Cannon fire rakes a Kodiak refuge rock; hundreds of Alutiiq are dead

For twenty-three years, the Koniag Alutiiq had driven Russian fur traders off Kodiak Island. On August 14, 1784, Grigory Shelikhov arrived with 130 armed men and cannons, and this time the Alutiiq had nowhere to retreat but a stack island called Awa'uq, "the place where one becomes numb." Shelikhov's cannoneers shot into the crowded refuge, killing an estimated 200 to 500 people; some accounts say far more. He captured over a thousand survivors and held 400 hostage, including children, to secure the island for good…