I wasn't born there, but I was raised there. Raced snowmobiles on Swan Lake, hike and hunted all across Edgecombe from Mud Bay to Shelikof, Verstovia, up on top of Katlian, and up to Blue Lake, even to Green Lake, fished the Sockeye run at Redoubt, where the lake dumps right into the bay, trolled for Kings everywhere, and took Coho in Katlian Bay. I remember Sitka well, even 40 years after I left.
The Tlingit made it impossible for the Russians to keep it. When the Russians fired up the cannon to lay waste to their villages, the Tlingit moved camp across the island, and then sent warriors to grease up and swim out to the ships at night and bash holes in their hulls with rocks. Without cannon the Russians couldn't conquer, and without ships the Russians didn't have cannon. The Americans never tried AFAIK. They just moved in and traded, which suited the Tlingit fine because they liked the trade goods.
I am clueless as to written material on the history of Tlingit interactions with Russians or the early American settlers. Sheldon Jackson was one of the earlier American settlers, and there is a college in Sitka bearing his name, so perhaps searching his works might turn up good material. All the things I have related here were oral history I heard from friends I grew up with.
I have many times. I was raised among the Tlingit, who were never conquered, and were probably the reason the Russians sold Alaska.
Thanks!
Fellow Alaskan? I'm a transplant of 15 years and also had Tlingit neighbors in Sitka for a short spell.
I wasn't born there, but I was raised there. Raced snowmobiles on Swan Lake, hike and hunted all across Edgecombe from Mud Bay to Shelikof, Verstovia, up on top of Katlian, and up to Blue Lake, even to Green Lake, fished the Sockeye run at Redoubt, where the lake dumps right into the bay, trolled for Kings everywhere, and took Coho in Katlian Bay. I remember Sitka well, even 40 years after I left.
The Tlingit made it impossible for the Russians to keep it. When the Russians fired up the cannon to lay waste to their villages, the Tlingit moved camp across the island, and then sent warriors to grease up and swim out to the ships at night and bash holes in their hulls with rocks. Without cannon the Russians couldn't conquer, and without ships the Russians didn't have cannon. The Americans never tried AFAIK. They just moved in and traded, which suited the Tlingit fine because they liked the trade goods.
I am clueless as to written material on the history of Tlingit interactions with Russians or the early American settlers. Sheldon Jackson was one of the earlier American settlers, and there is a college in Sitka bearing his name, so perhaps searching his works might turn up good material. All the things I have related here were oral history I heard from friends I grew up with.
I am not Tlingit, but grew up amongst them.