Pre-civilization races

Atrocities began in the winter of 1745: An explosion of deadly

firearms against a people who had only stone-tipped spears and

walrus-bone knives began the crude intrusions of the old world into the

new. On Attu Island of the Near Islands, at the extreme tip of the

Aleutian chain, the first native was injured by a bullet. Two days later on

Attu Island ten armed men, under Alexei Beliaief, went to explore their

landfall. Before long the men encountered a settlement of Aleuts. The

men, hungry for women after a long, arduous voyage, and unaccustomed

to exercising civilized restraint, provoked an argument that ended in the

outright killing of fifteen male natives. No other substantial reason, other

than securing the women, was recorded for the killing. Additional

gunpowder and bullets were rushed to the scene from the ship in support

of the murderers. For nearly an entire year the peoples of Attu were

ruthlessly harassed by the Russians at first welcomed to the island.

The years passed and the violence between the Aleuts and Russians

continued. The isolation of the scene lent itself to lawless and unbridled

actions. There was no effective government authority and might meant

right.

In 1762 a conflict occurred which marked the turning point of

Aleut-Russian relations. Promyshlenniks patrolled the waters of the Alaska

Peninsula for food and furs and landed on one of the islands. Their

uncivilized attitudes and actions toward the natives were habitual now.

ingrained into their already rough personalities. Suddenly, a group of

well-organized natives attacked and killed two Russians and injured three

others. Another group almost simultaneously attacked the Russian base

camp, killed four more Russians, and wounded four others. The

makeshift shelters were burned to the ground. The Aleuts were clearly

taking the initiative this time. Later in spring, two more intruders from

the east were killed about three and a half miles inland from where their

ship was anchored. This time the Russians killed seven native hostages in

retaliation. In return for this, the Aleuts attacked the Russian camp but

were unsuccessful. Offensive actions by the natives put the Russians in

temporary retreat. They repaired their ship and returned home with their

rich cargo of 900 sea otter pelts and 350 fox skins.

Even in their retreat they continued their outrages. Twenty-five

young native girls were kidnapped from their home island and given the

task of gathering wild berries and roots for the crew. The ship eventually

reached the coast of Kamchatka where fourteen of the twenty-five girls

and six Russians went ashore. Two girls immediately escaped into the

bills. One was killed by the men. On the small-boat trip back to the ship

the remaining eleven girls drowned themselves either in shame or

despair. To protect themselves, the Russians threw all the remaining

natives overboard to drown.

Authorities in St. Petersburg were aware of the atrocities committed

by the unrestrained fur hunters. But authorities were a quarter of the

world distant in the transportation and communication systems of the

eighteenth century. Efforts at checking the lawlessness which represented

the Russian nation to the people of the new world would come later in

the formation of privileged trading companies. But during the decades of

totally free traffic and totally free enterprise, authorities could only issue

stern warnings against the promyshlenniks.

One such warning read in part:

As it appears from reports forwarded by Colonel Plenisner, who was

charged with the investigation and final settlement of the affairs of the

Bechevin Company, that that company during their voyage to and from the

Aleutian Islands on a hunting and trading expedition committed

indescribable outrages and abuse on the inhabitants, and even were guilty

of murder, inciting the natives to bloody reprisals, it is hereby enjoined

upon the company about to sail, and especially upon the master, Ismailov,

and the perevodchik, Lukanin, to see that no such barbarities, plunder and

ravaging of women are committed under any circumstances.

Such warnings were respected until anchor was pulled.

Word that the native people of the Aleutians had dared to take the

initiative against the Russians spread among the fur hunters and

eventually led to the final domination of the natives. A leader named

Solovief heard of the death of his fellow Russian hunters at the hands of

the Aleuts the preceding year and set out to teach the natives their place

once and for all. He first put his own camp and men in order and

discipline. Without strict adherence to the rules he set, there could be no

success in revenging his people.

The natives attacked Solovief and his men and were driven back

with heavy losses. One hundred Aleuts were killed; their boats were

smashed. Then Solovief joined forces with several other companies of

promyshlenniks until a substantial, though ragtag, force of arms and men

resembled a small army. A blood-thirsty scourge of the islands ensued.

Isolated settlements were destroyed and burned to ashes. Families were

routed and killed. Tools, boats, and food were ruined. Elimination, not

subjugation, of the native became the primary goal of the attacks.

Finally, Solovief led his forces to a fortified Aleut village of 300 and

proceeded to attack the natives in full strength. Bows and arrows were no

defense against the firearms of the Russians. No doubt about the outcome

existed, even among the natives. The Russians filled bladders with

gunpowder and blew up the log foundations of the village walls and

houses. The natives had no chance and were quickly routed and

slaughtered by the promyshlenniks. Perhaps as many as 3,000 Aleuts were

killed during all the Solovief scourges. The exact number of deaths

cannot be known, but the unrelenting savagery of the traders was clear.

Solovief once experimented with the power of his musket by tying twelve

natives together, one behind the other. He fired the rifle at point-blank

range to learn that the bullet stopped with the ninth man. The Aleuts

never attacked the fur hunters again.

The crude reign of Solovief in 1766 ended the free life of the Aleut

people. No longer could the native people live in their own land without

paying tribute in money, skins, work, and lives to the strangers from

across the sea. Their skill as hunters was exploited beyond reasonable

compensation.

Beside the inconvenience of being exposed to the open air, night and day, in all weathers, we experienced real distress from the want of victuals. When provisions were procured, it often happened that we could not make a fire, so that we were obliged to eat the meat quite raw; which at first, in the article of fish particularly, was as little relished by my Southern companions as myself.

-- June 1770

Notwithstanding these accumulated and complicated hardships, we continued in perfect health and good spirits; and my guide, though a perfect niggard of his provisions, especially in times of scarcity, gave us the strongest assurance of soon arriving at a plentiful country, which would not only afford us a certain supply of provisions, but where we should meet with other Indians, who probably would be willing to carry part of our luggage. This news naturally gave us great consolation; for at that time the weight of our constant loads was so great, that when Providence threw any thing in our way, we could not carry above two days provisions with us, which indeed was the chief reason of our being so frequently in want.

-- June 23 1770.

From the twentieth to the twenty-third we walked every day near twenty miles, without any other subsistence than a pipe of tobacco, and a drink of water when we pleased: even partridges and gulls, which some time before were in great plenty, and easily procured, were now so scarce and shy, that we could rarely get one; and as to geese, ducks, &c., they had all flown to the Northward to breed and molt.

-- June 1770.

Early in the morning of the twenty-third, we set out as usual, but had not walked above seven or eight miles before we saw three musk-oxen grazing by the side of a small lake. The Indians immediately went in pursuit of them; and as some of them were expert hunters, they soon killed the whole of them. This was no doubt very fortunate; but, to our great mortification, before we could get one of them skinned, such a fall of rain came on, as to put it quite out of our power to make a fire; which, even in the finest weather, could only be made of moss, as we were near an hundred miles from any woods. This was poor comfort for people who had not broke their fast for four or five days. Necessity, however, has no law; and having been before initiated into the method of eating raw meat, we were the better prepared for this repast: but this was by no means so well relished, either by me or the Southern Indians, as either raw venison or raw fish had been: for the flesh of the musk-ox is not only coarse and tough, but smells and tastes so strong of musk as to make it very disagreeable when raw, though it is tolerable eating when properly cooked. The weather continued so remarkably bad, accompanied with constant heavy rain, snow, and sleet, and our necessities were so great by the time the weather permitted us to make a fire, that we had nearly eat to the amount of one buffalo quite raw.

On the seventeenth, we saw many musk-oxen, several of which the Indians killed; when we agreed to stay here a day or two, to dry and pound some of the carcases to take with us. The flesh of any animal, when it is thus prepared, is not only hearty food, but is always ready for use, and at the same time very portable. In most parts of Hudson's Bay it is known by the name of Thew-hagon, but amongst the Northern Indians it is called Achees.

-- July 22 1770.

To prepare meat in this manner, it requires no farther operation than cutting the lean parts of the animal into thin slices, and drying it in the sun, or by a slow fire, till, after beating it between two stones, it is reduced to a coarse powder.

Théwhagon or Yéwuhikun is the Cree name for meat dried and beaten as above, and it is generally known throughout the fur countries as "pounded meat." When fat is plentiful this shredded dry meat is often packed into a sack made of hide, and boiling fat is poured over and into it. This mixture of dried meat and grease is called pemican.

Having prepared as much dried flesh as we could transport, we proceeded to the Northward; and at our departure left a great quantity of meat behind us, which we could neither eat nor carry away. This was not the first time we had so done; and however wasteful it may appear, it is a practice so common among all the Indian tribes, as to be thought nothing of. On the twenty-second, we met several strangers, whom we joined in pursuit of the deer, &c. which were at this time so plentiful, that we got every day a sufficient number for our support, and indeed too frequently killed several merely for the tongues, marrow, and fat.

-- August 30 1770. 

After we had been some time in company with those Indians, I found that my guide seemed to hesitate about proceeding any farther; and that he kept pitching his tent backward and forward, from place to place, after the deer, and the rest of the Indians. On my asking him his reason for so doing; he answered, that as the year was too far advanced to admit of our arrival at the Coppermine River that Summer, he thought it more advisable to pass the Winter with some of the Indians then in company, and alleged that there could be no fear of our arriving at that river early in the Summer of one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one. As I could not pretend to contradict him, I was entirely reconciled to his proposal; and accordingly we kept moving to the Westward with the other Indians. In a few days, many others joined us from different quarters; so that by the thirtieth of July we had in all above seventy tents, which did not contain less than six hundred persons. Indeed our encampment at night had the appearance of a small town; and in the morning, when we began to move, the whole ground (at least for a large space all round) seemed to be alive, with men, women, children, and dogs. Though the land was entirely barren, and destitute of every kind of herbage, except wish-a-capucca and moss, yet the deer were so numerous that the Indians not only killed as many as were sufficient for our large number, but often several merely for the skins, marrow, &c. and left the carcases to rot, or to be devoured by the wolves, foxes, and other beasts of prey.