Introduction

Unalaska, Alaska and Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka, Russia are sister-cities since 1992. Although located in different countries these North-Pacific ports have many historic and cultural ties and parallels. Prior to the eighteenth century both regions were homes of rich Native cultures: Koryaks of Kamchatka and Aleuts (Unanagan) of the Aleutian chain. Both nations occupied their land continuously for thousands of years; both were changed irrevocably once they came into the contact with the expending Russian Empire. Founded by the members of the first Bering expedition in 1742 (?) Petropavlovsk became the gates of the Russian merchants’ maritime ventures to the Aleutians. Native population of Kamchatka played its own often underestimated role in the Russian exploration of the islands, providing the ships of Russian merchants with victuals, and participating in the expeditions. The very method of Native subjugation used by the Russians on the Aleutian Islands and mainland Alaska was rehearsed during the Russian advance across Siberia and Kamchatka.

Unable to resist the technical superiority of the Russian imperial expansion, Native population of both Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands adapted to the social and cultural changes with the ingenuity, striving to preserve their cultures long before European and American communities recognized their value. The first systematic effort to study the indigenous cultures of North Pacific took place at the turn of the twentieth century. The Jesup North Pacific Expedition was a joint effort of both Russian and American scholars. The ethnographic data collected by the prominent Russian scholar Woldemar Jochelson on both Koryak and Aleut cultures in course of this expedition became a breaking point in the scientific and public interest to the rich lore of these regions.

In the spirit of the continuation of the American and Russian cooperation in preserving and propagating the lore of the Native cultures of North Pacific, Museum of the Aleutians (Unalaska, Alaska), Kamchatka State Museum ( Petropavlovsk, Russia) and the National Park Services Shared Beringia Heritage Program introduce the exhibit “Creation of the world: the spiritual culture of the Koryaks”, organized by the Kamchatka State Museum. The exhibit focuses on the spiritual life of the Koryaks, their perception of the world and the place of the man in it, fostering discussion on traditional spirituality and contemporary identity of North Pacific Natives. The exhibit will run in the Museum of the Aleutians from September 15, 2006 until January 30, 2007.

We hope that this first exchange between the Kamchatka State Museum and Museum of the Aleutians will open the dialogue between the museums, and lead to the further cooperation and research initiatives.