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Sailed through the Bering Strait and landed on the Diomede Islands. Met by hostile natives on the second island.
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Bering discovered Alaska during his second expedition
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Bering sets sail for home after refilling his water supplies. Anchored off of the Shumagin Islands, Aleuts invited them onto the Island. Began heading home again only to become shipwrecked.
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Sailed with Bering. Farther north than Bering, near Cape St. Elias, Steller spent hours on the island recording observations of the local platns, crustaceans, sea shells, and evidence of Native people. Observed that natives used the island for fishing and hunting mammals but lived somewhere else.
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After discovering Alaska and the furs it held, Russian merchants payed Siberian fur traders to begin taking pelts and selling them in China. Traders took sea otter, black and other foxes, and fur seals. Fur traders made the Aleut men hunt the animals. Russians were brutal to the Aleuts when they did not submitt to their demands.
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Spanish learn that Russians are making camps and posts in Alaska, they decide to get involved in the land grab race.
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During this time, seven voyages were made to Alaska.
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Spanish begin to make expiditions towards Alaska to grab more land in America
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The British call Commander James Cook out of retirement to head off to Alaska to map out the coast and look to see if there is a north west passage
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When Cook left England, he knew that the Spanish were moving towards Alaska to claim territory also. Because of this, he claimed an area that he thought that the Spanish might have already reached. In during this, he claimed Cook Inlet, near present day Anchorage.
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the Dene begin to trade pelts for knives and needles from the crew of Capt Cook
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On this day, Captain Cook was killed by Hawaiin Natives when a fight eerupted on his second visit to the island
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Established the first permanent Russian post in Alaska on Kodiak Island. From here, troops could be deployed to Cook Inlet and Rpince William Sound to hunt. Shelikhov eventually took over the posts of his chief rival, Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin, which were at the mouths of the Kasilof and Kenai rivers, and the Eagle river.
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The government gave it the right of monopoly, so no other Russian individual or company was permitted to profit from Alaska. The Russian American Company, directed all Russian activity in America from 1799 until the government sold Russian America to the United States in 1867. The first Chief manager and Governer was Aleksandr Andreevich Baranov. This act was known as Point of Possession.
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During his time as Chief Manager, Baranov directed Russian hunters throughout the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island, in Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound, and in the Alexander Archipelago. He also established a port in California, at Ft Ross.
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Attacked Russian colony at Sitka for the first time
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At first the Tlingit Indians welcomed the Russians in Sitka. But later the Tlingit attacked the Russians and killed as many as 80 Russians and Aleuts.
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First attack of Russian colony by the Native Tlingit
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Beat by the Russians in a counterattack. Forced into mountains and later to make peace.
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Baranov considered the Tlingit attack as merely a temporary setback and returned to Southeast with several hundred Aleut hunters. When he arrived at the location of his original post, he discovered that the Indians had moved to a more easily defended location and had built a formidable fortress. Baranov would have had great difficulty re-taking the post with the weapons he had. He had also brought the Russian Naval warship, Neva. This ship shelled the Tlingit fotress into submission.
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2nd battle of Sitka in which Baranov successfully fought back the Tlingit with the help of the Aaleut hunters and the Russian warship, Neva.
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In Unalaska, Ioann began working with Native leaders to translate and develop an alphabet for the Fox Island Aleut language. He then worked with Aleut, Ivan Pan'kov, to translate some Russian liturgical texts into Aleut. He also made notes about the Aleuts and their Island culture.
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Pan'kov works with Vaniamov to develope Orthodox Liturgical texts for Aleuts
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Veniaminov moved to Sitka and began to learn Tlingit. He also began to to design and build a cathedral in Sitka. He even taught the Russians and Natives in carpentry, bricklaying, and other skills.
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Veniaminov returns to Russia in 1841, where he was named the first bishop of Alaska and took the name Innocent and continued to be the bishop of Alaska until 1859, when he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow, the highest office of the Orthodox Church. After his death, Innocent was named a saint in the Orthodox Church.
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In 1867, Alaska was bought from Russia for the price of $7.2 million. Russia sent an envoy Eduard de Stoeckl to sign a treaty with US Secretary of State William Seward.
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The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka on this day. This day would lead to the Haida sueing the US government for buying their land without the Haida agreeing to sell.
