USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 58
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599
TRANSFER AT SITKA.
mal life surpassing the available productions of the land." 15
Of the resources of Alaska, mention will be made later. At present her furs and fisheries are of course the chief attractions; but it is not improbable that in the distant future the sale of her mining and tim- ber lands will yield to the United States an annual income larger than the amount of the purchase money.
The Russian American Company, besides support- ing its numerous and expensive establishments, paid into the imperial treasury between 1841 and 1862 over 4,400,000 roubles in duties,16 to stockholders more than 2,700,000, and for churches, schools, and benevolent institutions about 553,000 roubles. There appears no valid reason, therefore, why Alaska should not have been a source of profit to the United States, except perhaps that this was the first experiment made in the colonization, and it is to be hoped the last in the mil- itary occupation, of a territory which, as will be re- lated, the attorney-general declared in 1873 to be 'Indian country.'
On Friday, the 18th of October, 1867, the Russian and United States commissioners, Captain Alexei Pestchourof and General L. H. Rousseau, escorted by a company of the ninth infantry, landed at Novo Ark- hangelsk, or Sitka,17 from the United States steamer John L. Stephens. Marching to the governor's resi- dence, they were drawn up side by side with the Rus- sian garrison on the summit of the rock where floated the Russian flag; "whereupon," writes an eye-witness of the proceedings, "Captain Pestchourof ordered the
15 Speeches of William H. Seward in Alaska, Van., and Or. 6 (Washing- ton, 1869).
16 On tea forwarded from Shanghai and Kiakhta. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 280.
17 I find no evidence as to the exact date when the name of Novo Arkhan- gelsk was changed to that of Sitka. Simpson, writing in 1847, uses both words. Jour. round World, ii. 180-1. Though the latter is used by writers before his time, it was probably about this date that it first came generally into use.
600
ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
Russian flag hauled down, and thereby, with brief declaration, transferred and delivered the territory of Alaska to the United States; the garrisons presented arms, and the Russian batteries and our men of war fired the international salute; a brief reply of accept- ance was made as the stars and stripes were run up and similarly saluted, and we stood upon the soil of the United States." 18
Thus, without further ceremony, without even ban- queting or speech-making, this vast area of land, be- longing by right to neither, was transferred from one European race to the offshoot of another. No sooner had the transfer been made than General Davis de- manded the barracks for his troops, taking possession, moreover, of all the buildings, and this although the improvements of whatever kind were beyond doubt the property of the Russian American Company, the Russian government having no right whatever to transfer them. Thus the inhabitants were turned into the streets, only a few of them obtaining two or three days' grace in which to find shelter for their families and remove their effects.
Within a few weeks after the American flag was raised over the fort at Sitka, stores, drinking-saloons, and restaurants were opened, vacant lots were staked out, were covered with frame shanties, and changed hands at prices that promised to make the frontage of the one street which the capital contained alone worth the purchase money of the territory. To this new domain flocked men in all conditions of life-spec- ulators, politicians, office-hunters, tradesmen, even laborers. Nor were there wanting loafers, harlots,
18 Bloodgood's Eight Months at Sitka, in Overland Monthly, Feb. 1869. In Whymper's Alaska, 105-6, and in some of the Pacific coast newspapers, it is stated that the Russian flag, when being lowered, clung to the yard-arm. The following extract from the Albany State Rights Democrat, March 26, 1875, will serve as a fair specimen of the nonsense published on this matter: 'A sailor was ordered up the flagstaff, and had actually to cut the flag into shreds before he could take it down. When the American flag reached the top of the staff, it hung lifeless, until, at the first boom of the saluting Russian artil- lery, it gave a convulsive shudder, and at the second gun it shook out its starry folds and proudly floated in the breeze.'
601
NEW ORDER OF THINGS.
gamblers, and divers other classes of free white Eu- ropeans never seen in these parts before; for of such is our superior civilization. A charter was framed for the so-called city, laws were drawn up, and an election held, at which a hundred votes were polled for almost as many candidates. 19 The claims of squatters were put on record; judgment was passed in cases where liberty and even life were at stake; questions were decided which involved nice points of international law; and all this was done with utter indifference to the military authorities, then the only legal tribunal in the territory.
Two generations had passed away since Baranof and his countrymen had built the fort, or as it is now termed the castle, of Sitka. During all these years the Russians had known little and cared for little beyond the dull routine of their daily labor and their daily life. It is probable that the appearance of the first steam-vessel in Alaskan waters caused no less sensation among them than did the news of Auster- litz, of Eylau, or of Waterloo. Apart from the higher officials, they belonged for the most part to the uned- ucated classes. If poorly paid, they had been better fed and clad and housed than others of their class. They were a law-abiding, if not a God-fearing, com- munity. During the long term of the company's dominion there had been no overt resistance to author- ity, except in the two instances already mentioned in this volume. They had been accustomed to submit without a murmur to the dictates of the governor, from whom there was no appeal, save to a court from whose seat they were separated by more than one third of the earth's circumference. This, however, was under what might be called a half-savage régime.
19 Mr Dodge, collector of customs, was the first mayor of Sitka. Soon after the purchase, the following ticket was elected: For mayor, W. H. Wood; for councilmen, J. A. Fuller, C. A. Kinkaid, Frank Mahoney, Isaac Bergman, and J. Helstedt; for recorder, G. R. McKnight; for surveyor, J. A. Fuller; and for constable, P. B. Ryan. In ISS2, Wood was practising law in San Francisco, Fuller lived at Napa, Kinkaid at Portland, Or., Mcknight at Key West, Fla., and Helstedt still kept a store at Sitka.
602
ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
But now all was changed. Speculation and law- lessness were rife, and the veriest necessaries sold at prices beyond reach of the poor. The natives were not slow to take advantage of their opportunity, and refused to sell the Russians game or fish at former rates;20 while the Americans refused to accept the parchment money which formed their circulating medium21 in payment for goods, except at a heavy dis- count. No wonder that few of the Russians cared to take advantage of the clause in the treaty which pro- vides that, "with the exception of the uncivilized native tribes, the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States, and shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion." The company and the imperial government gave them at least protection, sufficient means of livelihood, schools, a church; but in this vast territory there never existed, since 1867, other than a semblance even of military law. There was not in 1883 legal protection for person or property, nor, apart from a few regulations as to commerce and navigation, had any important act been passed by congress, save those that relate to the preservation of seals, the collection of revenue, and the sale of fire-arms and fire-water.
" The inhabitants of the ceded territory, according to their choice, reserving their natural allegiance, may return to Russia within three years," read the words of the treaty. Within a few weeks, or perhaps months, after the transfer, there were not more than a dozen
20 The situation was rendered worse by certain agitators, prominent among whom was Honcharenko, who, on July 1, 1868, published an address in the Alaska Herald, advising the Aleuts and Russo-Americans, as he termed them, not to work for less than five dollars a day in gold. On September 23d of this year Andrei Popof was admitted to citizenship-the first Rus- sian who changed his nationality.
21 Usually in pieces two inches square, which passed current for about eight cents when two corners were cut off, and for four cents when all the corners were lopped. The soldiers, after clipping the lower part of the four. cent pieces, passed them off for eight cents until the fraud was discovered.
603
POLICY OF CONGRESS.
Russians left at Sitka, the remainder having been sent home by way of California, or round the Horn.22 Five years later, the population was composed of a few creoles of the poorer class, a handful of American sol- diers, perhaps a score of American civilians, a few Aleuts, and a few Kolosh.
Toward the creoles and Indians the policy of the United States has thus far been severely negative; and, to put the matter in its most favorable light, I cannot do better than quote the words of the creole Kostromitin, who in 1878 was a resident of Unalaska, being at that date an octogenarian. "I am glad," he says, "that I lived to see the Americans in the coun- try. The Aleuts are better off now than they were under the Russians. The first Russians who came here killed our men and took away our women and all our possessions; and afterward, when the Russian American Company came, they made all the Aleuts like slaves, and sent them to hunt far away, where many were drowned and many killed by savage na- tives, and others stopped in strange places and never came back. The old company gave us fish for nothing, but we could have got plenty of it for ourselves if we had been allowed to stay at home and provide for our families. Often they would not sell us flour or tea, even if we had skins to pay for it. Now we must pay for everything, but we can buy what we like. God will not give me many days to live, but I am satis- fied." 23 We shall see presently that Kostromitin's satisfaction was not shared by a majority of his coun- trymen.
In many sessions of congress bills have been intro- duced relating to Alaska, of which some have pro- voked discussion, many have been tabled, and a few have passed into law. The only measures to which
22 Kruger's MS. Mr Chas Kruger was for more than 15 years a trusted employé of the Russian American Co.
23 Early Times in Aleut Isl., MS., 15-16. Kostromitin was then living at the village of Makushin.
604
ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
reference is needed at present are the act of congress approved July 27, 1868, whereby, among other pro- visions, a collection district was established in that territory;24 two bills introduced in 1869 and 1870 to provide for a temporary government in Alaska, both of which were referred, though neither passed; some futile attempts to extend the United States land laws over the territory; 25 and certain regulations as to the importation, sale, and manufacture of liquor.26
It is worthy of note, that in a territory which has belonged to the United States for more than half a generation, and whose area is more than double that of the largest state in the Union, no legal title could be obtained to land, other than to small tracts deeded to the Russians at the time of the purchase, except by special act of congress, and not a single acre had as yet been surveyed for preëmption.27 "Claims of pre- emption and settlements," remarks Seward, "are not only without the sanction of law, but are in direct viola- tion of laws applicable to the public domain. Military force may be used to remove intruders if necessary.'
As there was no legal title to land in Alaska, there could be neither legal conveyance nor mortgage, though conveyances were made occasionally, and recorded by
24 See Cong. Globe, 1867-8, app. 567-8. A list of the various sub-dis- tricts, with their locations in 1869, is given in Bryant and McIntyre, Rept. Alaska, 2-24, in Sen. Ex. Doc., 41st Cong., 2d Sess., No. 32; and of the col- lectors, their duties, etc., in Morris, Rept. Alaska, 15-19, in Sen. Ex. Doc., 45th Cong. 3d Sess., No. 59.
25 A bill was introduced for this purpose in 1871. See House Jour., 41st Cong. 3d Sess., 549.
26 Contained in section 3 of the act of July 27, 1868, and amended by act of March 3, 1873, extending over the territory sections 20 and 21 of the act of June 30, 1834, regulating trade and intercourse with Indian tribes, the sec- tions being those relating to the manufacture and introduction of liquor. See Cong. Globe, 1872-3, app. 274.
27 H. Ex. Doc., 45th Cong. 2d Sess., viii. 155, 217, and 45th Cong. 3d Sess., ix. 146. According to the latter, no survey had been made up to June 30, 1878, and none but special and local surveys appear to have been made since that date. A survey was proposed as early as 1867. Id., 40th Cong. 2d Ncss., ix. No. SO. For report on quantity and quality of land, see Zabriskie's Land Laws, SS0-1.
28 Letter of William H. Seward to Gen. Grant, Oct. 28, 1867, in Morris, Rept. Alaska, 119. The secretary requests that Grant cause instructions to this effect to be forwarded to General Rousseau at Sitka. See also Beardslee's Rept. Alaska, in Sen. Ex. Doc., 46th Cong. 2d Sess., no. 103, p. 14.
605
PROPERTY RIGHTS.
the deputy collectors at Wrangell and Sitka, the par- . ties concerned taking their own risk as to whether the transaction might at some distant day be legalized.
Miners and others whose entire possessions might lie within the territory, and who might have become resi- dents, could not bequeath their property, whether real or personal,29 for there were no probate courts, nor any authority whereby estates could beadministered. Debts could not be collected except through the summary pro- cess by which disputes are sometimes settled in min- ing camps. 30 In short, there was neither civil nor crim- inal jurisdiction31 in any part of Alaska. Even mur- der might be committed, and there was no redress within that colony. Thus it was that "the inhabitants of the
29 In Nov. 1877 the postmaster at Sitka died intestate. Soon after his death his creditors arrived from Oregon, and a general scramble took place for his property. The creditors, of course, took the lion's share, the widow what they vouchsafed to leave her, and the two young children of the deceased by a former wife were left to the charity of strangers. Morris's Rept. Alaska, 120, in Sen. Ex. Doc., 45th Cong. 2d Sess., no. 59, p. 120.
30 To quote the words of a memorial addressed by the inhabitants of south- eastern Alaska, in 1881, to the president and congress of the United States: ' There are no courts of record, by which title to property may be established, or conflicting claims adjudicated, or estates administered, or naturalization and other privileges acquired, or debts collected, or the commercial advan- tages of laws secured. And persons accused of crimes and misdemeanors are subject to the arbitrary will of a military or naval commander-thrown into prison and kept there for months without trial, or punishment by imprison- ment upon simple accusation and without verdict of a jury-all in plain vio- lation of the constitution of the United States.' The following is an extract from a letter addressed July 11, 1881, by the secretary of the navy to Com- mander Glass of the Jamestown, then stationed at Sitka, relating to parties arrested for certain disorders: 'In the absence of any legally constituted judicial tribunals, the peace and good order of society demand that the naval authority in control of the territory should interpose its power to maintain the protection of the lives, persons, and property of individuals within its reach.'
31 The only offences that could be committed apparently were those which violate the act of July 27, 1868, 'to extend the laws of the United States re- lating to customs, commerce, and navigation over the territory ceded to the United States by Russia, to establish a collection district therein, and for other purposes' (the other purposes relating to the sale, importation, and use of fire-arms, ammunition, and distilled liquors, and the protection of fur-bearing animals). In such cases it is provided, by section 7 of the same act, that the offender shall be prosecuted in any U. S. district court of California or Ore- gon, or in one of the district courts of Washington Territory. In 1872 a bill was introduced 'further to provide for the punishment of offences com- mitted in the district of Alaska.' U. S. Sen. Jour., 42d Cong. 2d Sess., 400-1. And one in the same year 'authorizing the secretary of the interior to take jurisdiction over the people of Alaska called Indians, and for other purposes.' House Jour., 42d Cong. 2d Sess., 609.
606
ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
ceded territory were admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States."
What shall we do with Alaska? was one of the first questions asked after the transfer of the territory- make of it a penal colony?32 Perhaps it had been better so. At no period in the annals of Alaska were there so many Indian émeutes as during the few years of the military occupation; at no period were lust, theft, and drunkenness more prevalent among Indians and white persons alike. After the withdrawal of the troops, in June 1877,33 disturbances among the na- tives became fewer in number and less serious in char- . acter, and it is probable that many lives would have been saved if no United States soldier had ever set foot in the territory.
"I am compelled to say," writes William S. Dodge, collector of customs, to Vincent Colyer, special In- dian commissioner, in 1869, "that the conduct of cer- tain military and naval officers and soldiers has been bad and demoralizing in the extreme; not only con- taminating the Indians, but in fact demoralizing and making the inhabitants of Sitka what Dante charac- terized Italy-'A grand house of ill-fame.' I speak only of things as seen and felt at Sitka.
"First. The demoralizing influence originated in the fact that the garrison was located in the heart of the town.
"Secondly. The great mass of the soldiers were either desperate or very immoral men.
"Thirdly. Some of the officers did not carry out military discipline in that just way which the regula-
32 The question was seriously mooted by Nordhoff, in a magazine article entitled 'What shall we do with Scroggs? Scroggs is the American Ginx's baby;' and by certain of the San Francisco and Sacramento papers.
33 Gen. Orders, Dept. Cal., May 23, 1877. In Rept. Sec. War, I., 44th Cong. 1st Sess., 47, the statement shows 46 men at Fort Wrangell, and in Id., 124, it is mentioned that companies F and L of the fourth artillery were stationed at Sitka. It is worthy of remark that the secretary, while stating that there was an improvement in the morale of the army, says that out of a force of 25,000 the number of deserters in 1874-5 was 2,100 less than during the previous year.
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607
TREATMENT OF NATIVES.
tions contemplate. They gave too great license to bad men; and the deepest evil to all, and out of which other great evils resulted, was an indiscriminate pass system at night. Many has been the night when sol- diers have taken possession of a Russian house, and frightened and browbeaten the women into compliance with their lustful passions.
"Many is the night I have been called upon after midnight, by men and women, Russian and Aleutian, in their night-clothes, to protect them against the malice of the soldiers. In instances where the guilty parties could be recognized, they have been punished; but generally they have not been recognized, and therefore escaped punishment.
"Fourthly. The conduct of some of the officers has been so demoralizing that it was next to impossi- ble to keep discipline among the soldiers .. . . Officers have carried on with the same high hand among the Russian people; and were the testimony of citizens to be taken, many instances of real infamy and wrongs would come to light.
" For a long time some of the officers drank im- moderately of liquor, and it is telling the simple truth when I say that one or two of them have been drunk for a week at a time. The soldiers saw this, the Ind- ians saw it; and as 'ayas tyhus,' or 'big chiefs,' as they called the officers, drank, they thought that they too must get intoxicated. Then came the distrust of American justice when they found themselves in the guard-house, but never saw the officers in when in a like condition."
34 Sec. of Interior Rept., 41st Cong. 2d Sess., 1030-1, where it is stated that within six months after the arrival of the troops at Sitka nearly the whole Sitka tribe, some 1,200 in number, were suffering from venereal diseases. It is probable, however, that most of them had such diseases long before a United States soldier set foot in the territory. Colyer remarks: 'I have spoken of the ill effects of the near proximity of soldiers to the Indian villages, and of the demoralizing effects upon both. It is the same in all Indian coun- tries. It appears to be worse here because more needless. Nowhere else that I have visited is the absolute uselessness of soldiers so apparent as in Alaska. ... The soldiers will have whiskey, and the Indians are equally fond of it. The free use of this by both soldiers and Indians, together with the other
60S
ALASKA AS A UNITED STATES COLONY.
"An effort is being made to have the military re- turn to Alaska," writes the deputy collector of cus- toms from Fort Wrangell, in October 1877, "and in the name of humanity and common sense I ask, What for ? Is it for the best interests of the territory that they should return ? Look at the past for an answer. Whenever did they do anything for the country or the people in it that deserves praise ? Did they en- courage enterprise and assist in the developing of the resources of the country ? No! It stands recorded that they foiled the developing of it, and placed re- strictions on enterprise and improvements. Did they seek the enlightenment of the Indian, and endeavor to elevate him to a higher moral standard ? On this point let the Indians themselves testify."35
There were in 1869 five hundred soldiers stationed in Alaska, while it was admitted by many of the offi- cers that two hundred were sufficient, and it had al- ready become apparent to civilians that none were really needed. In a country where there are few roads, and where communication is almost entirely by water, three or four revenue cutters and the presence of a single war-vessel would have prevented smuggling and lawlessness far more effectually than any force of troops.36
debaucheries between them, rapidly demoralizes both.' Rept. Ind. Affairs, 1869, 556. In 1869 some soldiers were drummed out of the service for robbing the Greek church at Sitka, and for other crimes. Id., 557. For further though less reliable details as to the misconduct of the military, see Honcharenko's Scrap Book, i. passim.
35 Letter to Puget Sound Argus, published Nov. 23, 1877, of which there is a copy in Morris's Rept., app. 153. A statement as to the result of military rule is given by three chiefs among the Wrangell Indians.
36 Captain White, in a letter to the secretary of the treasury, remarks: ' From my own personal observation and the experience gained in my former cruise to this portion of Alaska, embracing the waters of the Alexandrian Archipelago, and extending from latitude N. 54° 40' to latitude N. 60°, I have no hesitation in respectfully stating that even for armed vessels of the deepest draught there is no difficulty in approaching, within easy shelling distance, any of the villages and completely destroying them.' Morris's Report, Alaska, 139. Morris is of opinion that vessels intended to be permanently stationed on the coast of Alaska should be of not less than 500 tons burden; but, as White re- marks, a small vessel properly armed and equipped could accomplish all that a larger and more heavily armed one could, with the added advantage of ce- lerity of movement and quickness of evolution. On the withdrawal of the troops in 1877 three revenue cutters were stationed in Alaska.
609
CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.
Notwithstanding all that has been said against the régime of the Russian American Company, it must be admitted that there were more troubles with the natives in the ten years during which American troops were stationed in Alaska than in any decade of the Russian occupation.
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