CHAPTER XVII. EDUCATION EARLY SETTLERS-FIRST RUSSIAN SCHOOL-RUSSIAN MISSIONARIES-ADDITIONAL SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED BY THE RUSSIANS-RECALL OF THE RUSSIAN TEACHERS-SCHOOLS SUSPENDED COMING OF THE AMERICANS-FIRST AMERICAN The first European settlers in Alaska were Russians; many of these married Indian women and raised families of mixed blood, or creoles. As these children increased in number there began to be on the part of some of the fathers a felt need for schools. Accordingly Gregory Shelikoff established a school at Kadiak about the year 1792, which was taught by the trader. In 1793 Catherine II., Empress of Russia, through a ukase ordered missionaries to be sent to her North American colony, who were expected to take charge of schools as well as churches. In 1805 Count Nikolai Resanof organized a school at Kadiak in which were taught the Russian language, arithmetic and the Greek religion. In the same year a school was opened at Sitka. PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN OF ALASKA. 1. School No. 1. Lower Grades, Douglas, Alaska. 2. School No. 2, Advanced Grades, Douglas, Alaska. 3. School at Kadiak, Alaska. In 1839 a school for girls was established at Sitka for the daughters of the employees of the Fur Company. The following year a similar school was opened for boys. In 1841 a theological school was established at Sitka, which in 1849 was advanced to the grade of a seminary. At the time of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States the teachers were recalled to Russia and the schools were suspended; but with the change of government came a new people; the majority of the Russians left the country and their places were taken by Americans. Two months after the transfer a petition, signed by forty-nine persons, was presented to the Common Council of Sitka asking for a citizens' meeting to empower the Council to establish a school. In the spring of 1868 the school was opened, and kept up for five years, when it was suspended. The first permanent schools in Alaska were established by Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., who, in 1877, acting for the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, established a school at Fort Wrangell, and the following year one at Sitka. In 1881 schools were started at Haines, Hoonah and Jackson. These schools were all supported by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. Largely through the work of Dr. Jackson, in 1884, Congress made a small appropriation of $25,000 for education in Alaska, and in 1885 he was appointed "United States General Agent of Education in Alaska." The schools previously established by the churches were turned over to the government and new schools were started at Juneau, Douglas, Kadiak, Unalaska, Bethel, Carmel, Anvik, Metlakatla and Koserefsky. In 1890 schools were opened among the Eskimos |