Chief Ivan Gavrillov Pan'kov

Chief of Tigalda Island that assisted Ivan Veniaminov, Russian Orthodox missionary, in learning the Unangan / Eastern Aleut language, developing an alphabet, and recording information about the people and their customs. The two write an Unangan / Aleut catechism, the first book written in an Alaska Native language.

Chief Pan'kov was bilingual and fully literate.

Ivan Pan’kov – An Architect of Aleut Literacy Posted by HALIEHANA on DECEMBER 9, 2015 Black, L. T. (1977). Ivan Pan’kov – an architect of Aleut literacy. Arctic Anthropology, 14(1), 94-107.

This paper is about Ivan Pan’kov, an Unangax chief of Tigalda, who was a leader in the movement to encourage literacy among Aleuts in their language through Russian Orthodoxy, since “the Orthodox Church became a vehicle for maintenance of group identity and group solidarity, replacing the aboriginal religion” (p. 94). Pan’kov is known as “Veniaminov’s collaborator in the translation of various Church publications into the Aleut language” (p. 96) and he was a leader of indigenizing Russian Orthodoxy into an “Aleut Faith” in the early 1800s (p. 96). Black describes Pan’kov as an influential and important leader of the Aleut community, as well as “the representative of the Russian-American Company in the area where there were no Russian settlers” (p. 97), and as a chief and figure of the church he was instrumental in inspiring Aleuts to become literate in their language.

Black argues that Pan’kov is an important culture bearer and educator of the Unangax because of his passion of spreading Orthodoxy in the Aleut language and also because he was close with Veniaminov. Pan’kov was Veniaminov’s “constant companion, mentor, guide, interpreter and sponsor” (p. 98). Veniaminov wrote the most important ethnography on the Aleuts during the Russian period, providing a glimpse into what the Aleut prehistory may have looked like and the changes endured following foreign contact. He was also an influential Russian Orthodox priest and was invested in relating Orthodoxy to the Aleuts, as Pan’kov was, especially through incorporating the Aleut language in Orthodox services.

This paper emphasizes the change in leadership roles that occurred during the Russian period, with Ivan Pan’kov as a prime example of a leader who used his authority to spread Orthodoxy and Aleut literacy. He helped to preserve Aleut culture by integrating Aleut customs into Russian Orthodoxy. Pan’kov connected the Aleut and Orthodox worldviews, and Black describes how he orchestrated a meeting between Veniaminov and an Aleut shaman: “At the end of that meeting . . . the priest proclaimed the shaman a Man of God” (p. 100).