amanat

plural amanats · plural amanaty

1. historicalA Native American hostage taken by Russian colonists.

   Toion Fedor accepted Orthodoxy in the winter of 1795–96 when he lived at Kodiak as an amanat.

   2005, Grinev, The Tlingit Indians in Russian America, 1741-1867, page 260

   2 more examples

   Kuznetsov — his Aleut name is unknown — had been given to Russian fur traders as an amanat (hostage).

   1990, Richard A. Pierce, Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary, page xvii

   According to Davydov (1812, 2:54, 132), the chief of the Ugalakhmiut Eyak specially came to Kodiak for a meeting with his son, who was an amanat among the Russians.

   2002, European Review of Native American Studies