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75-636: The loss of winter stores, canoes, and shelter led to several Kake deaths during the winter. The Kake did not rebuild the small villages destroyed. Some dispersed to other villages, while others remained in the vicinity of Kake, eventually rebuilding the present day Kake. Following the Alaska Purchase , the United States Army came to Alaska to serve as the civil administering entity of the Department of Alaska . The U.S. authorities used common law , while

150-619: A blanket ranged widely by time and location, regardless of its size. Thickness and quality are the same blanket to blanket, and a larger blanket will naturally weigh more. In 1811, at Fort St. Joseph there was a shortage of greatcoats for the King's soldiers. The date was November 20, 1811, and British Army Captain Charles Roberts , wrote a letter to Captain Evans, Adjutant General in Quebec , making

225-411: 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

300-806: 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

375-704: 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

450-435: 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

525-553: 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

600-501: A real or supposed injury is at once the signal for retaliation, "The Kakes very promptly sought the usual remedy, 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'". Upon hearing of the retribution killings, Davis instructed Lieutenant Commander Richard Worsam Meade of the USS ; Saginaw to set sail to the Kake tribal lands, take a few chiefs as hostage until surrender of the accused responsible for

675-484: A requisition, written as follows: “All hopes having now ceased of the arrival of the schooner Hunter or any other vessel from Amherstburg with the clothing of the detachment, I am this day obtaining, upon my requisition to the storekeeper of the Indian Department , a consignment of heavy blankets, for the purpose of making them great coats, a measure the severity of the climate strongly demands and one, I trust,

750-550: A single stripe across each end, usually in blue or red. In the mid-1800s blankets began to be produced with a green stripe, red stripe, yellow stripe and indigo stripe on a white background; the four stripe colours were popular and easily produced using good colourfast dyes at that time. In 1798, a mill owner received a purchase order for "30 pair[s] of 3 points to be striped with four colors (red, blue, green, yellow) according to your judgement." to be manufactured in Witney , Oxfordshire,

825-722: A sub brand of A.W. Hainsworth & Sons Ltd. Wools from Britain and New Zealand are used in the manufacture of blankets. The official licensee allowed to import Hudson's Bay Blankets into the United States for commercial sale is Woolrich Inc. of Pennsylvania. Four U.S. retailers as of 2012 sell the blankets to consumers: Woolrich, L.L.Bean , Getz's Department Store in Marquette, Michigan , and Johnson Woolen Mills . Genuine point blankets have become very collectible and could fetch prices up to thousands of dollars. The main determinants of value include age, size, colour, pattern rarity and condition. Particularly collectible point blankets are

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900-686: 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

975-492: A town famous for its woollen blankets since the Middle Ages. From the early days of the fur trade, wool blankets were made into hooded coats called capotes by both natives and French Canadian voyageurs , which were well-suited to Canada's cold winters. Points are short black lines woven into the selvage of the blanket along the edge just above the bottom set of stripes. About 4 inches (10 cm) in length (except in

1050-552: 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 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

1125-402: 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

1200-617: 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

1275-605: 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 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

1350-563: The North American fur trade . The blankets continue to be sold by Canada's Hudson's Bay department stores and have come to hold iconic status in the country. In the North American fur trade , by 1700, wool blankets accounted for more than 60 per cent of traded goods. French fur trader Germain Maugenest is thought to have advised the HBC to introduce point blankets. Originally point blankets had

1425-517: The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 . In 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

1500-831: The Stikine surrendered the killer to the army, who following a court-martialing was hung in front of the fort garrison and villagers. An unexploded Parrott rifle shell was discovered in the 1940s by a Kake resident embedded in a tree stump and kept as a family heirloom for many years before being defused in 2011 and placed on display in the Sealaska Heritage Institute . In 2024, the US Navy announced that there would be two apologies for wrongful military action, in Kake and in Angoon. Navy Environmental Public Affairs Specialist Julianne Leinenveber stated, “The pain and suffering inflicted upon

1575-581: The Tlingit people used indigenous law. Americans generally characterized the Tlingit legal framework as based on "revenge"; in actuality, it was more complex and involved "peace ceremonies" which included compensation in either goods or human lives. On New Year's Day 1869, three Tlingit chiefs (Colchika, a Chilkat leader from Haines, Alaska , Kalsteix "Sitka Jack", and an unidentified chief) were invited to visit Fort Sitka to meet with Jefferson C. Davis . A sentry at

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1650-463: The United States Senate ratified a bilateral treaty that had been signed on March 30, and American sovereignty became legally effective across 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

1725-609: The 19th century was 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar). Alaska Day is a holiday for all state workers. Hudson%27s Bay point blanket A Hudson's Bay point blanket is a type of wool blanket traded by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in British North America , now Canada and the United States, from 1779 to present. The blankets were typically traded to First Nations in exchange for beaver pelts as an important part of

1800-426: 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

1875-452: 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

1950-644: The Coronation blankets: the one produced for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II brings approximately $ 600 if in mint condition while examples of the even rarer 1937 coronation blanket have sold for as high as $ 1300. In 1890, HBC began adding labels to their blankets because point blankets of similar quality were being sold by HBC competitors from such manufacturers as Early's of Witney. Harold Lee Tichenor , point blanket collector and consultant to Hudson's Bay Company, has written two books on point blankets and their collectability. In April 2017, HBC updated

2025-442: The Kake sought retribution in lives. The Kake captured a party of four trappers on Admiralty Island : two white trappers (Ludwig Madger and William Walker) were put to death at Murder Cove , while two mixed race Tlingit-Russian guides were purposefully set free. While the army failed to recognize Tlingit law, others recognized the local customs. According to the post trader at Sitka, Frank K. Louthan, "The failure to promptly pay for

2100-528: The Kake tribe who were departing Sitka in a canoe. A report by secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners Vincent Colyer and Sitka Mayor William S. Dodge from 1870 attributes the initial altercation in part to serving alcohol to natives , saying Colchika was inebriated at the time with whiskey. Chief Tom of the Kake tribe demanded compensation for the death, as is customary in Tlingit law, from General Davis, who refused. Failing to receive material compensation,

2175-501: The King's stores at the fort, hired local women to design and manufacture forty woollen greatcoats. Everyone was in agreement that the newly tailored greatcoats were of superior quality than the British Army standard-issue greatcoats and helped to increase the morale of the King's soldiers. At the beginning of the War of 1812 , Roberts and his men occupied Fort Michilimackinac located at

2250-489: The North American Pacific coast north of 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

2325-453: 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

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2400-485: 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

2475-424: 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

2550-563: The Tlingit people warrants this long overdue apology,” and “The Navy will be issuing this apology because it is the right thing to do, regardless of how much time has passed since these tragic events transpired.” 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,

2625-477: 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

2700-593: 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

2775-582: 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

2850-590: 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 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

2925-469: 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

3000-506: 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

3075-511: The case of half points, which are 2 in [5.1 cm]), they indicate the finished overall size (area) of a blanket and allow easy determination of the size of a blanket – even when folded. French weavers invented the point system in the mid-1700s since then, as now, blankets were shrunk as part of the manufacturing process. The word point derives from the French empointer , meaning "to make threaded stitches on cloth". Over

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3150-488: The centuries the sizes of blankets have shifted, particularly during the twentieth century as beds became larger. Blankets of 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 point were most common during the fur-trade era. Today, Hudson's Bay blankets are commonly found in point sizes of 3.5 ( twin bed ), 4 ( double ), 6 ( queen ) and 8 ( king ). The misconception persists that originally the points were an indication of a blanket's price in beaver pelts or even its weight. The number of pelts required to buy

3225-579: The commander of the forces will not disapprove of when he is informed that not a remnant remains of the coats served out to them in the year 1807 and that they have received none since.” – Captain Charles Roberts Roberts requisitioned HBC 3.5-point blankets from the British Indian Department to manufacture greatcoats for his troops. John Askin Jr. , a Métis and keeper of

3300-405: The conflict delivered thirteen blankets and one coat, amounting in value to fifty dollar coins, to the Sitka and Chilkat, after the army refused to pay compensation, in order to restore trading relations. In December, 1869, a similar event at Fort Wrangell in which Tlingit were killed and a white man ( Leon Smith ) was killed in retribution led to a two-day bombardment of Old Wrangell . However

3375-458: The entrance to the fort challenged them, and after they ignored the challenge, kicked Colchika in the buttocks. In the ensuing scuffle, Colchika disarmed the soldier and walked away from the fort with his rifle. Upon hearing of the incident, Davis sent a small detachment to the nearby Sitka village to "bring in the Chilkat chief dead or alive". A firefight in the village ensued in which a Tlingit slave

3450-619: 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

3525-511: 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

3600-502: 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

3675-532: The future, when the Hudson's Bay Company began to commercially sell point blanket coats, the Mackinaw jacket remained popular with their customers. Versions of the blanket are available at Hudson's Bay stores throughout Canada. Solid colours are available, as is the classic pattern featuring the green, red, yellow, and indigo stripes. The blankets have always been made in England; today they are made by John Atkinson,

3750-431: 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

3825-483: The killing, and to burn the villages. The Saginaw departed on 11 February 1869. A Landing party from the Saginaw entered the small Fossil Bluffs Village, found it deserted, and the next day set it alight. The next day the Saginaw sailed for Hamilton Bay, the site of present-day Kake and at the time a large village named Town Where No One Sleeps. This site was bombarded prior to a landing party putting to shore and setting

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3900-413: The label, rotating it from vertical to horizontal, making it easy to display English and French on either side of the crest, which has been enhanced with red on the flag. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada in 2017, HBC added an additional label to the blanket: a picture of voyageurs in a canoe, with "Canada" printed at the top. On 2 May 2020, HBC celebrated its 350th anniversary. It re-released

3975-442: 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

4050-489: 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

4125-463: The present-day Mackinaw City, Michigan . Roberts ordered a new supply of Hudson's Bay point blankets for the upcoming winter to manufacture more greatcoats. This time Roberts had enlisted the aid of professional tailors and seamstresses to produce the greatcoats. A despatch runner advised that the long length of the greatcoat was impractical for the deep snow drifts when travelling between Mackinaw and Montreal and requested it be replaced by

4200-514: 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

4275-498: 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

4350-429: 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

4425-459: 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

4500-416: 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

4575-419: 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

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4650-474: The shorter double-breasted style, which became known as the Mackinaw jacket . At first, the Mackinaw jacket was produced in blue and was later replaced by the more popular red and black tartan pattern. The new design of the Mackinaw jacket was so beneficial for travelling through woods and trails that orders were received from people located from Fort William to Penetanguishene . More than 100 years into

4725-469: 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

4800-452: 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

4875-492: 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

4950-495: The village afire after finding it deserted. The next morning the Saginaw sailed for Security Bay to a village now known as Retaliation Point Village which was also deserted and put to the torch. Setting sail, the Saginaw found two deserted forts with stores and smokehouses which were also destroyed by fire. According to Kake oral history, recorded in a 1979 interview, one elderly woman stayed in Fossil Bluffs Village and

5025-473: 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

5100-453: 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

5175-450: Was burned to death. The loss of winter stores, canoes, and shelter led to several Kake deaths during the winter. The Kake did not rebuild the small villages destroyed. Some dispersed to other villages, while others remained in the vicinity of Kake, eventually rebuilding the present day Kake. Trade with Fort Sitka was reduced substantially in the months following the conflict. The post trader at Sitka, Frank K. Louthan, some five months after

5250-595: 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

5325-483: Was killed, and Colchika and four others were wounded. The detachment then retreated as the Tlingit outnumbered them, and Davis proceeded to place Sitka under siege by gunship and fort artillery, demanding the surrender of Colchika. Some Tlingit who attempted to leave Sitka by canoe were killed by gunship fire. After a few days Colchika surrendered to the Army, however, the next morning an army sentry killed two unarmed Tlingit from

5400-404: 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

5475-633: Was settled by promyshlenniki , merchants and fur trappers who expanded through Siberia . They arrived in Alaska in 1732, and in 1799 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

5550-424: 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

5625-436: 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

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