Russian Orthodox Church

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An interpretive panel at Castle Hill in Sitka during Alaska Day celebrations in 2022 with a piece of paper sticked to it.

"Gunalcheesh" means "Thank you" in Tlingit language. Photo by K. Dziekan

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after the October Revolution in 1917³⁵², the Orthodoxy continued to exist in Alaska. The vast majority of New Archangel’s settlers left for mainland Russian after the sale, including the entire non-Alaskan clergy³⁵³. However, by that time, Orthodoxy already became a popular denomination among the Alaska Natives and Creoles. Even until 1917, when the tsarist empire still helped funding the American branch of Orthodoxy, its influence on the former colony was diminishing with each decade. Father Michael Andreades was priest serving in North America in the beginning of 20^th century.

According to his account, at that time, the Russian Orthodox Church was Russian only in name, when it comes to the North America³⁵⁴. In the mainland US the parishioners consisted to large extend of the immigrants from the orthodox communities (e.g., Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians). In Alaska, the parishioners represented local indigenous population.

In Sitka, it was the Tlingit. Since US has purchased Alaska, the growing number of protestant missionaries and other church representatives started to move to Alaska, Sitka included. Their involvement was not limited to spiritual activities but included also educational ones. Schools founded by protestants were primarily oriented on indigenous population and intended to eradicate their native culture, which was then considered inferior to the European or dominating white American culture. The philosophy behind this practice became famous by the slogan: Kill the Indian in him and save the man. Those words were used by captain R. H. Pratt in his speech entitled: “The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites”. He delivered it during the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in Denver in 1892³⁵⁵. This philosophy paved the way of the entire national policy of stripping whole indigenous population of their languages, culture, and identity. Today, many consider it cultural genocide. On the other hand, Orthodox Church since the times of bishop Innocent did not intend to eliminate native culture. Books

352 S. Kan, op. cit., p. 471.

353 J. D. Murray, Together and Apart: The Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Empire, and Orthodox Missionaries in Alaska, 1794–1917, [in:] Russian History, Vol. 40, No. 1, Centers and Peripheries in Eastern Christianity: Selected Papers from the Second Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Eastern Christian History and Culture:

Part 1 (2013), p. 105.

354 B. Farley, Russian Orthodoxy in the Pacific Northwest: The Diary of Father Michael Andreades, 1905-1906, [in:]

The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 3 (Summer, 2001), p. 134.

355 R. H. Pratt, The Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites, [in:] Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections at the Nineteenth Annual Session Held in Denver, Col., June 23-29, 1892, ed. I. C. Barrows, Boston 1892, p. 46.

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of prayers were translated into local languages (Tlingit among others) and the parishioners were allowed to practice their religion in their own language³⁵⁶. It was critical for the missionaries to deliver the service to the people in an accessible way³⁵⁷. Also, today the Diocese of Alaska of Orthodox Church in America presents the liturgical texts on their website in Alutiq, Tlingit and Yup’ik languages³⁵⁸. Therefore, several representatives of indigenous people developed negative attitude towards protestant churches, preferring the Orthodoxy. Some even considered the latter “the only true Indian church”³⁵⁹. The key moment for the Orthodoxy in Sitka took place in 1966 when the St. Michael Cathedral burned down in a fire that destroyed a significant part of the town. Although tragic as it was, the event mobilized the entire community (Tlingit, Tlingit, orthodox, non-orthodox) to join forces and rebuild the site in a collective effort³⁶⁰. The dates surrounding the tragedy enhanced a symbolic (even providential for some, after all spiritual people) meaning of the cathedral. The fire took place on the eve of the Alaska Sale centennial, while the reconstruction coincided with the transfer of Russian Bishop’s House to the Sitka National Historical Park. Orthodox Church became even more connected to Sitka.

Sergei Kan, a renown scholar on Tlingit Orthodoxy adds another dimension to this connection. He gives credit to several bishops who oversaw the diocese through 1970s into 1990s. In order to ‘indigenize’ the Alaskan Orthodoxy and to strengthen the historical continuity, they canonized several Russian and Indigenous residents of Russian America³⁶¹.

356 Consider: S. Fedorova, Russkoe nasledie v sud'bakh korennogo naseleniya Alyaski [in:] Traditsionnye Kul'tury Severnoy Sibiri i Severnoy Ameriki, Moscow 1981, pp. 244-266.

357 R. R. Rathburn, The Russian Orthodox Church as a Native Institution among the Koniag Eskimo of Kodiak Island, Alaska, [in:] Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1981), p. 16.

358 https://www.doaoca.org/alaskatexts [access: June 6^th, 2022].

359 S. Kan, op. cit., p. 527.

360 Ibidem, p. 527.

361 Ibidem, p. 530.

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An interpretive panel inside St. Michael's Cathedral - photo by K. Dziekan

Although not related to Russia in any direct political or cultural way, the Orthodox Church remains an important element of Sitka’s cultural landscape and remains also important for Tlingit identity in that area. The church bears a big significance also for those very few inhabitants who are not originally from Alaska and they are of Orthodox background. Ana Dittmar serves as a curator at St. Michael’s Cathedral. She grew up in the Orthodox family and moved to Sitka initially to work with the National Park Service:

When I was growing up in 1950s and 1960s in Philadelphia it was very much like other large cities in the US that had immigrant populations. There were many Russian Orthodox Churches in Philadelphia. It was probably towards the end of this cultural period where there were enough people who could speak Russian and had Russian culture. They had those churches all over. The had Russian school on Saturdays, they had services were in Church-Slavonic, the children could speak Russian. It was the golden era. As I got older,

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the Orthodox Church changed to English. It just seemed to fall apart slowly (…). When I came to Sitka, after a couple of weeks I came to St. Michael’s. I walked in here and I just felt like I came home. Into my grandmother’s house. It was very old-fashioned, the way they did things. All the women were here, and all the men were there. It brought up a lot of personal enrichment for me³⁶². Such a personal recollection is often seen among people who rediscover a certain form of their identity. St. Michael’s Cathedral could have a very powerful impact given its historical significance as one of the few examples of historical presence of Russian Orthodox Church in America. Perhaps the feelings gets stronger because of the fact how few such people like Ana are in Sitka – a non-indigenous American with an Orthodox upbringing. As she comments herself: The parish here in St.

Michael’s Cathedral is mostly Indigenous Alaskan. Most of those families were living here when the Russians came and they’re still here³⁶³.