Annette Island or ''Taak'w Aan'' (Tlingit) is an island in the

Gravina Islands The Gravina Islands are a group of islands a part of the Alexander Archipelago in southeast Alaska. The islands are bounded by the Clarence Strait on the west and the Revillagigedo Channel on the east. The largest islands in the group are Gravina ...

of the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

on the southeastern coast of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

. It is at . It is about long and about wide. The land area is . Annette Island is located west across the

Revillagigedo Channel Revillagigedo Channel (, , locally Revilla, ) is an ocean channel in the Alexander Archipelago of the U.S. state of Alaska. Extending 56 km (35 mi) northwest from the Dixon Entrance, it lies between the mainland to the east, Revillagige ...

from the Alaska mainland and south of Revillagigedo Island. The Island was named in 1879 by

William Healey Dall William Healey Dall (August 21, 1845 – March 27, 1927) was an American naturalist, a prominent malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacific Northwest of America, and ...

, an American naturalist and explorer in Alaska, in honor of his wife Annette Whitney Dall. The meaning of the Tlingit name for the island is Winter Town. Since the late 19th century, it has been the base of the Annette Island Reserve of the Metlakatla

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a num ...

Community, composed mostly of

Tsimshian people The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only r ...

. This is the only remaining

Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...

in Alaska, as the Metlakatla voted to opt out of giving up their lands under the

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971, constituting at the time the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve long-standing ...

of the 1970s. In 2016 they elected Audrey Hudson as their first Tribal Chairwoman.

Community and demographics

The largest settlement on the island is Metlakatla. The federally recognized Metlakatla Indian Community was founded by Anglican missionary William Duncan and Tsimshian followers who moved with him from their community of Metlakatla in British Columbia after he developed new doctrine and

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

atized from his church. Fish trap in Tamgas Stream, Annette Island, Alaska, July 26, 1910 (COBB 156)

Since the late 19th century, the entire island has been an

, a status enacted by Congress when the Tlingit agreed to let the Tsimshian use this territory.

Government

The Tsimshian set up their government under the

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

(1934), writing a constitution for electoral government. They have a twelve-person Council. "The mayor, secretary, and treasurer are elected by the general voting membership of the community. Each of these is elected for a two-year term. Council seats are staggered, resulting in the election of six Council seats each year and three executives every second year." Since the late 1970s, this has been the only remaining reservation in Alaska, as the Metlakatla opted out of giving up their lands for payment under the

.Dennis Zotigh, "Audrey Hudson: NMAI’s Meet Native America Series"
, ''Indian Country Today,'' 26 June 2016; accessed 27 June 2016 In 2016 its Tribal Chairwoman is

Audrey Hudson Audrey () is an English feminine given name. It is the Anglo-Norman form of the Anglo-Saxon name ''Æðelþryð'', composed of the elements '' æðel'' "noble" and ''þryð'' "strength". The Anglo-Norman form of the name was applied to Saint Au ...

, the first woman to be elected to this role. She also serves as mayor, city manager, and police commissioner of the Metlakatla Indian Community. The island's population was 1,447 at the 2000 census.Annette Island: Block Groups 1 and 2 and Blocks 3004 thru 3013, Block Group 3, Census Tract 4, Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census Area, Alaska
United States Census Bureau The island population is composed mainly of

Tsimshian The Tsimshian (; tsi, Ts’msyan or Tsm'syen) are an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Their communities are mostly in coastal British Columbia in Terrace and Prince Rupert, and Metlakatla, Alaska on Annette Island, the only r ...

people. It is a cultural crossroads for

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

and

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a ...

Natives as well.

Infrastructure

A network of unimproved roads and trails on the island were developed during years of logging. More than 50 years after the United States made a treaty with the Metlakatla Community that promised a cross-island road in exchange for their allowing construction and operation of an airfield on the island, it made good on its word. A joint armed forces task force constructed a 15-mile road across the island, completed from 1997 to 2007, which connected Metlakatla on the ocean side to the side facing Ketchikan, where a ferry landing has been built. This has not improved access by ferry to the mainland. After the Second World War, the airfield was used as a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

Search and Rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

base. It served commercial aircraft as well until the 1970s, when the new Ketchikan Airport was built at Gravina Island in the Inside Passage.

Climate

The lower elevations of Annette Island have a

Marine west coast climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cfb''), with windy and wet weather year-round, cool winters, and mild summers, and straddle the border between

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

s 7 and 8. Due to its southerly and maritime location, with an annual mean temperature of , the

Annette Island Airport Annette Island Airport is located on Annette Island in the Prince of Wales – Hyder Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. The airport is privately owned by the Metlakatla Indian Community. It is located south of Metlakatla, Alaska. The ai ...

is one of the warmest locations statewide. Precipitation falls on most days during the winter, and the seasonal total snowfall of occurs mostly from November to March, with some accumulation during April. Snowfall in May and October is relatively rare; warm spells raise the high to for several days each month. During summer, there is an average of 17 days with + highs, and rain still falls on around half of the days. Precipitation averages more than annually, with June and July being the driest months and October and November the wettest. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on January 30, 1947, up to on June 19, 2004, with the temperature having fallen below only on a handful of occasions. In addition, the Annette Island Airport holds the Alaska state monthly record high temperatures for January ( on January 14, 2017), April ( on April 29, 1976), and November ( on November 1, 1970).All-time Statewide Daily Temperature Extremes

Demographics

Annette first appeared on the 1950 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. In 1980, it was made a census-designated place (CDP). It last returned in 1990 and was dissolved as a CDP effective as of the 2000 census.

References

External links

Annette Island Guide
{{authority control Islands of the Alexander Archipelago Islands of Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska Tsimshian Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska American Indian reservations in Alaska