I am of Russian Aleut Descent, this part of history is so largely forgotten.

Russian fur traders were well established in California in the early 1800s. The first Orthodox church on the continental US was the Russian settlement of Fort Ross in California, also the first recorded windmills in California were built there. The nearby Russian River is named after the Russians that lived there and explored it.

In 1910, My Great Grandfather, Stepan Sergeyvich Shvets Took his family to Hawaii. In 1917, he was photograpged along with my GGmother and their oldest daughter. It was taken for an interview to be repatriated back to Russia for the war effort. I found the actual written interview which included extra children, one was my Grandmother. After Pearl Harbor was struck by the Japanese, My Gmother and Gfather and their little 3 boy family moved to North Carolina. And now, here I am some many years later.

(1:42) "News of this island was soon received in Moscow" - the capital of Russia back then was Saint-Petersburg )))))

It wasn't just the effectiveness of the Russian Orthodox priests in converting Native Alaskans. Their methodology of mission work was a model of respect and cultural awareness that chose not to subjugate existing native traditions, but to teach that they were also seeking truth and the divine. There are some excellent histories of the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. Thanks for all your work. I've shared and recommended many times. Tom S.

Fun fact: Athabaskan is related to Navajo and Apache as well as a few tribes in parts of California. When the chief of Minto and his family stayed at our house in Anchorage, his wife was Navajo and the languages were similar enough, they could speak to each other. This is shown on the language map shown.

I am Alaskan Native and I was born and baptized in an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral but I am not "Russian" I am Aleut. So we have a lot of Russian influence.

It's great that ethnicity and race can be dealt with in an educational and entertaining way without chauvinism or guilt

Russians also colonized some of northern california before the spanish.

Alaska and Siberia seem to have very similar geography, both places are fantastic places to think about visiting.

In fact, Russian settlers had reached North California. The fort Ross for example

I have to say, I actually enjoy your videos. I usually never comment, or even like videos on KZfaq, but your channel is very entertaining. As a history buff myself I enjoy hearing the little weird things that make up our modern history. Keep up the good work.

allot of Russian people still here..where i live ..from here in kenai all the way to homer there are several communities and villages and a couple of historical churches..and every summer my family camps out at a local lake where several Russian woman take there children and camp out at the same lake pretty much all of July while there husbands are out fishing..it is always good times and i have always had the deepest respect for the Russian people and there children are absolutely marvelous and well mannered and charismatic and the woman are absolutely radiant and fun loving bunch.we look forward to seeing them every year and it has been a joy to see how much they have grown every year,,there are many Russian people in Alaska and they represent there culture and people well as Alaska has always been home to some of Russia's people and there history is not only part of our history but Russia's as well.

A couple corrections. In Alaska we don't call Eskimoes "Inuit", they are either Yupik or Inupiat depending on the tribe, Tlingit is pronounced "Cling-kit" and Kenai is pronounced "Key-Nye", the three largest Native groups are Yupik, Inupiat, and Athabaskan, and no one calls mixed race Alaska Natives Alaskan Creoles. Other than that not bad.

I love when I see a KZfaq that talks about something that I never thought about. Thank you for feeding my brain.

they sold it after the Crimea war to prevent it from falling into British or French hands, as the British population was on the rise in British Columbia the Russians feared invasion so they sold it to get profit

the reason your channel is going upwards is because you make good content :)

This channel is the gift that keeps on giving

Excellent presentation! I am very pleased to have discovered your KZfaq site. Keep up the good work!

Excellent! Thank you for a clean, informative video. Please keep it up.

In addition to traditional Russian Orthodox followers, there is a settlement of "Old Believers" who broke off from the mainstream Orthodox.

This is a cool channel, I've stumbled across it a few times because I'm a huge history/ Geography buff. nice content.

nice video, informative and to-the-point. good visuals, appropriate and not just the typical google searched pics. i appreciate the clear narrative, lack of excess dialogue, and the confident delivery of information without annoyance. thank you for teaching me and not annoying me at the same time!! earned my support. new sub as of today :)

Hey thanks for that! that was really awesome and informative! i could have found most of that information on my own (but it would take a lot of time), so i really appreciate how you put that all together and explained it all! good stuff! have a beautiful day!

I spent some time in Alaska when i was in the U.S.Air Force in 1980s Loved it.

Russian Orthodox monks also treated Alaska's native inhabitants better than the American settlers

Informative and put together very well, subbed

I stumbled upon your video while I was looking for something else. But I watched it and it's truly very informative. You did a great search on the subject.

I live in Northern California and visited Fort Ross on the annual festival where they do the complete reenactments of how this Fort operated during the Russian Colonial times. This Russian Fort used to supply food and other goodies to Russian Alaska, it was so cool to tee the living history

Russian settlements all the way to Northern California.. The Russians had build an outpost in Northern California in 1812, and the first Orthodox church in the continental United States was build at Fort Ross. ..

Salutations from Turkey! I have recently discovered your channel. Thank you for invaluable information you give to us. Thank you indeed!

As always, this is another excellent video! Keep up the great work you are doing.

Excellant video you taught me something I did not know. God Bless you.

Thanks so much. I really enjoy these videos.

Great vid man!

very nice report, interesting and well made. Thanks

Well done young man! I applaud both your research and your presentation : it was in depth and well presented. You young sir have a future in History. I am happy and proud for/of you! Well done.4.0!Keep up the great work . You will go far!

Interesting search I'm waiting for Native Hawaii and new Zealand next please Wish your channel continues that exponential growth too Can't wait for the Q&A plz make it ASAP

Fantastic Video with lot of informations. Everyone much watch. Please make more and more of such informative videos. They are full of information and knowledge.

Great video, as always

Yay! A video on Alaska!!! This part of our history gets over looked often. Thanks. ~a random chick from Talkeetna AK

Great video as always.

great video - thanks for that!

Thank you very much.impressivly well done and very welly narrated.

As an Alaskan myself, I was actually surprised that you got just over 55%of the pronunciation correct. My mom's side of the family has been here since before it was a state, so I'm a 4th gen Alaskan.

sombody stop this madman his channel is too interesting.

I've always wondered about that. Very informative!

Thanks for taking the time in making your videos. History has always been my favorite subject.

Just reading the Michener "Alaska" book. It doesn't follow the Russian creoles past the gold rush era, so this was very informative!

I love your videos so much! I've always had an interest in anthropology in general and having a diverse (mostly euro- mom calls us Heinz57) background and my children having an even more diverse background, I find your videos very helpful in our homeschooling! Keep it up!

I'm a huge history geek and your channel is very helpful when I want to know something the book doesn't tell me. Just subscribed!

I started watching your videos yesterday and I really enjoy them. I like how they touch on topics that aren’t widely discussed.

Really loved this video! I was born and raised in Alaska and I still reside here. This was very informative! Just wanted to correct your pronunciation of the Kenai Peninsula: it's pronounced Keenai (long e rather than a short e). Thanks for the video!

I live in Delta Junction, AK. There are many ethnic russians here, so much so that the small local market has has whole sections of foodstuffs with Cyrillic writing on them.

thank you for the great video brother. very very interesting. and unexpected! big hello from Serbia. keep up the good work.

Great video! We are visiting Alaska soon & I love learning about the history of a place!

another amazing video

As Alaskan born and breed I can say you are accurate. Fun fact, mountain view (neighborhood in Anchorage) is the most diverse in the US. Most of Asia is represented.

Excellent report; I learned a lot! Thank you.

Thank you so much for this video it was great! I love learning about different cultures no one would rally talk about.

I'm Orthodox, and I've seen a lot of icons in Orthodox Church in America (OCA) parishes with saints like Herman the Aleut. The pastor at my old parish leads the Sunday school on a youth trip to Alaska every year.

I grew up on Chichagof Island in the 70s. One of the oldest Orthodox churches still stands there in Hoonah, a Tlingit fishing village.

Nice job young man . Very interesting

Another great video duder.

I always watch to the end just to see that dank farewell pose.

I had no idea the guy doing these was such a youngster. Great research, and great videos.

One of my favorite channels on KZfaq now. I love learning about different people and cultures.

awesome video! subbed!

Considering your intro, I assumed you were going to talk about the history of Russian influence in Hawai'i as well. Either way, great video!

"Yes, there are Black people in Alaska." That was like my phrase that I had to constantly say when people found out I was from Iowa, especially when I lived in California.

I recently discovered your channel. You probably get this a lot, but it's amazing! It touches very weird and interesting subjects, and make them very accesible. Moreover, your ability to stay focused on facts and serious research, concerning ethnic topics (which are so sensitive and contentious), is a great and wonderful antidote to racial prejudice. So for now, just keep' em coming!

Very well done. A great brief summary of history of Alaska.

Between 1816 and 1817 Russia built 3 forts on the Island of Kauai in Hawaii. Remnants of Fort Elizabeth near the mouth of the Waimea River still exists today.

I live in AK. Good info about the great state of AK.

Very informative....thanks!

Masaman this is the first video I've seen of yours, I've never heard of your channel before. This is very interesting. I'm gonna watch more of your videos.

Can you do a video about the genetics of the baltics? I was shocked that latvians and lithuanians have more finnic(N M178 haplogroup) than estonians do.

Best part of the video, is how he prenounced Kenai

Thanks so much. Exhaustive expose. Job well done.

Could you do some videos of the Less known European nations like San Marino? Or roman genetic legacy on the Middle East and North Africa?

NOT SOLD! Rented for 99 years! And that term ended long ago...

yo dope video..very well done!

I watch every documentary on Alaska that i can find...i love watching how families are living off grid and off the land....and the ANWR is amazing Thank you for taking time to share this well studied information... I just subscribed to your channel...

Its amazing to me how the history of my state is so different than today's culture. Many places farther north do still carry traditional values, but if you look at how we live today here in Alaska, you would never guess how rough and hard its history has been. I mean, I drive a Volvo XC90, live in a gated subdivision north of Anchorage in a home with central heat and a community pool, commute to the city everyday on paved 55 MPH highways, and get a Starbucks from the neighborhood shopping center before heading out every morning. Such a huge difference compared to what Alaska was not even 100 years ago. What does piss me off however, is when people ask me if I live in an igloo, if we have roads with street lights, or if we eat reindeer - which I won't lie, is actually true. Reindeer hotdogs are delicious. My vegetarian sister is going to visit me and murder me now.

You should do a video on how the Arabic invasions effected the ethnic makeup of the Middle East and North Africa. Or maybe an episode on the Celts

I have to say, your videos are intriguing as hell! You pick excellent topics, stuff that I wonder about, like this...keep up the good work! 👍

You make a lot of videos man! Keep up the good work

interesting! i did not know about this "filipino-connection", too bad though that you did not mention that for a long time the territory was heavily contested by Russia, England and Spain which built forts which sometimes were close-by like spanish and russian settlements on Kodiak island, etc. Spain abandoned the region as the mexican independence announced itself, and England was kind of busy trying to settle things in Canada and finding the northwest passage... this unclear territorial issue is what provoked the Lewis & Clark expedition in the first place, and from then on the presence of the US in the region... which Japan jeopardized for a while during WW2 in Attu and environs

great stuff ! I'm your biggest fan from Syria :D .. would love to see something about Syrian ethnicity groups and history, it's a fascinating subject and there are many conflicting theories about the origin of the people who make up Syria today .. I would really like to hear your take on it :D

Very informative thank you for making this.

Great video. Explained most excellent dude.

Just to let you know... Ninilchik south of Kenai north of Homer is a village with Russian ancestry, and Athabaskan. It was considered a "Retirement" community. Some of the cities names still have Russian "Stems". Kenai, where I live is short for Kenaitze. Kenaitze is a Russian and Native language mix. It means People of the river. Other than that good video.

A vid on Kazaria would be cool as for some reason despite it being such a massive place, it appears to be blotted out of our western history books.

Thank you for this thoughtful program

Interesting and educational. Thank you.

you mentioned Hawaii, there was briefly a Russian colony on Kauai

Interesting Am just reading J. Michener´s book "Alaska". / Pls make a vid abt origins of the enigmatic Sami people of Scandinavia !

Fascinating! Thanks!

Great video. Thanks.

There are far more people living in Alaska who claim Russian descent that can be accounted for by historical statistics. It's kind of an Alaskan thing, I guess. Much like people from Louisiana claiming French descent in numbers that are simply too great, or people from New England claiming to be descendants of Mayflower immigrants, in unrealistic numbers.