Chapter 12
(Sitka, Alaska. early 1980s. Elizabeth’s story.)
There was a feeling of unrest in the Native community. The Native Alaskans here were Tlingit — an Indian group whose heritage was more aligned with the Indian groups of the Pacific Northwest than of the Alaska mainland, who were Inuit — Eskimos, we called them back then. But not the Tlingit. They were not Eskimos, and they were fierce about it.
They were actually a fierce tribe altogether. When the Russians established a fort here, they had to fight the Tlingit to do it. And a few years later the Tlingit came back and ran the Russians off, one of the few successful battles for the indigenous peoples in Alaska. It didn’t last. In 1792 the Russians returned, destroyed the Native village, and restored the Russian capital in Sitka.
