Revisiting Castle Hill (1804-1867): A Russian-American Company Fort in Tlingit Territory

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The incursion of colonial Russian fur hunters into the Pacific spanned more than a century, resulting in 20 principal Alaskan settlements. Russian entrepreneurs, deep-rooted in a feudal system adapted to the conquest of Siberia during the 16th-17th centuries, applied this cultural framework to 18th century interactions with Alaskan Natives, and fort design. The fur hunters sought sea otter pelts for the China trade but acquiring them required the special skills of Alaskan Native hunters. With minimal trade goods, the Russians placed a greater emphasis on subjugation, taxation and hostage-taking to acquire furs. This situation improved in the 19th century with better Russian access to trade goods and increased involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church and Tsarist government in relations with Native peoples. During 1995-1998, proposed construction at Baranof Castle State Historic Park resulted in archaeological data recovery and accession of 300,000 artifacts from this former chief settlement of Russian-America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow