the USS Saginaw, a U.S. Navy ship that shelled the village of Kake in 1869, destroying three civilian villages and three campsites

States the 1869 shelling destroyed buildings, canoes, and food storage sites, leading to an unknown number of deaths from starvation and exposure that winter and forced survivors to disperse to other tribes

Identifies Skanáx̱ Bay as the bay's traditional Tlingit place name used since time immemorial, with support from resolutions passed by both the City of Kake and the Organized Village of Kake

Declares the renaming would support healing for local Tlingit communities and celebrate Tlingit language and the first peoples of Southeast Alaska