22 Alaskan Science Conference 



Kenai Peninsula natives, marrying the women and working 

 daily with the men, their records are generally meagre, super- 

 ficial and untrustworthy. Native men were treated as subordi- 

 nates and virtual serfs and were accepted on equal social status 

 only if they were thoroughly Russianized. Russian husbands 

 sought to deny so far as possible the cultural backgrounds of 

 their native wives and to raise their children in the Russian 

 tradition. Hence, they did not make an effort to understand 

 native culture and were not interested in recording it. What- 

 ever appears in letters, diaries, official reports and other papers 

 of the Russian traders is generally oriented toward some prob- 

 lem of native-Russian relationship and is not the result of in- 

 terest in native cultures. 



Russian relationships with the Tlingit were never friendly. 

 After the destruction of Sitka in 1802 and of the Yakutat Bay 

 settlement in 1805 the relationship was one of armed truce 

 marked by attacks and retaliation on both sides. Tlingit were 

 not allowed to settle near the rebuilt Sitka stockade until after 

 1821 and even then Russian armed guards kept constant vigi- 

 lance. The Indians apparently did likewise. In such an atmos- 

 phere there was little inclination or opportunity for recording 

 language, literature, music, social organization or other esoteric 

 aspects of Tlingit culture. Information is much more detailed 

 on warfare, clothing, canoes, trading practices and treachery. 

 The notable exception is the treatise written by Father Venia- 

 minov who came to Sitka in 1834 and who had previously 

 written an account of Aleut culture. 2 Almost nothing appears 

 in Russian annals concerning the Haida as a separate tribe, as 

 they were included with the Kolosh. The Haida disposed of 

 pelts to the traders who came to the anchorages in Cordova 

 Bay and Graham Island during the height of the maritime fur 

 trade. 



Between 1774 and 1791 the Spanish, fearful for their Pacific 

 domain, sent explorers up the coast where they briefly held 

 Nootka Sound. They left accounts of tribes met with from 

 California northward. Though Perez was off the Queen Char- 



2 Translated excerpts appear in Petrof, 1900 and Bancroft, 1875. 



