THE POLITICS OF STATEHOOD
GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL EXTREMES
NOT ONE LAND, BUT MANY
ARC OF FIRE: VOLCANOES OF THE GREAT LAND
EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS
MOUNTAINEERS AND DENALI
SYDNEY LAURENCE AND THE NORTHERN LANDSCAPE
NEW DEAL AGRICULTURE: THE MATANUSKA EXPERIMENT
SLED DOGS AND THE IDITAROD
GROWTH, CONSERVATION, PRESERVATION: ALASKA’S ESSENTIAL TENSION
THE STORY OF SALMON
THE FISHING INDUSTRY
HUNTING IN ALASKA
ALASKA’S MARINE HIGHWAY
THE OIL BOOM
THE SPILL
COMING TO TERMS WITH NATIVE LAND CLAIMS
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
CARIBOU AND NORTH COUNTRY POLITICS
RENEWED TRADITIONS: THE RENAISSANCE OF NATIVE ARTS
LAST FRONTIER OR LASTING FRONTIER?
ANCSA AND ITS DISCONTENTS
THE STATE OF ALASKA
Mount Katmai on the Alaska Peninsula, one year after its great eruption of June 6, 1912 (see p.96)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Among the people who have nurtured my interest in Alaska’s history, sometimes unknowingly, I wish to thank in particular Darrel Amundsen, Monty Elliot, Gary Ferngren, and Sue Hackett, as well as Ron Valentine, Director of Operations of World Explorer Cruises. I am especially indebted to Marlene Blessing and Ellen Wheat of Alaska Northwest Books for supporting the idea of a popular history of Alaska, and to Betty Watson for designing the book. In the later stages of writing, Nolan Hester provided invaluable editorial suggestions which resulted in a much-improved manuscript. Ted C. Hinckley, Catherine and Bill Ouweneel, and Roy Potter kindly agreed to read the manuscript in its late form. I also wish to thank Richard Engeman and the staff of the Special Collections Division of the University of Washington Libraries, India M. Spartz of the Alaska Historical Library, Marge Heath of Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska/ Fairbanks, Toni Nagel of the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Ken Southerland of Sealaska Corporation, Sara Timby and Linda Long of the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries, Mike Connors of the Port of Bellingham, Fred Goodman of Bellingham, Doug Charles of the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, and several colleagues at Western Washington University: Janet Collins, Gene Hoerauf, Ed Vajda, Ray McInnis, Virginia Beck of Wilson Library’s Special Collections, and especially Jim Scott, Director of Western’s Center for Pacific Northwest Studies.
For the book’s second edition, I want to thank Jennifer Newens and the West Margin Press team for inviting me to undertake the revision. Very special thanks, as well, to Tricia Brown and Leza Madsen for their helpful suggestions.
Thanks, above all, to my wife, Marian, and son, Alan, without whose inspiration and support this book would not have been written.
Snug Corner Cove, Prince William Sound. Drawing by John Webber, 1778.
ALASKA: THE GREAT LAND
ALASKA, PAST AND PRESENT
Gold and silver doors, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Sitka, late 1800s.
Alaska’s human history—from the prehistoric arrival of the earliest Siberian hunters to today’s Arctic Slope oil exploration—is unified by one simple but grand theme: people’s efforts to wrest a living from the region’s vast natural riches despite its extreme conditions.
Nature endowed the Great Land with wealth, scenery, and a scope surpassed by few regions of the earth. Alaska is a virtual subcontinent: Twice the size of Texas, it contains 16 percent of the United States’ land area. But its population remains small. At the time of the U.S. purchase in 1867, Alaska had about 30,000 people, more than 29,000 of them Native American. By 2018, despite statehood and the oil boom, its population had grown to an estimated 738,000.
Over the past 275 years, Alaska has seen a series of boom-and-bust “rushes” to exploit the land: rushes for fur, gold, copper, salmon, and oil. Some people came and stayed, simply because Alaska is like nowhere else—wild, extreme, and amazing. Still, the aim often has been to take the rewards of the land and sea, then enjoy them somewhere else. Many Alaskans see a recurring theme of neglect by federal authorities and exploitation by “outside interests.” While the notion is easily exaggerated, the fact remains that today, decades after becoming a state, much of Alaska’s economic fate remains under control of the Lower 48. Much of the Alaska fishing fleet, for example, is based not in Alaska, but in Washington state.
Over the past six decades, the development of a modern tourism industry has brought millions of visitors to the once-remote frontier in a veritable “tourist rush.” The more daring travelers motor north via the Alaska Highway, built during World War II. But most come by air or sea. The state-owned ferry system, the “Alaska Marine Highway,” has linked southeastern Alaska to British Columbia and Washington state since the 1960s. Each year, thousands of ferry travelers experience the stunning sea and landscapes of the Inside Passage. In the 1970s, the cruise ship industry met that same growing tourist demand by offering summertime excursions to the icy spectacles of Glacier Bay National Park and the Gulf of Alaska.
Visitors are drawn to Alaska by the region’s wild beauty and storied past. Alaska’s history has not always been happy. For traditional Native cultures as well as for some animal species, it is no exaggeration to say that at times it has been catastrophic. Yet to ignore the past denies us the chance to learn for the future. This book aims to supply a concise, informative, and entertaining account of Alaska’s history: at times heroic and surprising, foolish and sad, but always colorful and often downright thrilling.
Aleut baskets. Photo by Edward Curtis, 1899.
NATIVE TRADITIONS
ALASKA’S