...This chapter traces the development of the arctic marine fur trade in the greater Bering Strait region (including the Chukchi Peninsula and Northwestern Alaska) from the founding of the gold rush town of Nome in 1899 until 1914. This includes the rise of the “mosquito fleet” of small trading...

...This chapter outlines the efforts of the Soviet authorities to change the lifeways of the Indigenous peoples (the Chukchi and Yupik) by re-locating them, re-educating them, forcing them to work in collectives for state-owned industries, and requiring them to sell their furs to the state at set...

...This chapter describes the chaos and disruptions that overtook the Chukchi and Yupik peoples during the Russian Civil War, which culminated with the Soviet takeover of the peninsula in 1923 and was followed by the seizure of trading posts and foreign trading vessels and the confiscation of traders...