Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land

by Walter R. Borneman

The Aleuts watched in horror as the natural cycle upon which their survival depended was first abused and then threatened with extinction. For a time, the Aleuts fought this onslaught, but resistance eventually became futile in the face of Russian guns. Many Aleut men were enslaved and made to hunt, sometimes far away from their villages. Meanwhile, the promyshlenniki engaged in drunken revelry with the Aleut women. Warfare, disease, and starvation quickly took their toll on the Aleuts and led to social disintegration. By some estimates, only 20 percent of the Aleut population of between 15,000 and 18,000 people survived the first quarter of a century of contact with the Russians.17 Others suggest that it was bad, but not that bad. Regardless, this period of initial interaction between Russian promyshlenniki and the Aleuts was the most disastrous and destructive that any group of Alaska Natives was to experience at the hands of outsiders.