ALASKA

ALASKA. First missionized in 1794 by a group of about a dozen Russian monastic clergy from the Lake Ladoga region of Russia, Alaska hosted an Orthodox presence among the indigenous population that continues to the present. The clergy who first went there followed the Russian fur trade and began ministering to fellow Russians. These clergy had received a tacit, if not explicit, education in the evangelization of peoples with animistic beliefs in their travels across Russia and Siberia on their way to Alaska. As a result, they soon evangelized natives and expended considerable effort protecting them from their Russian overseers, who conscripted them into hunting for profit. During the time of the fur trade-which took the Russians as far south as Fort Ross (q.v.), California, just north of San Francisco-the native population was educated and served by such noteworthy people as the Elder Herman and Bishop Innocent (Veniaminov) (qq.v.). Historians have identified this era as the earlier history of “Russian America” (q.v.).

From 1867 to 1900, after Russia’s sale of Alaska to the United States, the Russian Church spent more money on the education of Alaskan natives than did the U.S. government. The latter dealt with the natives by suppressing their languages and cultures, separating children from their families, and reeducating them, policies directly opposed to those of the Russian Church. These policies continued well into the 20th c. under the advocacy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. By this time a number of natives had assumed clergy leadership roles in the vacuum created by the Russian Mission relocating to the “lower forty-eight.” The Orthodox Church is widely recognized by modern scholars and historians as a principal cultural legacy of the history of Alaska.

As the largest Christian “denomination” in Alaska today, much of the indigenous population largely identifies its religion as Russian or native Orthodox. They are served and led by native clergy educated at the St. Herman’s Seminary in Sitka. The last twenty years has seen an explosive revival in Alaska. In 1972 there were nine clergy and eighty communities, while in 1990 there were thirty-seven clergy, half of whom were native, and thirty-three new churches. The Orthodox Church was the only place native languages could be used to the present. The State of Alaska values the churches and traditions as a cultural treasure.