Alaska, with its Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut heritage, its century of Russian colonization, its peoples’ formidable struggles to wrest a living (or a fortune) from the North’s isolated and harsh environment, and its relatively recent achievement of statehood, has long captured the popular imagination. In An Alaska Anthology, twenty-five contemporary scholars explore the region’s pivotal events, significant themes, and major players, Native, Russian, Canadian, and American. The essays chosen for this anthology represent the very best writing on Alaska, giving great depth to our understanding and appreciation of its history from the days of Russian-American Company domination to the more recent threat of nuclear testing by the Atomic Energy Commission and the influence of oil money on inexperienced politicians. Readers may be familiar with an earlier anthology, Interpreting Alaska’s History, from which the present volume evolved to accommodate an explosion of research in the past decade. While a number of the original pieces were found to be irreplaceable, more than half of the essays are new. The result is a fresh perspective on the subject and an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and scholars.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Alaska History: An Outline

Finding America

Russian Dependence on the Natives of Alaska

Ivan Pan'kov: Architect of Aleut Literacy

Astor and Baranov: Partners in Empire

Two Missions to Alaska

The Sale of Alaska in the the Context of Russian American Relations in the 19th century

American Public Opinion and the Purchase of Russian America

"Hemmed In:" Reactions in British Columbia to the Purchase of Russian America

The Early Ministry of S. Hall Young, 1878-1888

Female Native Teachers in Southeast Alaska: Sarah Dickinson, Tillie Paul, and Frances Willard

Chief Sesui and Lieutenant Herron: A Story of Who Controls the Bacon

Controlling the Periphery: The Territorial Administration of the Yukon-Alaska, 1867-1959

Gold Rushers North: A Census Study of the Yukon and Alaska Gold Rushes, 1896-1900

Sourdough Radicalism: Labor and Socialism in Alaska, 1905-1920

The Pacific Salmon Fisheries: A Study of Irrational Conservation

Anthony J. Dimond and the Politics of Integrity

The New Deal and Alaskan Natives, 1936-1945

Governor Ernest Gruening's Struggle for Territorial Status: Personal or Political?

The Realities of Strategic Plannings: The Decision to Build the Alaska Highway

Jim Crow in Alaska: The Passage of the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945

Economic Development and Indian Land Rights in Modern Alaska: The 1947 Tongass Timber Act

The Governor Who Opposed Statehood: The Legacy of Jay Hammond

Project Chariot: Alaskan Roots of Environmentalism

Corruption: Alaska Size

The End of Wilderness