Noow Tlein

Noow Tlein. . Tlingit people established ties to this place long ago and those ties, though altered, remain., The Land and the Tlingit , The ocean and the forest met the Tlingit peoples' needs as they moved from summer fish camps to autumn hunting grounds and winter settlements. Their winter settlements typically consisted of wooden strong-houses in which large family groups lived. Some of these strong-houses likely stood on this hill when it was a small island at high tide called Noow Tlein., Winds of Change , The Tlingit were savvy merchants and recognized the European and American ships beginning to sail Alaska's waters as new sources of trade and profit. They exchanged seal and sea otter pelts for textiles, beads, guns, and other goods. The abundance of valuable sea otter pelts soon drew Russian fur traders, who claimed Alaska for Russia, to Sitka Sound. The Tlingit resisted., Tumult and Toil , In 1802, a group of Tlingit stormed the Russian fort near Sitka and burned it to the ground. Two years later, the Russians returned. After a brief battle, the Tlingit left Sitka and the Russian fur traders-established Novoarkhangel'sk, which became the capital of Russian America. The Tlingit eventually returned and became essential to the settlement's success., A New Era , As overhunting depleted the sea otter population, the Russian-American colony became too expensive to maintain. In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to the United States-but was Alaska theirs to sell? The original inhabitants of the land were plunged into a new era with the stroke of a pen., Captions , (Left) Background: View of three clan houses on Noow Tlein, 1793. Watercolor by Sigismund Bacstrom, View of an Indian Village in Norfolk Sound, Sitka Pictures Collection, Alaska Office of History and Archaeology , (Righ) An artist's rendition of the 1802 attack on Redoubt Saint Michael.