Vitus Bering, in service ofRussia, reachesAlaska; Russians soon trade with natives for sea otter pelts.
Alexei Chirikof, with Bering expedition, sights land on July 15; the Europeans had found Alaska.
Russians Vitus Bering and Aleksi Cherikov 'discover' Alaska and bring back fur skins (Bering shipwrecked on return and died); the Fur Rush is on.
The lives of early Alaskans remained basically unchanged for thousands of years, until Russian sailors, led by Danish-born Russian explorer Vitus Bering, sighted Alaska's mainland in 1741.
The Russians were soon followed by British, Spanish, and American adventurers. But it was the Russians who stayed to trade for the pelts of seaotters and other fur-bearing animals, interjecting their own culture and staking a strong claim on Alaska. Once thefur trade declined, however, the Russians lost interest in this beautiful though largely unexplored land.
^Joseph Robson,Summary of April 23, 1741 letterAn Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's-Bay (1752), pgs. 28-9. Accessed 9 September 2021
^Admiralty instructions to Middleton (May 20, 1741),A Vindication of the Conduct of Captain Christopher Middleton[....] (1743), pgs. 101-2. Accessed 7 September 2021
^Letters of May 27 and 30, 1741A Reply to the Remarks of Arthur Dobbs, Esq. on Capt. Middleton's Vindication[....] (1744), Appendix pgs. 4-7. Accessed 7 September 2021
^"Letter of Father Armand de la Richardie to Reverend Father Franciscus Retz, General of the Society of Jesus, at Rome" (June 21, 1741),The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. LXIX. Accessed 9 September 2021http://moses.creighton.edu/kripke/jesuitrelations/relations_69.html (scroll down to Page 49)
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