Krakov Kid, I'm Russian. Couldn't care less about ethnicity issues, but the only person who looks Russian to me is the second one from the right (he sort of looks like Putin, hehe). The rest to my eyes look just like American frontierspeople. So are the clothes. The one on the left, I think, is wearing an old Civil War army cap, and the boy with the dog, neckpiece and all, is as un-Russian as can be.
Three things that emphatically label them as not "promyshlenniki", specifically, are the dog, the boots, and the guns. "Promyshlenniki" very seldom used shotguns, and by 1870s definitely not breechloading shotguns; their dogs were laikas (they looked like huskeys), not bloodhounds.
I'm not saying this pic wasn't taken on Alaska, I'm saying it is highly unlikely that this pic was taken within Russian Empire. The fact is, that by 1870s the country was still recovering from the economic downturn caused by the abolishment of serfdom. The only people who could afford breechloaders were the high-end nobility and the wealthier merchants (the latter didn't shoot, as a rule). Both groups didn't dress like the people in the pic.
I'd admit it's only a speculation on my part.
