i Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History Roza G. Lyapunova Translated by Richard L. Bland ii As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has re- sponsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places, and providing for enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Shared Beringian Heritage Program at the National Park Service is an international program that rec- ognizes and celebrates the natural resources and cultural heritage shared by the United States and Russia on both sides of the Bering Strait. The program seeks local, national, and international participation in the preservation and understanding of natural resources and protected lands and works to sustain and protect the cultural traditions and subsistence lifestyle of the Native peoples of the Beringia region. Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History Author: Roza G. Lyapunova English translation by Richard L. Bland 2017 ISBN-13: 978-0-9965837-1-8 This book’s publication and translations were funded by the National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program. The book is provided without charge by the National Park Service. To order additional copies, please contact the Shared Beringian Heritage Program ([email protected]). National Park Service Shared Beringian Heritage Program © The Russian text of Aleuts: An Outline of the Ethnic History by Roza G. Lyapunova (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka” leningradskoe otdelenie, 1987), was translated into English by Richard L. Bland of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, and pub- lished by the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska, by one-time permis- sion from the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), 2016. iii Департамент внутренних ресурсов США является ведущей природоохранной организацией, которой вверена охрана большей части национальных земель общего пользования и сохранение природных и культурных ресурсов. Частью работы Департамента является обеспечение наиболее разумного использования наших земельных и водных ресурсов, охрана рыболовных ресурсов, диких животных и растений, охрана окружающей среды и культурных ценностей и исторических достопримечательностей в наших национальных парках и предоставление возможности активного и приятного отдыха на природе. Программа Службы национальных парков Департамента внутренних ресурсов США «Общее наследие Берингии» является международной программой, которая способствует признанию и чествованию являющихся общими для США и России природных ресурсов и культурного наследия российской и американской территории по обеим сторонам Берингова пролива. Программа стремится обеспечить сохранение и изучение природных ресурсов и охраняемых территорий на местном, региональном и международном уровне, а также поддержку и развитие культурных традиций и традиционного образа жизни коренных народов района Берингии. Алеуты. Очерки этнической истории Автор: Роза Гавриловна Ляпунова 2017 ISBN-13: 978-0-9965837-1-8 Эта книга предоставлена бесплатно Служба национальных парков США. Чтобы заказать дополнительные экземпляры, обращайтесь пожалуйста в Программу «Общее наследие Берингии» (Shared Beringian Heritage Program) ([email protected]). Служба национальных парков Программа «Общее наследие Берингии» © The Russian text of Aleuty: ocherki ėtnicheskoĭ istorii by Roza G. Lyapunova (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka” leningradskoe otdelenie, 1987), was translated into English by Richard L. Bland of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, and published by the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Shared Beringian Heritage Program, Anchorage, Alaska, by one-time permission from the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), 2016. iv v TABLE OF CONTENTS TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION vii PREFACE ix CHAPTER I Problems of the Origin of the Aleuts and Their Early History in Contemporary Research 1 CHAPTER II Aleuts of Russian America (1740s–1867) 29 The Epoch of the Voyages of the Fur Trading Companies (1745–1798) 37 The Era of the Russian-American Company (1799–1867) 73 CHAPTER III Aleuts of the United States (1870s–Present) 107 CHAPTER IV The Ethnic History of the Commander Aleuts (First Quarter of the 20th Century–Present) 137 LITERATURE 159 GLOSSARY 187 ABBREVIATIONS 189 vi vii TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION This book was originally published as Aleuty: ocherki ėtnicheskoi istorii, a collection edited by Roza G. Lyapunova (Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka” leningradskoe otdelenie, 1987). For those interested in the prehistory and history of the Aleutian Islands, Roza Lyapunova’s work on the Aleuts will present a different perspective. Published in 1987 it provides for the English-language reader two important viewpoints: a look at the Aleut people from the Soviet perspective and a discussion of the Aleuts in the Commander Islands. Dr. Lyapunova follows the Aleuts from the earliest written records, from their earliest Russian contacts up to the present (1987). In doing this she uses all sources available, many of which are in English. However, many of her numerous sources are in Russian— manuscripts gleaned from archives in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere. Some of those have been translated into English, but most have not. Despite the fact that a book published in 1987 might seem anti- quated, much of the information will be new and interesting for the scholar studying the Aleutian Islands. On the other hand, the photographs were taken during the Soviet era and are somewhat lacking in clarity. Every translation, and particularly one from Russian to English, has the problem of finding a suitable form of transliteration. None of the three systems available (U.S. Board of Geographic Names [BGN], Library of Congress [LOC], or the “Linguistic” system [Ling]) was felt to be entirely adequate. I have therefore “created” my own system. In this I use some of the BGN system with a slightly modified version of the LOC. For example, the “ye” of BGN is written as “e” following LOC. The Russian “ë” is also written as “e” (not “yo”), following Ling. (In the ë/e problem, an exception is made for the name of the author of this book). The Russian “э” is written as “e,” following BGN. Both the Russian “и” and “й” are transliterated as “i,” unlike in any of the three systems. The Russian “ю” and “я” are written as “yu” and “ya,” following the BGN. The Russian soft sign, which is often dropped in transliterations or replaced with an “i,” is retained here as an apostrophe, following BGN. I have also settled on one ending for words, as the English language forces us to do, rather than providing the appropriate ending (masculine, feminine, neuter, plural/nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional) that can occur in Russian. And having twenty-four possible grammatical endings is not the end of it. In the masculine nominative, for a name ending in “-sky” there are at least five possible endings that can be found in English (“-sky,” “-skiy,” “-skij,” “-skii,” “-ski”). In addition, there are aberrant spellings that have been accepted in the literature; for example, Wrangell instead of the Russian Vrangel’ (here the soft sign has been replaced by a second “l”) has already been adopted in English. Some names are “semi” formalized in English. For names that do not have an accepted English form I have tried consistently to use my system for transliterating. On the other hand, I generally give a (Russian) “i” or “y” plural for plural words that are not translated. This is with the exception of ethnic names, which are given no ending in the plural (following one accepted form found in Webster’s 3rd International Dictionary, 1965). All this in no way exhausts the problems the translator faces, but rather provides a notion of the difficulties attendant upon any translation project. Nonetheless, I hope the explanation of my method will aid the reader, especially if he or she should want to go back from English to Cyrillic, and I apologize to all whose names I have unintentionally “corrupted.” viii No original photographs were available to the translator. Therefore, the illustrations in the book had to be scanned. Soviet-quality photographs, the age of the Soviet-quality book, and the scanning leave much to be desired. Nevertheless, the photos in this translation are approximately as good as in the original book. I owe a debt of gratitude to Anna Gokhman who proofread the translation, to Laura Eidam and Rachel Mason who edited the manuscript into more idiomatic English, to Terry Duffy who laid out the manuscript in book form, and to Julia Knowles who proofread the manuscript in final form for typos and other errors. I am also deeply indebted to Andrew Tremayne, director of the Shared Beringian Heritage Program, who shepherded me through the process and has endured my many questions. Finally, I am most indebted to Nan Coppock for much-needed editorial assistance. Without them this work could not have been done. Ultimately, we all are very deeply indebted to Museum of Anthropology and Ethnogra- phy (Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences for permitting us to translate and publish Dr. Roza G. Lyapunova’s valuable book into English. Richard L