Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05
CAR IN ALASKA.
Russia's Ruler Still Holds Sway Over
Some of Our People.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

From the Brooklyn Eagle.
There are remote regions in the interior
of far away Alaska, under American rule.
where the Car of Russia still holds the
faithful allegiance of hundreds of former
subjects where his word as the head of the
Russian Church means more to the people
than a law of the United States Congress
| a ruling of the United States courts.
These people are descendants of mixed Rus
sian and native stock, and the active prose-
lyting of the representatives of the Russian
Church has kept them loyal to the Little
Father and has led them to accept him
as their temporal ruler. although forty
years have passed since the signing of the
| treaty which conveyed the country to the
| United States. In these settlements the
Russian language is almost exclusively
spoken, missions are maintained by the
Russian Church and schools conducted I'M
der the auspices of those missions. In many
respects the people are as thoroughly Rus
sian in both appearance and allegiance as
are the people in the outlying portions of
Siberia on the opposite coast of Boring sea.
OF the $4,000 people living in Alaska one
sixth are communicates of the Russian or
thodox church. The charch maintains in
the district Is parishes. 3S missions and 30
schools. having total of 40 children in at
tendance. The total enrolment in the 33
public schools maintained In the district by
the United States government is 2,1O0. only
three times large as that at Russian
schools In all there are LOG missions main-
tanned in Alaska by different religious de-
nomina lions. of which the Russian Church
maintains 80, the Presbyterian Church q.
the Roman Catholic Church TO- the Episco-
pal Church IA, the Baptist Home Mission
Society 2. the Methodist 6. the Swedish
Evangelical Union 3, the Friends Society 3.
the Congregational Church 4, and the Nor
wegian Evangelical Lutheran 5. These fig
ures show that while the Russian religious
influence is hardly the dominant influence
among the native population, since many Of
IL 10 %fz..r
and Episcopal, devote their energies largely
to the white settlements. 1t is notable in
this connection that the Russian missions
are maintained in remote settlements where
the population is chiefly native or mixture
of native and Russian
1t is difficult for most Americans to I'M
derstand how an absolute autocrat like the
Gar of Russia has so long held the I'M
Swerying allegiance of millions of people,
extending from the Baltic to Boring
strait, and from the Caucasus to the arctic.
A key to this enigma may be found in any
one of the thousands of modest homes in
the district of Alaska. In the humble cabin
of the average Indian river pilot on the
Yukon river. in the shack of the Aleut fish
erman on any of the Aleutian islands or in
the miserable gloo of the Eskimo reindeer
herder at Point Barrow may be found hang
ing side by side two highly colored prints:
one that of the meek and lowly NaZarene,
and the other that of the Gear of Russia,
the head of the Russian Greek Eastern Or
thodoX Church. In each of the Russian
missions the Russan-speaking priests and
missionaries persistently instruct their pa
rishioners that the power OF the ear is not
only temporal but spiritual as we'll. and that
no LOYAL and devout member of the church
should take up arms against the Little
Father or in any respect disregard his
wishes commands. An act of disloyalty
to the car they are taught. would be an
act of disloyalty to the church, and. despite
their poverty and ignorance. the natives of
Alaska falling under Russian Church infiu-
ences are imbued with the most profound
religious reverence for both the church and
it's royal head