History

The Deep Freeze: Alaska Prehistory

Alaska’s perpetually frozen undersoil (permafrost) has preserved the remains of ancient fossils in surprisingly fresh condition. Stories are told of wooly mammoths unearthed with grass still in their mouths, and with their flesh still fresh enough for dogs to eat. Whether these stories are true or not, it is a fact that so many wooly mammoth fossils have been discovered that it has been declared the “state fossil.” Alaskan artists use fossil ivory to carve scrimshaw, sculpt small figurines, and make jewelry.

In addition to wooly mammoths, dinosaur remains have been discovered on Alaska’s North Slope. And “Blue Babe,” a preserved bison discovered near Fairbanks, is on display at the University of Alaska Museum there.

In Story and Song: Alaska Native History

For thousands of years before the Europeans came, Alaska’s Native peoples (Inuit, Indian, Aleut) carved a living for themselves from the ice and stone of their vast homeland. The history of those times is preserved in the oral traditions of Alaska Natives, and is communicated through story, song, and dance. There is a growing body of literature based on these oral traditions. Velma Wallis, Mary TallMountain, and Nora and Richard Dauenhauer are among the writers who are bringing Alaska Native literature to the attention of larger audiences. (click here for more on Native History)

Boom and Bust: Alaska Modern History

Since the appearance of Europeans in Alaska, the region’s history has tended to follow a “boom and bust” cycle. The first “boom” brought Russian fur traders to harvest Alaska’s sea mammals almost to extinction. The second “boom” brought people from all over the world to seek Alaska’s gold. The third “boom” came when oil was discovered on the North Slope. During each “boom,” Alaska grew full of adventurers seeking fortune, and towns mushroomed across the land. When the furs or the gold or the oil failed, most of those adventurers went elsewhere, leaving their ghost towns behind them.

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Timeline of Alaska History

1741 – Vitus Bering reaches Alaska
1745 – Russian fur traders follow Bering to Alaska
1774 – Spanish explorers discover Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska
1778 – Captain James Cook discovers and names Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm, near what will become Anchorage
1784 – Grigori Shelikov establishes the first permanent Russian outpost in Alaska
1794 – The Russian Orthodox Church establishes its first mission in Alaska
1799 – The Russian-American Company is chartered by Paul I of Russia
1804 – New Archangel (Sitka) is founded as the capital of Russian America under Alexander Baranof
1823 – Ivan Veniaminov, Russian Orthodox missionary, arrives in Alaska
1867 – Russia sell Alaska to the US
1879 – John Muir visits Alaska, discovers Glacier Bay, and later writes Travels in Alaska
1880 – Chief Kowee, Tlingit, helps Richard Harris and Joe Juneau discover gold near the site of the future state capital
1896 – Gold is discovered in the Yukon and the Klondike Gold Rush begins
1906 – Alaska’s capital is moved from Sitka to Juneau
1912 – Alaska becomes a US territory; the Alaska Native Brotherhood (1912) and Sisterhood (1915) are founded and work toward citizenship for Alaska Natives
1913 – Women in Alaska gain the right to vote, seven years sooner than women in the US
1916 – Judge James Wickersham, Territorial Delegate to the US Congress, introduces Alaska’s first statehood bill, which is defeated
1917 – The University of Alaska is founded in Fairbanks as Alaska Agriculture College and School of Mines
1924 – Native Americans in Alaska and elsewhere gain US citizenship; Carl Ben Eielson makes Alaska’s first air mail flight; Noel Wien starts the territory’s first scheduled air service in Fairbanks
1933 – Anthony J. Dimond, Territorial Delegate, foresees conflict with Japan; he requests military installations in Alaska and a highway linking Alaska to the US
1942 – Japanese military attacks Dutch Harbor, Attu, and Kiska; Alaska Highway is opened for military use
1945 – Alaska’s territorial legislature passes the nation’s first nondiscrimination act, requiring Alaska businesses to remove signs banning Native trade
1947 – Alaska Highway is opened to civilian traffic
1949 – Alaska Statehood Committee is formed
1959 – Alaska becomes the 49th state
1960 – 8.9 million acres designated “Arctic National Wildlife Range”
1964 – Good Friday Earthquake rocks Alaska
1966 – Alaska Federation of Natives is formed
1968 – Oil drilling begins at Prudhoe Bay
1971 – Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is passed
1975 – Construction begins on the oil pipeline in March; project is 50% complete by October. The University of Alaska becomes a statewide, multi-campus system
1977 – Pipeline construction is completed in May. Click this link for more on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
1980 – The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) changes ANWR’s designation to “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” and authorizes study of the site for potential oil exploration
1988 – The border opens, and the first “trade and friendship” delegation travels from Alaska to Far East Russia
1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill occurs in Prince William Sound
1995 – Congress approves opening ANWR to oil drilling; President Clinton vetoes the measure
1999 – Following its high point in 1996, Alaska-Russian trade hits post-Soviet low
2001 – Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski introduces the National Energy Security Act of 2001, including a proposal to open ANWR; controversy continues

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Famous People in Alaska History

Ivan Veniaminov
1797-1879

“Every Christian has a missionary obligation.”

Called Ivan, Ioann, or John, Veniaminov was one of the first Russian Orthodox missionaries to Alaska, where he served for 37 years. He learned the language of the Natives among whom he served, created a written alphabet, and translated Scripture portions and liturgical services into the Native language. By ministering to the Native people in their own language and by training Native church leadership, Veniaminov followed missionary practices far ahead of his time.

In 1840, after being made a bishop, Veniaminov made Sitka the center of his ministry. He was instrumental in building St. Michael’s Church and the Russian Bishop’s House, two Sitka landmarks. The Russian Bishop’s House served as a seminary as well as the bishop’s residence. In 1970 it was declared a national landmark and partially restored. It can be toured today by visitors to Sitka, or visited on the web.

Chief Kowee
unknown-1892

Motivated by an offer of work and Hudson Bay blankets for his people, Chief Kowee of the Auk Tlingits guided prospectors Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to gold deposits along Gastineau Channel in Southeast Alaska. When the miners would have given up, Chief Kowee persisted. Juneau and Harris found the gold at last, and overnight a boom town sprang up where Alaska’s state capital would eventually stand. Some sources say Kowee later served in Alaska’s Native police force. A wall sculpture honoring Chief Kowee now stands at a busy intersection in downtown Juneau.

Sheldon Jackson
1834-1909

Presbyterian minister Sheldon Jackson established over a hundred churches and may have traveled as many as a million miles during his career as a missionary. His work, beginning in Wisconsin and Minnesota, took him as far south as New Mexico and Arizona and as far north as Alaska.

From the time he arrived in Alaska in 1877, Jackson made the territory his primary focus. He spent much time in Washington, DC, lobbying on behalf of the territory and its people. He was instrumental in the passage of the Organic Act of 1884, which created the District of Alaska, set up a United States District Court and circuit courts, and made provision for the development of a public school system in the territory. Jackson was appointed General Agent for Education in Alaska in 1885.

Jackson soon realized that Alaska was too vast and its spiritual needs too great for any one denomination to handle. He established a “Comity Plan,” an informal agreement by which several denominations, including Presbyterians, Moravians, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans (among others) agreed to work in separate regions of the territory.

In 1891 Jackson orchestrated the introduction of domestic reindeer into Alaska, a move that may have prevented starvation among the region’s Eskimo people. Today, in Sitka, Sheldon Jackson College stands as a monument to Jackson’s dedication to education, and the Sheldon Jackson Museum testifies to his commitment to preserve Alaska Native heritage and cultures.

Elizabeth Peratrovich
1911-1958

Debating the anti-discrimination bill before the Alaska territorial legislature in 1945, a senator named Allen Shattuck said, “Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?”

Elizabeth Peratrovich, Tlingit woman and Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, responded:

"I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights….No law will eliminate crimes, but at least you legislators can assert to the world that you recognize the evil of the present situation and speak your intent to help us overcome discrimination."

February 16, the anniversary of the signing of the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, is celebrated in Alaska as “Elizabeth Peratrovich Day.” Click this link for more on Elizabeth Peratrovich.

Quotes are from A Recollection of Civil Rights Leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, 1911-1958, compiled by the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

Sources:

www.explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/bl-dates2.htm
www.dced.state.ak.us/trade/russia/timeline.htm
www.yukonpresbytery.com/histories/sheldonjackson.html
www.netstate.com/states/peop/people/ak_sj.htm

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A History of SEND Alaska

(derived from Through Open Doors: A History of SEND International, by Mildred Morehouse, and Into the Copper River Valley: the Life and Letters of Vince Joy, by Faye Crandall)

Beginnings

SEND International of Alaska began as Central Alaskan Missions. CAM was started by Vince and Becky Joy. While students at Moody Bible Institute, the Joys met a missionary from Alaska who pointed out that the Copper River Valley in eastern Alaska was virtually untouched by the gospel. This isolated area became their focus of prayer. In January 1937 the Central Alaskan Missions was incorporated in New Jersey. The first mission party left in the spring of 1937 and began ministry in Copper Center, near the center of the valley.

At that time the Copper River Valley, about the size of Ohio, was sparsely settled and populated largely by Athabaskan Indians. In addition, there were settlers from “outside” who had come to Alaska for business or adventure. To begin with, the main focus of Joy’s ministry was the Native residents in the vicinity of Copper Center. After a road to Anchorage was completed, its junction point with the Richardson Road at Glennallen became the site of a new settlement. Another missionary couple took responsibility for the Copper Center ministry, and the Joys moved to Glennallen. Becky Joy reported, “It was not much more than a tent city...with a road and lots of mud.”

Two New Visions

As time went by, Joy began to envision more ways to reach the Copper River Valley for Christ. He was instrumental in beginning an aviation ministry, a medical ministry called Faith Hospital (later Cross Road Medical Center), and educational ministries—the Native Bible Training School and later, Alaska Bible College. (Click here for more opportunities.)

Once the plane and hospital ministries were under way, Vince Joy’s vision focused on a radio station to serve the area. In 1958 CAM applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a permit. By 1964 radio tower and studio construction were completed--all that was needed was official licensing by the FCC.

Then came the Good Friday earthquake, March 31, 1964. Even though the Copper River Valley was 150 miles from the quake’s epicenter, the Joys reported, “It was just about impossible to stand up. The ground was heaving and bucking and rising and falling like waves of the sea.” (Click here for more on the Good Friday quake.)

In view of the dire situation, the Civil Defense Commissioner authorized KCAM to begin emergency broadcasting. After the emergency subsided, the station went off the air to await proper certification. The official dedication of station KCAM came in March of 1965, nearly a year after the quake. (Click here for more on KCAM and its sister station, KRSA.)

New Beginnings

On the eve of the opening of Alaska Bible College, CAM was shocked by the sudden death of Vince Joy. His speech and actions became unusual one morning, and Becky took him to Faith Hospital. The doctor there arranged for a specialist in Anchorage to see Joy. Doctors decided to probe for a possible blood clot. Joy did not regain consciousness from the surgery, and went to be with his Lord on August 31, 1966.

At the time of Joy’s death there were 46 members of the Central Alaskan Missions. The various projects continued and grew in influence. But Joy’s visionary leadership was sorely missed. CAM decided to seek a possible merger with another like-minded mission that could help provide the desired leadership. Over time, CAM became acquainted with SEND International, known at that time as Far Eastern Gospel Crusade, and the possibility of a merger was discussed. The formal merger took place in January 1971.

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