Fort Ross
I attended Alaska Native Day in California, this is what I learned.
Not many know about the Alaska Natives of Fort Ross California. The history has been long whitewashed and forgotten. Russian occupation was not just in Alaska, there were forts along the PNW with Fort ross being the furthest south, built in the 1800’s with Alaska Native hands. Alaska Natives were brought down to hunt and provide food for the fort. Mostly unwillingly. The Fort was ultimately used primarily for the Fur Trade.
I will be pulling my photos and footage from the event and sharing more of the history that I have learned from my time at Fort Ross.
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My dad has been involved with this yearly event since it began and I have met many wonderful people who have worked with my dad for years. Hearing familiar stories from new perspectives was eye opening and healing for me. My dad is so humble when he speaks about his work, but hearing it from the folks it has impacted directly gives a fuller scope of the weight of the work my dad has done in repatriation. My dad and I got to know each other better this weekend and I experienced my culture and learned more about Alaska Native history.
I have a lot of information from this time to process as well as footage to go through, look out for my posts on the different platforms amplifying this lost history. And thank you to everyone who came together to make sure I had the funding to make this happen. I didn’t know for sure if this would come together until pretty much the last minute, and the trip was me leaving a lot up to the universe- but the dots connected and I got to spend important time with my dad. Thank you again.