Land of Salmon and Totems 2.0
- Thread starter Malta
- Start date
Going with the Onallan naming conventions. The Native American tribes that come from the east will have the “Ne” (Sounds like “Neigh”) suffix added to their names. Such as the Shawanaki’Ne or the Cherokee’Ne.
Since the British and Americans initially arrived by sea from the South the Onallan reffered to them originally as the Enyalees’Ta (Ngh-Yah-Laays-Tah).
The Russians get Roos’ingish.
Since the British and Americans initially arrived by sea from the South the Onallan reffered to them originally as the Enyalees’Ta (Ngh-Yah-Laays-Tah).
The Russians get Roos’ingish.
Haven't the Onallians already experienced contact with Europeans for decades prior to the refugees? Even then I expect herd immunity to come into play. Most of the hard hitting diseases already hit their mark centuries ago.
There will be re occurring outbreaks of certain diseases. It will definitely lead to rioting and displeasure but the Empire will be better react to them with quarantines. Which given the geography of the region is do able. However it will not have the same level of Pandemic that almost crushed the civilization.
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Wars of Fur and Faith
While Russian influence on the Onallan may have begun after their discovery 1771 that could not be said similarly for their influence in the surrounding region. While there were failed Imperial Russian attempts to officially sail the Arctic Strait (Bering Strait) in the 1740s that would not stop the eventual arrival of Russian merchants and trappers in the 1750s. These men were interested in the fur trade, the Russians having expanded a enterprise network across Siberia were only briefly halted by the sea. Rather than hunt themselves they coerced Siberian and Trans-Alaskan natives such as the Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands to hunt for them. These interactions were mixed, some Russians co-existed fairly peacefully at first but others used violence (which included kidnapping and rape) to get the Aleuts and others to get the furs. As the region was overhunted this would eventually force the Aleuts to make more dangerous hunting and trading trips across the Arctic which resulted often enough in violence by the Alaskan tribes that traded furs with Onallan. Just a year before the British ‘discovery’ of Onallan the various Russian merchant companies had, after years of fighting and merging to form the Russian Pacific Trade Company (RPTC), established the last of their permanent forts in the Aleutian Islands after a failed attempt to revolt by the natives.
The discovery of a large native civilization immediately set off metaphorical fireworks in St. Petersburg, as the Russians sent envoys to the Raven Emperor the Russian Pacific with Imperial support established a permanent settlement on Kodiak Island, Pavlovskaya Gavan or Paul’s Harbor. In response the British also intensified their presence in the region, the Hudson Company obtained a warehouse in Shua’tilich and expanded overland forts on the Great Plains. Unfortunately for the Onallan the situation in the Pacific Northwest had devolved to a point which would be highly exploitable by the Europeans.
In the wake of Raven Emperor Juugang’Xhuu’s move to Shua’leama and the defeat of the Nuuchal’ingish (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) on Nalluc’nuuchal (Island of the Nuuchal), which the British called Cook Island (Vancouver Island), the influence of the House of Raven steadily declined north of Nalluc’nuuchal as the Raven Emperors turned to their inland empire-making the tribes the tribes that had paid tribute to them slipped their bonds. Even Haida Gwaii broke off ties, despite that the line of the Raven Emperors had blood of the Haida’ingish. The various tribes returned to their competing and disorderly state of relations and this was accepted by the House of Raven who were content with simply extending economic clout into the region. The Alaskan fur trade had been until the arrival of the Europeans been solely geared toward appeasing Onallan demands, the trade of Onallan manufactured goods and foodstuff flowed north while pelts, gold and other natural materials flowed south.
The arrival of the Europeans threw the Onallan Fur Trade into complete chaos, as the Onallan found themselves unable to compete with the manufactured goods produced by the Europeans! Steel goods in particular being prized. The only way the Onallan were able to compete was through foodstuffs, which ironically, they also sold to the European forts whose merchants, settlers, and soldiers were ill prepared for the climate and geography of the region. The Alaskan tribes caught in the middle were quick to pivot and play the other actors off one another. While native merchants complained about the Europeans, the British and Russians themselves were more concerned about each other.
This was the beginning of the Great Game between the two European powers. The Russian Pacific and Hudson Company went to many lengths to inch out the other in the territory. Very quickly the two powers began bribing local tribes to align with them and attack rival merchants. The Russian used Aleuts and later Tlingit proxies to attack the British, vice versa the British recruited from the Malingish Sound clans and raided the Russians. Events came to a head when events in Europe spiraled out of control, the Napoleonic War erupted and following the Treaty of Tilsit the two powers were officially at war. For their part, Emperor Xuniiie’Tuluth elected for the Onallan to stay neutral despite urging from the British to drive the Russians out of his kingdom. He wished to send a message to the British that they had to respect the desires of him and his people. However, the ongoing ordeal between managing the involvement of the Europeans did lead to the Onallan declaring that the European trade would be restricted to Shua’gaanan (City of Three. Seattle-Tacoma, Washington), otherwise known as Trinity to the Europeans as the city had been created from three native villages joining together.
Though, this did not stop the British from using Shua’tilich as a port of operations for the Pacific Northwest theater of the Anglo-Russian War. The Englishman Theodore Brown while a trader, shipbuilder by originally trade, took the British cause to heart when he decided to sail as a privateer. He amassed a modest fleet of three ships, two brigs and a clipper, The Unicorn and attacked Russian ships up and down the coast. While not being so bold to attack Paul’s Harbor or Sitka directly he did raid the smaller villages surrounding them. He was notable for capturing Russians alive whenever possible so that he could ransom them for their safe return. The war ended in 1812 and while competition between competing companies continued the area would not become a center of conflict for several decades until the Ottoman Crisis.
Instead, the battle over the region became one of faiths. Religious groups non-native to the region were knocking on the metaphorical doors to be let in. The priesthoods of Ona’llan and the other gods throughout the country had changed since their days of the Kal’llan Houses. The positions of priesthood that had become increasingly hereditary had opened their ranks again, with the mortality rates they needed the numbers to minister to the faithful. Further, the organization of the Priesthood had moved toward centralization with the Shua’leama Temple acting as the spiritual leader but the rest of the country was divided into autonomous districts that pooled resources and tackled local issues. Raven was officially the patron of the rulers of Onallan but Ona’llan herself was still very much a part of the social fabric of the country. The Sun Cults that had been outlawed previously were accepted again and primarily had their base of power among the Yakima still.
The Priesthood was primarily interested in being a funnel for the peoples’ prayers to Ona’llan and the other gods, so the introduction of new outside faiths was not initially perceived as a threat. They largely ignored and looked down on the ‘backward’ faith of the foreigners and would only stubbornly accept a level of equality with them decades later.
In 1815 two priests arrived in Shua’gaanan, having been granted permission by Xuniiie’Tuluth to attend to their faithful. The first priest was David Cunningham, an American Presbyterian who saw the pagan Onallan people as ready for the truth of his God but also worthy of being enlightened to civilization. With charity funds and some investments, he set up in Shua’gaanan the “Trinity Indian Industrial School”. The second priest was Gregor Glebov of the Russian Orthodox Church. Gregor was a half-Aleutian priest who had administered to the Aleutians and had with other priests working under (at times in opposition to) the Russian Pacific Company. He established himself in a small building on the edge of the Russian quarter in the city and opened his doors to both Russian and Native.
The events that followed stand as a testament to not so much the faith of either group but rather more likely a cultural lens. Cunningham opened his doors to the wealthy of Onallan and pitched his school as the best way to truly ‘educate’ their sons and daughters for the future. Already many saw that Onallan was changing, their world which had stood with Ona’llan as the center had been shrunk and shifted, there were many who thought that by learning the European ways and secrets they could very potentially gain the material triumphs of the foreigners.
So, they sent their children to the Trinity School for education into the ways of the Indians, however being in no small amount of awe and jealousy of European ‘civilization’ they did not contemplate just what were the views of the Europeans toward their own culture. Cunningham and his fellow priests and volunteers at the Trinity School had a typical view held by many Americans toward Native cultures. They did not respect them, they saw the Onallan culture as while unique it was still very much ‘weak’ and ‘an affront’. Cunningham enforced a strict code of “removing the savage and educating the man’ toward his students. Yes, the children sent there were given European style clothes, beds, and such possessions but they were demanded to give up their old culture and way of life. Their native names were replaced with ‘Christianized’ names, they were forbidden to speak in their traditional language and taught English instead. Their “Soul Jars”, small objects engraved with their names and that of their ancestors, were taken and destroyed. Those who were Two-Spirits were separated by their sex instead of gender, especially among the older teenagers. If they failed these and other taboos the children were starved or beaten on a regular basis.
In contrast, Glebov preached in his small church and sometimes preached in the streets which he did in a crude but growing understanding of the Kal’llan language. He regularly engaged with the locals of Shua’gaanan and did his best to interpret the cultural views of the Onallan into the context of the Eastern Orthodox Church. When a Onallan wished to convert to the Faith he would go out of his way to also consult with their family and Clan elders before baptizing the convert. When it came into conflict the Onallan tradition of cremation was against the practices of his Church he worked out an acceptable compromise that had also been used to settle a similar dispute with Tlingit converts. They accepted the burial of their dead but allowed for the shaving of the scalp of the recent dead which was then cremated so that the different parts of the deceased’s soul could leave the body without haunting their relatives.
Eventually, the on goings in the Trinity School became public when several of the school’s pupils escaped and a riot nearly caused Cunningham and his staff to be burned alive. They were protected by government troops but were put on the next available ship back to the United States and told in no uncertain terms to never set foot in Onallan again. This set back surprisingly emboldened other missionaries to gain access to Onallan, but it was not until the arrival of the Five Civilized tribes that Protestant Christians were in the country. Unlike Cunningham though these were members of the Native American tribes and those who had lived through similar circumstances were hesitant to start their own brand of “Indian School” in Onallan, some tried but were quickly shut down by Raven Empress Sumac’Temawii, it was one of the notable actions she took after the death of her father.
Meanwhile Glebov and his mission remained and would slowly grow. The legacy they laid down would eventually see the Russian Most Holy Synod move the episcopal see created in Sitka to Shua’gaanan. Onallan would become the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church for North America, hosting the largest population of Eastern Orthodox Christians on the continent until the arrival of Eastern European immigrants to the United States in the late 19th century, eventually the Onallan Diocese would become self-governing. What would tie into the success of Glebov and the Orthodox Church in not just Onallan but the Pacific Northwest was the respect that many of the priests gave to their native congregations. Not even their counter-parts in the Catholic and Protestant religions showed the level of respect for the pre-existing cultural nuances of the PNW natives or let them lead their congregations. Not to say there were not cases against this but by the large the Orthodox priests respected many cultural aspects. Perhaps it was the fact that they were on the frozen edge of the world and they relied heavily on their native charges to survive, but still the priests were horrified by the treatment under Russian Pacific and came into conflict with company bosses and even Imperial officials.
The discovery of a large native civilization immediately set off metaphorical fireworks in St. Petersburg, as the Russians sent envoys to the Raven Emperor the Russian Pacific with Imperial support established a permanent settlement on Kodiak Island, Pavlovskaya Gavan or Paul’s Harbor. In response the British also intensified their presence in the region, the Hudson Company obtained a warehouse in Shua’tilich and expanded overland forts on the Great Plains. Unfortunately for the Onallan the situation in the Pacific Northwest had devolved to a point which would be highly exploitable by the Europeans.
In the wake of Raven Emperor Juugang’Xhuu’s move to Shua’leama and the defeat of the Nuuchal’ingish (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) on Nalluc’nuuchal (Island of the Nuuchal), which the British called Cook Island (Vancouver Island), the influence of the House of Raven steadily declined north of Nalluc’nuuchal as the Raven Emperors turned to their inland empire-making the tribes the tribes that had paid tribute to them slipped their bonds. Even Haida Gwaii broke off ties, despite that the line of the Raven Emperors had blood of the Haida’ingish. The various tribes returned to their competing and disorderly state of relations and this was accepted by the House of Raven who were content with simply extending economic clout into the region. The Alaskan fur trade had been until the arrival of the Europeans been solely geared toward appeasing Onallan demands, the trade of Onallan manufactured goods and foodstuff flowed north while pelts, gold and other natural materials flowed south.
The arrival of the Europeans threw the Onallan Fur Trade into complete chaos, as the Onallan found themselves unable to compete with the manufactured goods produced by the Europeans! Steel goods in particular being prized. The only way the Onallan were able to compete was through foodstuffs, which ironically, they also sold to the European forts whose merchants, settlers, and soldiers were ill prepared for the climate and geography of the region. The Alaskan tribes caught in the middle were quick to pivot and play the other actors off one another. While native merchants complained about the Europeans, the British and Russians themselves were more concerned about each other.
This was the beginning of the Great Game between the two European powers. The Russian Pacific and Hudson Company went to many lengths to inch out the other in the territory. Very quickly the two powers began bribing local tribes to align with them and attack rival merchants. The Russian used Aleuts and later Tlingit proxies to attack the British, vice versa the British recruited from the Malingish Sound clans and raided the Russians. Events came to a head when events in Europe spiraled out of control, the Napoleonic War erupted and following the Treaty of Tilsit the two powers were officially at war. For their part, Emperor Xuniiie’Tuluth elected for the Onallan to stay neutral despite urging from the British to drive the Russians out of his kingdom. He wished to send a message to the British that they had to respect the desires of him and his people. However, the ongoing ordeal between managing the involvement of the Europeans did lead to the Onallan declaring that the European trade would be restricted to Shua’gaanan (City of Three. Seattle-Tacoma, Washington), otherwise known as Trinity to the Europeans as the city had been created from three native villages joining together.
Though, this did not stop the British from using Shua’tilich as a port of operations for the Pacific Northwest theater of the Anglo-Russian War. The Englishman Theodore Brown while a trader, shipbuilder by originally trade, took the British cause to heart when he decided to sail as a privateer. He amassed a modest fleet of three ships, two brigs and a clipper, The Unicorn and attacked Russian ships up and down the coast. While not being so bold to attack Paul’s Harbor or Sitka directly he did raid the smaller villages surrounding them. He was notable for capturing Russians alive whenever possible so that he could ransom them for their safe return. The war ended in 1812 and while competition between competing companies continued the area would not become a center of conflict for several decades until the Ottoman Crisis.
Instead, the battle over the region became one of faiths. Religious groups non-native to the region were knocking on the metaphorical doors to be let in. The priesthoods of Ona’llan and the other gods throughout the country had changed since their days of the Kal’llan Houses. The positions of priesthood that had become increasingly hereditary had opened their ranks again, with the mortality rates they needed the numbers to minister to the faithful. Further, the organization of the Priesthood had moved toward centralization with the Shua’leama Temple acting as the spiritual leader but the rest of the country was divided into autonomous districts that pooled resources and tackled local issues. Raven was officially the patron of the rulers of Onallan but Ona’llan herself was still very much a part of the social fabric of the country. The Sun Cults that had been outlawed previously were accepted again and primarily had their base of power among the Yakima still.
The Priesthood was primarily interested in being a funnel for the peoples’ prayers to Ona’llan and the other gods, so the introduction of new outside faiths was not initially perceived as a threat. They largely ignored and looked down on the ‘backward’ faith of the foreigners and would only stubbornly accept a level of equality with them decades later.
In 1815 two priests arrived in Shua’gaanan, having been granted permission by Xuniiie’Tuluth to attend to their faithful. The first priest was David Cunningham, an American Presbyterian who saw the pagan Onallan people as ready for the truth of his God but also worthy of being enlightened to civilization. With charity funds and some investments, he set up in Shua’gaanan the “Trinity Indian Industrial School”. The second priest was Gregor Glebov of the Russian Orthodox Church. Gregor was a half-Aleutian priest who had administered to the Aleutians and had with other priests working under (at times in opposition to) the Russian Pacific Company. He established himself in a small building on the edge of the Russian quarter in the city and opened his doors to both Russian and Native.
The events that followed stand as a testament to not so much the faith of either group but rather more likely a cultural lens. Cunningham opened his doors to the wealthy of Onallan and pitched his school as the best way to truly ‘educate’ their sons and daughters for the future. Already many saw that Onallan was changing, their world which had stood with Ona’llan as the center had been shrunk and shifted, there were many who thought that by learning the European ways and secrets they could very potentially gain the material triumphs of the foreigners.
So, they sent their children to the Trinity School for education into the ways of the Indians, however being in no small amount of awe and jealousy of European ‘civilization’ they did not contemplate just what were the views of the Europeans toward their own culture. Cunningham and his fellow priests and volunteers at the Trinity School had a typical view held by many Americans toward Native cultures. They did not respect them, they saw the Onallan culture as while unique it was still very much ‘weak’ and ‘an affront’. Cunningham enforced a strict code of “removing the savage and educating the man’ toward his students. Yes, the children sent there were given European style clothes, beds, and such possessions but they were demanded to give up their old culture and way of life. Their native names were replaced with ‘Christianized’ names, they were forbidden to speak in their traditional language and taught English instead. Their “Soul Jars”, small objects engraved with their names and that of their ancestors, were taken and destroyed. Those who were Two-Spirits were separated by their sex instead of gender, especially among the older teenagers. If they failed these and other taboos the children were starved or beaten on a regular basis.
In contrast, Glebov preached in his small church and sometimes preached in the streets which he did in a crude but growing understanding of the Kal’llan language. He regularly engaged with the locals of Shua’gaanan and did his best to interpret the cultural views of the Onallan into the context of the Eastern Orthodox Church. When a Onallan wished to convert to the Faith he would go out of his way to also consult with their family and Clan elders before baptizing the convert. When it came into conflict the Onallan tradition of cremation was against the practices of his Church he worked out an acceptable compromise that had also been used to settle a similar dispute with Tlingit converts. They accepted the burial of their dead but allowed for the shaving of the scalp of the recent dead which was then cremated so that the different parts of the deceased’s soul could leave the body without haunting their relatives.
Eventually, the on goings in the Trinity School became public when several of the school’s pupils escaped and a riot nearly caused Cunningham and his staff to be burned alive. They were protected by government troops but were put on the next available ship back to the United States and told in no uncertain terms to never set foot in Onallan again. This set back surprisingly emboldened other missionaries to gain access to Onallan, but it was not until the arrival of the Five Civilized tribes that Protestant Christians were in the country. Unlike Cunningham though these were members of the Native American tribes and those who had lived through similar circumstances were hesitant to start their own brand of “Indian School” in Onallan, some tried but were quickly shut down by Raven Empress Sumac’Temawii, it was one of the notable actions she took after the death of her father.
Meanwhile Glebov and his mission remained and would slowly grow. The legacy they laid down would eventually see the Russian Most Holy Synod move the episcopal see created in Sitka to Shua’gaanan. Onallan would become the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church for North America, hosting the largest population of Eastern Orthodox Christians on the continent until the arrival of Eastern European immigrants to the United States in the late 19th century, eventually the Onallan Diocese would become self-governing. What would tie into the success of Glebov and the Orthodox Church in not just Onallan but the Pacific Northwest was the respect that many of the priests gave to their native congregations. Not even their counter-parts in the Catholic and Protestant religions showed the level of respect for the pre-existing cultural nuances of the PNW natives or let them lead their congregations. Not to say there were not cases against this but by the large the Orthodox priests respected many cultural aspects. Perhaps it was the fact that they were on the frozen edge of the world and they relied heavily on their native charges to survive, but still the priests were horrified by the treatment under Russian Pacific and came into conflict with company bosses and even Imperial officials.
Assuming the Onallan and the Californians are both able to keep their independence their states will be very focused ironically enough on preventing mass immigration to their territories. So if I figure in the rate of natural increase right and a good estimate based on mortality rates Onallan by the 21st century will have a population between 12-16 Million (comparable with places like Belgium, Cuba, Somalia, Chile) While California will be in the ballpark of 25-40 million making it comparable to Peru or Madagascar.
There's going to probably be a conflict between the US and Onallian, once the settlers begin pushing out west.
Geography though will for the most part favor Onallan. The West of the Rockies are primarily arid with very few attractive areas for agriculture which they are already putting Native transplants from the east to fill in the space. Conflicts will likely still arise along the border areas though for other land based interests such as cattle and mining but at the least it will steer away a lot of homesteading interest and make most of the migrants manageable.
I am bad at maps. Have a map of things by the 1860s. While I search for the inspiration to write.
Well this map is likely the closest from a political standpoint.
Debating if the Americans, deciding they want a Pacific port, go through California or decide to take the vastly underpopulated regions of Chihuahua and Sonora grabbing Baja and Southern California from Mexico?
How is fighting Mexico, a country with its own gun and artillery industry, an easier target than California?
Well, Onallan and the Confederacy do have captured European weaponry from past invasion attempts by Spain on California. They are getting financing from Great Britain on their own arms industry besides making direct purchases from British, American, Mexican, Russian and so forth merchants. War would also likely mean a war with Great Britain.
The Americans have to contend that even trying to go straight west they will have to deal with major coastal populations of millions of Natives. Some of which they have been kicking westward. Chihuahua and Sonora by contrast are immensely more underpopulated, especially if they can annex also Baja California which includes IOTL Los Angeles.
But they also have to deal with the Comanche in Texas first.
But it is also likely the Confederacy will come to the aid of the Mexicans unless someone rises to power in either country that chills relations enough.
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Coming back around to my baby here. I am trying to brainstorm the next few updates. My knowledge of the 1820s-1850s are a little weak so it’s hard for me to come up with material - as you could see if you spot my “Bay of All Saints” and “Vive le Canada” TL they always peter out at this timeframe.
If anyone has any thoughts of what should be prudent I will look into them.
If anyone has any thoughts of what should be prudent I will look into them.
- Introduction of Asian-Americans to the Onallan and Californian territory?
- Indian Removals and migrations (1830s)
- Mexican-American War? (1830s?)
- Being drawn more into conflict between the British and Russians?
- Industrial innovations?
Immigrants from Sub Continent and Far East
Immigrants from Sub Continent and Far East
There is a tendency among modern portrayals of immigrant history from the Indian Subcontinent and the eastern Eurasian coast that these migrations first began in the late 19th Century with the outlawing of slavery leading to mass demands for indentured labor – in particular from Britain’s dominions in India and the masses of China. While it is true that the time period began mass migration however it was not the beginning. The true origin in fact lay with the Spanish and Portuguese merchants of their Indian Ocean and Manila Trans-Pacific trade as slaves were taken from a host of peoples who lives along the Indian Ocean and the West Pacific – from Madras to the Indonesian Archipelago to the shores of Japan. Taken as servants on their merchant ships or shipped as hard laborers to the Americas the historical knowledge of the men and women of ‘Asian’ descent in the Americas has been woefully lacking at times.
In 1769 with the discovery of California by the Spanish the ships themselves had over a dozen Asian servants and sailors, when the Spanish returned in 1771 to invade California the number was several times larger. A sizeable number of Chinese laborers were captured alongside their Spanish lords in the series of battles that made up the Californian-Spanish War of the late 18th century. In their capture they were given the choice of returning to Mexico or settling in California, of which many chose the later forming the first village of Chinese immigrants in the Bay area eventually marrying local women – all were men – and becoming assimilated into the local.
For Onallan the first mass involvement with Asian migrants actually began with the British construction of their base at Victoria – encountering hundreds of ‘Lascars’ that originated from the Indian Subcontinent. Lascars, in contrast to the Sepoys who they were often equated with, were Indian servicemen in the British navies – most commonly the British East Indian Company. While Victoria primarily was established for the benefit of the Hudson Bay Company the company and the British Government made a series of labor contract deals with the East Indian Company to provide labor for the base and Hudson outposts in the Pacific Northwest. This was due in part to the initial transportation difficulties of crossing the North American continent and concerns of hiring local labor – who had a tendency to steal company property and perhaps a desire to prevent a soft takeover by their Onallan hosts. Thus, several hundred Indian Lascars were the first Asians to find semi-permanent and permanent residence in Onallan as they built and maintained the British base and provided labor services to the Hudson Company. They were soon joined by a hundred Chinese immigrants brought by British and American sailors bringing the number by 1815.
Linguistically the legacy of the Lascars would see the entry of “Lasc’ish” into the Onallan vocabulary to refer to all persons from Asia.
Initial reaction among the Onallan to these immigrants was a mix of fascination and curiosity, here were more foreigners from beyond the sea. They saw how these newcomers interacted with the Europeans and how the Europeans treated them, and they were perplexed by the relationship. Largely these was disapproval with the disrespect and abysmally low pay the British gave their indentured workers – on one hand there was a communal concern on Onallan workers being pushed out of work but also that the British were paying the Lascars barely 5% of what the average British sailor or worker made. The Onallan questioned how the British expected for the Lascars to survive on such wages – in fact as ship crew quotas were enforced many Lascars were forced to live in poor houses and barracks where they lived hand to mouth. This concern lead to efforts to get the British and Hudson Bay Company to increase wage rates for their Lascars and provide better living conditions – which overlapped with the work of the Committee For the Relief of the Black Poor in London to provide for distressed African and Asian workers in Britain.
The general racial bias displayed by the British also perplexed the Onallan – in part because they saw -everyone- who was not born in the shadow of their sacred waters and mountains as inferior barbarians. Something which included the British. In ways it could be likened to a sort of proto-nationalist standpoint for the Onallan people as they based their citizenry on birthplace rather than by blood. The offspring of European and Asian settlers who were born on Onallan proper were extended rights as subjects of the Raven Emperor and so the budding communities of these immigrants were accepted into the Onallan fold – though this viewpoint would become contested in future decades as population pressures from all sides would force the Onallan to enact strict immigration policies. In particular with the coming of the Five Civilized Tribes.
By the large though the Asian immigrants to Onallan were accepted by the natives – in particular the religious establishment who studied the religious practices of the folk religions of the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans as well as the Hindu practices of the Indo migrants. The Onallan religious cosmology was staunchly polytheistic which revolved around paying homage to their gods and ancestors which were echoed in the theologies of many of the Asian newcomers. In time this would provide for a new genesis of ideas as the Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought became studied by the Onallan traditional priesthood – something which was paralleled with the growth of the Orthodox Church.
There is a tendency among modern portrayals of immigrant history from the Indian Subcontinent and the eastern Eurasian coast that these migrations first began in the late 19th Century with the outlawing of slavery leading to mass demands for indentured labor – in particular from Britain’s dominions in India and the masses of China. While it is true that the time period began mass migration however it was not the beginning. The true origin in fact lay with the Spanish and Portuguese merchants of their Indian Ocean and Manila Trans-Pacific trade as slaves were taken from a host of peoples who lives along the Indian Ocean and the West Pacific – from Madras to the Indonesian Archipelago to the shores of Japan. Taken as servants on their merchant ships or shipped as hard laborers to the Americas the historical knowledge of the men and women of ‘Asian’ descent in the Americas has been woefully lacking at times.
In 1769 with the discovery of California by the Spanish the ships themselves had over a dozen Asian servants and sailors, when the Spanish returned in 1771 to invade California the number was several times larger. A sizeable number of Chinese laborers were captured alongside their Spanish lords in the series of battles that made up the Californian-Spanish War of the late 18th century. In their capture they were given the choice of returning to Mexico or settling in California, of which many chose the later forming the first village of Chinese immigrants in the Bay area eventually marrying local women – all were men – and becoming assimilated into the local.
For Onallan the first mass involvement with Asian migrants actually began with the British construction of their base at Victoria – encountering hundreds of ‘Lascars’ that originated from the Indian Subcontinent. Lascars, in contrast to the Sepoys who they were often equated with, were Indian servicemen in the British navies – most commonly the British East Indian Company. While Victoria primarily was established for the benefit of the Hudson Bay Company the company and the British Government made a series of labor contract deals with the East Indian Company to provide labor for the base and Hudson outposts in the Pacific Northwest. This was due in part to the initial transportation difficulties of crossing the North American continent and concerns of hiring local labor – who had a tendency to steal company property and perhaps a desire to prevent a soft takeover by their Onallan hosts. Thus, several hundred Indian Lascars were the first Asians to find semi-permanent and permanent residence in Onallan as they built and maintained the British base and provided labor services to the Hudson Company. They were soon joined by a hundred Chinese immigrants brought by British and American sailors bringing the number by 1815.
Linguistically the legacy of the Lascars would see the entry of “Lasc’ish” into the Onallan vocabulary to refer to all persons from Asia.
Initial reaction among the Onallan to these immigrants was a mix of fascination and curiosity, here were more foreigners from beyond the sea. They saw how these newcomers interacted with the Europeans and how the Europeans treated them, and they were perplexed by the relationship. Largely these was disapproval with the disrespect and abysmally low pay the British gave their indentured workers – on one hand there was a communal concern on Onallan workers being pushed out of work but also that the British were paying the Lascars barely 5% of what the average British sailor or worker made. The Onallan questioned how the British expected for the Lascars to survive on such wages – in fact as ship crew quotas were enforced many Lascars were forced to live in poor houses and barracks where they lived hand to mouth. This concern lead to efforts to get the British and Hudson Bay Company to increase wage rates for their Lascars and provide better living conditions – which overlapped with the work of the Committee For the Relief of the Black Poor in London to provide for distressed African and Asian workers in Britain.
The general racial bias displayed by the British also perplexed the Onallan – in part because they saw -everyone- who was not born in the shadow of their sacred waters and mountains as inferior barbarians. Something which included the British. In ways it could be likened to a sort of proto-nationalist standpoint for the Onallan people as they based their citizenry on birthplace rather than by blood. The offspring of European and Asian settlers who were born on Onallan proper were extended rights as subjects of the Raven Emperor and so the budding communities of these immigrants were accepted into the Onallan fold – though this viewpoint would become contested in future decades as population pressures from all sides would force the Onallan to enact strict immigration policies. In particular with the coming of the Five Civilized Tribes.
By the large though the Asian immigrants to Onallan were accepted by the natives – in particular the religious establishment who studied the religious practices of the folk religions of the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans as well as the Hindu practices of the Indo migrants. The Onallan religious cosmology was staunchly polytheistic which revolved around paying homage to their gods and ancestors which were echoed in the theologies of many of the Asian newcomers. In time this would provide for a new genesis of ideas as the Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought became studied by the Onallan traditional priesthood – something which was paralleled with the growth of the Orthodox Church.