Contents
Natives in Alaska’s History
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■
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Note to the Teacher ..................................................................
2
Natives in Alaska’s History ....................................................... 4
1. Oral History .......................................................................... 5
Igadik
Chuning
Tlingit History: Kasteen
Masu and Her Adopted Son Nulthkutuk
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2. Russian Days ........................................................................
9
K’alyáan (Katlian)
What was a Creole?
Some Early Explorers
Semeon and Ivan Semeonovich Lukin
Alexander Filipovich Kashevarov
Native Scholars and Religious Leaders
Ivan Pan’kov
Iakov Netsvetov
Other Religious Men
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3. Early American Days...........................................................
21
Erinia Pavaloff Cheroskey Callahan
Sinrock Mary
Angokwazhuk (“Happy Jack”)
David Paul
Louis Shotridge
Serum Race
Albert Tritt
John Fredson
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Sources .................................................................................
30
Written by:
Patricia H. Partnow, Ph.D.
Curriculum Development Specialist
Indian Education Program / Anchorage School District June 1984
Revised and Reprinted 2004
ALASKA STUD IES
•
UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
1.
NATIVES IN ALASKA’S HISTORY
NOTE TO THE TEACHER
Why the Booklet Was Written
T
he student booklet Natives in Alaska’s History began as part of the celebration of
Alaska’s 25th Anniversary as a state. In reading history texts of Alaska, I became
aware that most of them show Natives playing only a minor role in the history and
development of our state. Generally, when Natives are mentioned, it is in one of two
circumstances: First in the pre-history sections, where they are sole actors (but even
then, they are usually shown as representatives of a static culture, not as people who
changed or invented anything); second, after contact, when they are shown as the
victims or passive recipients of the white man’s actions.
I began the research for this booklet with a belief that this picture is incomplete. I
expected to have some difficulty in finding written accounts of Natives’ actions, since
the written record consists mostly of the comments of the few whites who traveled
Alaska in the early days. In fact, there is a lot written about various Natives, but it is
in bits and pieces.
A case in point are the Lukins, father and son. They cropped up in the journals of
various explorers of Alaska. Zagoskin talks about the father at some length in 184244. Dall mentions the son in 1868. And a member of the Western Union Telegraph
Company expedition of 1865-67, George Adams, kept a diary of which Ivan Lukin (the
son) plays a major part. Although the Yukon River up to Dawson City was explored
by Ivan Lukin, his contributions were unknown or ignored by the Americans of his day.
This is a fairly typical treatment of Alaska Natives and Creoles in our history. We
know them as guides and employees but not as history makers.
The Reverend Michael Oleksa pointed out another group of important Natives to
me. He provided me with sources on many “Russians” who were the middle management, explorers, and clerics during the Russian period in Alaska. In fact, scores of
these men were Creoles, being at least half Native (usually Unangan or Sugpiaq,
though also some Yup’ik and Tlingit). Because they had Russian or Creole fathers
and had been baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church, their names are Russian.
Their Native heritage sheds new light on this period in our state’s history.
How the People were Chosen
T
he people I chose for this booklet were those about whom I had least trouble finding information. After the first draft, I noticed that, because of the nature of the
written sources, most of the people were “friends” of the Russian or Americans, and
most were men. The men who were considered outstanding members of their own
groups, but who fought against the newcomers, were often not considered great by
the white men who came into conflict with them. Similarly, few women (of any ethnic
2.
ALASKA STUDIES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
group) appear in written histories of Alaska. I have included individuals from these
two categories.
I have not included anyone who has been active in very recent years. Instead, I
restricted the booklet to the deceased. Still, there are a number of influential people
who should be included. William Paul, Sr. and William Beltz come to mind immediately. Their stories have been written elsewhere, and I encourage readers to seek out
their biographies.
How the Booklet Fits in With a Study of Alaska’s History
T
he book is designed to be used with students from middle to high school age. It is
arranged chronologically. Although I mention the names of various periods in our
history I do not explore the general trends of each period. It is the teacher’s task to
put the biographies into context for the students.
I would also encourage teachers to develop further some of the themes that recur
in these stories. One is the status of Creoles, in comparison with both the Russians
and the Natives. Another is the potential conflict between our modern emphasis on
change and innovation and the traditional Native values of learning from elders and
respecting the eternal and unchanging relationships between humans and the natural
world. When was an innovation acceptable to Native onlookers, and when had a person gone too far? Third, there is the theme of the “good” Native (i.e., one who emulates whites), who was in danger of losing his “Nativeness” in the rush to fit into the
new world that Alaska became and, most of all, is the question of what is
“Nativeness”? What is special about the Alaska Native worldview and philosophy?
How can it be incorporated into modern Alaskan society? What can we learn from it
today?
Patricia H. Partnow
Spring 1984
Author’s Note 2004
Since this booklet was written and printed twenty years ago,
scholars have supplemented the list of reliable sources with a great
deal of impressive new research. In particular, I encourage readers
to check the catalog of the University of Alaska Press in Fairbanks.
Since 1984, this press has published more than a dozen new titles
relevant to the Russian American period and stories of Alaska
Native lives.
PHP
Anchorage
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
3.
NATIVES IN ALASKA’S HISTORY
H
istory is about the past. In the European
tradition, history is mostly about the
changes in the past, and how things got
to be the way they are today.
Each person’s life and actions are part of the
past. Yet, when we write about history, we can’t
tell about every single person. We choose to
write about the people we think made the most
difference, those who changed things the most.
Many history books about Alaska tell only
about the lives and actions of Euro-American
men (and some women). Those books don’t
usually include information about men of other
ethnicities or cultures, and might slight the stories of women.
Is this because white men did the most important things in our state’s past? No. Rather, it is
because it was the Euro-Americans who wrote
about their deeds the most, and so today we
know about the past from their points of view.
They wrote letters home; they wrote magazine
articles to readers in New York; they wrote
reports to the government in Washington, D.C.
Along the way, some of them wrote about the
4.
ALASKA STUDIES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
Natives they met in their travels, and those who
helped them survive their journeys. The guides
they hired were Natives. Although the explorers
are usually given credit for being the first to get
to a certain place, in many cases the guides had
been there before, and were simply retracing
their steps. So why is it the explorers who
become famous and not the guides? Because the
explorers wrote about the adventures.
Except for the Aleuts (both Unangan and
Sugpiaq/Alutiiq), some of whom wrote diaries
and newsletters in the 19th Century, Alaska
Natives did not write much about themselves
until the 20th Century. Of course they did have
a history, which they passed on: Oral history.
Elders taught the children the important events
of the past, just as their parents had taught them,
and just as history books teach us today.
This booklet talks about a few of the Alaska
Natives who played an important part in Alaska’s
history. It is broken into several parts, starting
with the earliest years in Alaska (before the coming of the Russians in the 1700s), and continuing
through the years to the recent past.
1. ORAL HISTORY
WE ALL USE ORAL HISTORY TO PASS
ON INFORMATION. When our parents tell
us about their lives as little children, they are
passing on oral history. When we tell a
friend about our summer vacation, we’re
passing on oral history.
Until the 1800s, Alaska Natives’ history
was all oral. Each band or village had historians who were known for their memories,
and those were the people who told the
young about the group’s history.
We have all tried repeating a story we
once heard, only to discover we can’t
remember all the details. That might make
us wonder how accurate oral history is. It’s
so easy to forget, so hard to get all the
details right. It is undoubtedly true that the
stories that were told by village historians
were a bit different from what had happened
generations before. But it is also true that
the people back then were much more
skilled at repeating the exact story that most
people are today. First, they heard the stories over and over before trying to tell them
themselves. Second, their memories were
undoubtedly better than ours, because every
bit of information they used was recorded
only in their minds, not in books. They had
to have excellent memories to survive. And
third, the historians were often required to
memorize the stories, word for word, and
repeat them back to their teachers.
We know about the people in this first
section from oral histories that have survived
the years and have been recorded or written
down. We don’t know exactly when these
people lived, because in the days before
written history, people did not keep track of
years and dates. We also don’t know all the
details of their stories. But their stories are
crucial parts of Alaska’s earliest history.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
5.
IGADIK
CHUNING
I
C
gadik was an Unangan, or Aleut, from
Unimak Island. He was a respected
young man: Not only was he the son of the
chief, but he was also an excellent baidarka
(the Russian term for kayak) handler and a
very good hunter.
Igadik was one of a long line of Aleut
explorers. His fame came from one particular adventure. It started when he was hunting for sea mammals in his baidarka, north
of the island. A strong wind suddenly came
up out of the south. It blew him north, far
into the Bering Sea. The storm continued
for several days, blowing him farther and
farther north. Finally, the wind died down
and the rain stopped, only to be replaced by
a thick fog.
Igadik drifted in the fog for a while, until
he realized that he was hearing familiar
sounds: The voices of birds and fur seals.
This meant he was near land. He paddled
toward the sounds. Suddenly, looming out
of the mist, he saw a dark cliff in front of
him. And he saw millions of fur seals on
the rocks below it. Mother seals were nursing their pups. Igadik knew he had found
the breeding grounds of the fur seals that
swam past the Aleutian Islands. The island
is today called St. George, one of the
Pribilof Islands.
Igadik stayed for a year, then returned to
his home island of Unimak. He named the
islands he found Amiq, and the story of his
discovery was passed on for generations.
Today, we call the island group the
Pribilofs, after a Russian trader who first
saw them in 1786. If the Aleuts had written
down Igadik’s adventures, perhaps we
would now call them the Amiq Islands.
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
huning was also an Unangan whose
accidental adventure changed history.
She was the only survivor of a war between
the people of her island, Attu, and a group
of eastern Aleuts. She managed to hide
until the invaders left the island. Then she
set about killing a sea lion for food and
making a home for herself on the northwest
side of the island.
Chuning realized that she was all alone.
To ease her loneliness, she made pets of a
sea gull and an eider duck. Through the
years, they kept her company.
Several years after the war, some people
arrived at Attu from Umnak Island. They
found Chuning all alone and marveled at
her ability to stay alive for so long with no
help. These people settled on Attu and
eventually children were born and the island
was populated again. From then on,
Chuning was known as the ancestress of the
Attuans.
TLINGIT HISTORY
A
mong the richest sources of Alaska
Native history are Tlingit clan stories.
Elders in each clan know the names of
many people who have performed brave
deeds, led the clan to a new home, become
great war leaders, founded new branches of
the clan, or been great healers or shamans.
There are hundreds of such people, whose
names have been given to their clan ancestors. For instance, there is Natsilane, a man
of the Daqlaweidee clan who was the
founder of the Killerwhale crest; and
Aakwtaatseen of the Kiks.adi clan, a boy
who brought the Dog Salmon crest to his
clan; and Xatgawet, a Teiqweidee man
known as a great clan leader, founder of a
village, war chief, and expert trader.
a small house all by herself, away from the
village. Only her mother and female relatives could talk to her and bring her food.
She was not allowed even to look at men.
She couldn’t eat fresh meat. There were
lots of things she was used to doing which
were now forbidden.
A Chookaneidee girl named Kasteen who
had recently been taken to her secluded
house became very lonely and bored. She
cried and cried, and called out to the glacier
to come keep her company.
In answer to her call, the glacier began
advancing toward her and the nearby village. It was coming quickly, and was
almost upon the village when the people
realized their home was about to be
destroyed. They quickly made plans to
move south to a new location.
Tlingit history also tells of many women.
In Tlingit society, it is the mother who passes on her history to her children, so each
clan values its women very highly. A clan
with no women in it would die out; men
cannot pass on their clan name or history to
their own children.
But first, they had to pay a debt to the
glacier. The people believed that it was
because of Kasteen’s request that the glacier
had approached their village. The glacier’s
spirit was expecting to be given a woman,
and would not stop until it had one. A
Chookaneidee woman must stay behind for
the glacier.
KASTEEN
The young woman who had caused the
problem could have been chosen to stay.
Instead, Shawat Seek’ stepped forward and
volunteered to sacrifice herself. She stayed
in the old village, and was eventually
crushed by the oncoming glacier.
O
ne story tells of the great sacrifice of a
woman in the northern part of Tlingit
territory, around what is now Glacier Bay.
Her name was Shaawat Seek’ and she was
an older woman of the Chookaneidee clan.
In those days, several hundred years ago,
when a girl became a woman she was put in
Today, it is the old woman who is
remembered as the person who made possible the Chookaneidees’ safe escape from
Glacier Bay. It was because she paid
Kasteen’s debt that the people felt safe and
brave enough to start a new village. That
village is called Hoonah.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
7.
MASU and her
adopted son
NULTHKUTUK
M
asu was an amazing Inupiaq Eskimo
woman who lived more than 200
years ago. She was the sister of the headman of Unalakleet at the time of a war
between her people and the interior
Athabascans.
The Inupiat won the battle, scaring off or
killing all the Athabascans. Masu was at
the scene of the battle afterward when she
heard a cough. She looked around and
could see no one, but heard the cough again.
She followed the sound until she found a little Indian boy, seven years old, huddled
under a tree.
8.
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
The boy was terrified, sure that he would
be killed by this enemy of his people. But
Masu’s first thought was not of hatred, but
of love. She quickly warmed and comforted the boy.
Masu adopted the boy Nulthkutuk, and
he became the nephew of her brother the
headman. Nulthkutuk’s new mother and
uncle saw that he was taught the Inupiaq
language and in the Inupiaq ways of hunting. He was being trained to be the next
headman of the village.
Nulthkutuk did become headman, and
married his adopted cousin. He was considered wise and brave. There is a story of his
stopping a war between the Inupiat and his
original people, the Athabascans.
It was because of Masu’s kindness and
love that an Athabascan boy became a great
Inupiaq leader.
2. RUSSIAN DAYS
FROM 1741 UNTIL 1867, ALASKA WAS A TERRITORY OF RUSSIA. Although most of the people we read about from this Russian period worked for or with the Russians, there were many others
who did not welcome their coming. One Native, a Tlingit, stands out in the history books as a leader
who battled against the Russians.
K’alyáan (KATLIAN)
Battle Leader, 1802-04
K
’alyáan (often spelled Katlian in English)
was a leader of the Kiks.adi clan of Tlingit
Indians. You may come across the name often if
you read Alaska’s history, for his name was
passed on to his descendants.
The K’alyáan who lived in 1802 was an
important and rich man, the nephew of the leader
of his clan and next in line for that position. His
Kiks.adi clan owned fishing, hunting, and food
gathering rights to much of the area around the
present-day city of Sitka. In 1799, the Russians
had arrived at his home territory to establish a
fort.
The Russians, under the command of
Alexander Baranov, were greeted by K’alyáan
and other Kiks.adi leaders, as well as members
of other clans. The Tlingits did not welcome the
intruders to the territory. The Kiks.adi clan had
occupied the area long before, and their claims
were known to all people in the area. They
meant to make sure that Baranov also recognized
these claims.
The Kiks.adi and Baranov came to an agreement that a Russian building could be constructed on a small portion of the land. Russians and
the Aleut hunters from Kodiak and the Aleutian
Chain who came with them moved in.
As time passed, the Tlingits became less and
less pleased with the Russians. The reasons for
their feelings were several: first, the fort was
apparently larger than the Kiks.adi had been led
to expect. It also became apparent that the
Russians meant to stay there. Second, it is probable that some Tlingit people of high standing
were mistreated by the Russians. Third, the
Tlingits, who were a fiercely independent people, were not pleased that the Russians interfered
with their trade with British and American ships.
The Kiks.adi attempted to oust the Russians a
number of times, but were not successful until
after Baranov left the fort to return to Kodiak.
There is evidence that together Tlingits from the
southernmost part of Alaska all the way to
Yakutat in the north planned an attack on the
Russians.
In 1802, under the leadership of a Kiks.adi
elder, the Tlingits from Sitka surrounded the
Russian fort, drove some Russians and their
Aleut servants to the mountains to hide, killed
others, and burned the fort. The few survivors
were taken to Kodiak by a passing British ship,
and Baranov learned of the loss of his fort.
For two years, the Sitka area was free of outsiders. During that time the Kiks.adi built a fort
at the mouth of Indian River in preparation for
the return of the Russian fur traders. Because of
the tide flats there any cannon shots from ships
would not be able to destroy their fort. Then, in
1804, the Russians returned, this time with more
weapons. Baranov was with them.
Kiks.adi tradition tells that the Russians, sitting in their ships in the bay, routinely shot cannons at the shore at noon each day. One of the
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
9.
cannons struck a Kiks.adi woman. She was
instantly killed. The Tlingits had not planned to
welcome the Russians – but this was the last
straw. A battle plan was devised.
Their plan was to coax the Russians to shore.
The Tlingits fasted and sat quietly awaiting the
Russians, who believed that the Natives had left
the area. They began to go ashore. First came
the Aleut hunters. The Kiks.adi still remember
one Aleut with striking reddish hair. Next came
the Russians. When all had landed, the Tlingits
began a thunderous and steady drum beat. As
arranged, the women let out loud shrieks to
frighten the Russians. K’alyáan, wearing a
Raven headdress and swinging a heavy blacksmith’s hammer, raged toward the enemy. One
story says that one old man begged, “Don’t kill
me!” According to that story, the man was
Baranov. He was wounded in battle.
The Russians were being forced to retreat
toward the shore when the guns from their ships
began firing. This turned the tide to the battle.
The Kiks.adi had used up their gunpowder and
lost some young men. They abandoned their fort
and all their possessions in the Sitka area, stole
away quickly and quietly into the forest, and
exiled themselves in a distant bay for nearly
twenty years. During that time the Russians
established their second fort in Sitka, and named
it Novoarkhangelsk (New Archangel). There
were no successful attacks on this fort by the
Tlingits, although there were tense relations
between the two groups. A cannon remained
aimed at the Tlingit “ranch,” which is what the
village area was called, until Russia sold its
holdings to the United States.
Today, K’alyáan’s Raven headdress is in the
Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, loaned by his
descendants. His blacksmith’s hammer is in the
museum collection at Sitka National Historic
Park.
What was a Creole?
D
uring the Russian period in Alaska, the
Russians built trading posts, churches,
cities, a cathedral, and schools, all patterned after
those back in the Motherland. The history books
that describe Alaska at that time tell about the
people who ran the posts, churches, and schools.
Most of these people were men, for in those days
in Russia, women’s lives were taken up with the
hard work of clothing, feeding, and mothering
their families.
All of these leaders had Russian names. And
yet, many of them were not Russians, but rather
belonged to an officially recognized segment of
the population called “Creoles.” They were the
children or grandchildren of Aleut women and
Russian men. They had been brought up in a
village, gone to school in the village or sent
away to a more advanced school in
Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka), and returned to help
run Alaska for the Russian-American Company,
which also acted as the government. Because so
many of the men involved in running the colony
for Russia were Aleut Creoles, one historian has
suggested that the second half of the Russian
period should really be called the “Aleut period
of Alaska’s history.”
In this section, you will read about a number
of Creoles and Natives who brought about
important changes in Alaska during the Russian
period. But first, you need to know what it
meant to be a Creole in Russian America.
The Russia of the 18th and 19th centuries was
a very stratified society. That is, each person had
a rank, no matter what profession he was in.
That rank told him whether he should consider
himself above or beneath anyone else he came
into contact with. There were rules of proper
behavior toward both superiors and subordinates
that he had to follow.
This practice of ranking everyone extended to
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
Russian America, as well. The fact that there
were so few Russian women here meant that
most of the men married Native (especially
Aleut) women. A new group of people with
Russian fathers was growing up, and they needed
to be given a rank in society.
the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island, and the
Alaska Peninsula. In other parts of Alaska, however, the Creoles experienced a life very different
from the Natives among whom they lived. It
started with the kind of education these people
received.
The Russians dubbed this group of people
“Creoles” and granted them the status of free
people. Their status was entirely new; there was
nothing exactly like it in Russia. It entitled them
to be citizens, but they didn’t have to pay taxes.
They also didn’t have to work for the company,
unlike Aleuts who had no Russian ancestry.
However, they couldn’t move from settlement to
settlement within the colony without permission.
Also, if they were educated at company expense
(and many of them were), they owed from ten to
fifteen years of work to the company.
The Russian-American Company had a policy
of educating Creoles to be managers. In fact,
they preferred them to Russians. It was therefore
the Creoles who usually learned to read, write,
navigate, make maps, be bookkeepers, and build
ships for the company. In contrast, there were
relatively few educated Natives.
This new status was devised because everyone in Russia needed a rank. But it ended up
serving another useful purpose. The tsar in
Russia wanted to be sure that he had loyal subjects in Russian America. By teaching the
Creoles the Russian culture of their fathers and
accepting them into that culture, he reasoned
that they would feel affection for the country
across the Bering Sea. And, in the years after
1818, the Creoles were a readily available work
force. Russians did not have to be imported to
run the company, for the Creoles had been
trained to do it.
In the earliest years of Russian involvement
in Alaska, there were very few Creoles. By the
end of the Russian period, however, most Aleuts
had at least one Russian ancestor or family member. Today’s Aleut culture is built on a strong
base of Creole experience, which includes membership in the Russian Orthodox church and
many Russian customs, all melded with an older
Aleut culture.
During the middle years of Russian America,
from the 1820s to 1850, Aleut culture was evolving toward its present mix. There was little distinction made between “Aleuts” and “Creoles” in
If a Creole child lived in a main post such as
Unalaska, Kodiak, or Novoarkhangelsk, he usually went to the company school there (which,
though owned by the company, was generally
run by the church). Those Creoles who lived in
outlying posts or villages were either taught to
read and write at home, were taught the knowledge of their Native cultures, or were sent to
Novoarkhangelsk for schooling. The most promising students were then sent to Russia for further education.
Most of the Creoles whose stories follow
were sent to the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers
after some sort of Russian schooling. The Yupiit
and Athabascans they lived with saw them as
representatives of Russia, not as Natives. Still,
when Andrei Glazunov first traveled to Anvik in
1833, the Deg Hit’an Athabascans were greatly
impressed by him. Not only was he polite and
persuasive, but he also “resembled their grandfathers.” It is probable that the Creoles were so
successful in maintaining good relations with
their hosts because of their Native heritage.
They looked and acted in familiar, acceptable,
and unthreatening ways. They were self-sufficient and knew how to hunt and make their own
clothes. And they understood the Native rules of
politeness.
On the other hand, these Creoles were used to
dealing with money, many lived in wooden houses different from others in the area, they were
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
11.
firm believers in the Christian religion, and they
spoke Russian as well as one or more Native languages. These characteristics can be traced back
to their Russian-style education.
What follow are the stories of some remarkable people who have left their marks on Alaska.
Besides their explorations, maps and missionary
work, they left families and family names, common in Alaska even today. They showed one of
the most important characteristics an Alaskan
can have: They knew how to adapt to different
situations, how to be flexible. This overlay a
strong knowledge of the land and its people.
Some early explorers
1818
Petr Ustiugov was an Aleut who was educated as a mapmaker. He made the maps for the
Creole explorer Petr Korsakovskiy when he
explored the coast of Alaska to the mouth of
the Yukon River. Russians had not explored
these areas before that time.
Ustiugov had actually come close to being an
outlaw rather than a respected mapmaker.
He had tried to organize an uprising against
the Russians on the Pribilof Islands. He was
unsuccessful, but was not punished harshly
because his brother, Andrei, was a navigator
and explorer. Both men had been brought up
on Unalaska.
1826-38
Stefan Kriukov was in charge of the
Russian-American Company’s fur business
on Umnak Island (Aleutian Chain), and was
in charge of the sealing operations in the
Pribilof Islands. He also built the first chapel
in Nikolski (Umnak Island).
1829
Semeon Lukin, interpreter for Lt. Ivan
Yakovlevich Vasilief, traveled up the
Nushagak River to Tikchik Lake, the Holitna
River and the Kuskokwim. This was the first
Russian party to travel the Kuskokwim.
1832
Semeon Lukin went with Fedor Kolmakov
(the former manager of the Fort Alexander
post on the Nushagak River) in the first
“Russian” exploration of the Kuskokwim
River. The two built a new post for the
Russian-American Company on the
Kuskokwim. It was later moved across the
river and named the Kolmakovskiy Redoubt.
1834-35
Andrei Glazunov traveled widely throughout the southwestern part of Russian
America. He tried to establish a route
through the mountains from the Kuskokwim
River to Cook Inlet. His failure to do so convinced the Russians that this was not a feasible route. He is best known as the first
Russian to see and explore the Yukon River,
although he was a Creole, not a Russian. He
went from its mouth inland to Anvik with his
guide, a Yup’ik Eskimo named
Tumachugnak. Glazunov’s job was to find
out whether the company could make money
trading with Yupiit and Athabascans along
the Yukon River. He reported that they
could, and established a settlement and trading post at Ikogmiut (now called Russian
Mission). He was the manager of the post
from 1842 until his death in 1846.
1838
Alexander Kashevarov explored and
mapped the North Slope (more on him follows).
12.
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1819
The Creole Andrei Klimovskii was sent to
the Kronstadt Naval Academy in Russia
where he studied to be a pilot. In 1819, he
explored the Copper River for the Russian
American Company.
1837-38
During the disastrous small pox epidemic
that struck the Yukon and Kuskokwim valleys, Klimovskii was sent to inoculate the
Native people against the disease. Because
his coming coincided with the deaths of
many people, he was not believed, and was
thought to be spreading, rather than preventing the disease.
1837-67
Illarion Arkhimandritov was an Aleut
Creole born at Bel’kovskii and educated in
Russia. His career as a mapmaker and naval
officer began in 1837. That year be began a
two-year journey which was to take him
around the world. For the next thirty years,
most of his life was spent at sea. In 1842, as
ship’s navigator, he took over command of a
ship whose captain had been killed in a violent storm. He brought the ship safely into
port. Between 1845 and 1850, he surveyed
and made the first reliable maps of the coast
of Alaska from the Kenai Peninsula, into
Cook Inlet, and south beyond Kodiak. His
map of Kodiak became the only map used by
the Russians after the 1850s.
Despite his experience sailing,
Arkhimandritov had his share of accidents.
In 1862, as he was skippering a ship loaded
with ice for San Francisco, he struck a rock
in the harbor on Kodiak Island. His ship
sank, but he managed to save himself and his
crew.
After the United States purchased Alaska,
Illarion Arkhimandritov moved to San
Francisco, as did several other Aleuts and
Creoles. He became one of a number of
Alaskans who wrote critical articles about the
state of affairs in Alaska and the operations
of the Alaska Commercial Company (which
bought the holdings of the Russian-American
Company and continued most of its policies).
He also collected art and other material
objects, which were placed in various museums around the world.
Arkhimandritov later returned to Alaska
where he was asked by the Aleuts in the
Pribilofs and Unalaska to act as their
spokesman when dealing with the United
States government. To the Aleuts he was a
respected Aleut spokesman. To the
Americans, he was an American citizen of
Russian origin.
1838-39
Petr Fedorovich Kolmakov (Creole son of
Fedor Kolmakov) and Aleksei Matrozov
continued the exploration of the Kuskokwim
River where Semeon Lukin and Fedor
Komakov had left off. They reached the
divide between the Kuskokwim and Yukon
Rivers, near the present day village of
Shageluk. Matrozov later married Lukin’s
daughter Irena.
1838-40
Peter Vasil’evich Malakhov, after completing a journey of exploration to Barrow with
Alexander Kashevarov, continued
Glazunov’s work of exploring the Yukon
River. In 1838 he went as far as Nulato. He
built a log cabin, and then floated down the
Yukon to St. Michael where there was a trading post. He arranged for trade between the
Russians at St. Michael and the Athabascans
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
13.
inland. The next year, Malakhov returned to
Nulato and expanded the cabin, making it the
first Russian post at Nulato. He was also one
of the first explorers of the Susitna River
(1834).
1842-44
Aleksei Markelovich Matrozov was one of
the explorers with Lieutenant Lavrentiy
Zagoskin, who traveled the Yukon and
Kuskokwim Rivers and mapped them for
Russia. Zagoskin said, “Matrozov is quick
witted and brave. . . it is a shame that he is
illiterate, but he is a master with the balalaika
(a stringed instrument).” The interpreter on
the expedition was Grigoriy Kurochkin,
from Kodiak. Tatlek, an Athabascan Indian,
was also a member of his expedition.
14.
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
1847
A Creole named Serebrennikov traveled up
the Copper River beyond the point reached
by Klimovskii in 1819. The Ahtnas apparently killed him, although his body was never
found. His notes were handed over to
Russians by Ahtnas.
1863
Ivan Lukin (son of Semeon) was the first to
travel from the mouth of the Yukon to the
location of Dawson City, Yukon Territory.
This family’s story is told in more detail
starting on the next page.
SEMEON and IVAN SEMEONOVICH LUKIN
1800 – 1868
T
he Lukins were an amazing father and son
pair. Between the two of them, they
explored most of the Kuskokwim and Yukon
rivers for the Russians.
The story starts in 1800 when Semeon was
born. He was a Creole whose father was killed
in 1806. He was brought up and educated in
Sitka by the governor of Alaska, Alexander
Baranov.
Semeon’s travels began in 1816 when he was
sent to Kodiak. From there, in 1819, the
Russian-American Company sent him to Fort
Alexander (on the Nushagak River) where he
met Fedor Kolmakov, who was manager of the
post and was to have an important influence on
him.
In 1832, Lukin and Kolmakov left Fort
Alexander to explore the Kuskokwim River for
the Russian-American Company. They traveled
up the Kuskokwim River beyond the Yup’ik
areas into Athabascan territory.
They built a small post for the RussianAmerican Company on the Kuskokwim. The
new post allowed the Russians to trade with
Athabascans for the first time. In later years
Lukin built a larger post across the river and
named it Kolmakovskiy Redoubt in honor of his
mentor. It was located 20 miles east of the present day village of Aniak.
Semeon became the manager of that fort in
1841, and was manager until his death 14 years
later. It was his job to order trade goods that the
Yupiit wanted and then bargain with them for the
furs they trapped. He also acted as a lay priest
of the Russian Orthodox church. That means
that he performed some religious ceremonies but
was not an ordained priest. In 1843, Semeon
built a chapel at Kolmakovskiy Redoubt.
Semeon was well known and liked, and,
unlike some of the Russian managers of other
posts, lived in peace with the Native people of
the area. Only one incident is recorded when he
was faced with hostility. In 1838 a disastrous
smallpox epidemic swept throughout Alaska.
Thousands of Native people died, leaving many
orphans and a gap in leadership. In the confusion that followed the catastrophe, the Yupiit
around the Ikogmiut post on the Yukon attacked
and killed the Russian employees. Apparently
they had been subjected to ill treatment by these
same men, and finally struck back. The Yup’ik
men next went to Kolmakovskiy Redoubt, but
Petr Kolmakov (Fedor’s son) had warned
Semeon Lukin of their coming. As the attackers
rushed into the building, Lukin quickly grabbed
the most hostile one and threw him out the window. The attack ended and Semeon spent the
rest of his years in peace with his neighbors. In
fact, they called him “tyatya”, Yup’ik for
“Daddy.” He was described as “a sort of big
brother, and first among the workmen.” He was
fluent in Yup’ik, the language of his second wife
Sofia; in fact, almost all the conversation was
done in that language. One Russian visitor said,
“Lukin is available by night as by day; the visitor taps at the window and then enters freely.”
We don’t know Semeon’s first wife’s name
(she was most likely an Athabascan), but we
know his son Ivan Semeonovich was born in
1823, probably at Fort Alexander. Another son,
Konstantin, was born in 1825.
Ivan was as amazing as his father. He was
trained in Sitka in the seminary (the school for
priests). Like his father, he worked for the
Russian-American Company, and became manager of Kolmakovskiy Redoubt after his father
died in 1855. He worked there until 1860. After
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
15.
that, he was often chosen by visiting travelers to
guide and translate for them. He spoke at least
four languages: Russian, in which he would read
and write, Deg Hit’an Athabascan, Yup’ik, and
one other unidentified Athabascan language.
Ivan traveled the rivers and trails of the Yukon
area scores of times. He was an excellent hunter
who, like most Natives and Creoles of the day,
got his food by hunting. His most famous trip
took place in 1863. He traveled from the Russian
post of St. Michael, where he was by then the
chief trader, up the Yukon. The Russians called
the lower part of the Yukon, where their posts
were located, the Kwikpak. They knew that an
English post, Fort Yukon, was on a large river
called the Yukon, and believed the two rivers
were the same. They wanted to know how much
trade the English were doing with the
Athabascans and whether it was interfering with
their own trade downriver.
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
Ivan went by kayak upriver to Fort Yukon,
proving that Kwikpak and Yukon were one.
Once there, he pretended to be unhappy with the
Russian-American Company that employed him.
He pretended that he wanted to begin working
for the Hudson’s Bay Company instead. In this
way, he found out about the trade on the Upper
Yukon. He traveled beyond Fort Yukon, all the
way to the present site of Dawson City in Yukon
Territory, Canada.
Ivan was the guide for one American group
that was exploring the Yukon from 1865-68. It
was he who traveled from Unalakleet to Nulato
to tell the Americans that their country had just
bought Alaska.
We don’t know when Ivan died (it was probably in 1886), but during his life he, like his
father, was a remarkable man who knew and
loved his home territory.
ALEXANDER FILIPOVICH KASHEVAROV
1809 – 1866
P
erhaps the most famous Creole explorer was
Alexander Filipovich Kashevarov. He was
born in Kodiak in 1809. His mother was an
Alutiiq-Creole woman from Kodiak and his
father, Filip, was a former serf who taught at the
Russian school there. The couple had nine children, four of whom became navigators and two
of whom were managers for the RussianAmerican Company.
Kashevarov grew up speaking two languages:
his mother’s, Alutiiq, and his father’s, Russian.
He went to school and learned to read and write
both languages. He was a very good student,
and was noticed by officials of the RussianAmerican Company. They realized that he was
intelligent and a good leader, and they sent him
to the Naval Academy at Kronstadt, Russia.
When Kashevarov graduated from the Naval
Academy, he sailed home to Alaska by way of
Africa and South America. The trip took eleven
months. He arrived in Novoarkhangelsk, ready
to begin his career for the Russian-American
Company, at the age of 19.
Through the years, Kashevarov sailed all over
the world. He made the first maps of many
places. For instance, in 1838 he traveled along
the North Slope, past Point Barrow. He went by
ship, baidar (a large open skin boat like an
umiak), and baidarka (a small skin boat like a
kayak). He made detailed maps as he traveled
and only turned around when some Inupiat in
kayaks of their own showed that his group was
not welcome. He continued to sail and map new
areas, and published the maps in an atlas.
Kashevarov was eventually promoted to the rank
of Major General.
In the middle of the 19th Century, the Russian
government began to realize that Alaska might
be too expensive to keep and impossible to
defend. Further, the tsar was not sure the
Russian-American Company was doing a good
job of running it. In any event, the company’s
charter, or legal right to run the colony, was up
for renewal.
By this time Alexander Kashevarov was
retired and living in Russia. He was obviously
still emotionally attached to his native land. He
wrote several articles, published throughout
Russia, in which he stated that Alaska should be
allowed to rule itself, and should not be ruled by
a company that cared mostly for making money.
Because Kashevarov was a respected general
with a lifelong experience in Alaska, his articles
were read and discussed.
Kashevarov’s articles led the Russian government to conduct a new study of the job the
Russian-American Company was doing in
Alaska. This study was one of the factors in
Russia’s decision to sell the territory to the
United States.
Today there are many people in Alaska whose
last name is Kashevarov. Alexander Filipovich
and his wife Serafima Alekseevna (daughter of
the priest at Sitka) had three children.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
17.
Native Scholars and
Religious Leaders
T
he Russian-American Company built schools
in several of the major company settlements.
Under arrangements with the church and provisions of the Royal Charter, the schools were run
by church officials. A child who went to school
learned the four R’s: religion, reading, ‘riting,
and ‘rithmetic.
Because of the church’s involvement in education, many of the most brilliant Natives and
Creoles became priests, while others volunteered
much of their time to the church. Following are
the stories of both priests and non-priests (called
lay-people) who were involved with the church
in Alaska.
Orthodox churches and chapels were built in
most outposts of the Russian-American
Company. The most important churches were
located in the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island,
Cook Inlet, Sitka, and at the Russian trading
posts along the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers.
IVAN PAN’KOV
1778 – about 1850
I
van Pan’kov was a 46-year old Aleut chief of
Tigalda Island when he began the part of his
life that changed Alaska’s history.
1824 was the year that Father John
Veniaminov (who later became St. Innocent) first
came to the Aleutians from Russia. He was the
Russian Orthodox priest for the eastern
Aleutians. It was his job to convert Aleuts to his
religion, serve those already converted, and
instruct the faithful about the religion.
When he arrived, Father Veniaminov was surprised to find a number of Aleuts who had
already learned to speak Russian. Ivan Pan’kov
was one of them. He had also become a member
of the Orthodox Church, and had learned to read
and write in Russian. We don’t know who
taught him or where he learned; perhaps as a boy
he had been taken hostage by a Russian fur trader. Perhaps the trader himself had taught Ivan or
had taken him back to Russia for schooling.
Although we don’t know how Ivan Pan’kov
became educated, we do know that it was
because of his help that the Aleut language was
first written down. He worked with Father
Veniaminov to develop an alphabet for the
sounds in the Unangan language.
This was an important event in history for
two reasons. First, it made Russian Orthodoxy
something that the Aleut people could understand. They felt comfortable with it, and
believed that the Orthodox priests cared about
them. It was probably one reason that so many
Aleuts converted so quickly.
The second reason is that the books that
Pan’kov and Veniaminov wrote were the first
writings that most Aleuts learned to read. From
the 1820s to the beginning of the 20th Century,
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Aleuts were educated in their own language as
well as in Russian. There were Aleut journals,
newsletters, letters, and poetry. Ivan Pan’kov
was one of the two men whose work made this
possible.
IAKOV NETSVETOV
1804 – 1864
I
akov Netsvetov was born and raised in the
Aleutian and Pribilof Islands and as a child
learned to speak both Unangas and Russian. As
a young man he was sent to Russia where he
trained to become a priest. In 1829, he finished
his training and returned to Atka where he
became the first Christian priest in the central
and western Aleutians. He was also the first
Alaskan Creole to become a Christian priest.
As the priest for the central and western
Aleutians, Iakov Netsvetov lived in Atka, where
he built a church. He traveled to all the islands
in his district, journeying as far as 700 miles
away to Bering Island in baidarkas and small
ships.
Netsvetov taught the school at Atka, planted
gardens, hunted from his baidarka, and translated
parts of the Bible into Unangas. We know about
him today because of the daily journals he kept
from 1829 to 1844.
Iakov Netsvetov’s duties did not end in Atka.
In 1845 he was sent by Veniaminov (who was by
then Bishop Innokentii and lived in
Novoarkhangelsk) to start a new mission.
Netsvetov was to go to Ikogmiut on the Yukon
(today called Russian Mission) and begin to convert the Yup’ik Eskimos in the area. Netsvetov
was chosen over other candidates for several reasons. First, he had done a good job at Atka.
Second, his wife had died and he had no family
to worry about. And third, he was a good hunter
and would be able to get his own food in case
the Russian-American Company could not send
any to him.
Netsvetov’s stay in Russian Mission lasted for
18 years. He had a number of worthy assistants
while he was there, one of whom was Konstantin
Lukin, son of Semeon and brother of Ivan.
Netsvetov learned to speak Yup’ik and he wrote
an alphabet for it. He translated parts of the
Bible into Yup’ik, thus publishing the first book
in that language. He wrote a journal during his
years on the Yukon, but for more than a hundred
years that journal was lost. Then, in the 1970s
some priests began to search the Orthodox
churches in Alaska for lost papers. In the bell
tower of the old church, they found Father
Netsvetov’s journal.
OTHER RELIGIOUS MEN
About 1825
All Russian Orthodox churches contain icons,
which are beautifully painted pictures of the
saints, Jesus, and Mary. When Father
Veniaminov built the church in Unalaska, he
found an Aleut artist to paint the icons. That
person was Vasilii Kriukov. His icons are still
in the church at Unalaska. He also painted portraits of people. Father Veniaminov said of
Kriukov, “It was enough for him to see a person
two or three times, and he would bring that person’s image alive on paper, covering the whole
gamut of facial expressions.”
1848
Innokenty Shaiashnikov, one of Netsvetov’s
students, was an ordained priest. He was sent to
Unalaska to be the first Native Orthodox priest at
that church. He served there for 35 years.
[continued]
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
19.
1840s-1860s
Lavrentii Salamatov from Attu was educated by
Iakov Netsvetov on Atka. He was ordained and
when Netsvetov left the Aleutians for the Yukon,
Salamatov became the parish priest for the Atka
District. He is also known as the most important
Atkan writer. He translated all of the gospels
into Atkan Aleut. He also wrote a beginning
reader in Unangas.
Peter Kashevarov, Kodiak, 1850s
Lavrentii Salamatov’s son, Moisei, became
the parish priest at Belkovskii and served there
for many years. His granddaughter Matriona
became a teacher and taught in three languages,
Unangan, Russian, and English.
Peter Kashevarov (son of Peter Kashevarov and
grandson of Filip Kashevarov), St. George,
1889-1918
There are many other Creole and Native
priests in Alaska. Some of them were:
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Zachary Bel’kov, Ikogmiut (Russian Mission)
after Netsvetov’s death
Innokenty Lestenkof, St. George (in the
Pribilofs), 1880s
John Orlov, Kuskokwim Mission
(Kolmakovskiy Redoubt), 1890s
Vasily Kashevarov and Nikolai Kashevarov,
(sons of Peter Kashevarov, grandsons of Filip
Kashevarov), Nushagak, early 1900s
Vasily Changsak, Russian Mission, 1923-1966
3. EARLY AMERICAN DAYS
IN 1867, THE UNITED STATES BOUGHT RUSSIA’S HOLDINGS IN ALASKA. The Russians
and Creoles living here were told they could either stay or move to Russia.
At first, life in Alaska didn’t change very much. There were no American governors or laws.
There were no American schools. There were not very many American people. American whalers
continued to hunt just off the Alaskan shore, but at first they did not settle there. Then starting in the
1880s, gold was found in many places in Alaska and Canada. Americans began to come to Alaska.
They began settling the areas that had been Native lands. Many of the Russian trading posts became
larger settled villages, the homes of the newcomers.
Alaska Natives’ lives changed quickly. The people described in the following section lived and
worked with non-Natives. They learned to adapt their traditional cultures to the new one that had
come to Alaska. They lived in a mixed economy that combined subsistence hunting and gathering
with cash purchases.
ERINIA PAVALOFF CHEROSKEY CALLAHAN
About 1863 – 1955
E
rinia Pavaloff was raised along the Yukon
River. Although her mother was an
Athabascan, Erinia was not raised in an
entirely traditional Native way. Nor was she
raised in a Russian culture. Instead, hers was the
beginning of the new culture that still persists in
the Interior. It is a mixture of living off the land,
respecting the Athabascan teachings about the
land, and using store-bought goods and depending on money to help meet most basic needs.
Erinia Pavaloff was born at Nulato in about
1863, four years before Alaska was sold to the
United States. Her mother was an Athabascan
woman named Malanka. Her father was Evan
Pavaloff (also spelled Ivan Pavlov). He was a
Creole from Sitka who was placed in charge of
the Nulato fort and trading post in 1865. He
knew and worked with Ivan Lukin, the explorer.
When the Nulato post was taken over by
Americans, Pavaloff continued to work there.
Erinia married a Creole name Cheroskey
Demoski when she was 16 years old. There is
now a river, Chiroskey River, near Unalakleet,
which was perhaps named after her husband or
his family.
Erinia was a woman of many skills. She was
confident in her ability to meet new situations,
and seems to have been nearly fearless. She told
of a time, shortly after her marriage, when she
single-handedly saved the lives of her father, sister, and another woman. The woman’s husband
had recently killed a Koyukon Athabascan man.
Her father-in-law, named Kosevnikoff, was at
that time the manager of the Nulato trading post.
One report of the incident indicates that he was a
cruel man who had killed several Natives in the
past. When Kosevnikoff’s son killed the
Koyukon man, Kosevnikoff sent him away from
Nulato. He knew that Indian law demanded that
a person had to give either property or his life
for killing someone. The relatives of the slain
man soon came to the post. It is unclear whether
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
21.
the murder of the elder Kosevnikoff was planned
or not. After his death, the attackers walked
toward the house where Erinia and the other
three were hiding.
Erinia went out to talk to the men and locked
the door behind her. She talked to them in the
Koyukon language for 12 hours, with their rifles
pointed at her all the while. In the end, she convinced the men to go away without harming her
family or herself. Later in her life, she said she
had “died three times that day” of fright.
Erinia’s life had always involved traveling up
and down the Yukon for trading purposes. When
she was still a young woman, gold was found in
the interior of Alaska, and her traveling
increased. Many new trading posts were opened
where food, ammunition, and supplies were sold
to prospectors. Erinia and her father, husband,
children, brothers, and their families traveled up
and down the Yukon, working at different trading
posts. Since they could all speak English,
Russian, and Koyukon, they were valuable as
interpreters for the traders and American explorers. They worked on a steamboat that traveled
from St. Michael to Eagle and Fortymile. They
built a trading post. They panned for gold, and
Erinia’s brother Manook discovered the first gold
near the village of Rampart. There are two
creeks named after him. Her husband and other
brother, Pitka, discovered gold near Circle.
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At the time, most of the prospectors in the
interior were non-Natives. Probably out of a
combination of greed for the Pavaloff brothers’
success and prejudice against Natives, one or
more of the other prospectors challenged their
right to mining claims. They reasoned that under
the Organic Act passed by the United States
Congress in 1884, Natives were not permitted to
hold claims. Manook took the case to court.
The court ruled that he and his family were citizens, since their father, a Russian citizen, had
been guaranteed citizenship in the United States
when Russia sold its colony. This court case
demonstrated that in the early 1900s the only
way a Native could claim citizenship was by
producing a Russian (or other European) ancestor.
Erinia’s friends were the people who worked
at the posts on the Yukon, especially the white
men who ran them, and their Athabascan wives.
Erinia knew the Mayos, the Harpers, and the
McQuestens. Many of today’s Athabascan leaders are descended from Erinia’s family and those
of other traders of the last part of the 19th
Century.
In her later years, Erinia (who had married a
prospector named Dan Callahan) lived in
Fairbanks and was known as “Grandma
Callahan.” She was proud of her Native heritage
and the exciting life she had led on the Yukon.
SINROCK MARY
1850s to 1940s
T
he story of Sinrock Mary (Mary
Antisarlook Andrewuk) unfolds in the
midst of one of the least successful government programs in Alaska’s history. In spite of
the problems of this program, Mary was a successful businesswoman.
The story started in 1890 when a ship captain,
M.A. Healy, visited St. Lawrence Island and
found the people there starving. He declared that
there was a crisis in northwestern Alaska, and
that all Eskimos there would starve unless help
was taken to them. Healy’s concern was real,
but he was wrong in believing there was a widespread starvation. Nonetheless, he and Dr.
Sheldon Jackson convinced the U.S. Government
that reindeer should be taken to Alaska as a food
source for the Eskimos.
Money was given to bring reindeer from
Siberia to Alaska, and the herds were given to
the various missions in northwestern Alaska.
Jackson had promised that the Eskimos would
benefit from the reindeer. Mary and Charlie
Antisarlook had been translating on board
Healy’s cutter Bear in 1890. Because they could
speak English and got along well with Jackson
and Healy, they were the first Eskimos to
become involved in the reindeer business.
Reindeer herding was a new skill to Charlie
and Mary. The Inupiat of Wales had hunted caribou for over a thousand years, and knew this animal well. Although reindeer are very closely
related to caribou, they have different behaviors.
They are not wild, but can be herded, unlike
caribou. Jackson’s idea was to train the Inupiat
to be reindeer herders.
For several years, the Antisarlooks worked for
one of the Christian missions that had been given
reindeer. They became impatient that they had
not been given their own deer, as promised.
Finally, in 1894 Jackson placed the first reindeer
in Native hands. He loaned 100 deer to the
Antisarlook family, Charlie and his brothers.
The family moved from Wales to Cape Nome in
1895 and began herding, with the understanding
that at the end of five years, they had to give the
100 deer back, but could keep any additional
reindeer they had raised.
The Antisarlook family had had its herd for
only two years when Jackson asked for the
return of his loan. They returned 120 deer
(rather and the 100 owed). Then, a year later, a
crisis in Barrow required them to give up more
reindeer. A few American whalers had been
stranded in the ice and had no food. Charlie was
begged to loan his reindeer back to the government so they could be driven to Barrow. At first
he declined. Mary explained that they would
surely starve without their deer. Charlie and
Mary were friends of the commander of the
expedition, Lt. David H. Jarvis. Because of their
friendship, and because of the promised interest
on his loan (Charlie and Mary would receive
from the government the same number of reindeer as the original loan, plus a number equaling
the newborns he would have had if he had been
allowed to keep them) they finally agreed.
Charlie was to drive the herd the 800 miles
north, expecting to be repaid six months later.
It was two years before Charlie Antisarlook
finally received his reindeer back, and in fact the
return of his deer was made only after all the
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
23.
missions had been repaid for the reindeer they
had loaned. A few months afterward, in 1900, he
died in a measles epidemic.
Mary continued the herding business with a
herd that now consisted of 272 reindeer. Her
herd eventually grew by several hundred.
Although she did not have any children of her
own, she adopted and raised ten. She also
trained many Inupiat men as herders. She was
known as “Queen Mary” and “Sinrock Mary”
24.
ALASK A STUDI ES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
(after the village name). She sold reindeer meat
to the Army station and stores at St. Michael’s
during the gold rush period, and because this was
a stopping place for miners leaving and entering
the Yukon River, she had a profitable business.
She continued to own reindeer until the 1940s.
She is still remembered for her business success.
But more than, she is remembered for her generosity and what was called her “big heart.”
ANGOKWAZHUK (“HAPPY JACK”)
About 1872 – 1918
A
ngokwazhuk was a hunter of 19 when he
had an accident that changed his life. He
was hunting on the ice pack off Little
Diomede Island. The ice had broken apart and
he drifted off to sea on one large chunk. His
hunting partner was killed, but Angokwazhuk
was able to live for a month alone on the ice.
Finally he drifted back to shore and dragged
himself home. His feet had frozen, and half of
each foot had to be amputated.
From then on Angokwazhuk could not hunt.
He could still make tools and carve ivory,
though, just as his Inupiat people had done for
over a thousand years.
This happened in the 1890s, at the time when
American whaling ships were frequent visitors to
northwest Alaska. Whenever a ship put in to
shore at an Eskimo village, the Inupiat would
come aboard to trade with sailors. In exchange
for ivory carvings, fish, furs, and baleen, the
Inupiat received iron pots, needles, tobacco, and
cloth.
In 1892, a whaling ship commanded by
Captain Harson Bodfish came to Little Diomede.
Bodfish heard that a very good carver was not
able to come aboard because of his injuries. The
captain went into the village, saw
Angokwazhuk’s work, and knew that the young
man had a genius for carving.
Bodfish offered Angokwazhuk a job on the
ship. At first, the young man declined. His duty
was to provide for his mother and sister. Bodfish
finally convinced him, as the story goes, by
offering him “everything under the sun if he
would go.”
Angokwazhuk traveled with Bodfish to San
Francisco, carving for the entire journey. He
was so talented that he could be given any picture or photograph and carve an exact likeness of
it. He invented a new Eskimo style of ivory
carving. From traditional pictures, which told a
story of hunt or dance, he changed the style to
pictures of a single person or object or detailed
scenes of life.
Angokwazhuk was called “Happy Jack” by
the sailors on the ship because of his unfailing
good humor. He was able to sell his carvings for
a good price. He made another voyage, and people began to know his name and value his work.
Then gold was found on the beaches on
Nome. Thousands of Americans came in hopes
of striking it rich. Happy Jack was able to settle
there and make a good living selling his work.
His fame spread. And beyond that, his house
became a center for other Eskimo carvers. He
taught them his new technique, was generous
with his tools, and his ideas. Although he could
not hunt any more, he was highly respected by
his people, for generosity is one of the highest
values of the Inupiat culture.
Angokwazhuk, or Happy Jack, was remembered for his excellent carvings, his help of others, and the fact that his ideas caught on with
other carvers and changed the style of Eskimo
carving forever. He died in 1918 in the influenza
epidemic that struck Nome.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
25.
DAVID PAUL
LOUIS SHOTRIDGE
1886 – 1974
1886 – 1937
D
L
avid Paul was born in the Tanacross area
around 1886. Because he was born
before any white people came to that
area, there are no written records of his birth.
He remembered the first white men who came
through in 1898, and he was already hunting at
that time.
David became a good trapper and hunter, living in the traditional ways of his Athabascan
people. Then, in 1912, his life began to change.
That was the year the first Episcopalian missionaries came to Tanacross.
David learned to speak English from the missionaries and a trader in the area. He taught
himself to read and write by looking at the labels
on canned goods and flour sacks. The trader told
him what each word said, and David figured out
which letters made which sounds.
Because David was the only one of his band
who spoke English, he began helping the preacher at Sunday services. The preacher would speak
in English, and David would translate it into his
own language for the other people.
In 1917, David Paul became a lay reader in
the church. In 1957, he was ordained Deacon of
the Tanacross church.
He died in 1974, and his children estimated
that he was almost 100 years old at the time.
26.
ALASK A STUDI ES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
ouis Shotridge was a Tlingit of the
Kaagwaantaan clan, born in Klukwan in
1886. He was the grandson of the leader
of his clan. He was intelligent, good looking,
friendly, and ambitious, as a good Tlingit man
should be. But his life was both fortunate and
tragic. He was the victim of the collision of two
cultures.
Shotridge first learned of American museums
and their desire to collect Native art when he
was 19. He sold some objects to a man from the
University Museum, Philadelphia, and was eventually hired by the Museum. His job was to buy
Tlingit clan objects and send them to the museum. He was also sent on tours throughout the
United States. He dressed in traditional Tlingit
ceremonial clothes and gave talks to schoolchildren. He hunted with Theodore Roosevelt. He
became an anthropology student, studying under
the great American anthropologist Franz Boas.
He worked with the famous linguist Edward
Sapir on his language.
So far his sounds like a success story. The
only problem was that in buying clan treasures,
he was coming very close to breaking the first
law of Tlingit society.
All clan objects, such as totem poles, rattles,
hats, blankets, and house screens are not owned
by one person but by the whole clan. Shotridge,
of course, knew this, yet he also knew that his
people were going through a difficult time. For
the most part, they were poor in cash and uneducated in the Western world, did not have the
rights of citizenship, and did not have control
over their own lives any more. They needed the
money he offered for the objects. Individuals,
rather than the whole clan, benefited from some
of the sales. So people sold to him, but they
resented him. He was taking away treasures,
their links to an honorable past that they had
hoped to regain. At the same time that they
resented Shotridge, however, he resented them.
He was angry at what he saw as the weakness of
some of his people. He seemed to wish that
someone would be strong enough to stand up to
him; to prevent him from taking treasures away.
The fact that no one did so convinced him that
the people did not deserve their treasures any
more.
Once the objects were at the museum in
Philadelphia, Shotridge, who had moved there,
wrote detailed notes about each one. More than
the anthropologists of the day, he understood
about clans and their crest designs that appeared
on the clan objects. He also knew the subsistence techniques and the ceremonies in which
each of the objects was used. Because of his
knowledge, people today also know these things.
Although Louis Shotridge took many of the
treasured objects from the people, he gave the
cultural knowledge they represented back to later
generations who would read his studies and learn
about the old ways from him.
Shotridge did not give up his culture completely. At one time a bullet narrowly missed
him as he tried to take a beautiful house screen
from a clan house. In response Shotridge did the
appropriate thing: He sponsored a potlatch,
which, because people accepted the invitation,
signaled his reacceptance into the community.
Perhaps Shotridge’s life would not have been
so tragic if the Depression had not happened.
The museum in Pennsylvania, short on money,
had to let him go. Without work, he returned to
Southeast Alaska to try to make a living. At
first, he seems to have been accepted. In 1930,
he was elected Grand President of the Alaska
Native Brotherhood. At that time, the ANB was
dedicated to educating Tlingit children so they
could be successful in the larger society.
However, many Tlingit people resented or
even hated Shotridge. He got a job as a guard
for a salmon cannery. Again, he was working
for whites, in some cases preventing Tlingits
from fishing in their traditional ways. Still, he
had to have a job. He had five children and a
sick wife, all of whom needed food and shelter.
Louis Shotridge’s death is still something of a
mystery. It was called an accident, but there is evidence that he was killed, his neck broken. No one
but his immediate family openly mourned him.
His death occurred in 1937, and people still
remember him, and have strong feelings about
him. Perhaps at a different time, in a different
culture, he would have been revered as one of
the great intellectuals and scholars of his day.
SERUM RACE
A diphtheria epidemic struck Nome in
January 1925. There was no medicine in
the town; in fact, the closest medicine was
in Anchorage. A cylinder of serum was put
on a train to Nenana. From there to Nome,
it was carried by dog sled. Of the 20 mushers, 11 were Natives. They were:
Johnny Folger
Sam Joseph
Titus Nikoli
Harry Pitka
Bill McCarty
Charlie Evans
Tommy Patsy
Jackscrew
Victor Anagick
Myles Gonangnan
Henry Ivanoff
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
27.
ALBERT TRITT
A
lbert Tritt was a Gwich’in Athabascan from
Arctic Village, born in about 1880. He had
been a shaman until the 1910s, when, as an
adult, he converted to Christianity. From then on
he gave up his practice of shamanism and directed his energies in a new direction.
Shortly before his conversion, Tritt had
become convinced that there were two reasons
the whites were able to dominate the Natives:
Their religion and literacy, or ability to read and
write. He decided to help his people achieve
both of those things. After his conversion, Tritt
studied at the mission in Fort Yukon and learned
to read Gwich’in. He then taught himself to
speak and read English by comparing his
Gwich’in Bible with an English version.
Because of this brilliant but unusual way of
learning another language, Albert Tritt’s English
sounded as though it came directly from the
Bible. An example was recorded by a visiting
anthropologist, who heard him say, “I must now
pick up my burthen and go into the wilderness.”
Next Tritt worked at converting some of his
people. He also urged them to return to the old
subsistence ways, which he felt were purer and
more successful than the mixed economy they
practiced at the time. He convinced the
Chandalar Gwich’in people to build a church and
a traditional caribou corral. In the 1930s he
taught children to read and write in Gwich’in.
He also served as lay reader in the Episcopal
chapel at Arctic Village. He is remembered as a
remarkable man, with an exciting and energetic
personality and a fiery determination to lead his
people in what he saw as the right direction.
JOHN FREDSON
1896 – 1945
L
ike Louis Shotridge, John Fredson was an
Alaska Native who embraced the white culture, and spent many years in the Lower 48.
Unlike Shotridge, Fredson worked for his people
and is revered as someone who used his learning
to their benefit.
Fredson was born at a hunting camp in
October 1896, and his mother died a few days
later. For ten years, the boy lived in the
Gwich’in area of Alaska, north of Fort Yukon.
His father took the children with him on his subsistence rounds in the sparsely populated
Chandalar and Porcupine River areas.
When Fredson was 9 or 10, he began living in
the Episcopal mission house in Fort Yukon. He
seems to have been loved and well cared for by
the mission housemothers. Fredson continued to
hunt with his father off and on, but spent much
of his time learning English, reading, writing,
and the Episcopal religion. He was considered
the smartest of the boys in the mission school.
Fredson was sent to high school in Nenana,
where he continued to be an excellent student.
He also went on a number of expeditions with
Archdeacon Hudson Stuck. The most famous
took place in 1913, when Fredson went with
Stuck to climb McKinley. The boy was considered too young to make it all the way to the top
of the mountain, but he was given the job of dog
handler and support crew for the climbers.
Stuck’s climb marked the first ascent of the
South Peak of Mt. McKinley, which is the highest peak in North America.
Throughout his early adult years, Fredson had
many exciting experiences, among them working
with the linguist Edward Sapir (with whom
28.
ALASK A STUDI ES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
Louis Shotridge also worked). The most important event in his young life, though, was graduating from the University of the South in 1930.
He was the first Alaskan Athabascan to graduate
from a four-year college.
ture of Venetie. This made it possible for him to
set up a business that worked in both the white
and Native systems. The Venetie Trading
Company increased its money tenfold in two
years.
Unfortunately, the Depression, which had
ended Shotridge’s employment for the University
of Pennsylvania Museum, also made it hard for
John Fredson to get a job that used his education.
From 1930 until 1937 he worked as a clerk at the
Northern Commercial store in Fort Yukon. Off
and on he worked as a guide for anthropologists
and for his missionary friends into the Chandalar
Gwich’in region north of Fort Yukon.
Probably the biggest contribution Fredson
made to his people was possible because he
understood legal documents. He waded through
all the paperwork necessary to set up a reservation that included Venetie, Arctic Village, and 1.8
million acres around the two settlements. He
taught all the adults to write their names. He
surveyed the land. And through this work, he
ensured that the Gwich’in language survived.
The Venetie Indian Reservation became a refuge
from the encroaching white culture, which had
taken over much of the rest of Athabascan territory.
In 1937, he finally got a job teaching. He was
the first teacher in the Gwich’in village in
Venetie. He taught there until his death in 1945
and at the same time served his people in other
ways. He set up the Venetie Trading Company
which allowed the Athabascan trappers to sell
their furs directly to Seattle, rather than going
through a middleman who would take some of
the profit. Fredson had been brought up in the
trapping and trading economy, and knew the cul-
John Fredson died in 1945 of pneumonia, but
his children continued his leadership. His son,
William, was elected chief of the Gwich’in village of Chalkyitsik. His daughter, Lu, married
Alaska’s US Representative, Don Young.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
29.
SOURCES
Igadik:
Torrey, Barbara Boyle, Slaves of the Harvest and Johnson, Susan Hackley, The
Pribilof Islands.
Chuning: Lokanin, Mike, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume
49, Part 3, 1959.
Kasteen:
Hoonah History, published by Hoonah High School, 1973; Nora Dauenhauer,
personal communication.
Masu and her Adopted Son Nulthkutuk: Brown, Emily Ivanoff, Grandfather of
Unalakleet.
K’alyáan (Katlian): 1970 recording by Kiks.aki elder David Howard; Bancroft, History of
Alaska; DeLaguna, Under Mount St. Elias; Khlebnikov, Kyrill, Colonial Russian
America 1817-1832; and Baranov, Chief Manager of the Russian Colonies in
America.
Creoles:
Michael, Henry N. (ed.), Lt. Zagoskin’s Travels in Russian America; Fedorova,
Svetlana, The Population of Russian America 1799-1867.
Native Explorers: Michael, Henry N. (ed.), Lt. Zagoskin’s Travels in Russian America;
Smith, Barbara S., Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska; Loyens, The Changing Culture
of the Nulato Koyukon Indians; Black, Lydia T., “Ivan Pan’kov; An Architect of
Aleut Literacy”; Gordon, James P., Imperial Russia in Frontier America; Oswalt,
Wendell, Kolmakovskiy Redoubt; Tikhmenev, P.A., A History of the Russian
American Company; Sherwood, Morgan P. (ed.), Alaska and Its History; Van
Stone, James W., Ingalik Contact Ecology: An Ethnohistory of the Lower
Middle Yukon 1790-1935; Lydia, Black, personal communication.
Semeon and Ivan Semeonovich Lukin: Loyens, The Changing Culture of the Nulato
Koyukon Indians; Michael, Henry N., (ed.), Lt. Zagoskin’s Travels in Russian
America; Sherwood, Morgan B., Exploration of Alaska; Adams, George R., Life
on the Yukon 1865-1867; Oswalt, Wendell, Kolmakovskiy Redoubt; Raymond,
Charles W., “Reconnaissance of the Yukon River, 1869” in Compilation of
Narratives of Explorations in Alaska; and Lydia Black, personal communication.
Alexander Filipovich Kashevarov: Oleksa, Rev. Michael, and Dr. Richard Dauenhauer,
Sample Unit on Alexander Kashevarov; Michael, Henry N. (ed.), Lt. Zagoskin’s
Travels in Russian America 1842-1844; and Lydia Black, personal communication.
Ivan Pan’vok: Lydia Black, “Ivan Pan’kov: An Architect of Aleut Literacy” in Orthodox
Alaska, Vol. VII, #4, October, 1978.
30.
ALASK A STUDI ES
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UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
Iakov Netsvetov: Smith, Barbara S., “Cathedral on the Yukon” in Alaska Journal, Volume 12,
Number 2, Spring 1982; Smith Barbara S., Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska; and Black,
Lydia T., The Journals of Iakov Netsvetov: The Atkha Years, 1828-1844.
Other Religious Men: Smith, Barbara S., Russian Orthodoxy in Alaska; Dauenhauer, John
Richard, “The Spiritual Epiphany of the Aleut” and Oleksa, Rev. Michael, “The
Orthodox Mission and Native Alaska Languages, a Brief Overview” in Orthodox Alaska,
Vol. VIII, No. 1; Black, Lydia, “The Curious Case of the Unalaska Icons” and Smith,
Barbara S., “Cathedral on the Yukon” in Alaska Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2; Office of
History and Archaeology, The Church in Alaska’s Past.
Erinia Pavaloff Cheroskey Callahan: “A Yukon Autobiography” in Alaska Journal, Vol. 5, No.
2; Schwatka, Fredrick, Report of a Military Reconnaissance in Alaska Made in 1883;
Patricia Oakes, personal communication.
Sinrock Mary: Olson, Dean F., Alaska Reindeer Herdsmen; Jackson, Sheldon, Annual Reports on
Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska; Ray, Dorothy Jean, “The Making of a
Legend: Charlie and Mary Antisarlook’s Reindeer Herd” in Ethnohistory in the Arctic:
The Bering Strait Eskimo; and recorded interview with Simon Bekoalak.
Angokwazhuk (“Happy Jack”): Ray, Dorothy Jean, Artists of the Tundra and the Sea.
David Paul: Gaither Paul, personal communication.
Louis Shotridge: Holm, Bill and Bill Reid, Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on
Craftsmanship and Aesthetics; The Verstovian (Sheldon Jackson School) December
1930; and Carpenter, Edmund, “Collectors and Collections”, in Natural History, Vol.
LXXXV, No. 3, March 1976.
Serum Race: Ungermann, Kenneth A., The Race to Nome; Patricia Oakes, personal communication.
Albert Tritt: McKennan, Robert A., The Chandalar Kutchin.
John Fredson: Mishler, Craig, “Biographical Sketch” in John Fredson Edward Sapir Haa
Googwandak; McKennan, Robert A., The Chandalar Kutchin.
Author’s note 2004:
For additional information on some of the individuals whose stories are told here, refer
to Pierce, Richard A., Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary, 1990.
A L A S K A S T U D I E S • UNIT 3, Natives in Alaska’s History
31.