Battle of Sitka

Part of the Russian colonization of the Americas

Battle of Sitka by Louis S. Glanzman, 1988

Date	October 1804
Location	Sitka, Alaska
Result	Decisive Russian victory

Belligerents

Russian Empire

Tlingit Kiks.ádi Clan

Commanders and leaders

Alexandr Baranov

Yuri Lisianski

K'alyaan

Strength

150+ Russians
400 Aleuts
14 guns

750–800 (estimated)

Casualties and losses

12 killed, many wounded

unknown

The Battle of Sitka (1804) was the last major armed conflict between Russians and Alaska Natives, and was initiated in response to the destruction of a Russian trading post two years before. The primary combatant groups were the Kiks.ádi (“Ones of Kíks”, Frog/Raven) Clan of Sheetʼká Xʼáatʼi (Baranof Island) of the Tlingit nation and agents of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, later Russian-American Company assisted by the Imperial Russian Navy. Though the Russians' initial assault (in which Alexandr Baranov, head of the Russian expedition, sustained serious injuries) was repelled, their naval escorts bombarded the Tlingit fort Shísʼgi Noow mercilessly, driving the natives into the surrounding forest after only a few days. The Russian victory was decisive, and resulted in the Sheetʼká Ḵwáan being permanently displaced from their ancestral lands. They fled north and reestablished an old settlement on the neighboring Chichagof Island to enforce a trade embargo against the Russians.

Animosity between the two cultures, though greatly diminished, continued in the form of sporadic attacks by the natives against the Russian settlement as late as 1858. The battlefield location has been preserved at Sitka National Historical Park. In September 2004, in recognition of the Battle's bicentennial, a direct descendant of Russian battle leader Baranov joined with descendants of the Kiks.ádi warriors for a traditional Tlingit "Cry Ceremony" to formally grieve for their lost ancestors.

Members of the Kiks.ádi of the indigenous Tlingit people had occupied portions of the Alaska Panhandle, including Sheetʼká Xʼáat'i (present-day Baranof Island), for some 11,000 years.Alexandr Baranov (Chief Manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, a forerunner of the Russian-American Company) first visited the island aboard the Ekaterina in 1795 while searching for new sea otter hunting grounds. Baranov paid the Tlingit a sum for the rights to the land in order to prevent "interlopers" from conducting trade on the island.

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Wikipedia