Module VII: American Period - Society

Essential Question:  To what degree is there distinctiveness in the art, literature, science, recreation, and cultural institutions of Alaska?  In what way do these contribute to, or reflect, a unique Alaska identity?

Tlingit women weaving baskets. Sitka, 1897.
content.washington.lib.edu

Visitors to Alaska found uniqueness in the baskets, blankets, and ivory carvings of the Alaska Native's.  These we're all forms of market art.  Alaska Native art became so popular in the 1920's and 1930's that the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs created the Alaska Native Arts and Crafts cooperative to assist Alaska Native's sell their merchandise.  They opened stories in Juneau, Anchorage, and even Seattle.


Example's of recreation related to the Alaska Native people that are  unique to this cultural group include the activities in which they stay prepared for their subsistence life-style.  These activities, on a much more popular and grander scale, have become known as the Native Youth Olympics (NYO) and the World Eskimo Olympics (WEO).  Both Olympics are very similar and include a number of activities, or, events, in which people from around the state gather after competing in regional or district meets to compete against each other to see who is the best.  


The events have evolved over time and are suppose to resemble some form of subsistence hunting (e.g., the Eskimo stick pull represents pulling a seal out of a hole in the ice), a survival technique (e.g., Nauktak, or running and jumping across pack-ice).  I just learned yesterday from a long-time WEO participant that the one-foot high-kick derived from notifying people across large areas of land if a whale hunt was successful or not.  

NYO participant doing the Eskimo stick pull.  (He won)
frontiersmen.com

I've been an NYO coach for three years now at Burchell High School in Wasilla which has given me a unique perspective on how the games have originated and an appreciation for the Alaska Native people.  Here is an article from the Frontiersmen that talks about the Valley's district meet that was held last weekend.


The state competition will be held April 27th-29th at the Dena'ina Convention Center in Anchorage.  It's open to the public and I encourage anyone in the area to stop by.  It's truly amazing to watch these athlete's compete.  Click here for more information.



Examine Question:  What are the reasons for Alaska Population trends?


Soon after Alaska became a territory in 1867, droves of people migrated north from the lower-48 for three main reasons.  They were either sent by the government in an attempt to help establish the new "Indian Country," or they came on their own accord, hoping to prosper from the large deposits of reported natural resources or turn a profit from trading and selling.


Among the government entities who sent people this way were the Army to command the newly constructed posts, the Navy, who we're sent to support the Army and then eventually take over jurisdiction in 1879, and the Treasury Department, who sent people to collect taxes and prevent smuggling.


The Klondike gold rush of the late 1800's brought roughly 30,000 people to the territory hoping to strike it rich.  Smaller discoveries of gold and other natural resources that happened in areas such as Juneau, Douglas, Hope and Sunrise, and Circle City, also contributed to the increase of Alaska's population in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  


Other event's in the early 1900's that encouraged the population to grow we're the completion of the first significant road system, telegraph, and railroad.  The railroad chose Anchorage as it's southern campsite which is why Anchorage originally was "put on the map."   

labor.alaska.gov

The twentieth century had mostly a slow and consistent increase in the number of people calling Alaska home with the exception of the oil-boom in the 1970's (large spike), and a poor economy in the mid 1980's which was close to being a depression that I remember as a kid.


Evaluate:
This module had some interesting topics of discussion and I was glad to be able to start 'connecting the dots' between events in Alaska's history which the introductory said we should start being able to do.  I enjoyed the potpourri section and was happy to be able to blog about the Native Youth Olympics.