81-612: Elfin Cove ( Lingít : X̱’óot’k’ ) is a census-designated place (CDP) near the northwestern corner of Chichagof Island in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area , Alaska , United States . The population was 20 at the 2010 census , down from 32 at the 2000 census . Elfin Cove is located off Cross Sound on Chichagof Island at coordinates 58°11′56″N 136°21′19″W / 58.19889°N 136.35528°W / 58.19889; -136.35528 (58.198786, -136.355358). The CDP occupies
162-416: A circumflex , and long low vowels are marked with a grave accent. Short low vowels are unmarked. Coastal Tlingit <áa> and <aa> are Inland <â> and <à> respectively. Coastal <éi> and <ei> are Inland <ê> and <è>, Coastal <ée> and <ee> are Inland <î> and <ì>, and Coastal <óo> and <oo> are Inland <û> and <ù>. Word onset
243-411: A little bit, and then entangled its claws around the spar so that it could not be pulled down any further. A Russian soldier was therefore ordered to climb up the spar and disentangle it, but it seems that the eagle cast a spell on his hands, too—for he was not able to arrive at where the flag was, but instead slipped down without it. The next one to try was not able to do any better; only the third soldier
324-806: A metropolitan police. It was "a frozen wilderness." The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on October 18, 1867. Russian and American soldiers paraded in front of the governor's house; the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag raised amid peals of artillery. A description of the events was published in Finland six years later. It was written by a blacksmith named Thomas Ahllund, who had been recruited to work in Sitka: We had not spent many weeks at Sitka when two large steam ships arrived there, bringing things that belonged to
405-616: A modern work postdating Naish and Story's work in the 1960s. Alaska Purchase The Alaska Purchase was the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States for a sum of $ 7.2 million in 1867 (equivalent to $ 129 million in 2023) . On May 15 of that year, the United States Senate ratified a bilateral treaty that had been signed on March 30, and American sovereignty became legally effective across
486-704: A much more accurate picture of the financial return of Alaska as an investment. Alaska Day celebrates the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, which took place on October 18, 1867, according to the Gregorian calendar which came into effect in Alaska the day following the transfer, replacing the Julian calendar , which was used by the Russians (the Julian calendar in
567-435: A positive financial return on the purchase of Alaska. According to Barker, tax revenue and mineral and energy royalties to the federal government have been less than federal costs of governing Alaska plus interest on the borrowed funds used for the purchase. John M. Miller has taken the argument further by contending that US oil companies that developed Alaskan petroleum resources did not earn enough profits to compensate for
648-553: A predetermined day in the afternoon, a group of soldiers came from the American ships, led by one who carried the flag. Marching solemnly, but without accompaniment, they came to the governor's mansion, where the Russian troops were already lined up and waiting for the Americans. Now they started to pull the [Russian double-headed] eagle down, but—whatever had gone into its head—it only came down
729-686: A supporter in the naval minister and former chief manager of the Russian-American Company, Ferdinand von Wrangel . Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the economic development of Kamchatka and the Amur Basin. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RAC's patent, set to expire in 1861. Over the winter of 1859–1860, Stoeckl held meetings with United States officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about
810-402: A valuable addition to U.S. territory. The seal fishery was one of the chief considerations that induced the United States to purchase Alaska. It provided considerable revenue by the lease of the privilege of taking seals, an amount that was eventually more than the price paid for Alaska. From 1870 to 1890, the seal fisheries yielded 100,000 skins a year. The company to which the administration of
891-463: Is murmured , essentially a rapid opening of the glottis once articulation is begun.) The tone values in two-tone dialects can be predicted in some cases from the three-tone values but not the reverse. Earlier, it was hypothesized that the three-tone dialects were older and that the two-tone dialects evolved from them. However, Jeff Leer 's discovery of the Tongass dialect in the late 1970s has shown that
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#1733085195178972-668: Is always consonantal in Tlingit and so words never begin with a vowel. Where a vowel would theoretically have occurred, such as by prefixing or compounding, the vowel is always followed by either [ʔ] or [j] . The former is universal in single words, and both are found in word-medial position in compounds. The orthography does not reflect the [ʔ] in word-initial position, but either . or y may be seen in medial position. For example: khu- INDH . OBJ - ÿu- PERF - ÿa- ( 0 , - D , +I)- t'áa hot khu- ÿu- ÿa- t'áa INDH .OBJ- PERF- {(0, -D, +I)}- hot "the weather
1053-442: Is because of the influence of English, which makes a similar distinction. For speakers who make the voiced/unvoiced distinction, the distribution is symmetrical with the unaspirated/aspirated distinction among other speakers. Maddieson , Smith, and Bessel (2001) note that all word final non-ejective stops are phonemically unaspirated. That contrasts with the orthography that typically represents them as aspirated stops: t [tʰ] for
1134-434: Is common to later hear such speakers producing those forms themselves. It is uncertain whether this assimilation is autochthonous or if it arose from contact with English, but the former is more likely from a purely articulatory perspective. Young speakers and second-language learners are increasingly making a voiced/unvoiced distinction between consonants, rather than the traditional unaspirated/aspirated distinction. That
1215-404: Is divided into roughly five major dialects, all of which are essentially mutually intelligible: The various dialects of Tlingit can be classified roughly into two-tone and three-tone systems. Tongass Tlingit, however, has no tone but a four-way register contrast between short, long, glottalized, and "fading" vowels. (In the last type, the onset of the vowel is articulated normally but the release
1296-405: Is hot" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) ( help ); But when the perfective prefix ÿu- is word-initial, the glottal stop appears to ensure that the word begins with a consonant. ∅- 3 . NEU . OBJ - ÿu- PERF - ÿa- ( 0 , - D , +I)- t'áa hot ∅- ÿu- ÿa- t'áa 3. NEU .OBJ- PERF- {(0, -D, +I)}- hot "it is hot" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) ( help ); Until
1377-410: Is possible but has not been verified that aspirated and unaspirated stops are collapsed into a single phoneme word-finally. Maddieson and colleagues also confirm that the ejective fricatives in Tlingit are in fact true ejectives, despite the widely-held assumption that ejective fricatives are not actually phonetically ejective but are as a sequence of fricative and glottal stop. In Tlingit, at least,
1458-702: Is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family . Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and culture. Missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church were the first to develop a written version of Tlingit by using the Cyrillic script to record and translate it when
1539-602: Is symmetric with an aspirated consonant Cʰ , and a glottalized vowel Vʔ is symmetric with an ejective (glottalized) consonant Cʼ . That implies that the two systems have no familial relationship. Leer (1978) speculated that the maintenance of the pretonal system in Tongass Tlingit was caused by the proximity of its speakers around the Cape Fox area near the mouth of the Portland Canal to speakers of Coastal Tsimshian, just to
1620-617: Is the only known description of the return voyage on the Winged Arrow , a ship that was specially purchased to transport the Russians back to their native country. "The over-crowded vessel, with crewmen who got roaring drunk at every port, must have made the voyage a memorable one." Ahllund mentions stops at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, Tahiti, Brazil, London, and finally Kronstadt, the port for St. Petersburg , where they arrived on August 28, 1869. American settlers who shared Sumner's belief in
1701-485: The 51st parallel north . The edict also forbade foreign ships to approach within 100 Italian miles (115 miles or 185 km) of the Russian claim. US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams strongly protested the edict, which potentially threatened both the commerce and expansionary ambitions of the United States. Seeking favorable relations with the U.S., Alexander agreed to the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 . In
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#17330851951781782-527: The Coast Tsimshian dialect . However, Krauss and Leer (1981, p. 165) point out that the fading vowels in Coastal Tsimshian are the surface realization of underlying sequences of vowel and glottalized sonorant, VʔC . That is in contradistinction to the glottal modifications in Tongass Tlingit, which Leer argues are symmetric with the modifications of the consonantal system. Thus, a fading vowel V̤
1863-620: The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska , the area was renamed the District of Alaska in 1884 and the Territory of Alaska in 1912, ultimately becoming the modern-day State of Alaska in 1959. Russian America was settled by promyshlenniki , merchants and fur trappers who expanded through Siberia . They arrived in Alaska in 1732, and in 1799
1944-527: The Russian Empire had contact with Alaska and the coast of North America down to Sonoma County, California . After the Alaska Purchase , English-speaking missionaries from the United States developed a written version of the language with the Latin alphabet . The history of Tlingit is poorly known, mostly because there is no written record until the first contact with Europeans around the 1790s. Documentation
2025-534: The Russian-American Company (RAC) received a charter to hunt for fur. No colony was established, but the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to the natives and built churches. About 700 Russians enforced sovereignty in a territory over twice as large as Texas . In 1821, Tsar Alexander I issued an edict declaring Russia's sovereignty over the North American Pacific coast north of
2106-769: The Taku River and into northern British Columbia and the Yukon around Atlin Lake ( Áa Tleen "Big Lake") and Teslin Lake ( Desleen < Tas Tleen "Big Thread") lake districts, as well as a concentration around Bennett Lake at the end of the Chilkoot Trail ( Jilkhoot ). Otherwise, Tlingit is not found in Canada . Tlingit legend tells that groups of Tlingit once inhabited the Stikine , Nass , and Skeena river valleys during their migrations from
2187-597: The United Kingdom . To this end, William H. Seward , the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, entered into negotiations with Russian diplomat Eduard de Stoeckl towards the United States' acquisition of Alaska after the American Civil War . Seward and Stoeckl agreed to a treaty for the sale on March 30, 1867. At an original cost of $ 0.02 per acre ($ 0.36 per acre in 2023), the United States had grown by 586,412 sq mi (1,518,800 km ). Reactions to
2268-557: The 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It appeared again on the 1950 census, but did not appear in 1960. It was returned again in 1970 and made a census-designated place (CDP) in 1980. As of the census of 2000, there were 32 people, 15 households, and 9 families residing full-time in the CDP. Among full-time residents, the population density was 3.0 inhabitants per square mile (1.2/km). There were 35 housing units at an average density of 3.3 per square mile (1.3/km). The racial makeup of
2349-516: The Alaska Purchase among Americans were mostly positive, as many believed that Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. Some opponents labeled the purchase as " Seward's Folly " or " Seward's Icebox " as they contended that the United States had acquired useless land. Nearly all Russian settlers left Alaska in the aftermath of the purchase; Alaska would remain sparsely populated until
2430-426: The American crown, and a few days later the new governor also arrived in a ship together with his soldiers. The wooden two-story mansion of the Russian governor stood on a high hill, and in front of it in the yard at the end of a tall spar flew the Russian flag with the double-headed eagle in the middle of it. Of course, this flag now had to give way to the flag of the United States, which is full of stripes and stars. On
2511-452: The Americans. The troops occupied the barracks; General Jefferson C. Davis established his residence in the governor's house, and most of the Russian citizens went home, leaving a few traders and priests who chose to remain. After the transfer, a number of Russian citizens remained in Sitka, but nearly all of them very soon decided to return to Russia, which was still possible at the expense of
Elfin Cove, Alaska - Misplaced Pages Continue
2592-404: The CDP was 93.75% White , 3.12% Pacific Islander , and 3.12% from two or more races. Of the 15 households, 20.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.3% were married couples living together, and 40.0% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and
2673-506: The Haida linguist John Enrico presented new arguments and reopened the debate. Victor Golla writes in his 2011 California Native Languages , "John Enrico, the contemporary linguist with the deepest knowledge of Haida, continues to believe that a real, if distant, genetic relationship connects Haida to Na-Dene[.]" The Tlingit language is distributed from near the mouth of the Copper River down
2754-596: The Northern dialect, the dominant spoken dialect of Tlingit and the standard for written Tlingit, every vowel may take either high or low tone ; in the orthography high tone is indicated by an acute accent ( áa ) and low tone is unmarked ( aa ). The Southern and Transitional dialects have a mid tone which is unmarked and additional low tone which is marked by a grave accent ( àa ). The Inland Tlingit orthography does not use vowel digraphs. Instead, short high vowels are marked with an acute accent, long high vowels are marked with
2835-453: The Russian presence in what one scholar later described as "Siberia's Siberia". However, the principal reason for the sale was that the hard-to-defend colony would be easily conquered by British forces based in neighboring Canada in any future conflict, and Russia did not wish to see its archrival being next door just across the Bering Sea . Therefore, Emperor Alexander II decided to sell
2916-485: The Russian-American Company. Ahllund's story "corroborates other accounts of the transfer ceremony, and the dismay felt by many of the Russians and creoles , jobless and in want, at the rowdy troops and gun-toting civilians who looked on Sitka as merely one more western frontier settlement." Ahllund gives a vivid account of what life was like for civilians in Sitka under US rule and helps to explain why hardly any Russian subject wanted to stay there. Moreover, Ahllund's article
2997-424: The Russians were settled at 23 trading posts, placed on accessible islands and at points along the coast. At smaller trading posts, typically only four or five Russians were stationed: their job was to collect furs from the natives for storage and then for shipment when the company's boats arrived to take the furs away. There were two larger towns. One was New Archangel (now named Sitka ), established in 1804 to handle
3078-468: The Tongass vowel system is adequate to predict the tonal features of both the two-tone and three-tone dialects, but none of the tonal dialects could be used to predict vocalic feature distribution in Tongass Tlingit. Thus, Tongass Tlingit is the most conservative of the various dialects of Tlingit, preserving contrasts which have been lost in the other dialects. The fading and glottalized vowels in Tongass Tlingit have also been compared with similar systems in
3159-477: The U.S. government might pay for the Russian colony and Senator Gwin replied that they "might go as far as $ 5,000,000", a figure Gorchakov found far too low. Stoeckl informed Appleton and Gwin of this, the latter saying that his Congressional colleagues in Oregon and California would support a larger figure. Buchanan's increasingly unpopular presidency forced the matter to be shelved until a new presidential election. With
3240-593: The U.S. would probably derive great economic benefits from the purchase, such as considerable mineral resources that previous geological explorations of the region suggested were available there; friendship with Russia was important; and it would facilitate the acquisition of British Columbia. Forty-five percent of supportive newspapers cited the increased potential for annexing British Columbia in their support, and The New York Times stated that, consistent with Seward's reason, Alaska would increase American trade with East Asia. The principal urban newspaper that opposed
3321-582: The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, the Tsar instructed Stoeckl to re-enter into negotiations with William H. Seward in the beginning of March 1867. President Andrew Johnson was busy with negotiations about Reconstruction , and Seward had alienated a number of Republicans, so both men believed that the purchase would help divert attention from domestic issues. The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with
Elfin Cove, Alaska - Misplaced Pages Continue
3402-469: The acquisition to contemporary European colonial acquisitions , such as the French conquest of Algeria . The United States Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 37 to 2. Many Americans believed in 1867 that the purchase process had been corrupt, but W. H. Dall in 1872 wrote that, "there can be no doubt that the feelings of a majority of the citizens of the United States are in favor of it." The notion that
3483-506: The area purchased from Russia. Seward told the nation that, according to Russian estimates, Alaska had about 60,000 inhabitants. This included about 10,500 who were under the direct government of the Russian fur company: about 8,000 indigenous people and 2,500 people of Russian or mixed Russian and indigenous descent (for example, having a Russian father and a native mother). The remaining 50,000 or so were Inuit or Alaska Natives living outside of Russia's jurisdiction. Seward also said that
3564-481: The articulation of ejective fricatives includes complete closure of the glottis before frication begins, and the larynx is raised in the same manner as with ejective stops. Characteristically, the ejective fricatives in Tlingit feature a much smaller aperture for frication than is found in ordinary fricatives. That articulation provides increased resistance to counter the continual loss of dynamic airstream pressure. Also, ejective fricatives appear to include tightening of
3645-403: The average family size was 2.67. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 15.6% under the age of 18, 3.1% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 37.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females, there were 146.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 170.0 males. The median income for a household in the CDP
3726-460: The distances that separate them, both geographic and linguistic. Tlingit is currently classified as a distinct and separate branch of Na-Dene, an indigenous language family of North America . Edward Sapir (1915) argued for its inclusion in the Na-Dené family, a claim that was subsequently debated by Franz Boas (1917), P.E. Goddard (1920), and many other prominent linguists of the time. Studies in
3807-619: The extension of American power into the Pacific. Senator Charles Sumner , chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sponsored the Senate bill authorizing the U.S. to approve the treaty to acquire the territory. He not only agreed about the benefit to trade, but also said he expected the territory to be valuable on its own; having studied the records of explorers, he believed it contained valuable animals and forests. He compared
3888-511: The fisheries was entrusted by a lease from the US government paid a rental of $ 50,000 per annum and in addition thereto $ 2.62 + 1 ⁄ 2 per skin for the total number taken. The skins were transported to London to be dressed and prepared for world markets. The business grew so large that the earnings of English laborers after the acquisition of Alaska by the United States amounted by 1890 to $ 12,000,000. However, exclusive US control of this resource
3969-502: The flag transition was completed, Captain of 2nd Rank Aleksei Alekseyevich Peshchurov said, "General Rousseau, by authority from His Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the territory of Alaska." General Lovell Rousseau accepted the territory. (Peshchurov had been sent to Sitka as commissioner of the Russian government in the transfer of Alaska.) A number of forts, blockhouses and timber buildings were handed over to
4050-431: The handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. In a memorandum to Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov he stated that we must not deceive ourselves and must foresee that the United States, aiming constantly to round out their possessions and desiring to dominate undividedly the whole of North America will take the afore-mentioned colonies from us and we shall not be able to regain them. Konstantin's letter
4131-649: The interior. There is a small group of speakers (some 85) in Washington as well. Golla (2007) reported a decreasing population of 500 speakers in Alaska. The First Peoples' Cultural Council (2014) reported 2 speakers in Canada out of an ethnic population of 400. As of 2013, Tlingit courses are available at the University of Alaska Southeast . In April 2014, Alaska HB 216 recognized Tlingit as an official language of Alaska, lending support to language revitalization . Tlingit
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#17330851951784212-676: The late 1960s, Tlingit was written exclusively in phonetic transcription in the works of linguists and anthropologists except for a little-known Cyrillic alphabet used for publications by the Russian Orthodox Church . A number of amateur anthropologists doing extensive work on the Tlingit had no training in linguistics and so left numerous samples in vague and inconsistent transcriptions, the most famous being George T. Emmons . However, such noted anthropologists as Franz Boas , John R. Swanton , and Frederica de Laguna have transcribed Tlingit in various related systems that feature accuracy and consistency but sacrifice readability. Two problems ensue from
4293-506: The late 20th century by (Heinz-)Jürgen Pinnow (1962, 1968, 1970, int. al.) and Michael E. Krauss (1964, 1965, 1969, int. al.) showed a strong connection to Eyak and hence to the Athabaskan languages . Sapir initially proposed a connection between Tlingit and Haida , but the debate over Na-Dene gradually excluded Haida from the discussion. Haida is now considered an isolate , with some borrowing from its long proximity with Tlingit. In 2004,
4374-442: The minority opinion of some American newspaper editors who opposed the purchase: Already, so it was said, we were burdened with territory we had no population to fill. The Indians within the present boundaries of the republic strained our power to govern aboriginal peoples. Could it be that we would now, with open eyes, seek to add to our difficulties by increasing the number of such peoples under our national care? The purchase price
4455-421: The more accurate d [t] . There is a wide variation in ordinary speech, ranging from unreleased [t̚] to a very delayed aspiration [tːʰ] . However, the underlying phoneme is certainly unaspirated /t/ since it is consistently produced when the word is suffixed. The orthography usually but not always reflects that: hít "house" is written (du) hídi "(his) house" when marked with the possessive suffix -ÿí . It
4536-489: The multiplicity of transcription systems used for Tlingit. One is that there are many of them, thus requiring any reader to learn each individual system depending on what sources are used. The other is that most transcriptions made before Boas's study of Tlingit have numerous mistakes in them, particularly because of misinterpretations of the short vowels and ejective consonants. Accuracy of transcription can be increased by checking against similar words in other systems, or against
4617-687: The northern end of the Inian Peninsula; the actual settlement of Elfin Cove within the CDP, and its namesake harbor, are on the western side of the peninsula. According to the United States Census Bureau , the CDP has a total area of 10.4 square miles (26.9 km), of which 10.2 square miles (26.4 km) are land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km), or 1.73%, are water. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Elfin Cove has an oceanic climate (Cfb). Elfin Cove first appeared on
4698-489: The oncoming American Civil War, Stoeckl proposed a renewal of the RAC's charter. Two of its ports were to be open to foreign traders and commercial agreements with Peru and Chile to be signed to give "a fresh jolt" to the company. Russia continued to see an opportunity to weaken British power by causing British Columbia , including the Royal Navy base at Esquimalt , to be surrounded or annexed by American territory. Following
4779-580: The open coast of the Gulf of Alaska and throughout almost all of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska . It is characterized by four or five distinct dialects, but they are mostly mutually intelligible. Almost all of the area where the Tlingit language is endemic is contained within the modern borders of Alaska . The exception is an area known as "Inland Tlingit" that extends up
4860-481: The pharyngeal muscles, which reduces the diameter of the air column and so further increases pressure. That pharyngeal constriction is not true pharyngealization, however, since the diameter is still greater than what is found in pharyngealized consonants in other languages. Tlingit has eight vowels , four vowels further distinguished formally by length . However, the length distinction is often in terms of tenseness rather than length, particularly in rapid speech. For
4941-514: The purchase or were neutral. A review of dozens of contemporary newspapers found general support for the purchase, especially in California; most of 48 major newspapers supported the purchase. Public opinion was not universally positive; to some the purchase was known as "Seward's folly", "Walrussia", or "Seward's icebox". Editorials contended that taxpayer money had been wasted on a "polar bear garden". Nonetheless, most newspaper editors argued that
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#17330851951785022-498: The purchase was the New York Tribune , published by Seward opponent Horace Greeley . The ongoing controversy over Reconstruction spread to other acts, including the Alaska purchase. Some opposed the United States obtaining its first non-contiguous territory, seeing it as a colony; others saw no need to pay for land that they expected the country to obtain through manifest destiny . Historian Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer summarized
5103-429: The purchase was unpopular among Americans is, a scholar wrote 120 years later, "one of the strongest historical myths in American history. It persists despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, and the efforts of the best historians to dispel it", likely in part because it fits American and Alaskan writers' view of the territory as distinct and filled with self-reliant pioneers. A majority of newspapers either supported
5184-459: The riches of Alaska rushed to the territory but found that much capital was required to exploit its resources, many of which could also be found closer to markets in the contiguous United States. Most soon left, and by 1873, Sitka's population had declined from about 2,500 to a few hundred. The United States acquired an area over twice as large as Texas, but it was not until the great Klondike Gold Rush in 1896 that Alaska generally came to be seen as
5265-416: The risks that they incurred. Other economists and scholars, including Scott Goldsmith and Terrence Cole, have criticized the metrics used to reach those conclusions by noting that most contiguous Western states would fail to meet the bar of "positive financial return" using the same criteria and by contending that looking at the increase in net national income, instead of only US Treasury revenue, would paint
5346-419: The sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and California Senator William M. Gwin , Stoeckl reported the interest expressed by the Americans in acquiring Russian America. While President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Stoeckl reported a conversation in which he asked "in passing" what price
5427-469: The signing of the treaty at 04:00 on March 30, 1867. The purchase price was set at $ 7.2 million (equivalent to $ 129 million in 2023), or about 2 cents per acre ($ 4.74/km ). The Russian name for the Alaska Peninsula was Alyaska ("Аляска") or Alyeska , from an Aleut word, alashka or alaesksu , meaning "great land" or "mainland". The United States chose the name "Alaska" to refer to
5508-514: The south. Tlingit has a complex phonological system compared to Indo-European languages such as English or Spanish . It has an almost complete series of ejective consonants accompanying its stop, fricative, and affricate consonants. The only missing consonant in the Tlingit ejective series is [ʃʼ] . The language is also notable for having several laterals but no voiced [l] and for having no labials in most dialects, except for [m] and [p] in recent English loanwords . The consonants in
5589-581: The table are given in the IPA, with the popular orthography equivalents in brackets. Marginal or historical phonemes are given in parentheses. Nasal consonants assimilating with /n/ and the velar and uvular plosives is common among Tlingit-speakers of all dialects. For example, the sequence ng ( /nk/ ) is often heard as [ŋk] and ngh ( /nq/ ) as [ɴq] . Native speakers in a teaching position may admonish learners when they produce these assimilated forms, deriding them as "not Tlingit" or "too English", but it
5670-461: The territory on October 18. During the first half of the 18th century, Russia had established a colonial presence in parts of North America, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. Alexander II of Russia , having faced a catastrophic defeat in the Crimean War , began exploring the possibility of selling the state's Alaskan possessions, which, in any future war, would be difficult to defend from
5751-452: The territory. The Russian government discussed the proposal in 1857 and 1858 and offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a more pressing concern in Washington. Grand Duke Konstantin , a younger brother of the Tsar, began to press for
5832-414: The treaty, Russia limited its claims to lands north of parallel 54°40′ north and also agreed to open Russian ports to U.S. ships. By the 1850s, a population of once 300,000 sea otters was almost extinct, and Russia needed money after being defeated by France and Britain in the Crimean War . The California Gold Rush showed that if gold were discovered in Alaska, Americans and Canadians would overwhelm
5913-492: The valuable trade in the skins of sea otters; in 1867, it had 116 small log cabins and 968 residents. The other was St. Paul , in the Pribilof Islands , which had 100 homes and 283 residents, and was the center of the seal fur industry. Seward and many other Americans expected that Asia would become an important market for U.S. products, and that Alaska would serve as a base for American trade with Asia and globally, and for
5994-503: Was $ 33,750, and the median income for a family was $ 33,750. Males had a median income of $ 48,750 versus $ 0 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $ 15,089. There were no families and 5.6% of the population living below the poverty line , including no under eighteens and none of those over 64. Tlingit language The Tlingit language ( English: / ˈ k l ɪ ŋ k ɪ t / KLING -kit ; Lingít Tlingit pronunciation: [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ] )
6075-473: Was a "sucked orange." It contained nothing of value but furbearing animals, and these had been hunted until they were nearly extinct. Except for the Aleutian Islands and a narrow strip of land extending along the southern coast the country would be not worth taking as a gift… Unless gold were found in the country much time would elapse before it would be blessed with Hoe printing presses, Methodist chapels and
6156-453: Was able to bring the unwilling eagle down to the ground. While the flag was brought down, music was played and cannons were fired off from the shore, and then, while the other flag was hoisted, the Americans fired off their cannons from the ships equally many times. After that American soldiers replaced the Russian ones at the gates of the fence surrounding the Kolosh [i.e. Tlingit ] village. After
6237-595: Was eventually challenged, and the Bering Sea Controversy resulted when the United States seized over 150 sealing ships flying the British flag, based out of the coast of British Columbia. The conflict between the United States and Britain was resolved by an arbitration tribunal in 1893. The waters of the Bering Sea were deemed to be international waters, contrary to the US contention that they were an internal sea. The US
6318-404: Was required to make a payment to Britain, and both nations were required to follow regulations developed to preserve the resource. The purchase of Alaska has been referenced as a "bargain basement deal" and as the principal positive accomplishment of the otherwise much-maligned presidency of Andrew Johnson . Economist David R. Barker has argued that the US federal government has not earned
6399-424: Was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, who wrote "this idea is worth considering" on the front page. Supporters of Konstantin's proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl . Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America but argued for a gradual process leading to its sale. He found
6480-436: Was small; the annual charges for administration, civil and military, would be yet greater, and continuing. The territory included in the proposed cession was not contiguous to the national domain. It lay away at an inconvenient and a dangerous distance. The treaty had been secretly prepared, and signed and foisted upon the country at one o'clock in the morning. It was a dark deed done in the night… The New York World said that it
6561-557: Was sparse and irregular until the early 20th century. The language appears to have spread northward from the Ketchikan – Saxman area towards the Chilkat region since certain conservative features are reduced gradually from south to north. The shared features between the Eyak language , found around the Copper River delta, and Tongass Tlingit , near the Portland Canal , are all the more striking for
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