Alaska History

Alaska was first populated by humans who came across from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge. It was via this route that most, if not all, of the pre-Columbian population reached the Americas. The Native American population included Inupiaq, Inuit and Yupik Eskimos, and Aleuts.

The first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. Alaska became a Russian colony in 1744, although the first Russian settlement was founded only in 1784. Spanish ships also explored the coast and made some settlements during the 18th century. The names of some Spanish settlements such as Cordova and Valdez survive to this today.

Following the British North America Act of 1867, which created the unified dominion of Canada, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward urged, and the U.S. Senate approved, a treaty purchasing Alaska from Imperial Russia for US$7,200,000. The U.S. took possession of the territory, and raised the American flag on October 18th, 1867, which is still commemorated as "Alaska day". After the purchase, the area was initially called the Department of Alaska. Between 1884 and 1912, it was called the District of Alaska. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912.

During World War II, three of the outer Aleutian Islands (Attu, Agattu and Kiska) were occupied by Japanese troops. This was the only area within the current borders of the United States to have been occupied by enemy forces during the war.

On January 3rd, 1959, Alaska became a US state. On March 27th, 1964, a major earthquake, known as the "Good Friday Earthquake" or "Great Alaska Earthquake", hit Alaska killing 131 people, and causing tsunamis which destroyed several towns and villages.

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Alaska's History: The People, Land, and Events of (Alaska Pocket Guide)

By Harry Ritter Alaska Northwest Books Paperback (143 pages)	List Price: $12.95 Lowest New Price: $6.75 Lowest Used Price: $1.00 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 08:56 Pacific 5 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here
Product Description: A lively, take-along account of Alaska's sweeping history, from pre-contact Native times to the gold rush, to the present.

Historic Photos of Alaska (Historic Photos.)

By Dermot Cole

Turner Pub Co
Hardcover (216 pages)

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Just over 140 years ago, the United States made one of the greatest land deals of all time, purchasing from Russia a massive piece of property near the Arctic Circle. Since then, the land known as Alaska has been the site of a gold rush and an oil boom, but even those great events comprise only a small portion of what makes America s largest and most northern state a place that continues to capture the imagination and the hearts of residents and visitors alike.
Historic Photos of Alaska portrays the majesty, the history, and the awe-inspiring beauty of this unique section of America through rarely seen, stunning, black-and-white photographs selected from local, state, and national collections.
Climb the snow-filled Chilkoot Pass with gold-seekers. Hunt with Native tribesmen. See cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks grow from a cluster of tents and wooden shacks. Stand with American soldiers as they repel the only invasion of North America during World War II. Observe the engineering feat of constructing the trans-Alaska oil pipeline through frozen wilderness. Marvel at pristine natural beauty, celebrate the long-awaited statehood, and witness the incredible destruction wrought by the 1964 earthquake, in this unique collection of historic photographs.

Alaska: A History of the 49th State

By Claus-M Naske

University of Oklahoma Press
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Strange Stories of Alaska & The Yukon

By Ed Ferrell

Epicenter Press
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From the pages of early-day northern newspapers comes a startling collection of accounts of the extraordinary and the unexplained: Mammoths discovered frozen whole in the icy grip of a glacier. A tropical valley hidden deep in the wilderness. Sea serpents sighted off the Bering Sea Coast. A ghostly maiden's endless search for the young miner she loved. Lost mines containing unimaginable wealth in gold.

Completing the Union: Alaska, Hawai'i, and the Battle for Statehood (American Histories of the Frontier Series)

By John S. Whitehead

University of New Mexico Press
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As late as mid-1941 the two territories of Alaska and Hawai’i were little known by most Americans. Alaska was seen as a frozen wasteland and Hawai’i, an exotic outpost in the mid-Pacific with a multi-racial, particularly Asian, population. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941 and the capture of two Aleutian Islands in 1942 made the two territories central theaters of World War II. Thousands of Americans came to know Alaska and Hawai’i as never before.

Once the war ended both territories hoped that statehood would be their reward for such loyal wartime service. Their strategic locations pointed to an increased national involvement in the Pacific and Asia. The 49th and 50th states would eventually be admitted, but it took thirteen years, from 1946 to 1959, to do it. The long delay was caused by many of the events of the Cold War. Both territories became enmeshed in the national politics of anti-communism, radical labor movements, and Arctic policy to resist a Soviet air attack across the polar North. A cadre of statehood supporters emerged to make their case to the nation, including the young Daniel Inouye of Hawai’i and Ted Stevens of Alaska, both of whom would become two of the most powerful senators in Congress.

Alaska (On-The-Road Histories)

By Ryan Madden

Interlink Books
Paperback (317 pages)

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The word Alaska conjures romantic images of the frozen north-igloos, dog sleds, giant bears, endless tundra-and with these images, a sense of physical extremity: our biggest state, our northernmost state, our highest mountains, our lowest temperatures. In parts of Alaska, the sun never goes down in the summer and never comes up in the winter. But alongside the natural beauty and stark physical majesty is an interesting and complex human history thousands of years old and full of interactions between different peoples and cultures. Alaska Natives, Russians, French, Spanish, English, Americans, Canadians, and Japanese have all staked a claim in this Northern land. In this On-the-Road History, Ryan Madden first explores Alaska Native cultures, then moves to the Russian influence, the early American period and the influence of gold, and finally, Alaska in the 20th century, with the impact of World War II, statehood, and the oil boom.

Alaska Then and Now: Anchorage, Fairbanks & Juneau

By Sonya Senkowsky

Thunder Bay Press
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Alaska

By Suzan Nightingale Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company Hardcover (144 pages)	List Price: $39.95 Lowest New Price: $5.09 Lowest Used Price: $4.59 Usually ships in 9 to 10 days (As of 08:56 Pacific 5 Jul 2009 More Info) Click Here
Product Description: By traveling to all corners of the state, photographer Hirschmann has brilliantly succeeded in capturing the scope, vastness, and variety of the Alaskan landscape.

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Washington's First World's Fair: A Timeline History

By Alan J. Stein

History Link
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This richly illustrated and well-researched volume chronicles the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, held in Seattle in 1909. The 3.7 million visitors to the fair during its four-month run, on what was to become the University of Washington campus, beheld a cornucopia of exhibits housed in an astonishing collection of buildings and enjoyed the carnival-like - and sometimes controversial - entertainments of the Pay Streak midway. Starting with the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, authors Alan J. Stein and Paula Becker recount in detail the history of the fair that brought Seattle and Washington into the national spotlight.

The A-Y-P Exposition was a major community effort for a state that was only twenty years old. It was the first world's fair to make a profit, it provided a platform for advocates of woman suffrage, and it set the general plan for the University of Washington campus that endures to this day.

The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The World Readers)

Duke University Press
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Alaska is home to more than two hundred federally recognized tribes. Yet the long histories and diverse cultures of Alaska’s first peoples are often ignored, while the stories of Russian fur hunters and U.S. gold-miners, of salmon canneries and oil pipelines, are praised. Filled with essays, poems, songs, stories, maps, and visual art, this volume foregrounds the perspectives of Alaska Native people, from a Tlingit photographer to Athabascan and Yup’ik linguists, and from an Alutiiq mask carver to a prominent Native politician and member of Alaska’s House of Representatives. The contributors, most of whom are Alaska Native, include scholars, political leaders, activists, and artists. The majority of the pieces in The Alaska Native Reader were written especially for the volume; several incorporate translations from Native languages.

The Alaska Native Reader describes indigenous worldviews, languages, arts, and other cultural traditions as well as contemporary efforts to preserve them. Several pieces examine Alaska Natives’ experiences of and resistance to Russian and American colonialism; some of these address land claims, self-determination, and sovereignty. Essays discuss contemporary Alaska Native literature, indigenous philosophical and spiritual tenets, and the ways that Native peoples are represented in the media. Others take up such diverse topics as the use of digital technologies to document Native cultures, planning systems that have enabled indigenous communities to survive in the Arctic for thousands of years, and a project to accurately represent Dena’ina heritage in and around Anchorage. Fourteen of the volume’s many illustrations appear in color; these include work by the contemporary artists Subhankar Banerjee, Perry, Eaton, Erica Lord, and Larry McNeil.

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