Saxman was founded in 1894 and was named after Presbyterian teacher Samuel Saxman, who was lost in a canoe accident during a scouting expedition when the then-independent Indigenous Tlingit villages of Cape Fox and Tongass decided to unite and discover a new combined settlement location.
Eventually, a new village site was established off the coast of the Tongass Narrows, just two miles south of what is presently known as the City of Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island. Shortly after they settled into their new home in Saxman, they began constructing a new schoolhouse through the assistance of U.S. federal appropriations.
Today, the Organized Village of Saxman continues to provide government services to its tribal citizens through the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida).
Elected officials of the Saxman IRA Tribal Council represent and govern the Organized Village of Saxman.