Natalia Shelikof Chapter of DAR, Kodiak was organized October 7, 1982, with Peggy Motz Dyson as the Organizing Regent and eleven other members.  The chapter is named after Natalia Shelikof who personified the spirit of adventure, courage and pioneer vision that is so much a part of American heritage.  The first white woman settler in Alaska, she was married to Grigor Ivanovich Shelikof, the founder of the Russian colonies in America.  Natalia accompanied her fur-trader husband on all his long and dangerous travels and explorations.  They established the first permanent settlement at Three Saints Bay, Kodiak Island in 1784.  This is believed to be the first white settlement on the Pacific Coast north of Mexico and it was the site of the first school.

Natalia was a capable, aggressive person who was able to envision schools, churches, and agricultural industry in the wild and far-flung land.  It was through Natalia’s influence at the court of the Empress Catherine that missionary priests were sent to the settlement.  Accustomed to handling her husband’s business, she hastened to secure an extension of the fur trading charter after her husband’s death in 1795.  Together with her son-in-law Nikolai Rezanof, she effected the merger of the fur merchants into one giant company, which became the Russian Empire in America.  The first Russian farmers to come were serfs from Natalia’s own estate in Russia.

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