History of Alaska

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For a topical guide to this subject, see Historical outline of Alaska.

Alaska in 1895 (Rand McNally). The boundary of southeastern Alaska shown is that claimed by the United
States prior to the conclusion of the Alaska boundary dispute.

Part of a series on the

History of Alaska

 Prehistory
 Russian America (1733–1867)
 Department of Alaska (1867–1884)
 District of Alaska (1884–1912)
 Territory of Alaska (1912–1959)
 State of Alaska (1959–present)
 Other topics

 v
 t
  e

The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period (around 14,000 BC),

when foraging groups crossed the Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska.
At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated
by Alaska Native groups. The name "Alaska" derives from
the Aleut word Alaxsxaq (also spelled Alyeska), meaning "mainland" (literally, "the
object toward which the action of the sea is directed"). [1]
The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska
and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska.
Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912 by the United States of America.
In 1942, two of the outer Aleutian Islands—Attu and Kiska—were occupied by the
Japanese during World War II and their recovery for the U.S. became a matter of
national pride. The construction of military bases contributed to the population growth of
some Alaskan cities.
Alaska was granted U.S. statehood on January 3, 1959.
In 1964, the massive "Good Friday earthquake" killed 131 people and leveled several
villages.
The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska
Pipeline led to an oil boom. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Prince William
Sound, spilling between 11 to 34 million US gallons (42,000 to 129,000 m3) of crude oil
over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of coastline. Today, the battle between philosophies of
development and conservation is seen in the contentious debate over oil drilling in
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Contents

 1Prehistory of Alaska
 218th century
o 2.1Early Russian settlement
 2.1.1Missionary activity
o 2.2Spanish claims
o 2.3Britain's presence
 319th century
o 3.1Later Russian settlement and the Russian-American Company (1799–1867)
o 3.2Alaska purchase
o 3.3The Department of Alaska (1867–1884)
o 3.4District of Alaska (1884–1912)
 420th century
o 4.1Alaska Territory (1912–1959)
 4.1.1World War II
o 4.2Statehood
 4.2.11964 earthquake
o 4.3North to the Future
 o 4.41968 – present: oil and land politics
 4.4.1Oil discovery, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), and the Trans-Alaska
Pipeline
 4.4.2Environmentalism, the Exxon Valdez, and ANWR
 521st Century
o 5.1COVID-19 Pandemic
 6Notable historical figures
 7See also
 8References and further reading
o 8.1Environment
o 8.2Videos
o 8.3Russian era
o 8.4Primary sources
o 8.5Foreign language books
 9Notes
 10External links

Prehistory of Alaska[edit]

An Inupiaq woman, Nome, Alaska, c. 1907

Main article: Prehistory of Alaska

Paleolithic families moved into northwestern North America before 10,000 BC across
the Bering land bridge in Alaska (see Settlement of the Americas). Alaska became
populated by the Inuit and a variety of Native American groups. Today, early Alaskans
are divided into several main groups: the Southeastern Coastal Indians
(the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian), the Athabascans, the Aleut, and the two groups of
Eskimos, the Inupiat and the Yup'ik.[2]
The coastal migrants from Asia were probably the first wave of humans to cross the
Bering land bridge in western Alaska, and many of them initially settled in the interior of
what is now Canada. The Tlingit were the most numerous of this group, claiming most
of the coastal Panhandle by the time of European contact and are the northernmost of
the group of advanced cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast renowned for its complex
art and political systems and the ceremonial and legal system known as the potlatch.
The southern portion of Prince of Wales Island was settled by the Haidas fleeing
persecution by other Haidas from the Queen Charlotte Islands (which are now
named Haida Gwaii and part of British Columbia). The Aleuts settled the islands of the
Aleutian chain approximately 10,000 years ago.
Cultural and subsistence practices varied widely among native groups, who were
spread across vast geographical distances.

18th century[edit]
Early Russian settlement[edit]

Aleksandr Baranov, "Lord of Alaska"

Main article: Russian America

Russian expeditions of exploration reached Alaska by the early 18th century, and
colonial traders (especially fur-traders) followed. On some islands and parts of the
Alaskan peninsula, groups of Russian traders proved capable of relatively peaceful
coexistence with the local inhabitants. Other groups could not manage the tensions and
perpetrated exactions. Hostages were taken, individuals were enslaved, families were
split up, and other individuals were forced to leave their villages and settle elsewhere. In
addition, during the first two generations of Russian contact, eighty percent of the Aleut
population died of Old World diseases, against which they had no immunity.[3]
In 1784 Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island,
operating the fur-trading Shelikhov-Golikov Company.[4] Shelikhov and his men killed
hundreds of indigenous Koniag, then founded the first permanent Russian settlement in
Alaska – on the island's Three Saints Bay. By 1788 Shelikhov and others had
established a number of Russian settlements over a large region, including the
mainland areas around Cook Inlet.
The Russians had gained control of the habitats of the most valuable sea-otters, the
Kurilian-Kamchatkan and Aleutian sea-otters. Their fur was thicker, glossier, and
blacker than that of sea-otters on the Pacific Northwest coast and in California. The
Russians, therefore, advanced southwards along the Pacific coast only after the
superior varieties of sea-otters had become depleted, around 1788. The Russian entry
to the Northwest Coast was slow, however, due to a shortage of ships and sailors.
Russians reached Yakutat Bay in 1794 and built the settlement of Slavorossiya there in
1795. James Shields, a British employee of the Golikov-Shelikhov Company,
reconnoitred the coast as far as the Queen Charlotte Islands. In 1795 Alexander
Baranov, hired in 1790 to manage Shelikhov's fur enterprise, sailed into Sitka
Sound and claimed it for Russia. Hunting-parties arrived in the following years, and by
1800 three-quarters of Russian America's sea-otter skins were coming from the Sitka
Sound area. In July 1799 Baranov returned[citation needed] on the brig Oryol and established the
settlement of Arkhangelsk. Destroyed by Tlingits in 1802 but rebuilt nearby in 1804, it
became Novo-Arkhangelsk (Russian: Новоархангельск, lit. 'New Archangel'). It soon
become the primary settlement and colonial capital of Russian America. (After the
United States purchased Alaska in 1867, Novoarkhangelsk was renamed[by whom?] Sitka and
became the first capital of Alaska Territory.[5])
Missionary activity[edit]

St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka. The original structure, built in 1848, burned down in a fire on January 2, 1966.
The cathedral was rebuilt from plans of the original structure and contains artifacts rescued from the fire.

Russian fur-traders informally introduced the Russian Orthodox church (with its rituals

and sacred texts translated into Aleut at a very early stage) in the 1740s–1780s. During
his settlement of Three Saints Bay in 1784, Shelikov introduced the first resident
missionaries and clergymen. This missionary activity would continue into the 19th
century, ultimately becoming the most visible trace [citation needed] of the Russian colonial period
in present-day Alaska.
Spanish claims[edit]
Main article: Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest

Spanish contact in British Columbia and Alaska

Spanish claims to the Alaska region dated to the papal bull of 1493, but never involved
colonization, forts, or settlements. Instead, Madrid sent out various naval expeditions to
explore the area and to claim it for Spain. In 1775 Bruno de Hezeta led an expedition;
the Sonora, under Bodega y Quadra, ultimately reached latitude 58° north, entered
Sitka Sound and formally claimed the region for Spain. The 1779 expedition of Ignacio
de Arteaga and Bodega y Quadra reached Port Etches on Hinchinbrook Island, and
entered Prince William Sound. They reached a latitude of 61° north, the most northern
point attained by Spain.
In 1788 Esteban José Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro visited Russian
settlements at Unalaska.[6]
The Nootka Crisis of 1789 almost led to a war between Britain and Spain: Britain
rejected Spanish claims to lands in British Columbia and Spain seized some British
ships. The crisis was resolved in Madrid by the Nootka Conventions of 1790–1794,
which provided that traders of both Britain and Spain could operate on the northwest
coast, that the captured British ships would be returned and an indemnity paid. This
marked a victory for Britain, and Spain effectively withdrew from the North Pacific. [7] It
transferred its claims in the region to the United States in the Adams-Onís Treaty of
1819. Today, Spain's Alaskan legacy endures as little more than a few place names,
among these the Malaspina Glacier and the towns of Valdez and Cordova.
Britain's presence[edit]
British settlements at the time in Alaska consisted of a few scattered trading outposts,
with most settlers arriving by sea. Captain James Cook, midway through his third and
final voyage of exploration in 1778, sailed along the west coast of North America
aboard HMS Resolution, from then-Spanish California all the way to the Bering Strait.
During the trip he discovered what became known as Cook Inlet (named in honor of
Cook in 1794 by George Vancouver, who had served under his command) in Alaskan
waters. The Bering Strait proved to be impassable, although the Resolution and its
companion ship HMS Discovery made several attempts to sail through it. The British
ships left the straits to return to Hawaii in 1779.
Cook's expedition spurred the British to increase their sailings along the northwest coast
(the north-eastern coast of the Pacific), following in the wake of the Spanish. Alaska-
based posts owned by the Hudson's Bay Company operated at Fort Yukon, on
the Yukon River, Fort Durham (a.k.a. Fort Taku) at the mouth of the Taku River,
and Fort Stikine, near the mouth of the Stikine River (associated
with Wrangell throughout the early-19th century).

19th century[edit]
Later Russian settlement and the Russian-American Company
(1799–1867)[edit]
1860 map of Russian America

Main article: Russian America

The Russian-American Company's capital at New Archangel (present-day Sitka, Alaska) in 1837

In 1799, Shelikhov's son-in-law, Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov, acquired a monopoly on

the American fur trade from emperor Paul I and formed the Russian-American
Company. As part of the deal, the emperor expected the company to establish new
settlements in Alaska and carry out an expanded colonization program.
By 1804, Alexander Baranov, now manager of the Russian–American Company, had
consolidated the company's hold on the American fur trade following his victory over the
local Tlingit clan at the Battle of Sitka. Despite these efforts the Russians never fully
colonized Alaska. The Russian monopoly on trade was also being weakened by
the Hudson's Bay Company, which set up a post on the southern edge of Russian
America in 1833.
In 1818 management of the Russian-American Company was turned over to
the Imperial Russian Navy and the Ukase of 1821 banned foreigners from participating
in the Alaskan economy. It soon entered into the Anglo-Russian Convention of
1825 which allowed British merchants to trade in Alaska. The Convention also settled
most of the border between Alaska and British North America.
The Russo-American Treaty of 1824, which banned American merchants above 54° 40'
north latitude, was widely ignored and the Russians' hold on Alaska weakened further.
At the height of Russian America, the Russian population reached 700.
Although the mid–19th century was not a good time for Russians in Alaska, conditions
improved for the coastal Alaska Natives who had survived contact. The Tlingits were
never conquered and continued to wage war on the Russians into the 1850s. The
Aleuts, though faced with a decreasing population in the 1840s, ultimately rebounded.
Alaska purchase[edit]

The check that paid for Alaska

Main article: Alaska Purchase

Financial difficulties in Russia, the low profits of trade with Alaskan settlement, and the
important desire to keep Alaska out of British hands all contributed to Russia's
willingness to sell its possessions in North America. At the instigation of U.S. Secretary
of State William Seward, the United States Senate approved the purchase of
Alaska from Russia for US$7.2 million on August 1, 1867 (equivalent to approximately
$140M in 2021). This purchase was popularly known in the U.S. as "Seward's Folly",
"Seward's Icebox," or "Andrew Johnson's Polar Bear Garden", and was unpopular
among some people at the time. Later discovery of gold and oil would show it to be a
worthwhile one. Scholars debate whether the purchase of Alaska was a financially
profitable for the federal Treasury itself, apart from its benefits to Alaskans and to
businesses, and to national defense. [8][better  source  needed]
The Department of Alaska (1867–1884)[edit]
Main article: Department of Alaska
The United States flag was raised on October 18, 1867, now called Alaska Day, and the
region changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, for
residents, Friday, October 6, 1867 was followed by Friday, October 18, 1867—two
Fridays in a row because of the 12 day shift in the calendar minus one day for the date-
line shift.[9]
During the Department era, from 1867 to 1884, Alaska was variously under the
jurisdiction of the U.S. Army (until 1877), the United States Department of the
Treasury from 1877 to 1879, and the U.S. Navy from 1879 to 1884. Civil administration
of Alaska began in 1877 under the United States Treasury Department. A Collector of
Customs was appointed by the President of the United States. The Collector was the
highest-ranking official of the United States government in Alaska and de facto
Governor. Henry C. DeAhna, a former Union Army Officer and Mottrom D. Ball, a former
Confederate Army officer, were the first individuals to serve as Collector of Customs.
When Alaska was first purchased, most of its land remained unexplored. In
1865, Western Union laid a telegraph line across Alaska to the Bering Strait where it
would connect, under water, with an Asian line. It also conducted the first scientific
studies of the region and produced the first map of the entire Yukon River. The Alaska
Commercial Company and the military also contributed to the growing exploration of
Alaska in the last decades of the 19th century, building trading posts along the Interior's
many rivers.
District of Alaska (1884–1912)[edit]
Main article: District of Alaska

Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the Klondike Gold Rush.

In 1884, the region was organized and the name was changed from the Department of
Alaska to the District of Alaska. At the time, legislators in Washington, D.C., were
occupied with post-Civil War reconstruction issues, and had little time to devote to
Alaska. In 1896, the discovery of gold in Yukon Territory in neighboring Canada,
brought many thousands of miners and new settlers to Alaska, and very quickly ended
the nation's four year economic depression. Although it was uncertain whether gold
would also be found in Alaska, Alaska greatly profited because it was along the easiest
transportation route to the Yukon goldfields. Numerous new cities, such as Skagway,
Alaska, owe their existence to a gold rush in Canada. Soapy Smith, a crime boss
confidence man who operated the largest criminal empire in gold rush era Alaska, was
shot down by vigilantes in the famed Shootout on Juneau Wharf. He is known as
"Alaska's Outlaw."
In 1899, gold was found in Alaska itself in Nome, and several towns subsequently
began to be built, such as Fairbanks and Ruby. In 1902, the Alaska Railroad began to
be built, which would connect from Seward to Fairbanks by 1914, though Alaska still
does not have a railroad connecting it to the lower 48 states today. Still, an overland
route was built, cutting transportation times to the contiguous states by days. The
industries of copper mining, fishing, and canning began to become popular in the early
20th century, with 10 canneries in some major towns.
In 1903, a boundary dispute with Canada was finally resolved.
By the turn of the 20th century, commercial fishing was gaining a foothold in the
Aleutian Islands. Packing houses salted cod and herring, and salmon canneries were
opened. Another commercial occupation, whaling, continued with no regard for over-
hunting. They pushed the bowhead whales to the edge of extinction for the oil in their
tissue. The Aleuts soon suffered severe problems due to the depletion of
fur seals and sea otters which they needed for survival. As well as requiring the flesh for
food, they also used the skins to cover their boats, without which they could not hunt.
The Americans also expanded into the Interior and Arctic Alaska, exploiting the
furbearers, fish, and other game on which Natives depended.

20th century[edit]
Alaska Territory (1912–1959)[edit]
Main article: Territory of Alaska
When Congress passed the Second Organic Act in 1912, Alaska was reorganized, and
renamed the Territory of Alaska.[10] By 1916, its population was about 58,000. James
Wickersham, a Delegate to Congress, introduced Alaska's first statehood bill, but it
failed due to the small population and lack of interest from Alaskans. Even
President Warren G. Harding's visit in 1923 could not create widespread interest in
statehood. Under the conditions of the Second Organic Act, Alaska had been split into
four divisions. The most populous of the divisions, whose capital was Juneau, wondered
if it could become a separate state from the other three. Government control was a
primary concern, with the territory having 52 federal agencies governing it.
Then, in 1920, the Jones Act required U.S.-flagged vessels to be built in the United
States, owned by U.S. citizens, and documented under the laws of the United States.
All goods entering or leaving Alaska had to be transported by American carriers and
shipped to Seattle prior to further shipment, making Alaska dependent on Washington.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the provision of the Constitution saying one state
should not hold sway over another's commerce did not apply because Alaska was only
a territory. The prices Seattle shipping businesses charged began to rise to take
advantage of the situation. This situation created an atmosphere of enmity among
Alaskans who watched the wealth being generated by their labors flowing into the
hands of Seattle business holdings.
In July 1923 Warren Harding became the first sitting President to visit Alaska as part of
his Pacific Northwest Voyage of Understanding. Harding arrived by boat
from Seattle and made nine stops in the Territory via train which went from Seward to
Fairbanks. On July 15 Harding drove in a golden railroad spike at Nenana. The train car
in which he rode now sits in Fairbanks' Pioneer Park.[11]
The Depression caused prices of fish and copper, which were vital to Alaska's economy
at the time, to decline. Wages were dropped and the workforce decreased by more than
half. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought Americans from agricultural areas
could be transferred to Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley for a fresh chance at
agricultural self-sustainment. Colonists were largely from northern states, such
as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota under the belief that only those who grew up
with climates similar to that of Alaska's could handle settler life there. The United Congo
Improvement Association asked the president to settle 400 African-American farmers in
Alaska, saying that the territory would offer full political rights, but racial prejudice and
the belief that only those from northern states would make suitable colonists caused the
proposal to fail.
The exploration and settlement of Alaska would not have been possible without the
development of the aircraft, which allowed for the influx of settlers into the state's
interior, and rapid transportation of people and supplies throughout. However, due to
the unfavorable weather conditions of the state, and high ratio of pilots-to-population,
over 1700 aircraft wreck sites are scattered throughout its domain. Numerous wrecks
also trace their origins to the military build-up of the state during both World War II and
the Cold War.

 See also History of aviation in Alaska

World War II[edit]
Main article: Aleutian Islands campaign

Propaganda poster, World War II, depicting Alaska as a death trap for Japan.

Buildings burning after the first Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, June 3, 1942.

During World War II, two of the outer Aleutian Islands—Attu and Kiska—were invaded
and occupied by Japanese troops. They were the only parts of the continental United
States to be invaded and occupied by an enemy nation during the war. Their recovery
became a matter of national pride.
On June 3, 1942, the Japanese launched an air attack on Dutch Harbor, a U.S. naval
base on Unalaska Island, but were repelled by U.S. forces.[12] A few days later, the
Japanese landed on the islands of Kiska and Attu, where they overwhelmed Attu
villagers. The villagers were taken to Japan, where they were interned for the remainder
of the war. Aleuts from the Pribilofs and Aleutian villages were evacuated by the United
States to Southeast Alaska. Many suffered during their two years internment there, and
the federal government, charged with their care, provided inadequate health care, food,
and shelter.[13]
Attu was regained in May 1943 after two weeks of intense fighting and 3,929 American
casualties:[14] 549 killed, 1148 injured and 1200 severe cold injuries, 614 to disease and
318 dead of miscellaneous causes,[15] The U.S. then turned its attention to the other
occupied island, Kiska. From June through August, a multitude of bombs were dropped
on the tiny island, though the Japanese ultimately escaped via transport ships. After the
war, the Native Attuans who had survived their internment were resettled to Atka by
the federal government, which considered their home villages too remote to defend.
In 1942, the Alaska–Canada Military Highway was completed, in part to form an
overland supply route to the Soviet Union on the other side of the Bering Strait.
[16]
 Running from Great Falls, Montana, to Fairbanks, the road was the first stable link
between Alaska and the rest of America. The construction of military bases, such as
the Adak base, contributed to the population growth of some Alaskan
cities. Anchorage almost doubled in size, from 4,200 people in 1940 to 8,000 in 1945.
Statehood[edit]
By the turn of the 20th century, a movement pushing for Alaska statehood began, but in
the contiguous 48 states, legislators were worried that Alaska's population was too
sparse, distant, and isolated, and its economy was too unstable for it to be a worthwhile
addition to the United States.[17] World War II and the Japanese invasion highlighted
Alaska's strategic importance, and the issue of statehood was taken more seriously, but
it was the discovery of oil at Swanson River on the Kenai Peninsula that dispelled the
image of Alaska as a weak, dependent region. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed
the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law on July 4, 1958,[18] which paved the way
for Alaska's admission into the Union on January 3, 1959. Juneau, the territorial capital,
continued as state capital, and William A. Egan was sworn in as the first governor.
Alaska does not have counties, unlike every other American state except Louisiana.
(Louisiana has parishes). Instead, it is divided into 16 boroughs and one "unorganized
borough" made up of all land not within any borough. Boroughs have organized area-
wide governments, but within the unorganized borough, where there is no such
government, services are provided by the state. The unorganized borough is divided
into artificially-created census areas by the United States Census Bureau for statistical
purposes only.[neutrality  is  disputed]
Pioneering conditions in Alaska awoke ingenuity leading to invention of the Alaskan
sawmill, an attachment to a chainsaw letting it be used to cut a felled tree into neat
parallel-sided planks or boards.