Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The Contest among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade » (New Edition)

Arctic specialist John R. Bockstoce is an independent scholar and the author of many books, monographs, and articles on the history of the Arctic.

With expert scholarship and a keen eye for detail, John R. Bockstoce provides the first analysis of the historic competition between the Russians, British, and Americans for control of the Bering Strait fur trade.

Foreword Felipe Fernandez-Armesto xiii

Preface xvii

A Note on Names xix

Acknowledgments xxi

Part 1 The origins of the fur Trade in the Bering Strait Region 1

1 The Opening of the Maritime Fur Trade at Bering Strait 3

2 Trapping and Hunting for Marketable Furs 41

3 The Russian Expansion toward Alaska 70

4 Marketing the Furs 103

Part 2 The Russian-British Rivalry in Northern Alaska 115

5 The Russians Move North 117

6 The British Response 129

7 Mikhailovsky Redoubt 167

8 The Expeditions to Point Barrow 179

9 Zagoskin's Expedition to the Yukon 193

10 The British Expansion Northwestward 203

Part 3 Foreign fleets Reach Bering Strait 225

11 The Search for Sir John Franklin 227

12 Trading Activities from 1848 to the Sale of Russian America 260

13 Chaos and Transformation in the Latter Third of the Nineteenth Century 296

14 The Last Decades of the Nineteenth Century 324

15 End of the Century 355

Appendix The Introduction of Firearms to the Eskimos of the Bering Strait Region 361

Chronology 363

Glossary 371

Notes 375

Bibliography 411

Index 447