‘The Notes on the Islands of the Unalashkinsky District’ in three parts, were published on the account of the Russian-American Company in St. Petersburg in 1840; in 1841, the book got the Demidov Award. The author was Ivan Veniaminov (as a monk – Innocence). It was the only complex research in the history, ethnography, linguistic, geography, mineralogy, flora and fauna of the Aleut Islands and the archipelago of Alexander (Alaska). The first part included the geographical description; the second part was about the anthropology. For the first time in the world research, religious conceptions of Aleuts and Tlinkits were the object of studies. Unlike missionaries working in other regions of the Russian Empire (in the Altai Mission, for instance), the author did not think, that local population would have to reject its traditional occupations; when he described religious conceptions of the native peoples of Alaska, he interpret their beliefs as an integral part of their eco-system. As well as the other researchers of the culture of the Northern peoples, he gave much attention at the description of Shamans and their ‘technique of ecstasy’. However, an approach of trained anthropologist made him be especially attentive to magic practices of the ‘arrived’ population – fisherman. On the base of ‘The Notes’ several essays were compiled, particularly – ‘Mythological legends and superstitions of Kolosh, inhabiting the North-West coast of America’.