Battle of Sitka

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The Battle of Sitka in October 1804 was the last major armed conflict between Europeans and Alaskans .

The cause was the destruction of a Russian trading post (Old Sitka, St. Michael) two years earlier. The shaman Stoonookw foresaw that the Russians would return to seek revenge. Therefore, against strong resistance, he pushed through that their settlement was secured against cannon attacks.

In fact, the Russians returned with three ships and 400 Aleutian hunters, but mostly accompanied by the Neva , a three-masted ship over 70 m long. The 350-ton ship had 14 cannons on board and a 50-man crew. The local Tlingit clan of Sheet'-ká X'áat'l ( Baranof Island ) and the representatives of the Russian-American company fought . Commander of the Russians was Alexander Baranov , commander of the Tlingit as Warchief was Katlian ( K 'alyaan), but the six house groups involved presented independent military units under their own commanders are. Katlian had shortly Sh k ' awulyéil replaced, the leader from 1802.

Although the first attack by the Russians (in which Baranov suffered serious injuries) had been successfully repelled, the indigenous population was driven into the surrounding forests within a few days after the merciless bombing of the Tlingit Fort by Russian ships.

The Russian victory was decisive and resulted in the permanent displacement of the Tlingit from their ancestral territory. The Russians were able to build a strategically excellent, permanent settlement in Sitka . The Tlingit fled north and established a new settlement on the neighboring island of Chichagof Island . Hostilities continued in the form of sporadic attacks on the Russian settlement until 1858.

literature

  • Herb Hope: The Kiks.Ádi Survival March of 1804 , in: Andrew Hope III, Thomas F. Thornton: Will the Time ever come ?. A Tlingit Source Book , Fairbanks 2000, pp. 48-79.

Web links

receipt

  1. ↑ Hope, p. 51.