Establishment of Russian Colony at Kodiak

Background. Russian colonial activity in North America extended along the Pacific coast from 1732, and the territories were later collectively known as Russian America. Grigory Shelekhov, a fur trader who would later help establish the Russian-American Company, sailed for Alaska with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great.

Founding at Three Saints Bay. In 1784 Shelekhov arrived at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the Three Saints (Tri Svyatitelya) and the St. Simon, carrying about 130 fur traders. He founded Russia's first permanent settlement in Alaska there, which the sources describe as the second permanent Russian settlement in Alaska after Unalaska (permanently settled in 1774).

Violence and Aftermath. Also in 1784, Shelikhov and his traders massacred several hundred Alutiiq men, women, and children of the Qik'rtarmiut Sugpiat at Refuge Rock near Sitkalidak Island (the Awa'uq Massacre). The Shelekhov-Golikov Company's use of violence became systematic as it developed a monopoly. In 1792 the settlement moved to present-day Kodiak, becoming the center of Russian fur trading.