When the explorers Steller, cook, came to the Aleutians for the first time in their logbooks described seeing rowing boats that produce considerable speed around the estimated speed of 10 nautical miles. Cook's third voyage
In 1778, John Webber was able to produce a drawing of this strange craft with its driver, who had come up considerably under the ship, the design is a hunter dressed in the Unalaska Aleut chigidax and a wooden shield decorated with sea lion whiskers
, the design is existing and is part of private collection and is located at the Museum of 'Man. J Oster. Historically
were built three types of baidarka the individual who was very popular before the arrival of Russian settlers, who settled in the Aleutians in 1742, twice that it was very rare until the nineteenth century, and was reserved for only the village chief to be served or used for training young people to hunting and sailing from an expert hunter.
The triple is unanimously considered a creation of the presence of Russians, used to transport and administrators, businessmen and priests from 'the other island of the archipelago.
Before the arrival of the Russians, the Aleuts have enjoyed the benefits of an extremely rich in aquatic mammals, whales, sea lions, seals, sea otters and above all, and it was this ecological wealth, which led to this hunting people, population growth, which came in the mid eighteenth century to about 17,000 people
The sea otter was very important in the culture of the Aleuts, was not only appreciated for the quality of its meat and for its fur, but in the Aleut mythology, it was thought that descended from humans.
There are many legends reported by authors such as Chorisia, Golder, Heizer Petroff or the birth of the otter was the result of an incestuous relationship between blood human beings.
According to some versions: a pairing of an incestuous brother who took advantage of his sister, in another version, the husband discovered his wife with his nephew and invited him to take revenge on his rival at a party. During which cut across the head in front of his wife.
The woman took the head of her lover and threw himself off a cliff into the sea, and fell in the same spot where her husband saw two otters appear - a hunter
Aleut otter's scrupulously followed the rituals and modes of behavior, being born of a forbidden relationship between a man and a woman the otter had to remember the horror of his birth, the hunter then that he hoped to get close to shoot harpoon, before the hunt should refrain from having any relationship with his wife, and that three months before the hunt, the otter would have detected the scent of a woman and would have fled, but was concerned with the tools to take to the chase, clothes even utensils such as bowls should not be touched in any way by women
Aleuto The hunter was very cautious, even in relation to participation, that the woman had in the construction of the kayak, as in sewing clothing for hunting, and for what they used before the start of the rites of purification and washing, these ceremonies were clearly restricted to men, where they were scheduled all the preparations, to ensure a safe hunting and many prey.
After the first expeditions in the Bering Strait, quickly spread the wealth that you could get in the market fur otter that was so popular both in China and in Russia
were formed in a short time, crews trained for the more bandits, convicted criminals and exiles unscrupulous adventurers, who settled the island in the Aleutians, decimating, whole villages, having hostage women, children and forcing the Aleuts to hunt otters in full storm.
The Russians took advantage of the great skills of hunting and navigation, the Aleuts, and to provide more hunting otters, they produce fleets of baidarka is double or triple, to be used more systematically in the intensive hunting .
So, after fifty years the Aleut population, fell from just over 17,000 people
. Of 2500 people. The government of St.
Pietrburgo, was repeatedly informed of what was happening to the Aleut, and tried to stop these massacres, but the islands were far away, and the activities of the Cossacks were difficult to control.
Coxe, in 1781 wrote in his preface to his book: The Russian ships
rarely return without having killed a large number of Aleuts, and is therefore a great advantage for Russia to subdue these poor tribes, to snatch the few furs remained,
It must be admitted that the Russian sailors are extremely disumani.e slaughter people for small pretexts.
Sauer writes in 1792:
is a pity that the Aleuts are subject to the caprice and tyranny of the Russians, their only hope of deliverance from their oppressors is, I think, in the total destruction of the animals they hunt;. and I dare say that given the amount of these animals that kill every day, these species will soon be wiped out.
Since I am fond of this beautiful boat, I built a number of historical items baidarka, but I also explored the aspect of anthropology of the Aleut people, their culture, their hunting technique extremely sophisticated, as well as large ability to navigate the seas with very, difficult, but most have been able to build a boat in a way, albeit empirical, but that over the millennia, has evolved that has led to a state of art difficult to improve .
all these reports, these studies are part of a study conducted Joëlle Robert-Lamblin,
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