Northwest History. Alaska. General.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1920
• Subjects: Alaskan town; Nome; Seattle Red; Alaska; Kolchak governor; Anadyr; Siberia; L. M. McGirk; Chorbett Bland; Russian schooners Flyer and Bering; McGirk; Bland; Captain Hansen; bolsheviki; Maude; Roald Amundsen; Mikoff; John Lampe; trading post; Swenson & Hibbard; Kolyukciaa; Emmanuel Tonneson; Kolyukciaa bay; Chuan bay; Kolyma river; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Anadyr’; Bering Strait; Downfall; Kolyma; Pacific; The Downfall; The Schooner; Anadyr'; kolyma river
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/91880

Tell Of Loot In Alaska Town: Word Reaches Nome Of Acts Laid At Door Of "Seattle Red." TELL OF LOOT IN ALASKA TOWN "Word Reaches Nome of Acts Laid at Door of "Seattle Red." NOME, Alaska, June 20.—Seventeen persons, including the Kolchak governor, were killed at Anadyr, Siberia, across Bering strait from Alaska, last January in a clash between antibolshevik natives and alleged representatives of the soviet government. An American trading store also was looted, according to information brought here today by L. M. McGirk and Corbett Bland, Americans, who were among the passengers arriving on the Russian schooners Flyer and Bering. McGirk and Bland said they were told of the clash by Captain hansen, commander of Roald Amundsen's steamship Maude, who stopped at their camp on his return trip from Anadyr to the Maude in Jaunaury, and who was robbed by the bolsheviki. Led By Mau From Seattle. The men, who posed as soviet representatives, were led by a man named Mikoff, who, according to the report, came to Anadyr from Seattle last summer in the employ of a trading company, the officials of which were unaware of his political views. Mikoff soon gained a following, according to the story told by Captain Hansen to McGirk and Bland, and shortly took forcible possession of the American-owned stock of provisions at the trading post, of Swenson & Hibbard, in the name of the soveit government, making John Lampe, the custodian, a prisoner. "Sovietists" Run Amuck. After looting the store Mikoff and his followers ran amuck at Anadyr, Captain Hansen is reported to have said, killing the Kolchak governor when he resisted and staying the radio operator, both married men. The women were not molested. For a time the alleged bolsheviki had things their own way. Late in January they raided the last store from which the natives were able to obtain supplies, whereupon the natives rebelled. In the clash, which resulted in the downfall of the Mikoff group, six or seven of the latter were killed and their bodies dragged far out on the ice and left as animal prey. Amundsen Coming to Nome. McGirk and Bland were members of the schooner Casco party, left on the Siberian coast near Kolyukciaa bay last summer. While making his trip from the Maude, anchored in Chuan bay, 150 miles east of the Kolyma river, last December, to Anadyr and on his return in January, Captain Hansen stopped at the camp of McGirk and Bland. On his return call he told them of the trouble in Anadyr and of his own experience there. Emmanuel Tonnesen, Hansen's companion on the trip to Anadyr, remained at the trading post and was among the passengers who arrived at Nome today. Beyond intimating that Amundsen would in all likelihood reach Nome this summer. Tonnesen had nothing to say about the expedition.