Alaska History 1 Overview

Prehistory Upper Paleolithic Period (14,000 BC) ◦Groups from Siberia crossed the Bering land bridge

Alaska Native Cultures (language) Alaska Native Indians Athabaskan (Interior) Eyak (SC/SE Coastal) Haida (SE Coastal) Tlingit (SE Coastal) Tsimshian (SE Coastal) Native Eskimo People Inupiat/Inupiaq/Inuit (Northern Eskimos) Yupiit (Bering Sea) Siberian Yup’ik Yup’ik/Cup’ik Alutiiq Chugach Koniag Kenai Peninsula Aleut

Alaska Native Cultures Subsistence lifestyle ◦Surviving on what can be harvested (hunted or gathered) from the environment

Early Exploration In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of the Kolyma River through the Arctic Ocean and around the eastern tip of Asia to the Anadyr River

Questions ◦Legend—some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska  No evidence survives ◦News of Dezhnev's discovery eventually made it to St. Petersburg  But, the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America was never answered completely

Audio History yFuQgcll7XYfBTF-LAKfBFvwmc&index=10 yFuQgcll7XYfBTF-LAKfBFvwmc&index=10

1 st Kamchatka Expedition 1728—Vitus Bering sailed from the Sea of Okhotsk, around the Kamchatka Peninsula north and through the Bering Strait ◦He did NOT see Alaska

Set sail from Kamchatka 1725 Tsar Peter 1 of Russia funded an expedition 1728—Bering and a group of explorers traveled from St. Petersburg to The Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula They sailed around Kamchatka Peninsula and North through Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean

nd Kamchatka Expedition 1 st Europeans to reach Alaska were Russian  June 1741 Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov set sail in two ships; they were soon separated

Russian Sighting of Alaska July 15, 1741 Chirikov sighted land—Prince of Wales Island Sent a group of men ashore in a longboat making them the 1 st Europeans to set foot on the northwestern coast of North America

Russian Sighting of Alaska July 16, 1741, Bering sighted Mount St. Elias (on the mainland) from his ship and soon thereafter, headed back to Russia

Bering dies Sept. 9, 1741, Bering’s ship entered Adak harbor In November, Bering’s ship was wrecked on Bering Island ◦Bering died, leaving his crew stranded for the winter The next summer, they rebuilt the ship from debris and returned home carrying word of the expedition and sea otter pelts

Fur Industry Soon, fur traders sailed from Siberia to Aleutian Islands ◦Established hunting and trading posts Word of quality furs spread ◦More fur traders arrived, established trading companies ◦Forced Aleuts into slavery  Separated men from women and children ◦ Traditional roles ignored ◦ Women and children starved

Promyshlenniki (Russian fur hunters) Russian fur hunters exploited the islands of the Aleutian Chain one at a time and when the fur- bearing sea mammals were all gone, they moved east until reaching the mainland

Pribilof Islands In 1786, Gerrassium Pribylov followed fur seals from the Aleutian Islands to St. George Island ◦Uninhabited “rock” ◦Shipped men to Pribilof Islands  Worked in the killing fields and blubbering houses

Marine Mammals

The Killing Fields Harbor Seal Harvest, Canada

Russian influence Catherine the Great (German), Empress 1763 ◦Wife of Peter III, orchestrated his overthrow ◦Proclaimed goodwill towards the Aleuts and urged fair treatment

Conflict hard to avoid On some islands and parts of the Alaska Peninsula, traders and Aleut Natives were able to co-exist peacefully

Catastrophic situation Increased competition—declining animal populations ◦Continued enslavement  Families split up  Re-settlement ◦Hunters forced to take greater risks in dangerous North Pacific Shelekhov-Golikov Company emerged ◦Created a monopoly  Used violence as a tool to exploit the Aleuts

Devastating effects Aleuts revolt, Russian retaliation swift and severe ◦Many Aleuts killed ◦Boats destroyed ◦Hunting gear destroyed  No means to hunt  Many Aleuts died of starvation Exposure to disease was even more devastating ◦ , 80% of Aleut population died ◦Aleut had no immunity to Eurasian diseases

Aleut Assimilation Dynamic blend of Native and Russian Traditions emerged ◦Russian traders prohibited traditional religious celebrations ◦Encouraged Aleuts to embrace Orthodoxy ◦Russian men and Aleut women inter-married