Timofei Nikitich Tarakanov
Timofei Nikitich Tarakanov, also written Timofey Tarakanov, was born into serfdom near Kursk, Russia. His owner, Nikanor Ivanovich Pereverzev, sold him to the Russian-American Company shortly after the company was created in 1799. He worked for the RAC in western North America and Hawaii from about 1800 to 1819. Tarakanov played an important role in the expansion of Russian operations south from Russian Alaska into Spanish California, usually as hunting party leader of indigenous sea otter hunters, mostly Aleut and Alutiiq people working for the RAC. This task often involved US maritime fur trade merchant ships transporting the hunting parties and their kayaks as far south as Baja California. Tarakanov played a key role in the founding of Fort Ross, California, and helped build and run Fort Elizabeth on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. He was granted manumission from serfdom and returned to his home near Kursk in 1819.
Very little is known about his early life. He was born into serfdom around 1774. Tarakanov probably became a serf-employee of the Russian-American Company around 1800 or 1801. How he traveled from Kursk to Alaska is not known. He probably went to Kodiak on Kodiak Island, the capital of Russian America at the time. RAC records identify him as a promyshlennik, a term that came from the Siberian fur trade and which the RAC used for employees that were lower class Russians, sometimes Alaskan Creole people of mixed Russian and indigenous ancestry.
1803–1804 ''O'cain'' voyage
In late 1803 the Boston-based maritime fur trading merchant ship O'Cain, under Joseph Burling O'Cain and owned by Jonathan Winship and other Winship family members, arrived at Kodiak on Kodiak Island, the capital of Russian America at the time. O'Cain met RAC Chief Manager Alexander Andreyevich Baranov and proposed a joint venture: The O'Cain would take RAC Aleut hunters and their kayaks and overseers to Spanish California to hunt sea otters. Baranov agreed. This was the first of many such joint ventures involving US ships taking RAC hunters and overseers to hunt California sea otters.Baranov supplied O'Cain with twenty baidarkas and about forty indigenous sea otter hunters, plus two overseers to manage the hunters and hunting. Afanasii Shvetsov was the senior Russian overseer and Timofei Tarakanov was assigned as the junior overseer. O'Cain sailed from Alaska direct to San Diego. Then he continued south to San Quintín Bay, about south of San Diego, on the west coast of Baja California—today the site of San Quintín, Baja California. O'Cain stayed in San Quintín Bay for over three months while Tarakanov and Shvetsov led indigenous sea otter hunting parties all along the coast between Mission Rosario and Misión Santo Domingo de la Frontera.
At the end of the hunting season, in the spring of 1804, O'Cain returned to Alaska with 1,110 sea otter furs, plus 700 more acquired by illegal trade with Spanish officials and missionaries. O'Cain, Tarakanov, Shvetsov, and the hunting parties arrived back at Kodiak in June 1804.
Rezanov and ''Juno''
In 1805 Nikolai Rezanov and other high status aristocrats and naval officers arrived in Sitka, Alaska, which had just been recaptured from the Tlingit and would soon become the capital of Russian America. Sitka, a name derived from the Tlingit Sheetʼká, was known as Novo-Arkhangelsk by Russians and Americans at this time. Various American maritime fur traders also arrived in Sitka in 1805, including John DeWolf who sold his ship Juno to Rezanov and the RAC. The large number of visitors in Sitka worsened a food crisis over the winter of 1805–06, causing scurvy and famine. To alleviate the immediate crisis, Rezanov took Juno to San Francisco to obtain provisions from Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga. RAC documentation is unclear, but it is possible that Tarakanov was part of this expedition.1807–1808 ''Peacock'' voyage
Rezanov returned with Juno and supplies in May or June 1806. About the same time another Winship family owned ship, Peacock under Oliver Kimball, arrived seeking a joint venture to hunt California sea otters. Baranov agreed and assigned Tarakanov to lead the hunting party. Kimball took Tarakanov and his hunters first to Trinidad Bay. In early 1807 he moved his base of operations south to Bodega Bay, about 50 miles north of San Francisco and part of the future site of the RAC's Ross Colony. From this base Tarakanov led many hunting expeditions all along California's northern coast, from about Cape Mendocino to the Farallon Islands.Tarakanov's establishment of a hunting base of operations in Bodega Bay in the spring of 1807 involved negotiating with the local Coast Miwoks for permission. Tarakanov later described acquiring temporary rights to some of the land near Bodega Bay. Over the following few years Tarakanov and Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuskov, the first manager of Fort Ross, met with Coast Miwok and Kashaya Pomo leaders multiple times. They gave various gifts, including special medallions made specifically for the purpose. The RAC later wrote reports saying they had acquired land cessions through these meetings, but they almost certainly misrepresented how the indigenous people viewed the gifts, negotiations, and agreements. The RAC and Russia's preparation of documentation showing land rights north of San Francisco Bay was intended for use in potential diplomatic conflicts with Spain, but for various geopolitical reasons it never became consequential.
During this time in early 1807, Tarakanov led hunting parties into San Francisco Bay, working the northern shores and avoiding the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco near the Golden Gate strait. As the hunters left the bay the Spanish presidio commander, Luis Antonio Argüello, fired upon them, causing a minor panic and a hasty retreat.
In May 1807 Kimball left Bodega Bay, taking Tarakanov and his hunters to San Quintín Bay, Baja California. There he joined with the Winship's ship O'Cain before returning to Sitka. Tarakanov's hunters had brought over 1,000 sea otter skins worth approximately $30,000 in Guangzhou, China. The Chinese forbid the RAC to trade to Canton, but Americans like O'Cain and Kimball could—another factor that benefitted both the RAC and American traders in these joint ventures.
Additionally, Tarakanov had gained valuable experience with sea otter hunting on the coast of California as well as with communicating and negotiating with the indigenous Miwok. Baranov, recognizing this, began giving Tarakanov increased responsibilities and leadership roles within his promyshlenniki social class.
1808–1810 shipwreck and enslavement
Kimball's Peacock with Tarakanov on board, arrived back at Sitka in August 1807. About the same time the smaller Sv. Nikolai arrived. This vessel, sometimes called a brig and sometimes a schooner, had been built in Hawaii by New Englanders as a gift for the Native Hawaiian King Kamehameha I. Originally named Tamara, King Kamehameha eventually sold it to two Americans who took it to Baja California. There it was acquired by the RAC employee Pavl Slobodchikov, who renamed it Sv. Nikolai and sailed it to Sitka. Baranov had also purchased the British brig Myrtle and renamed it Kad'iak.Baranov, eager to expand the RAC's operations in California and hoping to establish permanent outposts, arranged for the Kad'iak and Sv. Nikolai to work together exploring the coast between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and San Francisco Bay, and reconnoitering for potential outpost locations. The Sv. Nikolai was put under the command of Navigator Nikolai Bulygin, with Timofei Tarakanov assigned as prikashchik, or supercargo, responsible for managing the hunters and any trade with indigenous peoples that may occur. Baranov ordered Bulygin and Tarakanov to make a detailed survey of the coast south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the mouth of the Columbia River. At Grays Harbor or the mouth of the Columbia they were to meet Kad'iak, commanded by Navigator Ivan Petrov with the overall leader of the expedition, Ivan Kuskov, on board. Then the two vessels would continue south to California and establish an outpost at Bodega Bay or some other suitable site.
Baranov's written orders and advice to Tarakanov show that he considered Tarakanov's knowledge of the geography and the indigenous peoples of the coast of Northern California vital to the success of the overall expedition. As a serf, this responsibility and trust given by Baranov and other RAC officers was an important step to Tarakanov eventually obtaining his freedom.
Despite Baranov's careful planning, the voyage of Sv. Nikolai was a catastrophe. In November 1808, just a few weeks after leaving Sitka, the Sv. Nikolai wrecked on the Olympic Peninsula at Rialto Beach near the mouth of the Quillayute River and today's community of La Push within the Quileute Indian Reservation of the Quileute people. The castaways had minimal supplies and faced what became an 18-month chaotic ordeal. After some violent conflicts with the local Quileute and Hoh people the survivors became split up and enslaved by the Quileute, Hoh, and Makah. During their time there, at least seven RAC workers, including captain Bulygin and his wife, died from injuries, illness, or other consequences of their misadventures. Tarakanov took over as leader of the main group of survivors who became slaves of the Makah.
Accounts of the ordeal, including reports by Tarakanov, portray the Makah as relatively fair and benevolent, despite the enslavement. The Makah leader known as "Yutramaki" promised to try to sell the captives to whatever ship might sail by Makah territory. Many of the survivors willingly chose enslavement by the Makah over any other option they had. Among the Makah, Tarakanov, despite being a slave, gained Makah respect and admiration, partially through making things such as a large kite, various metal tools made from iron nails, carved wooden dishes, a "war rattle", and a large fortified lodge with gunports.
Although ships often visited the Makah town of Neah Bay none did for many months. Finally, in May 1810, the Boston-based maritime fur trading ship Lydia, under Thomas Brown, stopped at Neah Bay and made arrangements to buy the RAC survivors. Brown had encountered and bought one RAC survivor who had been sold southward such that Brown found him near the mouth of the Columbia River. Brown took the survivors to Sitka, where Baranov paid him for his expenses in rescuing them.
The expedition's second vessel, Kad'iak, with Kushov, waited for Sv. Nikolai at Grays Harbor before eventually sailing to Trinidad Bay, California, then Bodega Bay. Kushov spent the winter at Bodega Bay, making repairs and waiting for Sv. Nikolai. Despite difficulties with deserters, Kushov's hunters worked the coast in various places, including San Francisco Bay. They had almost 2,000 sea otter skins, an impressive and valuable cargo, when they returned to Sitka in October 1809. This financial success, coupled with Kushov's reconnoitering and Tarakanov's earlier exploration of the Bodega Bay area, led to Baranov proposing to the RAC Main Office in St. Petersburg to seek imperial governmental permission to establish a post in California. Count Nikolay Rumyantsev spoke with Emperor Alexander I, who approved the plan in November 1809. This soon resulted in the establishment of Fort Ross and the surrounding Ross Colony in what's now Sonoma County.