Pribilof Islands Historic Preservation and Environmental Restoration

Topics

Island History
The Russian Period

During the eighteenth century, the lure of furs enticed the promyshlenniki, Russian fur hunters and traders, east across the expansive Russian frontier and into the Bering Sea. The Russian advance continued along the Aleutian Chain. While visiting the Aleutians, navigator Gavriil Loginovich Pribylov³ heard tales of the discovery of by Iggadaagix, the son of an [Unangam Tunuu: seasider or islander] toion [Russian] or chief from Unimak Island (Veniaminov 1984, 134–135). Caught in a fierce storm blowing out of the south, Iggadaagix found the misty islands and the summer home to the northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus ().

At a time when the sea otter () had been nearly exterminated for its fur, the fur seal became the source of speculation (Elliott 1976, 8; Riley 1967). For years, Russian navigators had been searching for the land of the fur seals. They had seen the seals swimming north through the passes of the Aleutian Chain in the spring, then back south in the fall. Impelled by the tale of , Pribylov commanded the Sv. Georgii Pobedonosets (St. George the Victorious), a small sloop⁴ outfitted by merchants Lebedev-Lastochkin and Shelikhov, to search for the islands that now bear his name (Black 2004, 104). In June 1786 Pribylov followed the sounds of barking seals through the dense Bering Sea fog to discover an island he christened St. George Island or Sv. Georgii Ostrova [Russian] in honor of his ship, Sv. Georgii.⁵

A year later, forty miles to the north of St. George, a crew left by Pribylov to winter at Sv. Georgii and led by Efim Popov, landed on what he named St. Peter and St. Paul Island (later shortened to St. Paul Island; (Veniaminov 1984, 70–71). The island was named in honor of the Saints’ day on which the crew landed on the island. While Pribylov and his sailors found no vestige of human habitation on St. George Island, reconnaissance of St. Paul Island revealed the remains of a recent fire, scorched grass, a pipe, and a sword hilt handle, the origins of which remain a mystery (Elliott 1976, 9).

Aleut legend suggests the Aleuts knew and utilized the Seal Islands before the Russians discovered them. Aleuts referred to St. Paul Island variously in their own Unangam Tunuu (Aleut language), as (Mother’s Brother) or (Land of Mother’s Brother referring to St. Paul Island by itself; the term has also been applied to the combination of both islands); Tanaxsilgux, (the big made island); or Sampuulax (St. Paul Island). Currently, among some Aleuts, the preferred Aleut name for St. Paul Island is . This name is also used when referring to both St. Paul and St. George.⁶

Following the discovery of the St. George and St. Paul Islands, Pribylov and his associates, and others who came after them, brought Aleuts from the Aleutian Chain to these islands for the purpose of harvesting and processing fur seals (Elliott 1976, 19). St. George and St. Paul Islands became the only inhabited islands of the Pribilof archipelago, which also includes the smaller Sea Lion Rock, Walrus Island, and Otter Island. The people of these islands are known as (meaning outward or seaward people) reflecting the perspective of the Aleutian Islanders, known as Unangan/Unangas.

While the focus of this narrative is on the years following the United States’ purchase of Alaska, several events from the Russian period are noteworthy:

1786
Following Pribylov’s discovery of St. George Island, the first villages on the island were located at Starry Ateel⁷ and Zapadni (Elliott 1976, 19). Pribylov and his associates also built barabaras or semi-subterranean sod homes (ulan) at Garden Cove (Elliott 1976, 19). The scattered settlements were later abandoned and consolidated at a location near the present day City of Saint George.

1787
At least one year after the discovery of St. George Island, the first traders posted themselves on the north shore of St. Paul Island at or near “Maroonitch,” and at the head of Big Lake among the sand dunes. As competition grew, villages were established at Polovina and Zapadni (Elliott 1976, 19–20).

1799
Unorganized contingents of Russian hunting companies harvested seals in the early years following Russian discovery of the Pribilof Islands. In 1799, an imperial ukase (proclamation or edict of the tsar) established the Russian-American Company and granted the company exclusive privileges of trade and occupation of northwestern America, lying north of latitude 55° (Black 2004, 255; Brooks 1967, 36; Tikhmenev 1978, 54–55; Okum 1951, 82, 94). Privileges included using hunting grounds, making discoveries, establishing settlements and fortifying them, and trading with nearby powers. The company’s board of directors appointed Aleksandr Baranov chief manager of the Russian-American company and which eventually (1812) included the settlement at Fort Ross in Spanish California.⁸

Circa 1800
The people on St. Paul Island all lived at Polovina and Zapadni, under the control of the Russian-American Company (Elliott 1976, 20).

1805
The inordinate killing of previous years diminished the Pribilof Islands’ fur-seal population, causing the Russian-American Company’s board of directors to suspend hunting. The prohibition ended at St. George Island in 1808, and at St. Paul Island in 1810, but the yearly catch was limited to 8,000 to 10,000 pelts. Though not as abundant as before, there was a substantial increase in the number of seals returning to the islands during the suspension of hunting (Veniaminov 1984, 344–345).

1821
The Russian government granted the Russian-American Company a second twenty-year charter, and issued an ukase extending the southern boundary of Russian influence (Black 2004, 256; Buchanan 1929, 19). The ukase of September 5, 1821, stated that pursuits of commerce, whaling, fishing, and all other industry of the northwest coast of America “beginning from the Bering Strait to the fifty-first degree of northern latitude; also from the Aleutian Islands to the eastern coast of Siberia…to 45º 50’ northern latitude, are exclusively granted to Russian subjects.” Further, it prohibited all foreign vessels from landing on the coast of islands belonging to Russia and from approaching within one hundred Italian miles.

1825
Russian-American Company manager and scholar, Kiril. T. Khlebnikov recorded a total population of 96 (Unangam Tunuu: residents of the Pribilof Islands) at St. George Island: 81 Aleut, 8 Russian, and 7 Creole. At St. Paul Island, Khlebnikov recorded 130 people: 108 Aleut, 13 Russian, and the remainder Creoles and Indians (Pierce 1994, 286–287). The Russian-American Company moved the Polovina settlement to the area of the present day City of Saint Paul, near what is now called Village Cove, where ships were more easily loaded and unloaded (Elliott 1976, 20).

The Unangan

The United States’ Management of the Pribilof Islands

Aleut Management and Ownership of the Pribilof Islands

Seal Islands Historic District National Historic Landmark

Literary Contributions