Opinion ID: 1239200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: Alaska's Regions and History

Text: Alaska's total land area of 586,400 square miles is one-fifth the total area of the continental United States, the equivalent of the greater part of the Middle West, approximately two and a quarter times the area of Texas. It stretches between the latitudes of 51 degrees and 72 degrees north and the meridians of 130 degrees west and 173 degrees east; and it contains four time zones within its boundaries. Because of its subcontinental size, Alaska should not be expected to be a single, homogeneous region, but several distinctive regions each with differing physical, climatological, and natural resources features. The main topographic features of mountain systems divide Alaska into five different and well defined Alaskas each in turn subdivided into distinct subregional units by river systems and other geographic features (Figure 1). The topographic features produced by Alaska's geologic evolution influenced and to a large degree controlled the evolution of the total natural environment  climate, vegetative cover, wildlife, accessibility  and in turn also controlled human habitation. (Figures 2-6 [Figure 7 not included]) At the time of the first significant European contacts ( circa 1740), the earlier Asian migrations had firmly established two contrasting major cultures and several marginal cultures under which lived an estimated 74,000 persons. [11] (See Figures 8-9) Extending northward up the Bering Sea coast and joining the shores of the Arctic Basin from Siberia to Greenland was found the Arctic culture of the Eskimo. As many as 40,000 of these people were probably living in the Alaska portion of this region at the time of the first European contacts. Most were located on the sea costs where marine and land resources provided the basis for a subsistence hunting and fishing economy, but some groups moved inland following or intercepting the migrations of the great caribou herds, and developing distinctive cultural and linguistic characteristics. Estimates suggest that 12,000 Eskimos lived in the Bristol Bay drainage and Yukon and Kuskokwim deltas, and another 28,000 lived on the Seward Peninsula, Kobuk drainage, Arctic Slope, Brooks Range and parts of interior Alaska. The second major aboriginal culture was represented by the settlements on the northwest coast of the North American continent extending from the northern end of the Alexander Archipelago southward to northern California. Within Alaska this culture was represented by an estimated 10,000 Tlingit and 1,800 Haida who had launched an invasion into Tlingit territory from the Queen Charlotte Islands just prior to the first European contacts. The relative mildness of the climate, in contrast to the extremes of the Arctic, and the abundance of salmon and other marine life resulted in one of the heaviest concentrations of aboriginal population found on this continent north of the highest civilization areas in Mexico and Central America, and the elaboration of a culture remarkably rich in art, oral literature, and social and legal organization. The forest-hunting culture was represented by small groups of Indians of Athapascan stock, probably 5,200 scattered along the river systems of the interior plateau region, 500 in the Copper River basin, and 1,200 in the Kenai-Illiamna area. The remaining cultural group was the Aleut, some 16,000 occupying the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska Peninsula when the Russians arrived. These people were closely related to the Eskimo and in parts of southwest and southcentral Alaska they appeared to be inter-mixed. The period of Russian and American occupation of Alaska up until the outbreak of World War II was one of limited and fluctuating settlement and narrowly specialized but intensive natural resource exploitation. [12] The explorations during the Eighteenth Century prepared the way for the extension of the Russian and the British fur trades into Alaska and the occupation of Alaska by Russia. For varying periods of destructive exploitation, whaling (1847-53) and the harvesting of fur seal and sea otter pelts (1760-1911) together with a variety of land furs set the economic and population patterns. After transfer to the United States the primary economic base shifted to other resources with the beginning of the canned salmon industry (1878 in southeastern and 1882-82 in central and western Alaska), the discovery of gold lode deposits in southeastern Alaska (1878-80) and gold placers at Nome and in the Interior (1898-1906), and the production of copper from the Kennecott mines (1911-38). Other natural resources were exploited during this period, but made relatively minor contributions. (See Figure 10). The only military forces in Alaska on June 30, 1937, were 298 infantry men and officers at Chilkoot Barracks (formerly Fort Seward) and 134 men and officers of the Army Signal Corps performing an essentially civilian function of maintaining the territory's wireless and telephone systems. This changed dramatically on the eve of World War II. The military in Alaska increased to 9,000 at July 1, 1941, and construction employment rose from a monthly average of 1,255 during calendar year 1940 to 10,521 during 1941. Military personnel reached 152,000 on July 1, 1946, dropped to 19,000 in 1946, then rose to 50,000 during the 1950's and stabilized at about 33,000 during the 1960's. (Refer to discussion of military in Part B, above) In addition to the introduction of new population, this period of defense resulted in major improvements and expansion of surface and air transportation which, in turn has greatly modified the past influence of geography upon both the separation of centers of settlement and economic development. (Figure 11) During the past two decades there has been a definite shift in the basic Alaska economy from military to natural resources. Annual defense expenditures fell from an estimated $512.9 million in 1953 to $333.4 million in 1970 while annual value of natural resource products rose from $101.6 million to $671.7 million for the same years. The increase in natural resource products values was due primarily to the expansion of forest products industry in southeastern Alaska in the 1950's and petroleum in the Cook Inlet-Kenai area in the 1960's. The announcement of the Prudhoe Bay discoveries in 1968, plans for the further expansion of forest products in southeastern, southcentral and interior Alaska, the prospect of copper, iron ore and other mineral development and petroleum development in other regions all give promise of a continuing growth in importance of a natural resource based economy. The history of Alaska can be most conveniently summarized in terms of a review of population trends by race and major regions. Table 12 (using the regions found on Figures 2 and 3, historicalx evidence of early population, and the decennial census enumerations from 1880-1970) presents the population changes by Native and non-Native races. The shifts in patterns and trends can all be keyed to the chronology of economic development. The drop in Native population until mid-century is attributable to the traditional fate of aboriginal peoples in periods of initial contact with alien peoples and forces; and the more recent rise is attributable to the effectiveness of public health and other social services. The maps in the 1970 Census report of number of inhabitants locate the centers of present population and indicate by symbols the approximate population range of each place. The boundaries of the Census divisions reflect the major geographic features of Alaska as modified slightly by political organization. Except for the major population concentrations in the Anchorage and the Fairbanks North Star Borough (together accounting for 57% of Alaska's total population) the population is scattered in small and isolated cities and towns along the interior river system, along the coasts of the state and the islands of the Aleutian chain, the Gulf of Alaska and the Alexander Archipelago. (Figures 12-15)