This paper considers the tremendous potential for collaboration among Pacific Rim scholars in the study of culture contact in the North Pacific. The establishment of pluralistic mercantile colonies by the Russian-American Company, that extended from the Kurile Islands, directly north of Japan, to California involved the extensive relocation of European, Eastern Asian, Creole (mixed blood), and Native American peoples across the north Pacific. The study of culture change in these inter-ethnic communities is being facilitated by circum-Pacific cooperation among Pacific Rim scholars who are investigating the prehistory, material culture, and lifeways of the diverse peoples integrated into the Russian-American Company's world system. Several examples of collaborative research between Russian and North American scholars are presented.