Description

Ioann Veniaminov (1797-1879) was a Russian Orthodox priest who in 1823 volunteered to go to Alaska as a missionary. Settling with his wife and family in Unalaska, he built a church and school and began his lifelong task of studying the native languages of the region. With the help of the Aleut chief Ivan Pan'kov, Veniaminov invented an alphabet for the Unangan (Aleut) language and then used it to compose grammars and translate the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Traveling throughout the Aleutian Islands, Veniaminov collected ethnographic and scientific material ...