Southeastern Alaskan Indian Research— Garfield 21 



At the dawn of the eighteenth century the North Pacific 

 ocean and continental northwest America were only vaguely 

 known to Europeans whose ancestors had discovered the west- 

 ern hemisphere over two hundred years earlier. Early in the 

 century Russian explorations prove America to be separate 

 from Asia and led to further discoveries. In 1741 Bering and 

 Chirikov set sail from Petropavlovsk and between them gained 

 some knowledge of the Aleutian Islands and the coast as far 

 south as Sitka Sound. They saw and described Indian camp- 

 sites, some of which were undoubtedly Tlingit, but saw few 

 Indians. Two boatloads of Chirikov's men mysteriously dis- 

 appeared in or near Sitka harbor. Painted Indians came out of 

 the bay into which the men disappeared and smoke was seen 

 but nothing further was learned of the fate of the men or the 

 identity of the Indians. 



When survivors of Chirikov's and Bering's crews reached 

 Petropavlovsk in 1741 and 1742 respectively they touched off 

 a flood of fur seekers and initiated the maritime fur trade that 

 flourished into the nineteenth century. The first well organized 

 Russian fur company under the leadership of Shelikov began 

 systematic exploitation of both the fur bearers and the native 

 peoples with establishment of the settlement on Kodiak Island 

 in 1783. Rival companies were soon eliminated or merged with 

 the Russian American Company that enjoyed a trade and 

 administrative monopoly of the territory until the transfer of 

 Alaska to the United States in 1867. 



Russian activities until the 1790's centered around the Aleu- 

 tians, Kodiak Island and Cook Inlet with exploratory trips 

 along the coast to the southeast. Therefore, early Russian 

 annals deal principally with the Aleuts, Kodiak Islanders and 

 Kenai Peninsula Athapascan tribes. There is very little about 

 the Tlingit before the settling of Yakutat Bay in 1796 and of 

 Sitka in 1799. 



Most of the information about natives was supplied by ex- 

 plorers or parties sent to investigate and report on the affairs 

 of the company and their treatment of the natives. Though 

 Russian traders lived intimately with Aleuts, Kodiaks and 



