About the Author

Lydia T. Black immigrated to the United States in 1950. She is professor emerita at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. In 2000, she was awarded the Order of Friendship by the Russian Federation for fostering cooperation between the Russian and American scholarly communities. Dr. Black has published extensively on Russian and Alaskan history and anthropology, including a biography of St. Innocent entitled A Good and Faithful Servant (1997) and the authoritative Russians in Alaska, 1732-1867 (University of Alaska Press, 2003). In 2004, she was honored as Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society.