Shifting Identities: Alaskan Creoles and the Russian Orthodox Church in Post-Purchase Alaska

This article examines the relations between the Creole community and the Russian Orthodox Church after the 1867 transfer of Alaska to the United States, analyzing how Creole identity and ‘Russianness’ were reconfigured when imperial power receded, and American governance and missions expanded. Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s concept of mimicry, the study explores the Russian Church’s periodicals and the archival materials, showing how Creole mimicry redirected the group away from the ROC toward American institutions, producing growing mutual indifference and reshaping Orthodox Alaska’s social and religious ecology.