During the eighteenth century, the lure of furs enticed the promyshlenniki, Russian fur hunters and traders, east across the expansive Russian frontier and into the Bering Sea. The Russian advance continued along the Aleutian Chain. While visiting the Aleutians, navigator Gavriil Loginovich Pribylov3 heard tales of the discovery of by Iggadaagix, the son of an [Unangam Tunuu: seasider or islander] toion [Russian] or chief from Unimak Island (Veniaminov 1984, 134–135). Caught in a fierce storm blowing out of the south, Iggadaagix found the misty islands and the summer home to the northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus ().
At a time when the sea otter () had been nearly exterminated for its fur, the fur seal became the source of speculation (Elliott 1976, 8; Riley 1967). For years, Russian navigators had been searching for the land of the fur seals. They had seen the seals swimming north through the passes of the Aleutian Chain in the spring, then back south in the fall. Impelled by the tale of , Pribylov commanded the Sv. Georgii Pobedonosets (St. George the Victorious), a small sloop4 outfitted by merchants Lebedev-Lastochkin and Shelikhov, to search for the islands that now bear his name (Black 2004, 104). In June 1786 Pribylov followed the sounds of barking seals through the dense Bering Sea fog to discover an island he christened St. George Island or Sv. Georgii Ostrova [Russian] in honor of his ship, Sv. Georgii.5
A year later, forty miles to the north of St. George, a crew left by Pribylov to winter at Sv. Georgii and led by Efim Popov, landed on what he named St. Peter and St. Paul Island (later shortened to St. Paul Island; (Veniaminov 1984, 70–71). The island was named in honor of the Saints’ day on which the crew landed on the island. While Pribylov and his sailors found no vestige of human habitation on St. George Island, reconnaissance of St. Paul Island revealed the remains of a recent fire, scorched grass, a pipe, and a sword hilt handle, the origins of which remain a mystery (Elliott 1976, 9).
Aleut legend suggests the Aleuts knew and utilized the Seal Islands before the Russians discovered them. Aleuts referred to St. Paul Island variously in their own Unangam Tunuu (Aleut language), as (Mother’s Brother) or (Land of Mother’s Brother referring to St. Paul Island by itself; the term has also been applied to the combination of both islands); Tanaxsilgux, (the big made island); or Sampuulax (St. Paul Island). Currently, among some Aleuts, the preferred Aleut name for St. Paul Island is . This name is also used when referring to both St. Paul and St. George.6
Following the discovery of the St. George and St. Paul Islands, Pribylov and his associates, and others who came after them, brought Aleuts from the Aleutian Chain to these islands for the purpose of harvesting and processing fur seals (Elliott 1976, 19). St. George and St. Paul Islands became the only inhabited islands of the Pribilof archipelago, which also includes the smaller Sea Lion Rock, Walrus Island, and Otter Island. The people of these islands are known as (meaning outward or seaward people) reflecting the perspective of the Aleutian Islanders, known as Unangan/Unangas.
While the focus of this narrative is on the years following the United States’ purchase of Alaska, several events from the Russian period are noteworthy:
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