We once discussed with you such an interesting question for a long time, about HOW RUSSIA SELL ALASKA, and now let's get acquainted with the material, how it all began …
The development of the lands of Alaska by Russian colonists began at the end of the 18th century. Moving south along the mainland coast of Alaska in search of richer fishing grounds, the Russian parties of sea animal hunters gradually approached the territory inhabited by the Tlingit, one of the most powerful and formidable tribes of the Northwest coast. The Russians called them Koloshi (Koluzhi). This name comes from the custom of Tlingit women to insert a wooden strip - a kaluzhka - into the incision on the lower lip, which makes the lip stretch and sag. "Angrier than the most predatory beasts", "murderous and wicked people", "bloodthirsty barbarians" - in these expressions Russian pioneers spoke of the Tlingits.
And they had their own reasons for that.
By the end of the XVIII century. The Tlingits occupied the coast of southeastern Alaska from Portland Canal Bay in the south to Yakutat Bay in the north, as well as the adjacent islands of the Alexander Archipelago.
The Tlingit country was divided into territorial subdivisions - kuans (Sitka, Yakutat, Huna, Khutsnuvu, Akoy, Stikin, Chilkat, etc.). Each of them could have several large winter villages, where representatives of various clans (clans, Sibs) lived, belonging to the two large phratries of the tribe - the Wolf / Eagle and the Raven. These clans - Kiksadi, Kagwantan, Deshitan, Tluknahadi, Tekuedi, Nanyayi, etc. - were often at odds with each other. It was tribal, clan ties that were the most significant and strong in Tlingit society.
The first clashes between the Russians and the Tlingits date back to 1741; later, there were also small clashes with the use of weapons.
In 1792, an armed conflict occurred on the island of Khinchinbrook with an uncertain result: the head of the Industrialist Party and the future ruler of Alaska, Alexander Baranov, almost died, the Indians retreated, but the Russians did not dare to gain a foothold on the island and also sailed to Kodiak Island. The Tlingit warriors wore braided wooden kuyaks, elk cloaks, and bestial helmets (apparently from animal skulls). The Indians were armed mainly with cold and throwing weapons.
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If during the attack on A. A. Baranov's party in 1792 the Tlingits had not yet used firearms, then already in 1794 they had a lot of guns, as well as decent stocks of ammunition and gunpowder.
Peace Treaty with Sitka Indians
Russians in 1795 appear on the island of Sitka, which was owned by the Kiksadi Tlingit clan. Closer contacts began in 1798.
After several small skirmishes with small detachments of the Kiksadi, led by the young military leader Catlean, Alexander Andreevich Baranov concludes an agreement with the leader of the Kiksadi tribe, Scoutlelt, to acquire land for the construction of a trading post.
Scoutlelt was baptized, and his name became Michael. Baranov was his father. Scoutlelt and Baranov agreed to cede part of the land on the coast to the Russians and to build a small trading post at the mouth of the Starrigavan River.
The alliance between the Russians and the Kiksadi was beneficial to both sides. The Russians patronized the Indians and helped them defend themselves against other warring tribes.
On July 15, 1799, the Russians began construction of the fort "St. Archangel Michael", now this place is called Old Sitka.
Meanwhile, the Kixadi and Deshitan tribes concluded a truce - the enmity between the Indian clans ceased.
The danger to the Kiksadi is gone. Too close ties with the Russians are now becoming overly burdensome. Both the Kiksadi and the Russians felt this very soon.
Tlingits from other clans, who visited Sitka after the end of hostilities there, mocked its inhabitants and "boasted of their freedom." The largest disagreement occurred on Easter, however, thanks to the decisive actions of A. A. Baranov, bloodshed was avoided. However, on April 22, 1800 A. A. Baranov left for Kodiak, leaving in the new fortress V. G. Medvednikov.
Despite the fact that the Tlingits had a rich experience of communicating with Europeans, relations between Russian settlers and aborigines became more and more aggravated, which ultimately led to a protracted bloody war. However, such a result was by no means just an absurd accident or a consequence of the intrigues of treacherous foreigners, just as these events were not generated by the only natural bloodthirstiness of the "ferocious ears". The Tlingit Quans brought other, deeper reasons to the warpath.
Preconditions for the war
Russian and Anglo-American traders had one goal in these waters, one main source of profit - furs, sea otters. But the means to this end were different. The Russians themselves mined precious furs, sending parties of Aleuts after them and establishing permanent fortified settlements in the fishing areas. The purchase of skins from the Indians played a secondary role.
Due to the specifics of their position, the British and American (Boston) merchants acted exactly the opposite. They periodically came on their ships to the shores of the Tlingit country, conducted an active trade, bought furs and left, leaving the Indians in exchange for cloth, weapons, ammunition, and alcohol.
The Russian-American company could not offer the Tlingits practically any of these goods so valued by them. The current Russian ban on the sale of firearms pushed the Tlingits to even closer ties with the Bostonians. For this ever-increasing trade, the Indians needed more and more furs. However, the Russians by their activities prevented the Tlingits from trading with the Anglo-Saxons.
The active fishing of sea otters, which was conducted by the Russian parties, was the reason for the impoverishment of the natural resources of the region, depriving the Indians of their main commodity in relations with the Anglo-Americans. All this could not but affect the attitude of the Indians to the Russian colonists. The Anglo-Saxons actively fueled their hostility.
Annually about fifteen foreign ships exported 10-15 thousand sea otters from the possessions of the RAC, which was equal to four years of Russian fishing. The strengthening of the Russian presence threatened them with deprivation of profits.
Thus, the predatory fishing for sea animals, which was launched by the Russian-American company, undermined the basis of the economic well-being of the Tlingits, depriving them of their main commodity in profitable trade with Anglo-American sea traders, whose inflammatory actions served as a kind of catalyst that accelerated the outbreak of an imminent military conflict. The rash and rude actions of the Russian industrialists served as the impetus for the unification of the Tlingits in the struggle to expel the RAC from their territories.
In the winter of 1802, a great council of leaders was held in Khutsnuvu-kuan (Admiralty Island), at which a decision was made to start a war against the Russians. A plan of military action was developed at the council. It was planned with the onset of spring to gather the soldiers in Khutsnuva and, after waiting for the fishing party to leave Sitka, attack the fort. The party was to be trapped in the Lost Strait.
Military operations began in May 1802 with an attack at the mouth of the Alsek river on the Yakutat fishing party of I. A. Kuskov. The party consisted of 900 native hunters and more than a dozen Russian industrial hunters. The attack by the Indians after several days of skirmish was successfully repelled. The Tlingits, seeing the complete failure of their warlike plans, went to negotiations and concluded a truce.
The Tlingit uprising - the destruction of the Mikhailovsky Fort and the Russian fishing parties
After Ivan Urbanov's fishing party (about 190 Aleuts) left the Mikhailovsky Fort, 26 Russians, six "Englishmen" (American sailors in the service of the Russians), 20-30 Kodiaks and about 50 women and children remained on Sitka. A small artel led by Alexei Yevlevsky and Alexei Baturin set off on June 10 to hunt to the “distant Siuchiy stone”. The rest of the inhabitants of the settlement continued to carelessly go about their daily activities.
The Indians attacked simultaneously from two sides - from the forest and from the side of the bay, having sailed on battle canoes. This campaign was led by the Kiksadi war chief, Scoutlelt's nephew, the young chieftain, Kathlian. An armed crowd of Tlingit, numbering about 600, under the command of the Sitkin chieftain Scoutlelt, surrounded the barracks and opened heavy rifle fire at the windows. At Scoutlelt's call, a huge flotilla of battle canoes, carrying no less than 1,000 Indian warriors, immediately joined the Sitkins from across the headland of the bay. Soon the roof of the barracks was on fire. The Russians tried to shoot back, but could not resist the overwhelming superiority of the attackers: the doors of the barracks were kicked out and, despite the direct fire of the cannon inside, the Tlingits managed to get inside, kill all the defenders and loot the furs stored in the barracks
There are various versions of the participation of the Anglo-Saxons in unleashing the war.
East India captain Barber landed six sailors on Sitka Island in 1802, allegedly for a riot on a ship. They were hired to work in a Russian city.
Having bribed the Indian chiefs with weapons, rum and trinkets, during a long winter stay in the Tlingit villages, promising them gifts if they drive the Russians from their island and threatening not to sell guns and whiskey, Barber played on the ambition of the young military leader Catlean. The gates of the fort were opened from the inside by American sailors. So, naturally, without warning or explanation, the Indians attacked the fortress. All the defenders, including women and children, were killed.
According to another version, the real instigator of the Indians should be considered not the Englishman Barber, but the American Cunningham. He, unlike Barber and the sailors, ended up on Sitka for a reason. There is a version that he was initiated into the plans of the Tlingits, or even participated directly in their development.
The fact that foreigners will be declared the culprits of the Sitka disaster was predetermined from the very beginning. But the reasons that the Englishman Barber was then recognized as the main culprit are probably in the uncertainty in which Russian foreign policy was in those years.
The fortress was completely destroyed, and the entire population was exterminated. They still do not build anything there. The losses for Russian America were significant, for two years Baranov gathered forces in order to return to Sitka.
English captain Barber brought the news of the defeat of the fortress to Baranov. At Kodiak Island, he fielded 20 cannons from his ship, the Unicorn. But, afraid to get involved with Baranov, he went to the Sandwich Islands - to trade with the Hawaiians the goods stolen from Sitka.
A day later, the Indians destroyed almost entirely the small party of Vasily Kochesov, who was returning to the fortress from the sea lion fishing.
The Tlingits had a special hatred for Vasily Kochesov, a famous hunter, known among the Indians and Russians as an unsurpassed marksman. The Tlingits called him Gidak, which probably comes from the Tlingit name of the Aleuts, whose blood flowed in the veins of Kochesov - giyak-kwaan (the hunter's mother was from the Fox Ridge Islands). Having finally got the hated archer into their own hands, the Indians tried to make his death, like the death of his comrade, as painful as possible. According to KT Khlebnikov, “the barbarians, not all of a sudden, but at the same time, cut off their nose, ears and other members of their body, stuffed their mouths with them, and angrily mocked the torment of the sufferers. Kochesov … could not endure pain for a long time and was happy with the cessation of life, but the unfortunate Yeglevsky languished for more than a day in the most terrible torments"
In the same 1802: The Sitka fishing party of Ivan Urbanov (90 kayaks) in the Frederick Strait was hunted down by the Indians and attacked on the night of June 19-20. Hiding in ambushes, the warriors of Kuan Keik-Kuyu did not betray their presence in any way and, as KT Khlebnikov wrote, “the leaders of the party did not notice any trouble or cause for displeasure … But this silence and silence were the harbingers of a cruel thunderstorm”. The Indians attacked the partisans at the lodging and "almost completely destroyed them with bullets and daggers." The massacre killed 165 Kodiak people and this was no less a heavy blow to Russian colonization than the destruction of the Mikhailovskaya fortress.
Return of Russians to Sitka
Then came 1804 - the year of the return of the Russians to Sitka. Baranov learned that the first Russian round-the-world expedition set out from Kronstadt, and was impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Neva in Russian America, at the same time building a whole flotilla of ships.
In the summer of 1804, the ruler of the Russian possessions in America A. A. Baranov went to the island with 150 industrialists and 500 Aleuts in his kayaks and with the ships "Ermak", "Alexander", "Ekaterina" and "Rostislav".
A. A. Baranov ordered the Russian ships to position themselves in front of the village. For a whole month he negotiated with the leaders about the extradition of several prisoners and the renewal of the treaty, but all was unsuccessful. The Indians moved from their old village to a new settlement at the mouth of the Indian River.
Military action began. At the beginning of October Baranov's flotilla was joined by the Neva brig, commanded by Lisyansky.
After stubborn and prolonged resistance from the ears, the envoys appeared. After negotiations, the entire tribe left.
On October 8, 1804, the Russian flag was raised over the Indian settlement.
Novoarkhangelsk - the capital of Russian America
Baranov occupied the deserted village and destroyed it. A new fortress was laid here - the future capital of Russian America - Novo-Arkhangelsk. On the shore of the bay, where the old Indian village stood, on a hill, a fortification was built, and then the house of the Ruler, which the Indians called it - Baranov Castle.
Only in the fall of 1805, an agreement was again concluded between Baranov and Scoutlelt. The gifts were a bronze two-headed eagle, a Peace Hat made by the Russians on the pattern of Tlingit ceremonial hats, and a blue robe with ermine. But for a long time the Russians and Aleuts were afraid to go deep into the impenetrable rain forests of Sitka, it could cost them their lives.
Novoarkhangelsk (most likely the beginning of the 1830s)
Novoarkhangelsk from August 1808 became the main city of the Russian-American Company and the administrative center of Russian possessions in Alaska and remained so until 1867, when Alaska was sold to the United States.
In Novoarkhangelsk there was a wooden fortress, a shipyard, warehouses, barracks, and residential buildings. There were 222 Russians and over 1,000 natives living here.
The fall of the Russian fort Yakutat
On August 20, 1805, the Eyaki warriors of the Tlahaik-Tekuedi (Tluhedi) clan, led by Tanukh and Lushvak, and their allies from the Tlingit clan of the Kuashkkuan burned Yakutat and killed the Russians who remained there. Of the entire population of the Russian colony in Yakutat, in 1805, according to official data, 14 Russians died "and there are still many islanders with them," that is, the allied Aleuts. The main part of the party, together with Demyanenkov, was sunk into the sea by the oncoming storm. Then about 250 people died. The fall of Yakutat and the death of Demyanenkov's party were another heavy blow to the Russian colonies. An important economic and strategic base on the American coast was lost.
Thus, the armed actions of the Tlingits and Ejacs in 1802-1805. significantly weakened the potential of the RAC. Direct financial damage apparently reached at least half a million rubles. All this stopped the advance of the Russians in a southerly direction along the northwestern coast of America for several years. The Indian threat further fettered the forces of the RAC in the area of arch. Alexandra did not allow the systematic colonization of Southeast Alaska to begin.
Relapses of confrontation
So, on February 4, 1851, an Indian military detachment from the river. Koyukuk attacked the village of Indians who lived at the Russian loner (trading post) Nulato in the Yukon. The loner herself was attacked. However, the attackers were repulsed with damage. The Russians also had losses: the head of the trading post Vasily Deryabin was killed and an employee of the company (Aleut) and British lieutenant Bernard, who arrived in Nulato from the British warship Enterprise to search for the missing members of Franklin's third polar expedition, were mortally wounded. In the same winter, the Tlingits (Sitka ears) arranged several quarrels and fights with the Russians in the market and in the forest near Novoarkhangelsk. In response to these provocations, the main ruler, N. Ya. Rosenberg, announced to the Indians that in the event of continued unrest, he would order the “Koloshensky market” to be closed altogether and would interrupt all trade with them. The reaction of the Sitkins to this ultimatum was unprecedented: in the morning of the next day, they attempted to seize Novoarkhangelsk. Some of them, armed with rifles, settled in the bushes near the fortress wall; the other, placing the ladders prepared in advance to a wooden tower with cannons, the so-called "Koloshenskaya battery", almost took possession of it. Fortunately for the Russians, the sentries were on guard and raised the alarm in time. An armed detachment that came to the rescue threw down three Indians who had already climbed onto the battery, and stopped the rest. Fortunately for the Russians, the sentries were on guard and raised the alarm in time. An armed detachment who came to the rescue threw down three Indians who had already climbed onto the battery, and stopped the rest. Fortunately for the Russians, the sentries were on guard and raised the alarm in time. An armed detachment that came to the rescue threw down three Indians who had already climbed onto the battery, and stopped the rest.
In November 1855, another incident occurred when several natives took over the Andreevskaya alone in the lower Yukon. At this time, its manager, a Kharkov bourgeoisie Alexander Shcherbakov, and two Finnish workers who served in the RAC were here. As a result of the surprise attack, the kayaker Shcherbakov and one worker were killed, and the loner was plundered. The surviving RAC employee Lavrenty Keryanin managed to escape and safely reach the Mikhailovsky redoubt. A punitive expedition was immediately equipped, which tracked down the natives hiding in the tundra, who ruined Andreevskaya alone. They sat in a barabor (Eskimo semi-dugout) and refused to surrender. The Russians were forced to open fire. As a result of the firefight, five natives were killed, and one managed to escape.