Editing St. Paul, Alaska (section)

== History and culture ==
{{See also|Siberian fur trade|Russian America|Maritime fur trade}}
[[File:NOAA_Saint_Paul_Island_elliott4.jpg|left|thumb|Map showing the village of [[Saint Paul, Alaska|Saint Paul]] and environs, circa 1890]]
The [[Aleut people]] knew of the Pribilofs long before Westerners discovered the islands. They called the islands ''Amiq'', [[Aleut language|Aleut]] for "land of mother's brother" or "related land". According to their [[oral tradition]], the son of an [[Unimak Island]] elder found them after paddling north in his boat in an attempt to survive a storm that caught him out at sea; when the winds finally died, he was lost in dense fog—until he heard the sounds of Saint Paul's vast [[Northern fur seal|seal]] colonies.<ref>Borneman 2003, pp. 113–114</ref><ref>Elliott 1886, pp. 193–194</ref>

The Pribilofs, named after the Russian navigator [[Gavriil Pribylov]], were discovered in 1786 by Russian fur traders; no Alaska Natives are known to have lived on the island prior to this point. They landed first on [[St. George, Alaska|St. George]] on St. Peter and St. Paul's Day, July 12, 1788, and named the larger island to the north St. Peter and St. Paul Island. Three years later the Russian merchant vessel ''John the Baptist'' was shipwrecked off the shore. The crew were listed as missing until 1793, when the survivors were rescued by [[Gerasim Izmailov]].

In the 18th century, the [[Russian-American Company]] forced Aleuts from the Aleutian chain (several hundred miles south of the Pribilofs) to hunt seal for them on the Pribilof Islands. Before this the Pribilofs were not regularly inhabited. The Aleuts were essentially slave labor for the Russians—hunting, cleaning, and preparing fur seal skins, which the Russians sold for a great deal of money. The Aleuts were not taken back to their home islands; they lived in inhumane conditions, they were beaten, and they were regulated by the Russians down to what they could eat and wear and whom they could marry.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association |url=https://www.apiai.org/departments/cultural-heritage-department/culture-history/history/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421000902/https://www.apiai.org/departments/cultural-heritage-department/culture-history/history/ |archive-date=April 21, 2021 |access-date=March 11, 2021}}</ref> Their descendants live on the two islands today.

In 1870, the now-American owned Alaska Commercial Company (formerly the Russian-American Company) was awarded a 20-year sealing lease by the U.S. government, and provided housing, food and medical care to the Aleuts in exchange for seal harvesting. In 1890, a second 20-year lease was awarded to the North American Commercial Company, however, the fur seals had been severely over-harvested and only an estimated 200,000 fur seals remained. The 1910 [[North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911|Fur Seal Treaty]] ended private sealing on the islands and placed the community and fur seals under the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Food and clothing were scarce, social and racial segregation were practiced, and working conditions were poor.

[[Sts. Peter and Paul Church (St. Paul Island, Alaska)|Saints Peter and Paul Church]], a [[Russian Orthodox]] church, was built on the island in 1907.<ref>{{cite web |title=National Register |url=http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204052104/http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html |archive-date=December 4, 2010 |access-date=July 17, 2012}}</ref>

During World War II, as the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] threatened the Aleutians; the 881 Aleuts on the Pribilof islands were forcibly removed, with no more than several hours' notice, to internment in abandoned salmon canneries and mines in Southeast Alaska until May 1944. The Aleut men were brought back to the islands temporarily in the summer of 1943 to conduct the fur seal harvest for the federal government, seal oil being used in the war effort.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Area History |url=http://alaskamaritime.fws.gov/historyculture/1900-1945.htm |access-date=December 20, 2008 |publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service}}</ref> Most Aleuts from the Pribilofs were imprisoned at [[Funter Bay]] on [[Admiralty Island]] in Southeast Alaska. In 1979, the Aleut people from the Pribilof islands received $8.5 million in partial compensation for the unfair and unjust treatment they were subject to under federal administration between 1870 and 1946. In 1983, [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed the Fur Seal Act Amendments, which ended government control of the commercial seal harvest and most of the federal presence on the island. Responsibility for providing community services and management of the fur seals was left to local entities. [[USD]]$20 million was provided to help develop and diversify the Island economy&mdash;[[USD]]$12 million to St. Paul and [[USD]]$8 million to St. George. Commercial harvesting on St. Paul ceased in 1985. Ownership of fur seal pelts is now prohibited except for subsistence purposes.