Editing Yakutat, Alaska (section)

==History==
[[File:Alaska Marine Highway- Approaching Yakutat, Alaska (7602033610).jpg|left|thumb|Approaching Yakutat on the [[Alaska Marine Highway]], June 2012]]
[[File:Alaska - Yalcutat - NARA - 23942661.jpg|thumb|right|Yakutat in the 1940s]]
The original settlers in the Yakutat area are believed<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yakutat and its History |url=https://www.johnnyseastriverlodge.com/yakutat.html#:~:text=Yakutat%20has%20a%20diverse%20cultural,explorers%20came%20to%20the%20region. |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=www.johnnyseastriverlodge.com}}</ref> to have been [[Eyak]]-speaking people from the [[Copper River (Alaska)|Copper River]] area. [[Tlingit]] people migrated into the region and the Eyak were [[Cultural assimilation|assimilated]] into the tribe before the arrival of Europeans in Alaska. Yakutat was only one of a number of Tlingit and mixed Tlingit-Eyak settlements in the region. The others have been depopulated or abandoned.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, English, French, Spanish, and Russian explorers came to the region. The [[Shelikhov-Golikov Company]], a precursor of the [[Russian-American Company]], built a fort in Yakutat in 1795 to facilitate trade with the Alaska Natives in [[Sea otter|sea-otter]] pelts. The settlement became known as [[New Russia (trading post)|New Russia]], Yakutat Colony, or ''Slavorossiya''.<ref>{{GNIS|1894518|Glory of Russia (historical)}} {{dead link|date=May 2022}}</ref> After the Russians cut off access to the fisheries nearby, a Tlingit war party attacked and destroyed the fort in 1805.

By 1886, after the 1867 [[Alaska Purchase]] by the [[United States]] from the [[Russian Empire]], the area's black sand beaches were being mined for gold. In 1889 the [[Evangelical Covenant Church|Swedish Free Mission Church]] opened a school and sawmill in the area.

In around 1903, the [[Stimson Lumber Company]] constructed a cannery, another sawmill, a store, and a railroad. Many people moved to the current site of Yakutat to be closer to work at the Stimson cannery, which operated through 1970. During [[World War II]], the [[United States Army Air Forces|USAAF]] stationed a large aviation garrison near Yakutat and built a paved runway. The troops were withdrawn after the war. The runway is still in use as [[Yakutat Airport]], which offers scheduled airline service.

Fishing is the largest economic activity in Yakutat.

In 2004, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe (YTT) received a Language Preservation Grant from the Administration for Native Americans. With this, they have reinvigorated their efforts to teach the [[Tlingit language]] to middle-aged and young people. YTT received another ANA grant in 2007 and is expanding its role in the schools. All the YTT Tlingit language revitalization work focuses on using [[Communicative language teaching|communicative approaches]] to second-language teaching, such as [[Total Physical Response|TPR]] and [[American Sign Language]] (ASLA).

While working at a local cannery from 1912 to 1941, [[Seiki Kayamori]] extensively photographed Yakutat and its area; Yakutat City Hall holds a large set of prints of his work.<ref>Samples are available online, for example at [http://uaf-db.uaf.edu/jukebox/wrst/Kayamori/Kayah.html a site hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903072135/http://uaf-db.uaf.edu/jukebox/wrst/Kayamori/Kayah.html |date=September 3, 2009}}.</ref>

[[File:Locomotive of the Yakutat and Southern Rwy Co, Yakutat, Alaska Sept 1, 1907 (COBB 280).jpeg|thumb|A locomotive of the Yakutat and Southern Railway Co. in Yakutat, September 1, 1907]]

Yakutat and Southern Railway was a rail operation in the area. It served several canneries south of Yakutat and primarily hauled fish to the harbor. Service ended in the mid-1960s.<ref>Abandonrailroads.com; Alaskan Railroads; Yakutat & Southern.</ref>