Dynamics of the fur trade on the middle Yukon River, Alaska, 1839 to 1868

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1996This study examines the Russian-era fur trade of the middle course of the Yukon River, that section of the river which extends from Fort Yukon down to Nulato, Alaska. For a period of just over twenty years, 1847 to 1868, the Russian-American and Hudson's Bay companies maintained rival establishments at opposite ends of this stretch of river and vied for the trade of the Native populations living in the region between. After reviewing the events leading up to the establishment of the first European posts in the region, the study focuses on the dynamics of the competition between the rival posts and the changing nature of Native, Russian, and British participation in the middle Yukon trade. Most historical summaries of the early (pre-1867) fur trade of the Middle Yukon rely upon a small number of published sources, resulting in a truncated and rather inaccurate version of the region's fur trade history. This study seeks to overcome that problem through utilization of two major archival collections, the records of the Russian-American and Hudson's Bay companies. Together, these sources make possible an account that is more even in temporal coverage and more balanced in its treatment of Russian, British, and Native trade activities. One of the striking features of the early Yukon drainage fur trade is the pivotal role of the Native traders in determining its spatial patterning. Though regional patterns were characterized by a certain overall stability in the period 1830 through 1868, they also underwent marked change. This study examines those changes with regard to the middle Yukon drainage and discusses the influence of material and social factors upon them

The Dwellers Between: Yup\u27ik Shamans and Cultural Change in Western Alaska

This paper examines the history of the Yup\u27ik Eskimos of western Alaska and explores how their shamans shaped the response to introduced epidemic disease. As in the experiences of so many other Native American groups, disease epidemics played an important role in the history of relations between the Yup\u27ik Eskimos and white settlers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I argue here that while the Yup\u27ik Eskimos grappled with the devastating effects of introduced diseases, they did not repudiate their shamans and traditional faith, which sets the Yup\u27ik people apart from other Native Americans. Before contact with Europeans, the Yup\u27ik people relied on their shamans for physical and psychological healing. Despite challenges from missionaries, traders, and disease, the Yup\u27ik Eskimos retained faith in their shamans well into the twentieth century. The shamans\u27 enduring power as healers rested on specific features of the Yup\u27ik belief system and the inability of western medicine to cure disease at crucial historical moments. During Russian rule in western Alaska, the shamans maintained their influence over the people by leading the Yup\u27ik Eskimos to incorporate new diseases, like smallpox, into their world view. Later, American missionaries and their western medicines brought enormous pressure onto the shamans to relinquish control. However, widespread disillusionment following the terrible double epidemic of 1900 encouraged the Yup\u27ik people to return to their shamans

Great Britain and the Russian Ukase of September 16, 1821

The affair of the Ukase of September, 1821, evokes such questions as these: What was its real purpose? Was Alexander guilty of aggression in North America or was he only attempting to solve a domestic problem, viz., smuggling in the Alaskan colony? Why did George Canning negotiate separately with Russia after he had expressed a desire to cooperate with the United States? Did he really believe that Russia would be more impressed by separate negotiations, as Harold Temperley has suggested? Did the tsar deliberately appease Britain in the hope of securing her aid in a Russo- Turkish war, as S. B. Okun and Hector Chevigny have contended, or did he follow a policy of expediency

The purchase of Alaska

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, History, 1917. ; Includes bibliographical references

The Last Great Indian War (Nulato 1851)

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995.In this study, I review the causes of an Athabaskan conflict in western Alaska which occurred in 1851. This hostility is known in published sources as the Nulato Massacre. In oral tradition the same incident is referred to either as the Last Great Indian War or simply "The Nulato War". Critical reading and analysis of primary and secondary historical source materials offer insight into external pressures on the indigenous population, the analysis of oral tradition the resulting internal pressures. The combination of historic documentation and oral tradition provide a basis for the analysis of the Nulato Massacre as an internecine conflict. The Koyukon point of view reveals this conflict to be the result of a shamanistic power contest. While it may be argued that the conflict was precipitated ultimately by economic and social post-contact dislocations, the Koyukon perceive it as a disturbance of their concept of universal psychic unity, an overarching conceptualization which encompasses all aspects of Koyukon worldview. It was imperative in their view to regain control of their lives. The role of the shaman in such restoration was paramount

Women's Exchanges: The Sex Trade and Cloth in Early Nineteenth Century Hawai‘i.

M.A. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Thomas Oliver Larkin, pioneer merchant of California, 1832-1846.

Thesis (M.A.

Russian-American relations in northeast Asia during the nineteenth century

Why, at the end of the nineteenth century, did the long Russo-American friendship turn into a bitter rivalry? Why was Manchuria prized sufficiently by each to risk jeopardizing this friendship? In answering these questions an attempt is made to view the relationship from both the Russian and American standpoints, since the actions of one, whether economic, political or military, frequently prompted counter-moves from the other.;To obtain a broad perspective the whole century is included. Attention is centered on Northeast Asia, for it was in that region that Russian-American interactions were most numerous and where the expansionist drives of both nations finally intersected. The study traces how the geographic gap was gradually bridged across the North Pacific.;Throughout the century these interactions stemmed primarily from the initiatives of private individuals and businesses--fur hunters, whalers, merchants and entrepreneurs. Consideration of these private contacts and the process through which the two governments were slowly drawn into confrontation provides one of the underlying themes explaining the estrangement.;In order to understand the historic foundations of the amicable relations, attention is directed at the high degree of cooperation displayed during the 1850s and 1860s. Highlighted are the circumstances surrounding the benevolent neutrality exhibited toward Russia during the Crimean War and Russia\u27s reciprocation during the American Civil War. Although both governments were drawn more deeply into the affairs of Northeast Asia, the results at mid-century seemed mutually beneficial. Russia acquired the Amur region, and the United States was permitted to purchase Alaska.;By contrast, examination of the escalating events of the 1890s--the political turmoil in Korea, the construction of Russia\u27s Siberian railroad, the defeat of China by Japan, the subsequent diplomatic successes of Russia and the projection of American seapower into the Far East--reveals heightened competition between Russia and the United States and deteriorating relations. The Russian advance into Manchuria, which appeared about to frustrate America\u27s own last opportunity to gain a foothold in Northeast Asia, was viewed with particular concern.;The study concludes with an outline of the pressures placed on the McKinley administration to safeguard American interests in Manchuria and an analysis of the procedures adopted. American insistence on an open door policy, a tactic designed primarily to check Russian expansion into Manchuria, and Russian resistance to it brought to a close the long period of previously unquestioned friendship. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Skin Drums, Squeeze Boxes, Fiddles And Phonographs: Musical Interaction In The Western Arctic, Late 18Th Through Early 20Th Centuries

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010This dissertation explores the nature of early globalization in the Western Arctic with a focus on musical interaction between indigenous and foreign populations during the late 18th through the 20 th centuries. The region experienced an unprecedented amount of cultural contact represented by various cultural groups including Native Alaskan, Canadian, Chukotkan, European American, African American, Latin American, Asian American, Oceanic peoples and others. Numbering in the thousands, natives and non-natives developed continuous and long-term relations working as explorers, whalers, traders, missionaries, miners, hunters, trappers, seamstresses, educators, law enforcement officials, and scientists. The Western Arctic's ethnically diverse population, relatively harsh physical surroundings, and absence of a common language allowed musical activity to serve as an important means of communication and increase awareness of the world. Music and dance helped to promote social bonding, trade, and religion. They also expressed cultural identity and contributed to ethnic differentiation. An examination of this musical interchange forms the first part of this study. Local indigenous communities during the late 18th, 19 th, and early 20th centuries interacted most extensively with the influx of explorers, commercial whalers, traders, and missionaries. Throughout the year but especially during the long winter season, these groups often participated in formal, informal, and impromptu gatherings featuring various types of music such as indigenous drum dance and song, folk, popular, church, and classical. Musical instruments including frame drums, fiddles, accordions, harmonicas, organs, pianos, guitars and devices such as phonographs, organettes, and music boxes played an essential role in musical exchange. Just as significantly, these objects also ranked as some of the region's more popular trade commodities. Perceptions of northern indigenous peoples through music and dance constitute a second part of this study. Outside fascination with the Arctic and its inhabitants as reflected in the many examples of late 19th and early 20 th century sheet music, piano rolls, and recordings suggest that cross-cultural interests, though often superficial and caricatured, were also reciprocal. Early musical representation of Arctic culture via southern compositions and performances shares crucial links to the expansion of globalization in North America and beyond