398 



EUPTARI RUSSIAN INFLUENCE 



[b. a. e. 



Edge-ways" (Hist. Va.,bk. in, 145, 1705). 

 Holmes saj-s of these objects (2d Rep. 

 B. A. E., 230, 1883): "The fact that they 

 are found in widely separated localities 

 indicates that they were probably used 

 in trade since the advent of the whites." 

 The word runtee is not Algonquian, but 

 evidently an English corruption of French 

 arrondi, 'rounded,' 'made round,' short, 

 perhaps, for ecaille arrondie, 'shell made 

 round.' Mr Holmes further remarks 

 that "this is probably some form of 

 bead held in high esteem by tribes of 

 the Atlantic coast when first encountered 

 by the whites, who have taken up its 

 manufacture for purposes of trade." Rale 

 mentions shell ronds {paga'^a^k) worn 

 at the neck by Abnaki men, one of 

 which was worth one beaver, and ronds 

 {paghifjanak) of the women, six small 

 ones or three large ones of which were 

 worth one beaver. See Beads, Shell- 

 work, (w. K. G. ) 



Ruptari. One of the two villages of the 

 Mandan (q. v.) on the upper Missouri in 

 North Dakota in 1804. When the Man- 

 dan were almost destroyed by the rav- 

 ages of smallpox in 1837, the remnant 

 abandoned their villages to the Arikara 

 and established a new settlement nearer 

 Knife river. They subsequently removed 

 to Ft Berthold. 



Nuptadi.— Matthews, Ethnog. Hidatsa, 14, 1877. 

 Kooptahee. — Lewis and Clark Exped., i, 120, 1814. 

 Roop-tar-ha.— Lewis and Clark, Discov., 24, 1806. 

 Roop-tar'-har.— Lewis and Clark, Trav., 19, 1807. 

 Roop-tar-he.— Orig. Jour. Lewis and Clark, i, 256, 

 1904. Roop-tar-hee.— Ibid., 212. Rop-tar-ha.— Am. 

 St. Papers, Ind. Aff., l, 710, 1832. Ruhptare.— 

 Maximilian Trav., 335, 1843. Ruptari.— Matthews, 

 loc. cit. 



Russian influence. Russian influence 

 on the natives of N. W. America began 

 with the voyage of Bering (1741), which 

 revealed the wealth of peltries to the 

 traders of e. Siberia. The Siberian re- 

 gion had been mostly subjected by the 

 traders at the end of the 17th century, 

 but the processes of intertribal trade had 

 carried the wrought iron of the Yakut, 

 the pipes and tobacco of Mongolia, among 

 these people much earlier than the ad- 

 vent of Ru.ssians, who were the first to 

 introduce firearms. But the intense hos- 

 tility between the Siberian and American 

 Eskimo at Bering strait restricted the 

 trade and the intercontinental influences 

 for many years later. 



The traders conquered the Aleut, but 

 were checked by the more warlike Ko- 

 4iak Eskimo and by internal dissensions; 

 "'only with the formation of a general 

 trading association (1781) and its sequel, 

 a government monopoly (1790 and 1799), 

 were exploration and trade systemat- 

 ically organized. S. and e. of Cook 

 inlet the Russians had to meet the oppo- 

 sition of the Spaniards, the English, and 

 the free American traders as well as the 



well-armed and warlike Tlingit tribes, 

 Haida, etc. In the eastern interior the 

 Hudson's Bay Company began to draw 

 away trade as early as 1810. Owing to 

 the hostile attitude of the Spanish author- 

 ities and the need of food supplies, the 

 Russians bought, in 1811, a small tract of 

 land from the natives at Bodega bay, 

 Cal., and later one at Russian r., where 

 they raised cereals for the support of the 

 more northerly colonies and did a little 

 trading. In this way they came in con- 

 tact with the natives of California. Aa 

 they found the Tlingit would not trade 

 with them, they brought Aleut sea-otter 

 hunters from the n., with their kaiaks, to 

 hunt on the otter grounds of the Alexan- 

 der archipelago, the California coast, and 

 on at least one occasion came with one of 

 these parties as far s. as the Santa Bar- 

 bara ids. , the visit lingering in the mind 

 of the last surviving Santa Rosa islander 

 late in the eighties. With the progress 

 of exploration direct trade and contact 

 with the natives on the N. W. coast pro- 

 ceeded about as follows: 



Aleutian islands (Russian), 1741-1867. 

 Southeastern Alaska (Russian), 1804- 



1867. 

 California (Russian), 1811-1841. 

 Norton sound and Yukon delta (Rus- 

 sian vessels), 1818-1822. 

 Norton sound (permanent trading 



posts, R. A. Co.), 1832-1867. 

 St Matthew and St Lawrence islands, 



1810-1867. 

 Upper Yukon (permanent posts, H. B. 



Co.), 1839-1867. 

 Lower Yukon ( permanent posts, Rus- 

 sian), 1838-1867. 

 Bering strait, Kotzebue sound, and 



coast northward, first trade, 1820. 

 Bering strait, Kotzebue sound, and 

 coast northward, beginning of regu- 

 lar annual trade, 1848. 

 Arctic coast w. of Return reef, first trade, 



1825. 

 Arctic coast e. of Return reef (English), 



1825. 

 Tanana river people, first contact (Eng- 

 lish), 1863. 

 Cook inlet and Kodiak, introduction of 



cattle, 1850. 



First school by Russians (at Kodiak) 



for Eskimo, by order of Shelikoff, 



1795. 



First school by Russians for Tlingit (at 



Sitka), by order of Etolin, about 1844. 



Second school at Kodiak, by order of 



Resanoff, 1805. 

 Desultorv mission work (Aleut and at 



Kodiak), 1793-1816. 

 Systematic mission work (Sitka, Ko- 

 diak, Aleut) , 1816-1908. 

 Systematic mission work (Lower Yu- 

 kon), about 1860. 

 Distribution. — Aleut were transported 



