A True and Documented Account
by Coleen Mielke 2012
with
A special thank you to Andrei Znamenski and James Kari

You are welcome to link back to this article, however, do not repost
or republish it without the written permission of the author, Coleen Mielke.

coleen_mielke@hotmail.com

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This is the story of C. G. “George” Holt, an Ohio born Quaker who came to Alaska in the 1870’s to seek adventure and fortune. During his (roughly) thirteen years in Alaska, Holt excelled at adventure, but never found his fortune and was eventually murdered at Knik Station; this is his story.
 
In 1875, George Holt was the first white man to safely cross the Chilkoot Pass. It was big news because this route, which dramatically shortened the travel distance into the gold rich Yukon region, was heavily guarded by the fierce Chilkat Indians. How Holt managed to avoid being killed is not known, but a Sitka newspaper, written 20+ years later, suggested that he used an Indian guide to steer him safely through the territorial Chilkat’s. Exactly what year he crossed the Pass is also up for debate; I have found various accounts that say he crossed as early as 1872 and other accounts that say it was as late as 1878...but that debate is for another time.
 
After Holt’s historic ascent, he spent the winter in Sitka, sharing the details of his adventure with Lieutenant W. R. Quinan, of the Fourth U. S. Artillery. Quinan published Holt’s story in 1897 and described him as “raw-boned, hard-featured, red-headed, horny-handed son of toil and adventure, but plain and modest withal and every word he had to say bore the impress of truth, so that no one questioned his story in the smallest detail.”

From Sitka, Holt sailed to Kodiak aboard the schooner Nellie Edes. He tried his hand at prospecting for a while in the Cook Inlet and Susitna River areas with minimal luck. In the spring of 1882, he did the “unthinkable” and followed a band of Ahtna Indians during their seasonal migration to the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers and into the village of Taral. Few white men had ever ventured into this part of the country (and lived to tell about it) because the Ahtna people were fiercely territorial. Once again, just like his “lucky” trek over the Chilkoot Pass, Holt beat the odds, and managed to survive an entire summer with the Ahtna, but it came at a high price. The mutual hatred that developed between Holt and the Indians would play a large part in his eventual murder. Holt called the Copper River Indians “treacherous and thievish” and the Ahtna’s resulting hatred for Holt ran so deep that they were still raging about him when Lieutenant Henry T. Allen explored that area three years later, in 1885.

By 1885, Holt was an agent for the Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) in Nuchek; later that same year he was transferred to the Knik ACC where he worked with a Dena’ina interpreter named Afanasii. Afanasii is an important character in the story of George Holt’s murder, so here is a little background information on him:

Afanasii, who went by the nickname “Afon’ka”, was an opportunist in every sense of the word. In 1883, he was caught stealing from the Knik ACC store by an agent named Chechenov. Afon’ka diverted attention from his crime by telling the villagers that the Chechenov had put a curse on them. Language barriers prevented the agent from defending himself, so the frightened villagers threatened to kill him. Chechenov, the only white man in the village, fled to the safety of Tyonek.With the agent out of the picture, Afon’ka was now the only person with keys to the trading post and was free to help himself to its merchandise for the next several months.

Afon’ka’s plan worked so well, that he tried it again when the next ACC agent arrived a year later; a Russian named Malakhov. It wasn’t long before the new agent caught Afon’ka stealing from the store again. As he had done with Chechenov, Afon’ka diverted attention from his own thievery by telling the villagers that Malakhov was a dishonest man; an incendiary character flaw for any trade agent. Once again, language barriers and the lack of enforcements forced Malakhov to flee for his life.

In 1885, George Holt was sent to Knik to replace agent Malakhov. Holt’s bad temper and true disdain for the Copper River Indians, meshed perfectly with Afon’ka’s scheme to remove yet a third ACC agent.

In December of 1885, a group of Copper River Indians arrived at Knik to trade; Holt argued with one of them and kicked him out of the store. Four days later, the humiliated and combative Indian returned to Knik. Afon’ka wasted no time in convincing the man that he needed to restore his honor by killing Holt, which the Indian did on December 19, 1885. Holt was buried at Knik.

Word of the murder quickly reached the nearest Alaska Commercial Company which was at Tyonek. The agent there, a Russian named Vladimir Vasilii Stafeev appointed himself to investigate the murder. His journals include testimony from five eye witnesses as well as two confessions from the shooter himself. The journals, written in Russian, were translated for me by Andrea Znamenski in 2008.
 
The first eye witness testimony Stafeev recorded was from Afon’ka’s brother (unnamed), who reported two Copper River Indians arriving at Knik to trade, on December 15, 1885. Holt argued with one of them and kicked his backside as he shoved him out of the store. The Indian wanted to shoot Holt immediately, but other people in the store prevented it. Four days later, the Indian returned to Knik and shot Holt as he exited the store to urinate. Upon hearing the shot, Afon’ka’s brother rushed out of the store and saw Holt lying in a pool of blood, with the murderer standing over him.
 
Stafeev did not completely trust this first eye witness, due to many inconsistencies in the story. He also believed the witness was sent to tell a fabricated version of the murder, in an effort to conceal Afon’ka’s involvement and thievery. Stafeev mentions, in his journal notes that Afon’ka’s family began wearing new warm clothes and Afon’ka’s wife “sported a different shawl every day”, all stolen from Holt’s store.

Stafeev was not the only one who was suspicious of Afon’ka’s involvement; Tyonek Chief Nikolai also believed the murder would not have taken place without Afon’ka’s goading.
 
The second eye witness testimony was from an unnamed woman, who carried water for Holt every day. She found him dead in the bloody snow and searched for Afon'ka to carry the body into the store. She said Afon'ka and his brother were hiding in their house.
 
The third eye witness testimony (from an unnamed person) describes the Ahtna customer shaking the lock on the trading post door, as if to signal Holt to come outside; the man then hid out of sight. When Holt came out to check the lock, the Indian shot him.
 
A fourth eye witness testimony (from an unnamed person) said the Ahtna customer hung around the store pretending to look for something. Holt watched him for a while then turned to go back into the store and the Indian shot him.
 
A fifth eye witness testimony came from a young (unnamed) boy who said Afon’ka started crying right after Holt was killed. The shooter seemed surprised and asked Afon’ka why are you crying since you hired me to kill him. Afon’ka then gave the gunman $124 (from the trading post coffers) to stay quiet about the hire.
 
Stafeev’s journals record two confessions from the murderer himself. The first confession was to a Knik medicine man named Konstantin, in the summer of 1886; Konstantin's niece was the guilty mans wife. The shooter said that after Holt threw him out of the store, Afon’ka repeatedly put him to shame and kept asking “why did you let Holt get away with that?” The taunting so enraged the Indian that he shot Holt.

The second confession was to Stafeev. The shooter told him that Afon’ka had hired him to kill Holt; he also said that he wanted  to go to Kenai, in the spring, to confess to Father Nikita Marchenkov, who was the guilty mans godfather.
 
After Holt’s death, Stafeev, encouraged the Copper River Indians to come back to Knik to trade right away; he hoped to sell the remaining merchandise to them, rather than lose it to Afon’ka’s thievery. The Indians were reluctant to come back so soon, so, to assuage their fears, Stafeev assured them that it was Holt’s bad temper that got him killed and they would not be held responsible. The Indians sent word that they were grateful Stafeev was not angry with them and they wanted purchase tea, gun powder and tobacco at Knik. In addition, as a show of good faith, they said they were willing to pay “redemption money” for the murder and, as another gesture of penance, Afon’ka turned in his trading post keys. In a final gesture of peace, the murderer went back to his camp and told everyone they should not argue with the ACC store managers, using his own experience as an example of what could happen to them if they did.
 
Stafeev’s journal does not mention the name of the man who killed Holt; however, in 1917, a Ketchikan newspaper gives the murderers name as Nicolai, the son of a Copper River medicine man. The article described Nicolai as "a tall strapping man, who would make a match for any good size white man”.
 
In exchange for the right to resume trade at Knik, Nicolai remained peaceful for the next year. An example of that civility occurred when a Knik trapper named McFord bought a black fox pelt from two Ahtna trappers in the fall of 1886; he paid them $13. A few months later, the men returned with another pelt and McFord paid them $15 for it. The trappers accused McFord of cheating them on the FIRST pelt and demanded he pay them the extra two dollars; when McFord refused, the trappers threatened to kill him. To defuse the situation, Nicolai, who was living in a nearby seasonal camp, sent word that he would kill the two Ahtna trappers if they harmed McFord.

It was nine months after Holt’s murder, that a new Alaska Commercial Company agent was stationed at Knik; a Sitka man named Dr. J. B. Ballow. At first he encouraged Copper River trade by offering “food treats” to Indians who came to the store and all went well. However, by December of 1886, the Ahtna’s had changed their tune and were issuing death threats to the residents of Knik in earnest. People were afraid to live anywhere near Knik and temporarily moved to the safety of Susitna Station or Tyonek. A man named Bowen, who built a store at Kennick (six miles above Knik Station) moved all of his merchandise back to Knik because he was afraid of facing the Ahtna warriors alone. The Natives that remained in Knik built a church in hopes of converting the Copper River militants.
 
In spite of their threats, the Copper River traders avoided Knik for the next three months. Ballow assumed they were trading with the “Three Brothers” or at Cape Martin, but in the spring of 1887, the Copper River people, accompanied by their Chief, returned to Knik to trade. They told Ballow they had stayed away because the people of Nuchek told them Ballow had killed many men and would kill them too if they returned to Knik. Ballow assured them that he had no intentions of killing anyone and trade resumed with the Ahtna people.
 
Holt’s murderer was never arrested and his threats of violence resumed late in 1890. Three ACC store agents (Alec Ryan, George Shell and J. B. Ballow) wrote to Alaska Governor Swineford, offering to apprehend the murderer and turn him over to authorities if the Governor would send an authority to Knik, but the Governor never replied. A scathing news article, titled “Our Crippled Judiciary” also condemned the authorities in Sitka for ignoring the Knik murder and reported that the Copper River Indians were bragging about the government being afraid of them.The Governor’s only response was that he “did not have time” to deal with the case.
 
It is my personal opinion, that Governor Swineford’s real reason for not responding to George Holt’s murder was that he was very angry with how the Alaska Commercial Company had been conducting its business with the Native population, in south central Alaska, and he had no intention of coming to the company’s aid.

In 1887, a New York Times article stated that Swineford accused the U.S. Government of protecting the ACC by allowing them a monopoly on the fur trade in Alaska. He said the ACC, by the power of its great wealth, had driven away all competition and reduced the Native populations to a
condition of helpless dependence, if not absolute slavery where ever the ACC was not supervised by government agents. He felt that an absence of healthy competition had allowed the ACC to force the Natives to accept “such beggarly prices for their peltry, that it manages invariably to keep them in its debt and at its mercy. In order to more effectually monopolize the trade, the ACC has marked and mutilated the coin of the United States and refuses to receive any other from the Natives in payment of goods sold to them.”
 
In January of 1891, threats of violence from the Copper River Ahtna hit a peak. In self defense, the men of Knik built a 25’ watchtower on top of the trading post and manned it 24 hours a day, hoping to have an advantage over any attackers should they approach Knik.
 
In February, word reached Knik that Nicolai(the murderer) and his followers, were gathered at Upper Kennick and  planning an attack. In March, Alec Ryan, who had a store at Knik, closed his shop and left for Tyonek. In April, George Shell, an agent for the Knik ACC closed the trading post and left for the safety of Kenai. Keep in mind that ACC agents were totally without backup and legal recourse at that time, since the closest authorities were almost 600 miles away (in Sitka) and a Revenue Cutter had not been seen in Cook Inlet in four years. With that in mind, it is safe to say that the white men, who remained in Knik, must have taken it upon themselves to act as judge and jury for Holt’s murderer, because they decided to capture and hang him.
 
An Ahtna man, named Chashga was in Knik the day they hung Nicolai; years later he told the story to a Dena’ina elder named Shem Pete. In 1985, Shem Pete repeated the story to Dena'ina historian James Kari and Mr. Kari was kind enough to share that story with me.

James Kari said that Shem Pete could not remember the Dena'ina name of the man who killed George Holt, but he did remember the shooters fathers name: Benast’a Ga. So… in Shem Pete’s retelling of Chashga’s account of the murder, Shem calls the shooter “Son of Benast’a Ga” or “Little Benast’a Ga”, which made it a little confusing to follow.  For this reason, in my abridged version of the Shem Pete’s story, I have chosen to use the murderers Orthodox name (Nicholai); hopefully it will help avoid some confusion.

 
In the spring of 1891, Nicolai, the son of a Copper River Medicine Man named Benast’a Gga, was told to never to come back to Knik by three white men wearing ankle length navy blue coats. When he ignored their warnings and returned to Knik, the three white men, armed with pistols, tracked him to a village house where they found him drinking tea. The men overpowered him, tied him up, put a rope around his neck and drug him out of the house and down a trail that led toward the Inlet.

The trail went by a bath house, where the condemned man’s nephew, Chashga, was taking a steam bath. Chashga said he heard his Uncle pleading for help as they drug him “to the white mans place”. Chashga dressed quickly and ran after the men, but by the time he reached them, they had already hung Nicolai from a flag pole for the murder of George Holt.
 
Fearing immediate retribution from the Copper River people, the three white men assigned one of the Knik Indians to go to the seasonal Ahtna camp (upstream from Chickaloon) to tell Benast’a Gga why his son had been hung. No doubt, this was a fearful assignment because it was well known that many men who ventured into Benast’a Gga’s camp did not come back alive. The white men armed the Native messenger with two large hand guns and a new rifle before sending him off on foot to deliver the news.
 
The messenger hid the new rifle under some spruce branches outside the Chickaloon camp. Once inside the camp, he told Benast’a Gga that his son had recently been hung for the murder of the ACC agent in 1885. He also explained that the white men tried to warn his son to never return to Knik, but he did not listen to them.

Upon hearing this, the entire camp started to “cry and holler” in grief. The Knik messenger knew his life was in danger, but he respectfully waited until “the sun was setting in the downriver direction”, then he slowly walked away from the camp, breaking into a full speed run as soon as he was out of their view; “he ran as if he was flying” all the way from Chickaloon to the safety of Knik.

Fear of retribution, for hanging Benast’a Gga’s son, consumed Knik for the next month. The white men in the village armed the remaining Dena’ina with rifles from the trading post. They also drilled big holes in the walls of their buildings and hung muskrat skins over the holes, so they could watch for any approaching attackers. Their biggest fear was that the Copper River people would declare war on the people of Knik, but no record of retribution has been found.
 
Afon’ka (or Afanasii), the man who originally contracted to have Holt killed, was never punished. He became a very wealthy and powerful Chief in Knik. Shem Pete said Afanasii died on the Little Susitna River, however, the Seward Weekly Gateway published an obituary for Afanasii, saying he died (in poverty) at Kenai in 1909.
 
According to the ACC records, George Holt’s body was removed from Knik in 1890. He was re-buried in the Old American Cemetery on Mill Bay Road in Kodiak. A large headstone is engraved (with the wrong date of death), it says “C. G. Holt Killed by Indians December 24, 1884 Age 48”.

Holt's estate was valued at $1,829, in cash, when probate papers were filed in Sitka, by Major M. P. Berry, on July 24, 1892. With no heirs, the value of Holt’s estate was quickly consumed, by a variety of lawyers, over the following year.

 
Photo taken by Sashinka & Diana Keplinger, Kodiak, Alaska

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