The Cold Land of Alaska: Our 49th State

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Way back they were explored by Russia, from the early 1700’s to the mid 1800’s, but a lot transpired during that time, wars with the natives, large demand for fur trading, which was very profitable during this era. I think the last straw came when the Tlingit Indians attacked a Russian Post killing a lot of Russians, in 1802. Then 1804 the Russians struck back and stood firm, the continued to trade fur, and tried very hard to settle the area, but it was just too unpredictable. Russia was very happy to sell Alaska to The United State of America, for 7.2 million dollars 1n 1867, which became know as the Seward’s Folly. Russia had, had it with that region of the world.

After several years of ironing out the paper work, Alaska became a part of Oregon, and followed their laws; it was at this point they had a “civil union” between the two.  The first bill proposed for statehood was in 1916, but it was declined, perhaps because it had just become a U.S. territory in 1912, for years earlier. It was during WWII, the building of their Highway and Railroad that the federal government became very interested in Alaska ability to become a state. In was in June of 1958 that congress brought the idea forth, and in August the voters in Alaska approved the idea, it was in January of 1959 that Alaska became our 49th State.

There was a lot of anger from the natives of that region and it was in 1971 that our Federal Government passed what is called the “Alaska Native Claims Settlement”, giving back approximately forty four million acres of land back to the Native Alaskans.        

Alaska and seafood go together, from seals mating, seal hunting, to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, begin to export salmon by the truckloads. Hunting is very important especially for animals fur, during the cold winter months, but Alaska is not like most of us imagine any more. This state has some of the best industrialization this country has ever seen, from the railroad, to exporting seafood, to their most valued product, Oil. Like everything in life, when greed interfere there are some major miss happening, so restriction has to be set to avoid another Exxon Valdez oil spill.

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