Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

328 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 56Other objects in the Tikchik collection that could be consideredas being of Russian origin are the fragment of kaolin pipe stem, thecast iron kettle fragments, a copper ring, and perhaps the brass kettlefragments. There may be others, but it is clear that the bulk of theimported manufactured goods from the site belong to the Americanperiod and were, for the most part, obtained from the traders whosucceeded the Russian-American Company at the mouth of the NushagakRiver. It would seem, then, that the Russian influence at Tikchik,at least in terms of material culture, was not great. This isperhaps not as difficult to understand as might at first appear. Theperiod of Russian influence was, after all, relatively short and thereare indications that it lacked intensity. In a discussion of a similarsituation along the Kuskokwim River at the same time, it has beenpointed out that since the Russians came into the interior of southwesternAlaska for the purpose of expanding their fur trade, theywere always few in number and very circumspect about their dealingswith the people. They had no force to back up their positionsuch as they possessed decades earlier when establishing themselvesin the Aleutian Islands and along the coast of southeastern Alaska.Seldom in southwestern Alaska did they settle in an occupied villageand it seems certain that they made little or no attempt to interferein the affairs of the various villages where they maintained contactfor purposes of trade (Oswalt, 1963, pp. 106-107) ,It should be emphasized once again that Tikchik was one of themost remote villages of the Nushagak River region and was probablyvisited only seldom by Russians, either traders or missionaries. Infact, it is altogether likely that Alexandrovski Redoubt may havebeen in existence for more than 20 years before the Tikchik residentsbegan to visit it with any degree of regularity. If that were indeedthe case, then the total period of even moderate Russian influence onthe community would have been no more than 25 years. Thus it isperhaps not surprising that whatever Russian influence might havebeen noticeable in the material culture was easily swamped out bythe succeeding 40 years of more intensive contact with Americantraders, cannery workers, prospectors, etc.An extremely significant, but less tangible, result of the Russianpresence in the Nushagak River region was the introduction of Christianityto the peoples of the area. Furthermore, the Russian OrthodoxChurch played a role at least equal to that of the Russian-AmericanCompany in opening up the country and in exposing the people tooutside influences. Christianity was introduced to the Nushagak