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Period: to
1700's
Pre-contact Aleut population estimated at 20,000.
The Aleuts were adept hunters, perfectly adapted to the climate they lived in. The Aleut people lived in these regions for thousands of years.
When the Russians came to the Aleutian Islands these hunting skills became a disadvantage because the Russians took them as slaves and held their families hostage. Aluet hunters were forced to hunt for seals and sea otters to fuel the fur trade. Armed Russian guards were sent with the Aleut hunters. -
Vitus Bering sights St.Lawrence Island
Employed by Russia the Danish explorer Vitus Bering sighted St. Lawrence Island and one of the Diomede Islands. -
Vitus Bering
5 months after going ashore at Mt. Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland Vitus Bering passes away and is buried on an island near the Kamchatka Peninsula. This island was later geiven the name Bering Island in honor of Vitus Bearing. -
Petr Bashmakov
Navigator Peter Bashmakov and his crew were attacked after getting shipwrecked while exploring Alaskan waters. -
Aleuts Fight Back
Massacre of Russian by the Aleuts. Aleuts killed more than 300 Russians and four merchant ships.
As a reprisal the Aleut villages on Umnak, Samalga, and the Islands of Four Mountains were destroyed and all of the villagers were killed. -
James Cook Comes to Alaska
James Cook sailed from Nootka Sound and mapped the coast all the way to the Bering Strait. He "discovered" the Artic Ocean before heading back to Hawaii. -
Three Saints Bay
Gregorii Shelikhov established a trading post at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak. He took hostages and used them as slaves to hunt sea otters, build buildings, and gather food. -
Saint George Island
Gerasim Pribilof a Russian navigator "discovers" Saint George Island. -
Amiq
Gavrill Pribylov "discovered" the island on St. Peter and St. Paul's Day and named the Island after Saint Paul.
The Aleut peoples had obviously known about the islands before western discoverors. Amiq meaning "land of mother's brother" or "related land" was the name given this island by the Aleuts. -
Enslavement of Aleuts
After the discovery of the fur seals on the Pribilof islands and the shortage of "trinkets" to trade to the Aleuts the Russians force the Aleuts to hunt seals for them and eventually forcably move the Aleuts to the Pribilof islands. -
Bilingual School
A bilingual school (Russian and Aleut) was established on Kodiak Island. Father Herman founded the school and the Kodiak mission. -
Human Rights
Orthodox Hieromonk Makarii leaves Unalaska with six Aleuts heading to St. Petersburg to protest Russian treatment of the native alaskans by the Russian-America Company. Four of the Aleuts die on the way and the Tsar meets with the group. There is not any change that comes from the meeting and the remaining three men die on their return trip to Unalaska. -
Baptizism
The monk Macarius baptizes 2,440 Aleuts on Unalaska. -
Russian American Company
The offical Russian American Company was created by merging the leading private companies. Czar Pail claims Alaska as Russain property. Alexander Andreyevich Baranov became the first manager of the RAC and the first governor of Russian America.
The RAC forced natives to hunt for furs taking them away from their families and communities. -
Period: to
1800's
During the first 50 years of Russian occupation the Aleut population was diminished by two thirds. At the begining on the 1800's the population is estimated to be 2,500-5,000. -
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov moves his offices of Russain-American Company to Sitka. -
Fort Ross
The RAC established Fort Ross and forces Aleuts there to hunt sea otters and grow food for Alaskan settlements. -
Saint Peter the Aleut
Venerated as a martyr and a saint Peter was killed by a Roman Catholic priest. Peter and a group of hunters along with some Russain emplyees of the RAC were hunting down by California for seals when they were captured. Saint Peter is seen as a martyr in the Russian Orthodox faith. -
Russian Navy
The Russian navy took control of Alaskan waters. -
The Charter of 1821
This charter changed the conditions for the natives for the better. The new company leaders saw the welfare of the natives being a direct link to furthur developing the fur trade.
These better conditions included only taking half of the eligible males (18-50) in a community and forcing them to work for the company. A community leader had the option to decide who had to go.
The charter also attempts to bar all foreign ships access to Alaskan waters. -
Father Loann Veniaminov
Father Loann Veniaminov of the Russian Orthodox Church arrives in Unalaska with his mother, wife, infant son, and brother Stefan. -
Russian Orthodoxy
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral the Holy Acension was built on Unalaska. -
Aluet Alphabet
Father Loann Veniaminov traveled to the many islands in his parish by canoe. During his travels he learned the six local dialects of the Aleuts in his parish with the help of Ivan Pan'kov, a Tigalda island elder. Fr. Veniaminov and Ivan Pan'kov then devised an alphabet using cyrillic letters for the Fox Aleut Dialect, which was the most prolific. He then translated parts of the bible and the Catechism of the Orthodox faith. -
Little Afognak
A Russian Orthodox Church is built at Little Afognak by the Seleznev brothers. -
Father Loann Transfer
Fr. Loann gets transfered to the town of Novoarkhangelsk on Sitka Island. He began studing the language of the Tlingit people. -
Whaling
Commercial whaling begins in Kodiak. -
Epidemics
Measles, chicken-pox, and whppoing-cough epidemics run rampant throughout the Aleut population. The epidemics reduce the Aletu population to an estimated 3,000 and wipes out all but 7 villages. -
Third Charter
Tsar Nicholas grants a Third Charter to the RAC. The new charter made it so that Natives who did not accept Christianity were to be left free to practice traditional rituals. No coercion was to be used to force conversions.
The charter also improved the rates paid for pelts. -
Literacy
Many Aleuts in the Fox District are taught to write. -
Lavrentii Salamatov
Lavrentii Salamatov ordained as parish priest in Atka. Translates the entire New Testament into the Atkan dialect. -
Alaska for sale
Tsar Alexander II approves the sale of Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. William Seward, Secretary of State for the USA, met with the ambassador for Tsar Alexander II, Bron Eouard de Stoeckl, to negotiate the sale of Alaska. -
Alaska Commercial Company
The US government awarded the Alaska Commericial Company a 20-year lease for hunting seals on the Pribilof islands. In the lease the ACC was expected to offer housing, food, medical care, and maintain two schools in exchange for the Aleuts work. -
North American Commercial Company
Another 20 year lease was given for the land rights for the Pribilof islands, this time to the NACC but severe over hunting meant there was little profit in the venture. -
Blue Fox Farming
Aleutians try their hand at Blue Fox Farming. -
Nome Gold Rush
The Nome gold rush bring many ships through Dutch Harbor where the North American Commerical Company has a coal station. -
Period: to
1900's
1910 Census reports 1491 Aleuts -
Fur Seal Act
The Fur Seal Act stopped private leasing on the Pribilof islands and placed the community and the seals under the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Social and racial segregation was practiced and working conditions were poor. -
Washington Naval Treaty
The U.S. government pledges to not construct any naval fortifications on the Aleutian islands. -
Dutch Harbor Bombing
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft struck at U.S. Army and Navy installations. The installations had warning of the attack and were on high alert. The Japanese bombers had expected to find an airfield and a carrier but neither was there. The bombers then turned their ordanence to the barrack and killed 25 servicemen. -
Japanese Invasion
The Japanese landed on Kiska and Attu Islands in the Western Aleustions. They took a Naval weather crew hostage on Kiska and a whole village on Attu. These hostages were eventually shipped to Japan as prisoners of war. -
Evacuation
881 people were evacuated from nine villages after Japan began to invade Alaska. They were taken to "duration villages" in Southeast Alaska. They were kept in terrible conditions for two years. 74 people died during their internment. -
Taking Back The Aleutian Islands
U.S. troops begin the campaign to take back the Aleutian Islands starting with Attu. -
Attu Won Back
The U.S. forces take Attu back from the Japanese after killing 2,351 Japanese defenders and taking 29 as prisoners. The American loses were 549 killed in combat, 1,148 wounded, and 2,100 casualties from exposure, trench foot, and shock. -
Retaking Kiska
When the allied units reached the beaches of Kiska they disvocered that the island was only defended by four dogs and a corpse. The Japanese had deserted the island. -
Tuberculosis
The incidence of tuberculosis among Natives is 20 times the rate of the United States general population. -
Tsunami Hits Kodiak
A 30 foot tsunami hits Kodiak during the 1964 Alaska earthquake, killing 15 people and causing $11 million in damages. This tsunami also wiped out the Native villages of Old Harbor and Kaguyak. -
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
ANCSA was singed into law by President Nixon. The settlement gave lands to 12 Alaska Native regional coporations as well as $962.5 million. This gave approximately one-ninth of the state's land back to it's original owners.
Formation of the Aleut Corportation. -
Dutch Harbor Fishing
Dutch Habor became the #1 fishing port in the nation due to king crab fishing. -
Compensation
The Aleut Islanders received $8.5 million in partial compensation for the unfair and unjust treatment the federal governmenr subjected them to from 1870-1946. -
Fur Seal Act Amendments
Congress passed amendments on the Fur Seal Act ending government control to the commercial seal harvest and the federal presence on the Pribilof islands. $12 million was granted to Saint Paul to help the local entities provide basic services for the community. -
No Seal Hunting
Commerical hunting of seals ends. Now only subsistence hunters may take seals. -
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
The Exxon Valdez struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reed and spilled 260,000-750,000 barrels of crude oil into the ocean. This spill was a large scale environmental disaster. -
Period: to
2000's
2000 census shows 10,695 Aleuts
