FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Transfer Opens Door For Land Grabbers

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a six-part series by Alaska historian Chris Allan about newspaper accounts of the Alaska transfer by writers who were present at the ceremony in Sitka. 

By  Chris Allan
 Special to the Sentinel
    One of the American civilians who made his way to Sitka in time for the October 18, 1867, transfer ceremony was a gold miner from California named John A. Fuller. Just over a year before coming to Alaska, Fuller achieved minor celebrity for a patriotic pen-and-ink sketch he called “Freedom’s Footsteps” that traced the political evolution of the nation from the original thirteen colonies to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. He intended to reproduce it for sale as a lithographic print, but instead he left for Alaska. Using “Freedom’s Footsteps” as his nom de plume, Fuller wrote to the Nevada Transcript in Nevada County, California about the transfer ceremony, services at St. Michael’s Cathedral, and the land grab by newly arrived Americans that included the Tlingit village. Fuller mentions “fifty vara lots” which would have been understood by other Californians because the vara was unit of measure in former Spanish American colonial lands like Texas and California that equaled roughly a yard.
   
Excerpt of: Marysville Daily Appeal, December 4, 1867
 (From the Nevada Transcript, Nevada, California)

LETTER FROM SITKA
An Important Day
    To-day, October 18th, General Rousseau arrived in the United States steamer Ossipee with the Russian Commissioners, who immediately upon landing proceeded to the Governor’s residence and made the necessary preparations to receive the Territory. It was an unusually fine day. Our American vessels of war, consisting of the Resaca and Jamestown, were decked with colors. At three P.M. the Ossipee thundered forth with salutes to the Russian flag which was floating over the Governor’s residence. These were quickly answered from the guns ashore, whose echo resounded over the mountain, glen, as if to speak the tidings of the last hour when the Imperial banner shall have waved its last. The star spangled flag of freedom was all ready to wave its glorious folds o’er the heads of impatient spectators, and at 3:30 P.M. the Russian flag was hauled down, and amidst the cheers of an admiring public, the banner we love so fondly and so well, was fluttering in proud defiance to the mountain breeze. Our Company F, of the Ninth Infantry, escorted the officials of both nations to the scene of excitement. The Russian soldiers giving place to ours, and the booming of the cannon spoke the tale of the last and the first, which reverberated “o’er hill and dell,” to house and wigwam. The Indians, one thousand in number, were allowed directly to witness the scene, and in one short hour the Russian monarchy had become a link to our glorious Republic. Jeff. C. Davis, commanding the post, has been appointed Military Governor. One company of infantry and one of artillery, and about thirty employés constitute the American race in Sitka.


 

Jay Hambidge made this illustration of the moment, during the October 18, 1867, transfer ceremony, when the Russian flag fluttered down over the heads of the soldiers below. This image appeared in a 1913 issue of Century Illustrated Monthly. (Image from Alaska State Library)

   The Probable Future

I went to the Greek Church last Sunday.  I had to stand up like the rest of the congregation, as no seats were allowed. In this church a submissive number of people were apparently soliciting a position in heaven, while outside a band of men, representing border ruffians, were defining by argument their relative “posish” on earth. As soon as our flag floated to the breeze, city lots were staked off by hundreds. The whole of the Indian village that had been held sacred for years against land grabbers was located into fifty vara lots for homesteads. Such a mingled mass of confusion one scarcely ever saw. How it will terminate I shall inform you in my next letter, and give a more minute detail of the country, climate and manners of the once Russian America. I will conclude this letter by giving one verse of [John Greenleaf] Whittier’s song, which I am now singing:
    Behind the squaws’ light birch canoe,
    The steamer rocks and raves;
    And city lots staked to sell,
    Above old Indian graves.
             ---FREEDOM’S FOOTSTEPS

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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