How to Love Sitka Like a Local
Responsible travel in Sitka starts with loving the community like a local. We love our town, and we hope you will too. Here are a few ways to help protect Sitka for future visitors.
After growing up in Sitka, I’ve seen firsthand the difference between living on an island year round and living somewhere on the grid. Fun fact: you cannot get an Amazon Prime package in Sitka same day, overnight, or even within the week.
That is the reality of living on an island in Southeast Alaska. I think I speak for most of us when I say that is a beautiful way to live.
It teaches you that the land has so much to offer you, from salmon, to shrimp, to deer, to greens grown in forest beds.
It is a land that is nurturing-but often taken advantage of during travel.
Buying Local
I didn’t realize the difference in availability until I moved to Oregon for college in 2021. While stocking up on dorm room supplies, I ordered an Amazon package, expecting to see it in a couple weeks.Â
To my surprise, it showed up the next day.
When you live on an island, there’s more thought that goes into ordering online. It simply disappears when access is at your fingertips.
With that, owning a business in Sitka is just as difficult, if not exponentially more difficult, than owning a business in a town connected to road systems.
To buy local in Sitka is to support the most family-owned businesses on our island. That is not the time to see an item you love and look it up when you get home.
Sitka is full of unique, artistic items that are one-of-a-kind.
It doesn’t matter if you are looking for food, art, or a simple gift. If you buy it from a local store, you are supporting local businesses and local families.
Buying local doesn’t mean the same to a Sitkan as it does to someone from the lower 48.
When we buy local, we give back to a community that is people driven. Our community thrives off our visitors, and you can help sustain our local economy when you disembark from your plane or ship.
Learn about the History Of Sitka
Sitka’s history is immense, but much of it is not often talked about. The Tlingit people were in Sitka, Alaska, for time immemorial before Russians arrived and long before Americans arrived. They know our land best.
The Russian people arrived in Sitka in 1799, and there were major battles with the Tlingit people. The clash ended in the Russians taking over Sitka in 1804.
It wasn’t until 1821 that the Tlingit people were allowed to return under strict rules.Â
In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States. Since then, people of Sitka have regrown and learned more about the Tlingit culture.
Be sure to learn about this rich history when you are in town:
- The Sitka National Historic Park showcases a ton of history on sign posts throughout the park.
- The Sheldon Jackson Museum has a huge array of Tlingit history and artifacts.
- The Sheet’ká Ḵwáan Naa KahÃdi Dancers perform song and dance allow visitors to learn about the Tlingit culture.
It is important to understood a place’s complex history when you visit.
It is not to make you feel bad about being there, but rather to help you understand the community’s connection to the land. In learning, you’ll be able to understand the gift it is to visit a beautiful town.
Leave No Trace
From the way our ecosystems are interconnected to the best way to harvest and care for the salmon populations, the Tlingit people have long been able to balance the ecosystem by only taking what they need. We can carry that idea into way we visit communities.
It can be easy to forget to care for the natural environment when so much of today’s life is driven by consumerism.
Here are some ways you can help minimize your physical footprint:
- Leave nature as you found it
- If you go for a hike, walk, swim, or even a beach picnic, don’t leave anything behind. This ensures that as our visitor population increases each year, we can still make sure the town is as beautiful as when our busiest cruise days only had a few thousand passengers. Now, our busiest days have 9,000 passengers, which doubles our population.
- Be mindful of what you harvest
- Don’t bring something home if you don’t plan to eat it. This is the policy most Sitkan’s live by. It maintains our populations and ensures that nothing is wasted from our environment.
It can be easy to fall into a classic consumerism tourist ideology while traveling. With these tips, you can travel Sitka responsibly. The Sitkans will thank you for it.
So be sure to slow down, be mindful of your surroundings, and give back to the community.
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