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Sitka ( ) is a unified city-borough in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. It was formerly known as New Archangel () while under Russian rule from 1799 to 1867. The city is situated on the west side of Baranof Island and the south half of Chichagof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean (part of the Alaska Panhandle). As of the 2020 census, Sitka had a population of 8,458, the fifth-most populated city in the state.

With a consolidated land area of and total area (including water) of , Sitka is the largest city-borough by total area in the U.S.

History

The current name Sitka (derived from Sheet’ká , a contraction of the Tlingit ') means "People on the Outside of Baranof Island," whose Tlingit name is ' (here contracted to Shee ).

Russian America

Russian explorers settled Old Sitka in 1799, naming it Fort of Archangel Michael (, t ). The governor of Russian America, Alexander Baranov, arrived under the auspices of the Russian-American Company, a colonial trading company chartered by Tsar Paul I. In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians, with only a few managing to escape. Baranov was forced to levy 10,000 rubles in ransom for the safe return of the surviving settlers.

Baranov returned to Sitka in August 1804 with a large force, including Yuri Lisyansky's Neva . The ship bombarded the Tlingit fortification on the 20th, but was not able to cause significant damage. The Russians then launched an attack on the fort and were repelled. Following two days of bombardment, the Tlingit "hung out a white flag" on the 22nd, deserting the fort on the 26th.

Following their victory at the Battle of Sitka, the Russians established the settlement "New Archangel", named after Arkhangelsk. As a permanent settlement, New Archangel became the largest city in the region. The Tlingit re-established their fort on the Chatham Strait side of Peril Strait to enforce a trade embargo with the Russian establishment. In 1808, with Baranov still governor, Sitka was designated the capital of Russian America.

Bishop Innocent lived in Sitka after 1840. He was known for his interest in education, and his house, parts of which served as a schoolhouse, the Russian Bishop's House has since been restored by the National Park Service as part of the Sitka National Historical Park.

The original Cathedral of Saint Michael was built in Sitka in 1848 and became the seat of the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, and Alaska. The original church burned to the ground in 1966. Although the church was restored to its original appearance, one exception was its clock face which is black in photographs taken before 1966, but white in subsequent photos.

Swedes, Finns and other nationalities of Lutherans worked for the Russian-American Company, which led to the creation of a Lutheran congregation. The Sitka Lutheran Church building was built in 1840 and was the first Protestant church on the Pacific coast. After the transition to American control, following the purchase of Alaska from Russia by the United States in 1867, the influence of other Protestant religions increased, and Saint-Peter's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church was consecrated as "the Cathedral of Alaska" in 1900.

Territorial Alaska

Sitka was the site of the transfer ceremony for the Alaska purchase on October 18, 1867. Russia was going through economic and political turmoil after it lost the Crimean War to Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire in 1856 and decided it wanted to sell Alaska before it was taken over by Britain. Russia offered to sell it to the United States. Secretary of State William Seward had wanted to purchase Alaska for quite some time as he saw it as an integral part of Manifest Destiny and America's reach to the Pacific Ocean. While the agreement to purchase Alaska was made in April 1867, the actual purchase and transfer of control took place on October 18, 1867. The cost to purchase Alaska was $7.2 million, 2 cents per acre.

Sitka served as the U.S. Government Capital of the Department of Alaska (1867–1884) and District of Alaska (1884–1906).

The seat of government was relocated north to Juneau in 1906 due to declining economic importance of Sitka relative to Juneau, which gained population in the Klondike Gold Rush.

Alaska Native Brotherhood, Alaska Native Sisterhood

The Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded in