By Colton McAllister, Politics Reporter
Later this week, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska — the first U.S.-Russia leaders’ summit in more than four years. Officially, it’s about Ukraine. But the setting itself has a story, and it’s one we rarely tell.
Before 1867, Alaska wasn’t a U.S. state. It wasn’t even American territory. It was Russian — part of a vast network of settlements and trading posts that stretched from Siberia to the Aleutian Islands and all the way down to the California coast.
The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, ending Moscow’s official presence in the north. But Russia’s southernmost colony, Fort Ross in what’s now Sonoma County, had already been abandoned more than two decades earlier — under circumstances that still raise questions today.
Fort Ross: Russia’s California Outpost
In 1812, the Russian-American Company built Fort Ross on the Sonoma coast was a fortified settlement complete with windmills, cattle yards, and a shipyard. The fort’s residents included Russians, Finns, Aleuts from Alaska, and the Kashaya Pomo people whose ancestral land it occupied.
Fort Ross wasn’t just about the fur trade. It was a supply hub for Alaska’s Russian settlements, which struggled to produce enough food in their harsh climate. Ships carried wheat, vegetables, and manufactured goods north, making California part of the lifeline for Russia’s American empire.
The Sale That Might Not Have Happened
By 1841, the sea otter population was depleted, and Fort Ross was no longer economically viable. The Russian-American Company sold it to John Sutter — yes, the same Sutter whose name became famous in the Gold Rush — for $30,000.
But some Russian historians say Sutter never paid. If that’s true, legal title never changed hands. By that logic, the land wasn’t transferred — and still belongs, at least on paper, to the Russian people.
Selective Memory About “Stolen Land”
In other contexts, history gets weaponized. Activists demand the return of land taken from Mexico in the Southwest or sovereignty for Hawaii, citing unfair transfers and annexations.
Yet, Fort Ross rarely makes the conversation. There are no rallies calling for its “return,” no political campaigns built around the idea — even though its story fits the same template these other movements use.
America’s Own Land Ledger
If we’re going to make historical land claims part of the modern political conversation, then consistency matters.
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Hawaii: annexed without the consent of its monarchy.
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Spanish-American War: kicked off after the disputed USS Maine incident, leading to U.S. control over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
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Alaska: purchased from Russia — but imagine if Moscow declared the sale invalid tomorrow.
It’s easy to lecture other nations about borders and sovereignty. It’s harder when the spotlight turns to our own history.
Back to Alaska
That’s why this week’s summit backdrop is so striking — a U.S. president and a Russian president meeting in what was once Russia’s largest North American possession. This comes after years of Washington accusing Moscow of aggression and illegal land grabs. But if we’re being honest, Washington’s a strange messenger for that sermon. Some would say every acre the U.S. holds was taken from someone else. Russia sits on its ancestral land. The U.S. does not.
Colton McAllister
Born in Placerville and raised on hayfields and talk radio, Colton brings a sharp eye to current events and a deep respect for tradition.
Photo credit: MPSharwood, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Ross_2.jpg
