USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 67
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701
BISHOP VENIAMINOF.
at which date there were four churches and eight chapels in Russian America, they were formed into a diocese, which included the Okhotsk and Kam- chatka precincts, the first bishop, afterward met- ropolitan of Moscow, being Father Veniaminof, whom Sir Edward Belcher, writing in 1837, describes as "a very formidable, athletic man, about forty-five years of age, and standing in his boots about six feet three inches; quite herculean, and very clever."5 "When he preached the word of God," says Kostro- mitin, who was baptized by Father Joassaf in 1801, "all the people listened, and listened without moving, until he stopped. Nobody thought of fishing or hunting while he spoke, and nobody felt hungry or thirsty as long as he was speaking-not even little children."6
clergy, and are in remarkable contrast with the tribunals of the Roman Catholic church in similar cases. It is doubtful, however, whether Bash- makof's retirement to one of the most desolate convents in Siberia was entirely a voluntary act. Bashmakof, Sorcery Trial, MS.
5 Narr. Voy. round World, 98.
6 Early Times in Aleut. Islands, MS., 5. Miracles were ascribed to him by the superstitious, among whom was Kostromitin. There is no doubt, however, that the bishop was a true and faithful pastor, though his writings show that he himself shared the superstition common to his church. In his Zapiski ob Ostrovakh Ounalashkinskavo Otdiala Sostavlennuia, or Letters con- cerning the Islands of the Unalaska District, published at the expense of the Russian American Company, St Petersburg, 3 vols., 1840, Veniaminof shows that he had become thoroughly acquainted with the Aleuts, their language, customs, and history, and his work is the most reliable book on the subject. It includes history, meteorology, geography, natural history, and ethnology; but historical material seems to have been scarce, or was perhaps slighted by the author. The second volume is devoted principally to the manners and customs of the ancient and modern Aleuts, to legends and tales preserved among them by tradition, and to their relations with the Russian American Company, and contains a number of meteorological and statistical tables. The third volume is confined to a review of the Aleuts of the Atkha District, the Kolosh, and their respective dialects. The work on the Aleutian Islands was partially reproduced in German, in Erenan, Archiv fein wissenschaftliche kunde von Russland, ii. 459, 1842. His Opuit Gramatiki Aleutsko-Lissievskavo Ya- zuika, or Attempt at a Grammar of the Lissiev-Aleutian Language, St Peters- burg, 1846, is confined to one dialect of the Aleutian language, spoken on the Lissiev group, comprising the islands between 159° and 169° w., and with a population of about 2,000 souls. The work is elaborate, though in some cases the author seems to have made more of the language than there really was, and made inflections of which the Aleuts had previously known nothing. To indicate the pronunciation, the characters of the Ciryllic alpha- bet are used. The vocabulary annexed to the volume is complete but not conveniently arranged, as the Russian words refer only in numbers to the other portion. The Oukazanie Puti v Tzarstvie Nebessnoie, Po-outchenie na Aleutsko-Lissievskom Yazuika ssokhinennoie Svestchennikom Ioannom Veniam-
702
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
During Veniaminof's administration a Lutheran clergyman was welcomed at Sitka,7 and the same spirit of toleration was extended later to the Jesuits, several Poles of that order being transferred from Canada. On the 13th of October, 1867, the first service at which an American officiated8 was held at Sitka, the congregation being composed of Rus- sians, Finns, and Kolosh.
In 1861 there were in the Russian American col- onies seven churches and thirty-five chapels, several of them, including the cathedral, being built and kept in repair by the Russian American Company. All were maintained by the contributions of parishioners and the sale of candles and tapers.9 About this date the aggregate capital of the churches exceeded two hundred and fifty-five thousand roubles, the funds be- ing held by the company's treasurer and interest allowed at five per cent.10
The Sitka cathedral contained three altars, which were separated from the body of the church by a par- tition, the doors of which were gilt, and the pilasters mounted with gold capitals. There were eight silver candlesticks more than four feet in height, and a sil- ver chandelier hanging from the centre of the dome
inovaim, or Guide on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom, for instruction in the Lissiev-Aleut Language, Complied by the Priest, Ioann Veniaminof, was pub- lished by the holy synod of Russia, and was a translation from the Russian into Aleut by Veniaminof, and printed iu Church-Slavic characters, which are better adapted to express Aleutian words.
Simpson's Narr. Journey round World, ii. 193. In 1857 Mr Winter, pastor of the Lutheran church at Sitka, received a gift of 1,200 roubles from the Russian American Company, and during the same year was reengaged at a salary of 2,000 roubles a year. Sitka Archives, 1857, i. 316, 394. In 1853 his flock numbered 120 to 150 souls. Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 70.
8 Mr Rayner, an army chaplain.
9 Golovnin, in Materialui, 75. In Dok. Kom. Russ. Amer. Kol., 76, and in Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 270, nine churches are mentioned.
10 The contributions were made partly in money and partly in furs, the company allowing the church 7 roubles, 14 kopeks, to 14 roubles, 29 kopeks, for sea-otter skins. The revenue from candles amounted to 5,500 roubles a year. The company incurred an expense of 32,938 roubles a year on church account. Sce Golovnin, 75, where are given the salaries of the bishop and officials. The residence of the bishop was built by the company at an expense of 30,000 roubles. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 268.
.
703
CONVERSION OF NATIVES.
which was supported by a number of columns of the Byzantine order. On the altar was a miniature tomb of the saviour in gold and silver. The vestments and implements were also rich in gold and jewels. The books were bound in gold and crimson velvet, and adorned with miniatures of the evangelists set in dia- monds. The communion cup was of gold, and similarly embellished; the mitre was covered with pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. The building was dedicated to Saint Michael.11
Veniaminof, after acquiring the Aleutian language, translated into it a number of books touching on the doctrines of his church; but with this exception few of the ecclesiastics understood the native dialects, while the interpreters had little knowledge of Russian. Between 1841 and 1860, 4,700 Indians were bap- tized,12 and if we can believe Veniaminof, some of them were converted. "I do not mean," he writes, " that they knew how to make the sign of the cross, and to bow, and mutter some prayer. No! Some of them can pray from their soul, not exhibiting them- selves in the church and before the people, but often in the seclusion of their chamber, with closed doors." 13 The bishop, who on his appointment adopted the title of Innokenty, according to the custom of his church, labored with marked success among the Kolosh. Be- fore his arrival they had resisted all efforts at con- version, those who were baptized submitting to the ceremony only because they received presents of more or less value.14
11 Ward's Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 29-31, 35-37. The cathedral was roofed with iron, and the belfry and chimes cost 8,500 roubles in silver. Tikh- menef, Istor. Obos., ii. 268. The church at St Paul, Kadiak, is built of hewn timber, the interstices being filled with moss. The interior is well but plainly furnished. Glidden's Trip to Alaska, MS., 13.
12 Å list of the converts is given in Golovnin, in Materialui, 147-150. Tikhmenef claims that in 1827 there were in the colonies 8,532 Christians, of whom more than 7,000 were Indians. Istor. Obos., i. 296.
13 As a proof that the teaching of the priests was not without effect, it is stated in Id., 303, that in 1827 the number of illegitimate births among the Alents was seven, while from that year till 1839 it averaged only one.
14 In the record of baptisms at Sitka, in the Alaska Archives, MS., 1-13, translated from original documents in the Sitka Church Archives, MS., men-
704
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
It must be admitted that the Greek church was a failure throughout Russian America. We have seen in what disrespect the priests were held by their own countrymen in the time of Baranof, and it is nowhere recorded, except by the priests themselves, that, with the single exception of Veniaminof, the teaching of the ecclesiastics made much impression on the natives. They squatted and smoked during service, listened, bowed, crossed themselves, and laughed so uproariously that the officiating priest was often interrupted in his solemn duty. They cared not for religion, or at least not for the doctrines of the Greek clergy. "If," writes Golovnin, "the object of a missionary be only the baptizing of a few natives yearly, to show the country that the number of conversions increases, and in visiting so many times a year such of the villages as are situated in close proximity to redoubts and trading posts, then the colonial missionaries perform their duty with more or less zeal; but if the mission- ary's duty is to spread among the pagans the teachings of an evangelist, and to strive by word and example to soften their hearts, to help them in their need, to administer to their physical and moral diseases, to persuade them gradually to lead a settled and indus- trious life, and above all to labor for the education of the children, and at last make the savages themselves wish for conversion, then not one of our former or present missionaries has fulfilled his duty." 15
In 1880 the Russian church claimed 10,950 mem- bers, but this number is probably at least 2,500 in ex- cess of the actual figures. The bishop of the diocese
tion is made of these presents, which consisted usually of tobacco, calico, knives, cutlasses, and blankets. Sometimes a rifle was given. Care was taken that the convert did not present himself a second time for baptism.
15 If we can believe Simpson, Dall, and others who travelled in Alaska, negligence was not the only fault of which the missionaries were guilty. The latter remarks that all whom he met in Alaska were inveterate topers, and mentions the case of one who had been engaged for seven years as a mission- ary on the Yukon, and who thanked God that he then had an opportunity of returning to Russia, where a glass of rum could be had for 25 kopeks. Alaska, 226.
705
MODERN EFFORTS.
usually resides in San Francisco, whence he controls affairs and supplies the funds needed by the various parishes.16 Service is at present conducted in Alaska both in the Russian and Aleutian languages, but the more distant settlements are visited only once a year by a regularly ordained priest, by whom baptisms and marriages are celebrated and the sacrament adminis- tered to those who desire it.
When Alaska was transferred to the United States, it was expected that the religious training of the Ind- ians would not be neglected, but ten years passed by and little was done. In 1877, however, a presbyte- rian inission was established at Sitka. Two years later a catholic mission was established at Fort Wrangell,17 but met with little success. Credit is also due to the Church Missionary Society of London and to the methodist church of Canada, both of which have their representatives on the borders of Alaska.18 For several years protestant missionaries of several denominations, and especially the presbyterians, have, amid great discouragement, labored earnestly, and not in vain, to introduce their faith among the natives of Alaska. Meanwhile their efforts in the cause of edu- cation have been no less persistent.
16 On the 12th of July, 1882, the bishop of the Greek church was drowned within twelve miles of Fort St Michael, either by accident or while under temporary aberration. The body was found. S. F. Chronicle, Aug. 15, Oct. 30, 1882.
17 Jackson's Alaska, 227. 'The catholics are invading our ground,' writes Mr McFarland from Fort Wrangell in May 1879. 'Among the passengers on the Olympia a week ago was a Romish bishop and priest. They at once es- tablished a mission. The bishop made an attack on Mr Young the following sabbath morning. He was trying to get the people to make the sign of the cross, but none would respond save Shustaks, the wicked chief. This made the bishop angry, and he broke out as follows: "Why don't you do as I told you ? Are you afraid of Mr Young? You are not Mr Young's slaves. He is not a true minister, anyway. No man can be a true minister and have & wife. Look at me; I am a true minister; I am all the same as Jesus Christ, and I don't have any wife."' Id. The reader will find many instances of such unseemly squabbles in my History of British Columbia, passim.
18 Williain Duncan, of the Church Missionary Society of London, of whose complicity in smuggling operations mention has been made, built up the Indian village of Metlahkatlah. About 1877 it contained 1,000 inhabitants. The Rev. Thomas Crosby labored principally at Fort Simpson. Churches and schools were of course established at both points. Jackson's Alaska, 294, 302, et seq.
HIST. ALASKA. 45
706
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
Of the members of the Greek church only a small proportion among the natives can read and write, though in villages where parish churches have been established, perhaps thirty per cent of the inhabi- tants have acquired the rudiments of an education. It was claimed by Veniaminof that in some localities all the Aleuts except young children could read fluently, but there is no evidence to support this statement. It was not until 1848 that printed books were issued in the Kadiak language, and for several years later none were circulated among the Kolosh. Those which afterward made their appearance contained only trans- lations of prayers, hymns, anthems, of two of the gos- pels, the decalogue, and a small collection of words and conversational phrases.19
For half a century after the Russian occupation, educational matters were little more advanced than in the days of Shelikof, who established at Three Saints, in 1785, the first school in Russian America, and him- self instructed the pupils, in his own language, in arith- metic and the precepts of christianity. The labors of Fathers Juvenal and German in this connection have already been mentioned. In 1817, and probably for some years later, the latter was still in charge of a mission school at Yclovoi Island. In 1805 Rezanof established a school for boys at Saint Paul, and dur- ing his visit a girls' school was opened at this settle- ment,20 but both fell into decay after the envoy's de- parture, and were finally closed.
A few years later a school was opened at Sitka by Baranof, but the instruction was very inefficient until 1833, when Etholin took charge of it and somewhat improved its condition. At the end of their course, the pupils served the company in various capacities.21
19 On the 15th of April, 1857, Voievodsky promises to send vocabularies from all the stations of the Russian American Company. Sitka Archives, MS., 1857, i. 111.
20 In charge of Mrs Banner. It opened with 16 creole girls, four of whom were sent to St Petersburg for further instruction. Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., i. 140.
21 Of those who left in 1837, four became sailors, four clerks, five mechan- ics, and three apprentices on board ship. Golornin, in Materialui, 80-1.
707
EDUCATION.
In 1839 an institution was established at Sitka at which the orphan daughters of the company's em- ployés were educated at the company's expense. In 1860 there were 22 inmates, and the expense for that year was 6,364 roubles.22 About the same date a simi- Iar institution was opened for boys, to which were admitted orphans, and the children of laborers and of inferior officials. All were taught to read and write, and there was a small class in arithmetic and gram- mar. Their training of course included religious in- struction. In 1860 there were 27 pupils, most of whom were intended for mechanical pursuits.23
It was not until 1841 that any attempt was made, even at Sitka, to provide the means for a higher class of education. In that year a church school was opened, which, in 1845, was raised to the rank of a seminary. "This institution was kept in good order," writes Ward in 1853, "the dormitories and class- rooms being plainly but neatly furnished. One room contained good philosophical apparatus, including air- pumps, batteries, pulleys, levers, etc., and another a good-sized library of Slavonic and Russian books. "24 The course included the Russian and English lan- guages, the elements of the pure mathematics, me- chanics and astronomy, navigation, history, geogra- phy, and book-keeping.25
In 1858, when the seat of the bishopric of Kam- chatka was transferred to Yakoutsk, a vicariate being established for the colonies, the seminary was also re- moved to Yakoutsk. Soon afterward a school was
22 Apart from fuel and lights, which were furnished in kind. The insti- tution had a special fund obtained from the sale of the pupils' handiwork, from which each one received on marriage 150 to 300 roubles for her trous- seau. Id., 84.
23 On the Ist of May, 1853, this school had 33 pupils, and a year later 26. Sitka Archives, MS., 1854, ii. 61.
24 Three Weeks in Sitka, MS., 25. On the 29th of October, 1857, Voievod- sky acknowledges the receipt from the educational bureau of the holy synod of 7,071 roubles, 50 kopeks, in silver, to be invested for the maintenance of the seminarv. Sitka Archives, MS., 1857, i. 362.
25 Ward also states that the higher classes studied Latin and Greek, but there is no mention of this in the Russian authorities.
708
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
established under the name of the General Colonial Institute, for the sons of officials who had rendered faithful service to the company, all who could read and write the Russian language and understood the first four rules of arithmetic being admitted free to lectures on the governor's recommendation. The course of instruction was almost identical with that of the three-class graduating schools in Siberia, and differed little from the curriculum of the academy.26- Navigation, commercial branches, and the English language were taught by naval officers and others se- lected from the company's employés. The children of officials were usually supported at the company's expense, in which case they were required, after grad- uating, to enter its service for a term of ten years, receiving a small salary,27 500 roubles for outfit, and honorable rank at the end of six years' service. In- struction in theology and the Church-Slavic language- was also given to those destined for the church, their- expenses being paid from the church funds. Though the sum disbursed by the company for the support of this school exceeded 24,000 roubles a year,28 in addi- tion to 3,750 roubles contributed by the holy synod, there were at its opening but 12 pupils, and in 1862 the number was only 27. It would appear indeed to have been founded mainly for the benefit of the teachers, who received 13,450 roubles out of the funds. furnished by the company, the sum expended for all other purposes being less that 11,000 roubles.
The most successful school in other portions of the colonies was the one founded at Unalaska, by Veni- aminof. In 1860, after it had been in existence for
26 A plan of the studies for each of the three classes is given in Kostlivtzof, Report, 1860, app., 38.
27 Only 100 to 350 roubles (scrip) a year according to Dall, Alaska, 352; but as I have before mentioned, Dall's historical summary is not very reliable. He states, for instance, that the compulsory term of service was 15 years, while 10 are mentioned by Golovnin, in Materialui, 81, and Tikhmenef, Istor. Obos., ii. 275.
28 The exact amount, according to Golovnin, was 24,377 roubles and 77 kopeks. Tikhmenef, whose work was published in the same year, gives it at 7,000 roubles silver, which would be 26,230 roubles in scrip.
709
EDUCATION.
35 years, there were 93 pupils of both sexes. At the same date one of the Kadiak schools was re-opened, and there were primary schools on the island of Amla, in the Atkha district, at the Nushagak and Kvikh- pak missions, and at Bering Island, but all with a meagre attendance. There was also a school-house on the lower Yukon, but with no pupils.29
After the purchase, even the few traces of enlight- enment which the Russians had left behind were in danger of being obliterated, for the Russian schools were closed, and for years there were none to take their place. In 1869, Vincent Colyer, secretary of the board of Indian commissioners, visited Alaska, and mainly through his exertions the sum of $50,000 was appropriated by congress for school purposes; but there was no one to administer the fund, and it re- mained intact. According to the terms of the contract, two schools were maintained among the Aleuts, but they existed only in name, and no further provision was made by the United States government. It is somewhat remarkable that a nation which ranks among the foremost in wealth, culture, and charity, a nation whose boast it is that education is free to all her children, should have left the inhabitants of this territory for more than half a generation in outer darkness. To quote the words of the Rev. Shel- don Jackson, superintendent of presbyterian missions in the territories, "Russia gave them government, schools, and the Greek religion, but when the country passed from their possession they withdrew their rul- ers, priests, and teachers, while the United States did not send any others to take their places. Alaska, to-
29 As to the discipline and hours of study enforced in these schools, we have few records. It is probable, however, that in the institute they were about the same as in the naval school at Petropavlovsk, where the pupils rose at 5.30 and retired at 9. At 6.30 there was inspection, after which came breakfast and preparation for classes, which lasted from 8 to 11. Then drill and play till noon-the dinner hour, which was followed by two more hours of play, and three of lectures or recitations. At 5 a meal of bread and milk was served, and at 8 supper, the interval being taken up with lessons and drill. Morskoi Sbornik, xxi. 44, 159-64. In the colonies the principal food of the students was salt fish.
710
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS.
day, has neither courts, rulers, ministers, nor teachers. The only thing the United States have done for them has been to introduce whiskey." 30
Under the auspices of the presbyterian mission, a school was established at Fort Wrangell, which in 1877 had about 30 pupils, and a home for the rescue of young girls who would else have been sold into prostitution by their parents; while at Sitka a school was opened on the 17th of April, 1878, 50 scholars being present the first day, and 60 the following year.31 All this was accomplished with very slender funds. About the same date there were twenty-two children in attendance at the two schools which the United States government promised to support, but which are in fact supported at the expense of the Alaska Commercial Company.32
During infancy, the natives of Alaska receive little care or supervision from their parents. Until seven or eight years of age they are more frequently naked than clad at all seasons of the year, often sleeping almost without shelter and with insufficient covering. Under these conditions, living, as they do, in a coun- try where snow is perpetually in sight, and where rain, sleet, and fog are almost incessant, they grow up for the most part a weakly and puny race. Even where the skies are less inclement, this is still the case. The climate of the Aleutian Islands does not differ essen- tially from that of some portions of northern Scot- land,33 and yet there are few more effeminate speci-
30 U. S. Educ. Rept., 1877, p. xxxii. The above is an extract from a let- ter published in the report.
3) Jackson's Alaska, 206, 215, 217, 228, 251. In this work will be found a full and interesting account of the operations of the presbyterian mission. The home had at first a sore struggle for existence.
32 There were also schools at Unalaska and Belkovsky, but the attendance was less than ten of both sexes. There were no schools at the missions of the Yukon, Nushagak, and Kenaï. In a village surrounding the first of these settlements, Petroff states that, apart from the attachés of the church, he found but one man who could speak the Russian language. Pop. Alaska, 79. 33 The mean annual temperature of northern Scotland varies from 42° to 48°, and of the Aleutian district from 36° to 40°. The average rainfall in Unalaska is probably little more than 40 inches, while in Stirlingshire it is
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