Author Description

"Like Russian nesting matrioshka dolls, Sonja Luerhmann's book is a matrioshka of history, examining Alutiiq history during the Russian and American colonial periods within the larger context of Russian and American expansion. Luehrmann uses English and Russian source material to focus on the intersection of two colonial perspectives, throwing light on the differences in how each society incorporated the Alutiiq community as a labor force and as a social entity. Drawing on Russian American Company correspondence and records from the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska, Alutiiq Villages Under Russian and U.S. Rule uses the observations of Russian clergy and political administrators to reconstruct the relationship between the first colonizers and the Alutiiq people. American colonization, which began with the purchase of Alaska in 1867, coincided with the decline of the sea otter population, ushering in a new economic pattern and a new order of life. Luehrmann examines the changing patterns in settlement and demography of the Alutiiq as the population responded to the conditions they encountered: economic exploitation, new cultural influences, intermarriage, disease, and the eruption of Novarupta. The addition of Russian source material to the ongoing research on the area fills in important blanks in a unique history and serves as a major resource for anyone working on Alutiiq history or the history of the Russian colonial period in the region."--Jacket.