In Alaska, the sale of alcohol was first prohibited more than 100 years before the 18th amendment was adopted. Long before Alaska became a state, while it was owned by Russia, selling spiritous liquors to the Alaskan Indians was prohibited. As you might imagine, enforcement of such a ban was difficult to enforce. Indeed, in 1838 Russia was so fed up with the illegal trading that she declared her intentions to reject the fourth article of the Russo-American treaty of 1824 and deny all US trade North of the 54°40′ N latitude line. By 1842, all sales of spiritous liquors were banned in Alaska forcing the people to make their own hoochenoo (moonshine) or “hooch” as Americans came to called it almost 80 years later.
Russian-American Company
In 1799, Emperor Paul I of Russia charted the
Russian-American Company (RAC) to
establish new settlements in Pacific Northwest coast known as then Russian
America (present day Alaska). Almost immediately, the Russian settlements
clashed with the native Tlingits tribe and to maintain control, the RAC outlawed
all sale of spirits and firearms to the native peoples. Because of the hundreds
of islands and inlets surrounding the land, it was impossible to enforce such a
law and native demand for Vodka and Rum was easily satisfied by American and
British whalers and traders. To control the smuggling, Russia declared a
proclamation of territorial sovereignty over all of Russian America and
prohibited foreign vessels from not only landing on the coasts and islands
belonging to Russia but also forbade them to come within one hundred
"Italian miles" of them. Both the United States and Great Britain
objected to Russia's proclamation and in 1824, the three nations signed the
Russo-American Treaty to fix Russia's southernmost boundary at the 54°40′ N
latitude line. In the treaty, a
compromise on trade was agreed to. Article four opened the Alaskan harbor to
both Russia and the US to trade for a period of 10 years, while article five
prohibited the trade of alcohol and firearms with the local tribes.
Rum and Vodka
This did not stop the thirst for vodka or rum, nor did it
stop the US and English from trading spiritous liquor for furs. According to
author Andrei V. Grinev in The Distribution of Alcohol among the Natives of
Russian America, "At the beginning of the 1830s there was now so much
vodka and rum among these Indians that they even sold spirits to the Russian
residents of Nova-Arkangel'sk F.P. Wrangell, who replaced Chistayakov in the
pot of governor". Vodka and rum were especially profitable with the
Tlingit tribe, and by the 1830s Russia was seeing very good profits. By the
late 1830s, the abundance of alcohol leading to the development of alcoholism
among some of the Southeast Alaskan natives often drunkenness would end in
tragedy of death or murder.
Rejection of Article IV of the Russo-American Treaty
In 1838, Russia sent correspondence to the United States
that they were declining to renew the fourth article of the Russo-American
treaty, denying the rights of American vessels to trade on the Alaskan coast.
In his 1838 State of the Union Address, President Martin Van Buren wrote that
Russians reasoned "that the only use made by our citizens of the
privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with spirituous
liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been excluded from the
Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the United States are
injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest coast and calculated
to produce complaints between the two Governments." Whether it was because of the alcoholism, the
instability it brought, or the loss of income, Russia was determined to act.
Van Buren did not seem very alarmed by this.
He said the commerce was "too inconsiderable in amount to attract
much attention". By this time, the amount of fur trading in Alaska had
declined significantly due to the decline of fur-bearing animals and the rise
in silk used in manufacturing. Fur trading was no longer of significant
consequence to the United States, but Van Buren urged Congress to address the situation,
nonetheless. Van Buren gave no additional
reasoning.
Here is the full excerpt from Van Buren’s 1838 State of the Union
address:
"It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40' of north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the article last referred to.
The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to and accepted in lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful consideration of Congress."
References
"Second Annual Message." Second Annual Message | The American Presidency Project, 3 Dec. 1838, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-4
Grinëv, Andrei V. “The Distribution of Alcohol among the
Natives of Russian America.” Arctic Anthropology, vol. 47, no. 2, 2010, pp.
69–79. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25780685. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-American_Company
No comments:
Post a Comment