The Story of Sitka Part 2

This was one of the worst disasters of the sea that visited the colony, although many others are part of the records of the time.

It is said that Chief Katlean tore his hair with rage when he learned of the wreck, because he did not find it and destroy the survivors out of revenge for his defeat and expulsion from his home at Sitka.

There are many traditions among the residents of Sitka concerning the wreck of the "Neva." Among them is that there was a vast treasure of gold for the use of the garrison and the traders. This is erroneous, for there was no gold used in the colonies, the trade being by barter or conducted with scrip, called _a.s.signats_, issued by the Company for the purpose. The story of the gold has been so generally believed that serious plans have been made for attempting the salvage of the treasure.

The term of office of Alexander Andreevich Baranof as the chief manager of the Russian American Company came to a close in 1818. He had been 28 years in the colonies, leaving Russia in 1790 for the post of Three Saints on Kodiak Island, which at that time const.i.tuted almost the only Russian establishment in America, the other stations being little more than outlying trading posts. He left their dominion an empire in extent, reaching from the Seal Islands in Bering Sea, at the edge of the ice pack of the Arctic, to Fort Ross, among the sunny hills of Golden California. Captain Hagmeister came to relieve him, and in his 72nd year the old chief manager, bent with the weight of years and of long and arduous service, closed his accounts and set sail on the "Kutusof," one of the Company's vessels, for his far-off home in Russia.

When the time arrived for Baranof to take his departure from the land he had made his home for so many years, sorrowfully he took his leave of the a.s.sociates with whom he had so long shared the dangers and hardships of the uncivilized land. Upon being relieved of the duties of his office he first considered building a home at the Ozerskoe Redoubt and spending the remainder of his days in the place he had learned to love. Later he decided to return to his native land and sailed on the "Kutusof" for Kronstadt. A delay at Batavia in the tropics proved too severe for his advanced years. The day after leaving Batavia he died and was buried at sea in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Captain Leontius Andreanovich Hagemeister succeeded to the office of chief manager but remained only a short time at Sitka, then sailed for Russia, leaving Captain Simeon Ivanovich Yanovski in charge.

Captain Yanovski became enamored with the beautiful daughter of Baranof, and if you search the old records of the Cathedral of St. Michaels at Sitka you will find the entry as made of the marriage of Simeon Ivanof Yanovski "with the late head governor of the Russian American possessions, Collegiate Adviser and Cavalier Baranof's daughter Irina, one of Creoles."

In 1830, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangell, scientist and explorer, came to administer the office. He had sailed the frozen ocean along the northern sh.o.r.es of Siberia as an explorer, and Wrangell Island, Wrangell Strait, etc., on the maps of today perpetuate his name.

Under Baron Wrangell, as a.s.sistant to the manager, served Adolph Carlovich Etolin, a native of Finland, who came to the colony as an officer on the war sloop "Kamchatka" in 1817, who sailed in the service of the Company to nearly every port from the Seal Islands of Bering Sea to Chile, who made several voyages around the world, and who was made chief manager in 1840. In 1846 he returned to Russia to accept the trust of Commercial Counsellor in the head office of the Company in St.

Petersburg.

About fourteen miles to the southwest, across the bay and facing Edgec.u.mbe, with a beautiful view of the peak and islands, is the Hot Springs, well known for their medicinal properties by the natives before the advent of the Russians, and frequently resorted to by both as a panacea for many ills. In the Place of Islands _(Chasti Ostrova)_ is reputed to be a spring with a sour taste, while almost within the limits of the town of Sitka, Dr. Scheffer, a German physician who made a sojourn in the place about 1815, claimed to have found a medical spring whose waters were equal to some of the famed watering places of Germany.

CHAPTER IV

NATIVES

Most of the Sitkan Kolosh kept aloof from the Russian settlement after the establishment of the new fort on Chatham Strait, near the entrance of Peril Strait. All the kwans, the Khootznoos, the Hoonahs, the Chilkats, the Auks, Stikines, Kakes and others, joined with the Sitkas in the hatred of the Russians. Parties going out from the fort at Sitka for hunting expeditions, for cutting of wood, for traveling to the Hot Springs, had to be on their guard and with arms at hand prepared to fight at a moment's notice.[9] Small groups were often cut off and murdered. As it was impossible to decide which of the many kwans did the act, and as there were those in each kwan who were peaceable, with whom it was desired to keep the peace, revenge against any village was inadvisable. Even as late as the date of the lease to the Hudson's Bay Co.

the Russian ships that sailed among the islands to trade with the Kolosh were compelled to act with the strictest caution. Only a few natives were admitted on board at a time, the trading was done in a s.p.a.ce near the stern, and was conducted under the muzzles of loaded cannon concealed in the fore part of the ship.[10] The conditions were thus until 1821, when the Sitkas were invited to reoccupy the site of the old village and to live in what is now known as the "Ranche," under the guns of the redoubt.

The Thlingit nation is a strange, warlike, shrewd people, physically strong and enduring, and possessed of many excellent qualities. Hunters and fishermen by nature and training, they are skillful boatmen, and in those days they built wonderfully beautiful canoes of the red cedar, some of them large enough to carry sixty men at the paddles. Each spring more than a thousand men gathered together in Sitka Bay, coming from the different villages, to fish for herring at the sp.a.w.ning time, when those fish run in countless myriads in those waters. Hemlock boughs were placed in the water, and on them the herring roe collected until they were encrusted with the eggs which were then stripped off and dried for future use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The "Ranche"--Looking north from the top of the Baranof Castle. The Steamer at the left is the "Coquitlam," noted for her partic.i.p.ation in pelagic sealing and she was under seizure by the U. S.

Government.]

In 1807 there were over 2,000 hostile natives gathered in the harbor at the herring season and they threatened an attack on the settlement.

Kuskof, the most trusted and able lieutenant of Baranof, was in charge, and it put his wisdom and watchfulness to the test to avert disaster.

The strictest discipline was maintained. The tribesmen waited outside day after day, hoping for news of some relaxation of the precautions of the defenders to be brought to them by the women of the tribe who were married to the Russian promishleniki (hunters). Day and night the sentinels paced the beats on the stockade and along the waterfront, till, weary of waiting, the Kolosh finally dispersed to their homes.

In the great tribal houses several families lived, sometimes as many as fifty or sixty persons. Over the door of the house was painted the family totem, for the Sitkas did not raise the house totem in a pole in front as did many of the kwans of the Thlingits, and as the Hydahs do.

In these houses were held the potlatches, or gift parties, which were made by the wealthy chiefs.

The potlatches were of different kinds, although all partook of the nature of a feasting or merrymaking and were distinguished by the giving of gifts. In the ordinary visiting potlatches, or in the berry potlatches, the visitors came in their canoes with which they formed a line off sh.o.r.e opposite the houses, put planks from one canoe to another and on these planks danced the tribal dance. Those on sh.o.r.e danced the welcome dance and invited the guests ash.o.r.e. Then the visitors disembarked and each family became the guest of their kinsmen of their totem or they went to the guesthouse of the kwan. All the people of the same totem are supposed to be blood relations, so all those of the wolf totem go to the _Gooch-heat_, or the dwelling blazoned by the rude heraldry with the wolf rampant. In the great social potlatches a wealthy chief invites his friends from many villages and entertains them for a week or more with dancing and feasting and makes presents varied and valuable, from Hudson's Bay blankets to bolts of calico or of flannel, and in primitive days, copper tows,[11] Chilkat blankets, and even slaves were handed over with a lavish hospitality.

On special occasions in the olden time, with great ceremony the visitors landed at a distance from the village, drew their canoes ash.o.r.e and proceeded to the village dressed in festive garments adorned with sealion heads or other strange headdresses, in which they danced the rare and picturesque "Beach Dance," in acknowledgement to the Spirit of the Sea for the bountiful supply of salmon and herring of the past season--for the native American is a thankful being and omits not to show it when occasion offers to acknowledge it to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.

During the earlier years of the colony the Kolosh were implacable enemies. War parties of young men constantly haunted the islands of the bay, lying in wait for any unwary hunter or fisherman from the fort.

Later, when they were settled under the walls of the fort they became more tractable, for their homes and families were commanded by the guns of the fortress, but on the least provocation the savagery in their blood would boil, from their great tribal houses they issued forth, faces blackened to the semblance of devils, war masks grinning, and the howling mob shouted defiance at their neighbor over the stockade. Many a b.l.o.o.d.y tragedy was enacted in the "Ranche" for their code was primitive, "an eye for an eye," and a life for a life.

Feuds raged between the different totemic families. About 1853 a party of Wrangell Indians (Stikines) visited Sitka, and while being entertained in the guest-house were murdered and their bodies piled into a canoe which was then paddled to j.a.ponski Island. On striking the sh.o.r.e it was so heavily laden with the bodies of the dead that tradition says the canoe split from end to end. It is said that the bones of the dead are still to be seen in the undergrowth along the sh.o.r.e. In retaliation, about 1855, the Wrangell Kolosh made an attack on the Hot Springs settlement, burned the buildings, stripped the inhabitants of property and clothing and left them to make their way over the mountains around the head of Silver Bay to Sitka, where they arrived more dead than alive from hunger and exhaustion. This feud was not settled until 1918, when a peace treaty was consummated between the kwans on Armistice Day, a coincidence which is much made of by the tribesmen.

The Kolosh were as firm believers in witchcraft as any of the more civilized nations. They resorted to their shamans (_ekhts_) or medicine men in case of illness. If his weird incantations failed to relieve the sufferer, his resort was that the victim was bewitched and some poor unfortunate paid the penalty by enduring the most fiendish torture.

One March day in 1855 a commotion arose in the Kolosh village. A sentry caught an Indian who was stealing and punished him, for which the tribe called for vengeance. Some rushed to the stockade and began to cut away the palisades. Other forced their way into the Koloshian Church through the outer door. From this vantage point they fired on the garrison and in return the batteries of the fort blazed back with solid shot and shrapnel. For two hours the fight continued, when the Kolosh gave up all hope of success, and ceased the battle. The Russian loss in killed and wounded was 20 men, while the Kolosh loss was estimated at 60. This was the last attempt of the natives to destroy the Russian stronghold.

At times during the later days of the colony the Kolosh were employed as seamen and as workers in the ice trade by the Russians and thus they occupied a place in the industrial life. Etolin was the most successful in conciliating them of any of the chief managers, and he at one time held a fur fair at Sitka to which peltry was brought from far and near, modeled somewhat upon the idea of the great fur mart of Nizhni Novgorod.

Most of them, however, hunted and fished, lived in their tribal houses, carved their canoes, wove their baskets, and practiced their witchcraft, while their civilized neighbors gathered the furs and built ships.

Under the walls of the fort, in the old tribal houses of the Kolosh which had not been destroyed, lived the Aleuts. Properly speaking the name belongs to the natives of the Aleutian Islands, but the term was also applied to the natives of Kodiak Island and the surrounding islets.

These speak a different language from the true Aleuts, but otherwise resemble them closely. During the hunting season they scoured the seas in their skin bidarkas, in the pursuit of fur animals. In winter many of them remained at Sitka instead of returning to their homes. Their time was spent in idleness, spending the summer's earnings in the pleasures and vices of the white man. One who saw them in their kazhims, as their dwellings were often called, describes them: "Morally, the Aleut is not bloodthirsty. He delights in simple rejoicings and will play you a game of chess with walrus ivory pieces--a duck for a p.a.w.n and a penguin for a king--with the greatest of good humor. Even when squabbles arrive the argument is carried on in poetry to the accompaniment of dancing, and one would be inclined to prefer the Aleut angry to the Aleut amiable, did he not know he also dances when festive and when religious.

"Among them the social duty of visiting has its drawbacks. Several families live together in the kazhims, and during one's visit they all lie around in every conceivable posture, jolly and genial, naked and unashamed. The fumes of the blubber oil lamps and stoves, the stores of raw meat, the many naked bodies, well smeared with grease and scented with primitive unguents, combine to make an atmosphere difficult to tolerate and not easy to describe. Yet, if you will, you may enjoy the warmest hospitality, and have heaped upon you the most a.s.siduous attentions."

CHAPTER V

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS

It was not until 1816 that a priest arrived at Sitka, and in that year the first entry is made in the church records under the name of Alexander Sokolof. A church was built at the south of the street, which was then called the Governor's Walk, almost opposite the present cathedral. A monument marks the spot where the altar stood, and a cross marks the site of a grave, said to be that of a priest. Tradition also tells that there are two graves there, and a.s.signs the other one to the daughter of Baron Wrangell, the chief manager of the Company at one time.[12]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cathedral of St. Michael]

The present cathedral of St. Michael, which is the central point of historic interest, in the center of the town at Lincoln Street, was dedicated November 20, 1848. It fronts on a small court and with its green painted spire surmounted by the Greek Cross is so typically Russian that it might readily be believed to have been transplanted from old Russia. The chime of bells, a gift from the Church at Moscow, would be worthy of any shrine. The building is in the form of a cross, has three sanctuaries and three altars. The larger and central sanctuary is that of the _Archistrategos_ Michael. In the center is an elevated platform, the episcopal _Cathedra_, and it is separated from the main body of the church by a part.i.tion called the _Ikonastas_, which is ornamented with twelve _ikons_, or holy paintings, covered by plates of silver in _repousse_ work in the true Russian style of art, and through the Royal Gates the priest appears. The silver in the ikons is valued at over $6,000. The ikon of St. Michael is said to have been in the wreck of the "Neva," and was rescued after being cast up by the sea. Another is a gift of the monks of the monastery of Solovetsk; another was brought by Bishop Innocentius (Veniaminof) from Petropavlovsk. The ikon of the Resurrection is painted on a board from a tree in Hebron, was consecrated in Bethlehem, and bears the autograph signature of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The chapel at the right is dedicated in the name of St. John the Precursor and Prince Alexander Nevsky.

The chapel at the left is in honor of Our Lady of Kazan. In it is a painting of a Madonna and Child from which the beautiful Byzantine face looks down with a sweet radiance.

The vestments and sacred vessels are rich and elegant. The white Easter vestment is of cloth of silver and the cloth of gold for high feast days was the personal gift of Alexander Andreevich Baranof, the great Russian who established the colony. The belfry clock is said to be the work of the hands of Veniaminof. The priest in richly brocaded vestments holds the services, and a choir of boys chant the chorus with a melody that would be the envy of many a far more pretentious edifice. The worshipers stand during the services, the clouds of incense rise toward the rounded dome, then one by one the worshipers pa.s.s and kiss the jeweled cross in the hand of the priest. Father Metropolski presided over the church for many years, and Father Sergius is one of the best known in recent years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Madonna.]

There were two other churches during Russian days, one, a Lutheran, built during Etolin's time, which stood near the site of the first church, and is said to have contained a small but very excellent pipe organ, brought from Germany. The other church stood near the blockhouse on the hill, was on the line of the stockade, and had two doors, one inside the fortification, the other outside and used as an entrance by the natives. It was known as the Koloshian Church, and its site is marked by a monument. Both these buildings long ago fell into ruin and were removed.

The Russian religion was closely a.s.sociated with the Government, so in the colonies the official charter of the Company compelled them to provide well for the church and the priests according to the standard of the times, and the work was carried on with zeal and fort.i.tude by the missionaries who came from the monasteries of the old Russian cities.

Of all the missionaries who came to Russian America, the greatest was Ivan Veniaminof. Father John he is often called in the old records, a wonderful man, broad of mind and of body, combining the qualities that inspire awe and reverence with a gentleness of word and deed that made him beloved wherever he was known. His zapiski, or letters, are among the best authorities extant which remain from those years on Alaskan matters, and they were written home to Russia during his stay in the Aleutian Islands and at Sitka. He came to Sitka after a ten-year stay at Unalaska, remained there for five years working for the church and teaching in the schools, then returned to Moscow and was consecrated as bishop of the new diocese. He again arrived in Sitka in 1842, and made a tour of all the churches in the colonies, traveling by sailing ship to every settlement, then went home to Russia where he became Metropolite of Moscow.

The schools of Sitka, under the Russian regime, were well maintained, and many of the mechanics, clerks, pilots, and men of other trades were educated there. Kadin, who drew the charts for Tebenkof's Atlas of Alaska from the surveys made by the Russian Navigators; Tarantief, who engraved the maps on copper-plate at Sitka; and many of the shipmasters and accountants in the employ of the Company, were the product of the educational inst.i.tutions of Sitka. In the time of the greatest prosperity there were five schools. The church school was advanced to the grade of a seminary in 1849 and there were taught navigation, mathematics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and other branches of learning. Some of the best pupils, both Russian and Creole, were sent to St. Petersburg for more advanced instruction. Chief Manager Etolin was the especial patron of education, and made many improvements in the system. Under the auspices of Madame Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors and was educated in the schools of that city, a school was opened and maintained by the Company for the girls of the colony. After the transfer to the United States of the Territory the teachers returned to Russia and the schools were closed.

CHAPTER VI