Four Unalaska students have spent the past school year buried in Alaska history research, and it paid off with spots at the National History Day finals in Washington, D.C.
On May 29, the students presented their projects to about a dozen locals at the Unalaska Public Library, where they also took questions from the crowd. Alaska holds its statewide History Day contest entirely online, so the gathering was practice for the in-person judges they’ll soon face.
“What surprised you most about your topic?” asked an audience member.
“The thing that surprised us most about our topic on the Amchitka nuclear tests was how the government was willing to do these tests, knowing that there were many risks to wildlife and indigenous groups around the island,” said ninth grader Honor Herring.
Herring and fellow classmate Natnicha “Michelle” Lord made a documentary about the Amchitka nuclear tests. The tests were underground blasts that the U.S. government set off in the Aleutians during the Cold War. Their project won second place statewide in their category.
In the documentary, Lord narrates the opening: “The year is 1971 and a group of activists have embarked on a voyage to a tiny island in the Bering Sea. The reason to confront the United States' largest underground nuclear test, a highly controversial event.”
This will be Lord’s second year competing at nationals.
The other two Unalaska students, middle schoolers River Zaochney and Wesley Gruenhagen, made a website about the 1882 U.S. Navy bombardment of the Tlingit village of Angoon. Their project won first place statewide in their category.
Reading part of the website’s thesis, Zaochney described how long it took the government to make amends.
“Reform eventually came in the form of an official U.S. government apology about almost 150 years later, but the Tlingit people are still impacted by intergenerational trauma caused by the 1882 bombardment,” he said.
When an audience member asked how they designed the project, Gruenhagen said he and Zaochney drew on their own backgrounds.
“With him [Zaochney] being Indigenous, and me having a family member who's in the Navy. We thought it'd be interesting if we just separated the Tlingit and the Navy sections, to show different contrasting views that they had during that time,” Gruenhagen said.
Both projects fit this year’s theme: “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.”
Dena Royal, a teacher in the Unalaska City School District, coached the students through their projects. She said the commitment was bigger than most people realize.
“We meet one evening a week until it gets after New Year's. And then we spend every day on spring break, multiple weekends,” Royal said. “Probably, what would you say, three to 500 hours all year long on doing their projects.”
After all that time, they’ll compete against 3,000 students in Washington, D.C., from June 14-18. For three of the four students, it’ll be their first trip to the nation's capital.
