Historical records show that at least 16 Sakha people lived at Fort Ross from 1812 to 1842. Indigenous to northeastern Siberia, the Sakha served Russian fur traders as guides across their Siberian homeland and were later pressed into service in Russian America as hunters, laborers, stockmen, skilled carpenters, and shipbuilders, traveling with the Russian American Company to the Sonoma Coast. While in Alta California, some intermarried with the Kashia, Southern Pomo, and Coast Miwok. In Sakha culture, the sergeh, or hitching post placed near a family's home, also symbolizes the world tree, the Tree of Life, and the Sakha connection to the natural world and their ancestors' traditions, with ritual ceremonies marking each installation. During the 200th anniversary of Settlement Ross in 2012, carvers from the Sakha Republic returned to Fort Ross to carve two sergeh according to Sakha tradition to honor their ancestors, placing one at the Timber Cove Inn and the other at the Gualala Arts Center. A self-funded Sakha delegation later returned to the North Coast, reconnected with local Pomo elders at the Kashia Roundhouse near Stewart's Point, and established the sergeh site at Gualala Point Park as Sakha tuћulgete, a ceremonial place of the Sakha people. Three traditional sergeh carved onsite in 2014 from locally donated 40-foot Douglas fir logs by visiting Sakha craftsmen represent the Sakha conception of three interconnected worlds, with the tallest symbolizing the world tree, the axis of the universe. They were installed on June 22, 2014, during the Sakha shamanic ceremony Yhyakh, a traditional summer solstice holiday honoring the solar deity Urung Aiyy Toyon, welcoming the sun, affirming friendship among local indigenous people, Americans, and the Sakha, and honoring the memory of Sakha ancestors who lived and worked at Fort Ross.