Nootka - History and Cultural Relations



A small party of Russian sailors, the earliest European explorers in Nootka territory, arrived on July 17, 1741, but weren't heard from again. On March 29, 1778, Captain James Cook was the first European to walk through a Nootka village at Nootka Bay. In 1803, John Jewitt, a sailor aboard the English ship Boston, was captured by Chief Maquinna at Nootka Sound and lived there for more than two years, working as Maquinna's slave. Beginning around 1800 the Nootka were drawn into the fur trade, first with the British and later with the European-Americans. Shaker and Presbyterian Missionaries came to Neah Bay in about 1903 and some from the Apostolic Church arrived in the 1930s. Presbyterian missionaries also lived among other Nootka groups.


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