Russian traders and trappers forever altered the Aleut way of life. In 1741, Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in the service of Russia’s czar, Peter the Great, sailed from eastern Russia to the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska. Bering’s reports of plentiful sea mammals in the region soon brought the sailing ships of the promyshlenniki (Russian for “fur traders”). They had previously worked their way across Siberia, trapping animals for their pelts. Now they had a whole new domain to exploit. They came first to the Aleutians, which were especially rich in sea otters. And they took advantage of the Aleut to make their fortunes in fur.
The traders would sail to a Native village; take hostages by force; pass out traps to the Aleut men; then demand furs in exchange for the release of the women and children. The women and children also were forced to work, cleaning the furs the men gathered. If the men made any effort to rebel or failed to deliver furs, the traders might execute individuals or destroy entire villages.
The promyshlenniki worked eastward along the Aleutian chain. The first organized resistance came from the Unalaska Aleut on the Fox group of islands, when, in 1761, they wiped out a party of traders. The next year, they managed to destroy a fleet of five ships. The Russians responded in 1766 with an armada of warships, manned by European mercenaries and armed with cannon. They bombarded many of the Aleut villages, destroying houses and killing many.
Aleut resistance was only sporadic after that. The promyshlenniki established their first permanent post in North America at Three Saints on Kodiak Island in 1784.
Russian officials and businessmen began regulating and restricting the behavior of the traders more and more, leading to somewhat better treatment. Supposedly the Aleut and Inuit were to be paid for their work. But the traders consistently cheated them by charging them fees for food, protection, and other inflated or made-up expenses. In 1799, the czar granted the charter of the Russian American Company, creating a monopoly that competed in the 1800s with the British-run Hudson’s Bay Company for the world fur market.
Those Aleut who had survived the violence of the past years and the diseases carried to them by Europeans were essential to this huge fur operation. They were, after all, some of the best sea-mammal hunters in the world. Another people, the TLINGIT, would take up the mantle of resistance against the Russians.
Russian missionaries would further change the culture of the Aleut. In 1824, the Russian Orthodox priest Veni-aminoff began his work among them. The Aleut came to trust him and converted to his religion because he fought for their rights.
In 1867, Russia sold the territory of Alaska to the United States, and the Native peoples came under American control.
World History
