Peter the Aleut (Russian: Пётр Алеу́т, romanized: Pyotr Aleút), born Cungagnaq (spelling varies) (Russian: Чукагнак, romanized: Chukagnak; died 1815), is venerated as a martyr and saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a native of Kodiak Island (Alutiiq or Sugpiaq), and received the Christian name of Peter when he was baptized into the Orthodox faith by the monks of St Herman's missionaries operating in the north. In 1815, he was allegedly captured by Spanish soldiers near San Pedro, tortured and killed either there or at a nearby location. The most widely circulated source on Peter is a letter from Semyon Yanovsky written 50 years after the murder. It describes Peter as being murdered and tortured by Spanish soldiers on the orders of the Jesuits. However, historians reject the involvement of the Jesuits because they were not present in the territory at the time. This has led some, including the Orthodox Church in America, to conclude that Franciscans were actually responsible for killing Peter.
Biography and martyrdom
Name Peter, the name by which he is commonly referred, is his baptismal name. His given name is in Alutiiq, and a number of spellings exist for it. His given name is commonly spelled Cungagnaq, referencing the color blue. Alisha Drabek, a researcher in Alutiiq ethnography, regards Cukagnaq as his proper name, which likely refers to youthful speed and quickness. The spelling Chukagnak is used by a 2016 article in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, while a 2007 academic article renders it Chunagnak.
Life At the time identified for Peter's death, California was Spanish territory, and Spain was worried about Russian advances southwards from Alaska. According to the most fully developed version of the story, in 1815 a group of Russian employees of the Russian American Company and their Aleut seal and otter hunters, including Peter, was captured by Spanish soldiers, while hunting illicitly for seals near San Pedro, (which has variably been interpreted as either San Pedro, Los Angeles or as San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia in Pacifica, California). According to the original account, the soldiers took them to "the mission in Saint-Pedro" for interrogation. One Russian source states that after being taken prisoner near modern Los Angeles, the captives were taken to Mission Dolores—that is, modern San Francisco.
Historicity There has been significant debate and dispute over the historicity of Peter the Aleut and his martyrdom.
Sources There are four main primary sources concerning Peter the Aleut, stemming from one eyewitness account. This account is an 1819 deposition given by one Ivan Kiglay, first published in English in 2011. The other three sources are a February 15, 1820 report by Semyon Yanovsky to superiors in St. Petersburg, an 1820 report from the main administrator of the Russian-American Company sent to Tsar Alexander I, and finally a November 22, 1865 letter written by Semyon Yanovsky to the abbot of the Valaam Monastery. Possibly the most widely circulated contemporary account of Peter the Aleut is Yanovsky's 1865 letter. Yanovsky's letter is dated November 22, 1865, and is written to Damascene, abbot of the Valaam Monastery, 50 years after his death. Yanovsky, who is also one of the chief sources of information about St. Herman of Alaska, was chief manager of the Russian colonies from 1818 to 1820. In the letter he was reporting on what he had heard from a supposed eyewitness about the killing that had taken place fifty years earlier in 1815.
Alleged Jesuit involvement The 1865 Yanovsky letter contains the description of Peter being tortured by "Jesuits". Them earliest account, the 1819 deposition, makes no mention of Jesuits. Jesuit involvement would have been virtually impossible, as the Jesuit order had been expelled from all Spanish territories in 1767, suppressed generally in 1773, and had only been reconstituted in 1814 (one year before Peter's alleged death). In 1815 there were no Jesuits within several thousand miles of California, as the reconstitution of the Jesuits in New Spain (that is, Mexico) would not take place until 1816. Franciscans were present California at the time, establishing 21 missions from San Diego to San Francisco, beginning in 1769 and ending in the 1830s. This has led some, including the Orthodox Church in America, to believe that the "Jesuits" referenced in the 1865 letter were actually Franciscans. In 1800s Russian literature and culture, being a Jesuit held extremely negative connotations, and the Jesuits were used to "symbolize the threat to Russia of Catholicism and Western European values and ideas". Jesuits were often part of greater conspiratorial narratives throughout Russian society, and inaccurate information about the order was common in that culture. Other historical sources describe an incident between Russians and Spaniards, but do not mention Peter or the Jesuits explicitly. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his multi-volume History of California, only notes that one Russian source accused "the Spaniards of cruelty to the captives" in connection with an incident wherein a Russian fur-hunting expedition was taken into custody after declining to leave San Pedro.
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