Alaskan Creole people

A Creole town in St. Paul, Alaska.

An Aleut man with a Creole woman in the Aleutian Islands.

In Russian Alaska, the term Creole was not a racial category, rather the designation of "colonial citizen" in the Russian Empire. Creoles constituted a privileged class in Alaska that could serve in the Russian military, had free education paid by the colonial government, and had the opportunity of social mobility in both colonial Alaska and in the Russian Empire.[4]

Creoles played an important role in Russian Alaska, as they managed colonial outposts & founded new Russian Creole towns. Their professions varied widely: they were teachers, clergy, navigators, cartographers, ship commanders, missionaries, hunters, interpreters, administrators and artists. Creoles combined elements of Russian and Alaskan native culture, spoke Russian and Alaskan native languages, and could read and write both. Many Creoles also maintained Alaskan native traditions and kept native hunting methods using native weapons, often becoming whalers. The Creoles held a position of honor and respectability in colonial Alaska.[4][5]

St.Jacob Netsvetov (1802-1864), Enlightener of Alaska.

While many Creoles initially were the offspring of Sibero-Russian promyshlenniki (frontiersmen) who married native Alaskan women, the colonial government of Alaska made it possible for all Alaskan natives to become Creole if they pledged allegiance to the colonial government, thus becoming naturalized citizens. Being Creole was a matter of education, spirit, state of mind, and self-identity.[6]

Creoles had tax-exemption from Imperial Russia if they stayed and lived at home in colonial Alaska; they were citizens of various Creole towns, such as the Alaskan capital of New Archangel (Sitka, Alaska). Alaskan Creoles & natives were indiscernible except in that Creoles were more likely to dress in a Russian style.[6]

Alaskan natives seeking free education & Creoles natively born in Alaska had access to free education by the colonial government; in exchange for free education, the colonial government required them to enlist in obligatory state & military service for at least ten years.[4][6]

The signing of the Alaska Treaty of Cession between the American Union and Imperial Russia.

When the American Union purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867, the Creoles were disenfranchised. Americans looked down on Creoles with contempt because they associated the term "Creole" with the meaning of "mixed race".[1][4]

In Sitka, after the colonial government transferred sovereignty to the American forces, the Creoles of the town were amazed by the American soldiers. Creole officials, farmers, and employees all opened their homes to the Americans with full Russian hospitality; in many instances the Americans committed robberies and assaults on Creoles overnight. The Creoles of Sitka were eventually compelled to begin locking their doors from the Americans and wait until sunrise.[1]

Some Americans did come to respect the Alaskan Creole culture; the following is an extract from the Alaskan governor about consideration to enfranchise Creoles of the Aleutian Islands:

"The brightest among the creoles and Aleutian boys were carefully trained in navigation, ship building, and the mechanical arts, while the girls were taught housekeeping, and thus fitted to become wives, and I am reliably informed by old Russian residents that there are now in the Russian army and navy officers of very considerable rank, and a good many who hold high positions in the civil service of the Empire, who are the progeny of creoles. My most reliable information is to the effect that the Aleuts are a keen, bright, and naturally intelligent people, industrious and provident, the larger portions being educated to a greater or less extent in the Russian language, and that they are well advanced in civilization is evidenced by the fact that they live in comfortable houses, are given to finery in their dress, and are, with scarcely an exception, devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church. So far, therefore, as these peoples are concerned, I do not hesitate in my opinion as to the consideration to which they are justly entitled, politically or otherwise. They are fully competent to comprehend and discharge the duties of intelligent citizenship."[3]

The Alaskan colonial government allowed two years to transport any Russian subjects who wanted to remain in the Russian Empire. The American government then began a program to Americanize the Creoles & Alaskan natives. They opened English schools and began the process of Americanization in Alaska.[7]

We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, do hereby memorialize to appropriate from the revenue of Alaska in the Treasury the sum of $50,000, for the establishment of schools for the instruction of the native population and creoles of Alaska in the English language, the common branches of an English education, the principles of a republican government, and such industrial pursuits as may seem best adapted to their circumstances.[7]

Having lost their social status under American rule, Alaskan Creoles began to look back on the colonial period of Alaska as the golden age of their civilization.[6]

Ninilchik, Alaska.

Alaskan Creoles still speak Alaskan Russian on Kodiak Island and in the village of Ninilchik (Kenai Peninsula), Alaska; Alaskan Russian has been isolated from other varieties of Russian for over a century.[8]