St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church
Believed to be the oldest surviving Russian Orthodox church in Alaska, St. Nicholas is significant in local history as a material record of the influence of the Orthodox Church.
The principal chief of Juneau, Ishkhanalykh, is reported to have contacted the Russian priest at St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka, Father V. Dukhov, in 1890, expressing a wish to join the Orthodox faith.
The Sitka Indian chief, Khliantych, who was acting as intermediary, added his own belief that if Chief Ishkhanalykh were baptized first, the other Juneau natives would join the Church.
On July 26, 1892, Nicholas, Bishop of Alaska, visited Juneau and was met by a delegation of Juneau chiefs who said they wished to be baptized and that they would donate land, lumber, and labor for a church.
Asking the reason for this enthusiasm, Nicholas was told of a local tradition: A young Indian man had a vision. A venerable old man came to him and advised him to go to Sitka and to be baptized. The young man followed the advice.
A few years later he became sick, and on his deathbed he called for the elders of his tribe and told them that the same venerable old man came to see him again and told him to advise all other Indians to be baptized. The young man died, but his message did not die with him. Other Indians started to have the same vision, and the urge to be baptized spread like a wild fire.
Nicholas, impressed, agreed to the construction of a church and left a priest at Juneau. Three days later, Chief Ishkhanalykh and his wife were baptized and received the Christian names Dimitrii and Elizaveta.
St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church is a small wood frame structure built on an octagonal plan with a small covered entryway extending from one of its eight sides. Seven of the eight sides have large eight-light windows running from just below the eaves of the shingled roof to halfway down each side.
Above the eaves small cupolas on four of the eight panels elaborate the roof as it slopes up to the onion dome which is capped by an Orthodox cross.
A smaller cross tops the belfry that is on the covered entryway.
Mayflower School
The Mayflower School aka the Douglas Island Community Center is a two-and-one-half story, wood frame structure is at the corner of St. Anns and Savikko Road on the northwest corner. The building sits on a banked slope overlooking Gastineau channel, and Juneau can be seen to the northwest.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs built Mayflower School in 1933-1934 to serve as a model for Native schools in Alaska. The Bureau wanted the school to provide vocational education for Native children and to serve as a community center for the Douglas Tllngits.
The Daily Alaska Empire (10/13/35) informed its readers that the operation of Mayflower School was a "radical departure from the old."
The handsome building represents a significant tie with the past for many in the Douglas Native community and is the only Native school building in the Juneau-Douglas area still standing. It is the only Colonial Revival Bureau of Indian Affairs school in Alaska.
Education of Alaska Natives began when the Russian-Amerlcan Company and Russian Orthodox Church opened schools in Alaska at their major posts to provide education and vocational training for Creole and Native children. After the transfer of Alaska to the United States in 1867, the church continued to support several schools around Alaska.
The U S Government did not undertake responsibility for educating all Alaska Native children although it required the Alaska Commercial Company to operate schools for the Aleut children on the Pribilof Islands as a condition of the company’s 20-year exclusive lease to hunt fur seals on the Islands. Shortly after the transfer, the residents of Sitka supported a public school for all children interested in attending, but it closed in 1870 when the city's economy declined.
The Presbyterian Home Mission Society was the first American missionary group to open schools in Alaska for the Native children. In 1877, their first school opened at Fort Wrangell, and by 1884 the Presbyterians had schools at Sitka, Haines, Hoonah, Fort Tongass and Howkan.
Finally, in 1885 Congress provided for the establishment and support of public schools in Alaska "for Native and non-native children and appropriated $25,000 for this purpose. After Alaska became a territory, the Territorial Legislature established a Department of Education in 1917. Most of the schools supported by the Territory were in the larger non-Native communities. Control of education for Alaska Natives was transferred from the Secretary of the Interior to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The community of Douglas started as a mining camp in 1881 and grew due to the success of the adjacent lode gold Treadwell Mines. Many Natives moved to Douglas and worked at the mines.
The Friends Society of Kansas sent Elwood W. Weisner and Francis W. Baugham to Douglas to establish a school and home for Natives in the summer of 1887. The home accommodated 14 boarding students and the same number of day students. Because it was the only school on Douglas Island, it was attended by both Native and non-Natlve children. It operated until 1902, when the missionaries moved to Kake, another Southeast Alaska community.
The federal government built a school in Douglas for Native children in 1890 at a cost of $900. In 1902, a second school was constructed on the beach near the Native village that served until it burned in 1926. In their annual reports to the Bureau of Education, teachers repeatedly complained about the poor condition of the school.
The fire of October 11, 1926 burned the entire Douglas Indian village that included 42 homes, the school, stores and churches, as well as a number of homes outside of the Native village. After the fire, the teacher, Rose Davis, requested permission to rent quarters for herself and the school.
From 1926 to 1934 Native children in Douglas attended school in a variety of locations. One informant recalls classes being held in the upstairs of an old theater. In 1933-1934 the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs constructed a number of school buildings throughout Alaska from a Public Works Administration grant of $175,000 supplement ed by $30,000 in Territorial funds. By September 1934, new schools stood at Teller, Buckland, Little Diomede Island, Hydaburg, and Douglas. The Douglas School cost $9,500.
The name Douglas Indian Community Center was replaced with Mayflower School. This name was derived from Mayflower Island, a tiny island located in Gastlneau Channel off Douglas Island. The school built by local citizens under the direction of the Southwestern District of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Alaska region, was a handsome white-bodied, green-shuttered, Colonial Revival building. Mayflower School operated as a school for Douglas Native children only for six years.
In 1940, it merged with the Juneau Government School. Native children from Douglas and Juneau were divided by grades between the two schools. In 1948, the school system for Native children merged with the local public school system. The Bureau of Indian Affairs turned over the school to the City of Douglas to be used for school purposes. Douglas and Juneau public schools consolidated in 1955, Juneau and Douglas city governments consolidated in 1970, and Mayflower School was added to the real estate holdings of the new political incorporation.
Rose Davis taught Native children in Douglas for 20 years, and was the principal teacher at Mayflower School from 1934 to 1942. The Dally Alaska Empire reported on June 2, 1934 that starting July 1st Mrs. Davis would advance to all-year service because the Bureau of Indian Affairs envisioned Mayflower School as a "real community center in connection with the wonderful facilities of the new school building."
The newspaper quoted Charles W. Hawkesworth, Chief of the Bureau, in its October 13, 1935 issue on the new approach to education that Mayflower School would pursue. It would have a more home like setting, and emphasize "a practical type of education." Children would learn vocational skills such as taxidermy, boat and furniture building, coffin making, weaving, and rug making. In the classroom, the children had tables and chairs suited to their size instead of benches and desks.
Mrs. Davis opened the library to the community in the evenings. The recreation room had a basketball hoop, and was also open after school hours. The Native community was encouraged to use the showers, laundry facilities, and kitchen in the school. The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood regularly held meetings at the school, and the organizational meeting of the Douglas Indian Association took place in the recreation room.
Kashevarof, Andrew P.
Primary Name: Kashevaroff, Andrew Petrovich
Filed as: kashevaroff_andrew_petrovich
Also known as: Rev. Andrew P. Kashevaroff; Father Andrew Kashevaroff
Occupation / Association: Russian Orthodox priest; Museum curator; President, Juneau Men’s Igloo (1927); Founder and curator, Alaska Territorial Library and Museum
Born: September 19, 1863, Kodiak, Alaska
Died: April 3, 1940, Juneau, Alaska
Parents: Petrovich Kashevaroff family of Russian Orthodox clergy
Spouse: Martha Bolshanin Kashevaroff (m. 1893)
Children: Cyril Kashevaroff; Maria Kashevaroff; Nadeshda Kashevaroff; Lydia Kashevaroff; Natalya Kashevaroff; Xenia Kashevaroff
Associated places: Kodiak, Alaska; Sitka, Alaska; Nutchek, Alaska; Killisnoo, Alaska; Unalaska, Alaska; Juneau, Alaska; Jackson, California; Seattle, Washington
Keywords: Andrew Petrovich Kashevaroff, Father Andrew Kashevaroff, Rev Andrew P Kashevaroff, Russian Orthodox priest Alaska, Juneau Men’s Igloo President 1927, Alaska State Museum founder, St Nicholas Cathedral Juneau, Kashevaroff family Alaska
Biography
Reverend Andrew Petrovich Kashevaroff was President of the Juneau Men’s Igloo in 1927. During his presidency, President Warren G. Harding was made an honorary member of the Igloo.
Kashevaroff was born in Kodiak, Alaska, on September 19, 1863. Of Russian and Aleut heritage, his family had been connected with the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska for generations. The Kashevaroff family first came to Alaska around 1820, and both his father and grandfather served as missionary priests during the Russian colonial period.
He began his education in San Francisco in 1874. Through his upbringing and education, he spoke Aleut, Russian, and English, and later learned some Tlingit.
Kashevaroff returned to Sitka in 1880, where he worked as a psalm reader and teacher. He was also a gifted musician who sang in choral groups and played the violin, organ, and piano.
In 1893, he married Martha Bolshanin, a Kiks.adi Tlingit woman of Sitka. Because the marriage was conducted in a civil ceremony without church approval, Kashevaroff was transferred from Sitka to Nutchek.
The Kashevaroffs had several children, including Cyril, Maria, Nadeshda, Lydia, Natalya, and Xenia. Natalya married Alston Ritchie Lovejoy, author and illustrator, and Xenia later married the composer John Cage.
Kashevaroff was ordained a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1904 and eventually attained the rank of Archpriest. Over more than sixty years, he served the church as teacher, choir director, inspector, deacon, and priest in Sitka, Nutchek, Kodiak, Killisnoo, Unalaska, and Juneau.
In 1913, he was assigned as the priest of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Juneau. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 ended financial support from the Russian government, he supported himself through various occupations, including music teacher, weather bureau clerk, and customs officer.
Kashevaroff also played a central role in the creation of Alaska’s early territorial museum and archives. Beginning in 1919, he served as curator of the Alaska Territorial Library and Museum, collecting thousands of artifacts and historical materials documenting Alaska’s Russian and Native heritage. His work laid the foundation for what later became the Alaska State Museum.
He continued in this role until his death on April 3, 1940, at the age of 76. He is buried beside his wife in Evergreen Cemetery.
In 2015, the State of Alaska honored Father Andrew Kashevaroff by naming the State Library, Archives, and Museum building in Juneau after him. The facility opened to the public on June 6, 2016.
Sources
Alaska Territorial Library and Museum historical records; Alaska Daily Empire; Russian Orthodox Church archives; Find-A-Grave memorial
Tags: Andrew Petrovich Kashevaroff, Father Andrew Kashevaroff, Rev Andrew P Kashevaroff, Kashevaroff family Alaska, Russian Orthodox priest Alaska, Alaska State Museum founder, Juneau Men’s Igloo President 1927, Juneau Alaska pioneers