Expansion into Interior

After the Baranov era, Russian-America's expansion slowed down. The borders established with Britain and Tlingit resistance blocked expansion beyond Sitka in the Southeast, and the Dena'ina Athabaskans limited expansion deeper into Southcentral Alaska. This left the one direction for expansion as Western Alaska.

As throughout the Russian Era's history, the primary motivation for Russian expansion into Western and Interior Alaska was to seek furs. Over-hunting had depleted the supply of sea otter furs, so Russians began to seek the furs of land mammals such as beavers and river otters. To get these furs, the Russians established new posts to trade with the Yupik along the Bering Sea Coast and Interior Athabaskans on the Yukon River. 

In 1819, a new post named New Alexandrovsk was established in Yupik territory at the mouth of the Nushagak River on Bristol Bay (location of modern Dillingham). This was followed by forts at Saint Michael (1833) on the shore of the Bering Sea, at Nulato (1834) and Russian Mission (1842) on the Yukon River, and Kolmakov (1844) on the upper Kuskokwim. Smaller trading outposts and Russian Orthodox missionaries spread out from these new forts.  However, the expansion was not without setbacks. In 1851, neighboring Koyokuk Athabaskans attacked and massacred everyone at Nulato.

The British also competed with Russians in the Interior. The British may have agreed to cede Alaska's Interior to the Russians, but with no Russians actually there, they moved into Alaska from the Canadian Yukon. In 1845, British traders created a post at Ft. Yukon, where the Porcupine River meets the Yukon. They sold goods at lower prices than Russians, which brought competition and lower profits to the Russian fur trade at Nulato, 700 miles further down the Yukon.

While Russians never exercised full control of this area, they did have a significant impact on the Natives who lived there. The new technologies, ideas, religion, and diseases they brought would start a period of great change for the Yupik and Athabaskan Natives of the region.

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