Bald Eagles are everywhere and if our illustrious Mr. Ashcroft was here he could sing his song, ‘Let the eagle soar’ to the good cause. Those eagles like to sit on the posts along the only highway in Juneau and watch the traffic. Maybe it reminds them of salmon going up the river to spawn and die. Native Tlingit Indians mention Raven as another native bird but I haven’t seen one. Although Raven is a trickster; he can transform into a human and I have seen plenty of humans on the ship that qualify. Maybe if I asked the Tlingit shaman he could help me to distinguish. Without his powers I had to guess myself and I had decided that those who would go for the night buffet eating session would be the ravens. There were plenty of those, especially females. Crows mostly.
Real crows I did see in Sitka, the cradle city of the Russian Heritage. That brings me to the historical perspective.
2. HISTORY
‘When Raven met the first human in the woods he asked for two kinds of the photo ID.
‘@#$!% you!’- said the man. And that’s how Alaska became a part of the USA.’
From the Alaskan legends
All history is local. The St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the Middle of Sitka is a replica of the original one, built in 1840 by bishop Innocent (Innocentii Veniaminov). In 1966 there was a big fire and the original building was destroyed. People of Sitka formed a chain and managed to save practically all the priceless icons and other memorabilia. The building was restored exactly as it was before following the original drawings by Bishop Innocent and now it boasts the most profound collection of the Russian Orthodox artifacts outside of Russia proper. The drawings of the design are now in the Library of Congress. The building is restored perfectly; even the false windows, painted on the exterior look very real. In those times windows were a sign of wealth and as the builders could not afford many windows, they put in the false ones. So good is a replica that the brown bear who comes regularly to pray in the Cathedral does not seem to notice any difference. This cathedral, the bishop’s house, the Russian cemetery and the Swan Lake (no swans) are the main remaining signs of the Russian Heritage in Sitka. There are no Russians. The 100 families in Sitka still worshipping the Russian Orthodox religion are the converted Tlingits, and they worship in English. I am not sure what language the bear uses. Some books in the cathedral are in ancient Slavic and it seems that bishop Innocent and other bishops tried to develop a Slavic-Tlingit dictionary but did not complete the work.
According to the local interpretation of the events a group of Russian prospectors from the Russian – American Trade Company first appeared in the area in 1799 in pursuit of the sea otters. The leader’s name was Alexander Baranov. He settled there and built a fort. Local Tlingits were not very enthusiastic with the aliens, especially when those started to burn the totem poles and that was really a big mistake. Unfortunately for them the Russians never figured out what those totems were (carved -in stories) and decided that those were the symbols of idolatry. The confrontations brewed and in 1802 the Tlingits took advantage of the situation when Baranov was absent, attacked the fort, burned it and killed many Aleut companions of the Russians. It is worth mentioning that Tlingits did seem to have some cache of firearms and gunpowder. How did they acquire the ammo?
In 1804 Baranov retaliated. He commandeered a frigate Neva and a posse of soldiers and they surprised the Tlingits. The Battle of Alaska lasted for four days after which the Tlingits started negotiations through which they one night quietly disappeared. The Russians took the fort and build a wall which separated them from the Tlingits. After that they stayed there trading with the Indians and profiteering from anything including the ice from the Swan Lake which they exported to San-Francisco when it was incorporated after the California gold rush. Baranov (for some strange reason they still call him Count Baranov here) ruled there until 1817. His house was nicknamed Paris in Alaska and had all the luxuries and amenities. That did not save him from being fired by his St. Petersburg superiors for embezzlement. After that there was a ‘dull period’ (Russian Orthodox Church tried to convert some people through the period) until 1867 when Alexander Seward purchased Alaska from the Russian government for 7.2 million dollars ($200K was paid for the ice still remaining and ready for delivery to San- Francisco) and the new era started. End of the story the way it is being told here. In the ethnic culture museum in Sitka one can see the pictures of the people of those times, their arms and clothes, old Russian writings, etc. Very legitimate. A little bit too local.
There was also a big history about which, I believe, the Tlingits do not care much. But that big history was the real cause of many events they described. That Russian-American Trade Company was a big enterprise. It was supposed to become something like English West-Indian Company, the pillar of the Russian industrial expansion to the North. The directors were all prominent Russian merchants and they established good credits with the government. That is why I doubt that Baranov was from the the nobility. He seemed most likely to be a very energetic and prolific merchant. The Company’s first efforts were successful but its expansion was stalled by the wars of 1804, 1807 and then 1812 with Napoleon. Russia was invaded and could not pay that much attention to the colonization. Still, Baranov seemed to convince the government to send an expedition and take over. The company resumed its operations and delivered a steady profit for a while until it was plagued by a series of unfortunate events. Turned out that several of the company employees were members of the plot against the Tsar. That plot culminated in the rebellion in December 1825, the so-called Decembrists rebellion. One of the prominent Decembrists, K. Ryleev was a secretary in the Company. He was hanged together with several others. The rebellion was crushed and of course, there was an investigation and the reputation of the Company suffered. It still lingered but then the new enterprise, the Caucasus sucked away many sources of the private investments. The climate of the Caucasus was perfect and the natural wonders of that new land were very tempting. That uncertainty lasted until the Crimean war in 1856. Not many people know that there was an English military expedition to the far North-East of Russia at that time. Though unsuccessful it troubled the Russian government enough to consider either a larger military presence there or giving Alaska away for good. At that time the Russian-US friendly relationship flourished. The US did not support the Allies in the Crimean war and in return the Russian fleet helped the Union in its naval blockade of the Confederacy in the Civil War. The first group of the US tourists visiting Russia with Mark Twain among them was greeted by the Emperor Alexander II himself. In 1861 Alexander abolished the surf dome and issued reforms of the judiciary and civil service. Thus it was only prudent on the part of Alexander Seward to use the good moment and address Russian Chancellor Gorchakov on the issue of Alaska. Of course Gorchakov was happy to conclude the mutually profitable deal with the friendly nation. The funny thing though is that the purchasing treaty (as it did state explicitly) for Alaska was interpreted in Russia rather like an indefinite lease. The Emperor was not supposed to ‘sell’ his lands. He was not a merchant. But from the examination of the original documents ( and they are published on the Internet) it does seem that in this particular case the purchase was clean, lock, stock and barrel.
In 1871 the Franco-Prussian war put Germany on the map and led to the series of Balkan wars. In 1881 Alexander II after surviving seven assassination attempts was torn to pieces by the explosion delivered by the suicide bomber. Neither he nor Alexander Seward ever knew that the real cause for the Tlingits to accept the US much easier than Russia was the top hat.
Among many figures on the Indian totem poles there were people in the top hats. Those were the Tlingit chiefs or wealthy people. They wore top hats made of fur and the wealthier the Chief was, the higher was the hat. A wealthy Chief was obliged to share his wealth by throwing parties for the people. Thus when the representative of Alexander Seward came there in his very high top hat the Tlingits obviously preferred him to the Russians. I am sure he brought the pictures of other top hats from Washington and that convinced the Tlingits that there were many great Chiefs there and the party was soon to come. It came in 1898 with the Klondike Gold Rush.
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