Alaskan Creole people

. (1802-1864), Enlightener of Alaska. In Russian Alaska, the term Creole was not a racial category, rather the designation of "colonial citizen" in the Russian Empire. Creoles constituted a privileged class in Alaska that could serve in the Russian military, had free education paid for by the colonial government, and had the opportunity of social mobility in both colonial Alaska and in the Russian Empire. While many Creoles initially were the offspring of Sibero-Russian promyshlenniki (frontiersmen) who married native Alaskan women, the colonial government of Alaska made it possible for all Alaskan natives to become Creole if they pledged allegiance to the Alaskan government, thus becoming naturalized citizens. Being Creole was a matter of education, spirit, state of mind, and self-identity. Creoles had tax-exemption from Imperial Russia if they stayed and lived at home in colonial Alaska; they were citizens of various Creole towns, such as the Alaskan capital of New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska). Alaskan Creoles and natives were indiscernible except in that Creoles were more likely to dress in a Russian style. Alaskan Creoles spoke Russian and their local Alaska Native language; they could read and write both. Creoles also maintained Alaska Native traditions and continued native hunting methods using traditional weapons. Tebenkhov, a Creole printer and citizen of New Archangel, compiled all of the data of these expeditions into a scientific atlas titled "Atlas of the Northwest Coasts of America" in 1852. Tebenkhov's atlas served as a navigational aid for sailing through Alaskan territory and it became the basis of American cartography in Alaska for decades after the sale of Alaska. ==Sale of Alaska, 1867==

and Imperial Russia. When the United States of America purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867, the Creoles became disenfranchised. Americans looked down on Creoles with contempt because they associated the term "Creole" with the meaning of "mixed race". Having lost their social status under American rule, Alaskan Creoles began to look back on Alaska's colonial period as the golden age of their civilization. Property seizures by the Federal government In the Treaty of Alaskan Cession, Alaskan Creoles were guaranteed the choice to either become American citizens, with full protections of property and liberty, or to emigrate to Russian territory. The Americans ignored the guarantee for the majority of Creoles; only the property of the Russian Orthodox Church and its legal rights were fully protected. The American government gave guarantee certificates to only 20 Alaskan Creoles. In the hour that the transfer of Alaska took place, the Alaskans lost all rights to their land and property. Some Creoles were listed on a registry that mentioned their ownership of a house, but they lost all rights to their land. All properties on the island of Kodiak were transferred immediately to the United States federal government. The property transfer in Alaska was enacted rapidly and harshly. U.S. Brigadier General Davis, who oversaw the transfer on Baranof Island, remarked: "The Russians hurried to clear all buildings designated for transfer to the American government. This speedy relinquishment of the best dwellings caused considerable inconvenience to the chief administrator and to those people who had to get out of their houses under the local rainy weather, the majority of them moving to ships." A Tlingit chief of Baranof island, witnessing the property transfer, angrily remarked: "We indeed permitted the Russians to administer the island, but we have no intention to give it to any and every fellow who comes along". ==American Alaska==

, 1868 The Alaskan colonial government stipulated three years to transport any Russian subjects who wanted to remain in the Russian Empire. The American government then began a program to Americanize the Creoles and Alaskan natives. They opened English schools and began the process of Americanization in Alaska. Not all Alaskan Russians who wanted to leave could take advantage of the three-year grace period to evacuate Alaska; in 1869, only two years after the sale of Alaska, Alaska's colonial government lost all rights to act in Alaska, and had to entirely abandon the Creoles without any government support. ==Notable people==

• Loren Leman, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska • Jacob Netsvetov (1802–1864), "Enlightener of Alaska", saint of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska • Peter the Aleut (d. 1815), martyr and saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church • Kathryn Dyakanoff Seller (1884–1980), educator ==References==