The Last Stand of the Raven Clan
A Story of Imperial Ambition, Native Resistance and How the Tlingit-Russian War Shaped a Continent
Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees’s The Last Stand of the Raven Clan is an engrossing history of the Tlingit-Russian war, its causes, and its impacts on North America.
Written from the perspective of the Tlingit, this refreshing narrative explores a war long ignored in white settler history. The Tlingit are introduced in the present day as proud, reflective, and perhaps a little foolhardy. This stature echoes back in time, with the book covering cultural practices of the Tlingit precolonization and showcasing their unbroken cultural spirit. The Russians are then introduced on the Great Northern Expedition. Their exploitation of the otter, mixed with their desire to participate in Europe’s colonial expansionism in the Americas, drove them to explore, expand, and conquer. Next came the Tlingit resistance.
The prose is gripping, propelled along by lyrical flourishes even through information-dense and violent sections:
A second hunter, Afanasy Liskenkov, scrambled past Baranov, but was struck by a spear and fell backward. A chorus of jeers rang down.
The beauty of the prose is supported by accounts from native people who witnessed the massacres and battles, giving a complete and rare look into how these events were seen at the time:
I was a boy of nine or ten, when the first Russian ship, a two-master, arrived. We had never seen a ship before, we did not know white men.
As a tribe without gunpowder and other modern European weaponry, their successes against the Russians are an astounding tribute to their skill as warriors and their unbroken will. Theirs is a triumphant historical account of a success forged in the face of tremendous odds.
Captivating and poetic, The Last Stand of the Raven Clan is a resonant history of Indigenous resistance whose lessons are far-reaching.
Reviewed by
Ahliah Bratzler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
