High school student Amy Bartholemew leads a parade of 200 delegates toward the 50th Anniverary statehood cauldron lighting ceremony in Anchorage, Alaska, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009. (AP)
The small news from Alaska yesterday: Bristol Palin’s future mother-in-law, Sherry Lee Johnston, grandmother of Bristol’s new baby, was arraigned on felony drug trafficking charges.
The big news: Alaska, the biggest state in the Union, is celebrating fifty years of statehood.
January 3rd, 1959, Alaska came in from the cold, sort of, almost a century after the United States bought the land of tundra, bear, fish, and glacier from the Russians.
Then came oil and pipeline, cruise ships and oil spills, global warming and Sarah Palin.
This hour, On Point: We’re looking back on fifty years of Alaskan statehood.
You can join the conversation. What do you know about America’s “last frontier”? Has the past year changed your take on the state of Alaska?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
From Fairbanks, we’re joined by Dermot Cole, a longtime columnist for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and author of “North to the Future: The Alaska Story, 1959-2009.”
From Anchorage, we’re joined by Willie Hensley, a longtime activist for Native Alaskans, a former Alaska state legislator, and an Inupiat tribal elder. He founded the Northwest Alaska Native Association in 1966, and spent ten years as a representative and senator in the Alaska state legislature. He just retired last year from a ten-year stint as manager of federal relations for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.Author of “Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People.”
From Washington, DC, we’re joined by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, now the senior U.S. senator from Alaska.
Tags: Alaska
Not Washington, but Lincoln — remember Seward’s Folly?
Posted by Nardy Henigan, on January 6th, 2009 at 11:06 am ESTSeward’s Folly was no folly at all. It was the USA’s way of thanking Russia ($7.2 million)for their support of the Union Army over the Confederacy. Remember England and France desired a Southern victory and it was Russia who entered the Atlantic and Pacific to keep both countries from going into Mexico to support the south. After the war was won, Seward made what seemed to be a foolish purchase from Russia.
Interestingly, as the state played an unbeknownst part in the survival of the USA in the 1860s. It is just as instrumental in our survival (Geo-strategically, economically, environmentally, and in a weird way politically [smile]) 150 years later. I hope to visit someday.
Posted by Wadell, on January 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am EST$29B in the bank, negative income tax rates and still asking the lower 48 (well actually CA, New York and New England) for money? Ronald Reagan was looking for welfare queens in the wrong place!
Posted by Dave, on January 6th, 2009 at 11:38 am ESTI agree I was just in Anchorage this Christmas and the dividend this year was $3000+ per person and the Anchorage Daily News said “if this is socialism, we’ll take it!”
Alaska is unimaginably spectacular and grand. The land is rich and the people who live, camp, hike and hunt there are some of the most rugged people ever. If there were an impending apocalypse, you can bet i’d be headed north to alaska!
Posted by Suzy, on January 6th, 2009 at 11:47 am ESTWould it be possible to post the picture of Kotzebue beach that Mr. Hensley described?
Posted by Jackie, on January 6th, 2009 at 11:49 am ESTI have family who have lived in Alaska for the past 25 years and have had the privilege and pleasure of visiting the state numerous time over those years. Each visit renews in me the awe I experienced the first time I witnessed the power and scope of the wilderness. There is NOTHING like it and photographs barely represents the sheer size and proximity of the geography. ) Over the past 25 years I have not witnessed so many physical changes to that geography but I do see significant changes in the personalities of the inhabitants.
I didn’t hear the guests or callers represent (until the end of the hour) the serious issues around the “Haves and the Have-Nots.” There are distinct divisions in the economy that separate those with a comfortably affluent lifestyle and those who are living at the poverty level. There are serious issues around spousal abuse, alcoholism, and Meth use that are openly discussed in the high schools and yet swept under the rug when the small percentage of “wealthier” kids graduate and leave the state to attend colleges in the lower 48.
This great state is about more than just its remarkable mountains and wildlife and I worry when so much more attention is paid to the land and so much less attention is paid to the people who live on that land. We owe it to ourselves to learn more about the whole picture and to help create an awareness that opens doors for those people who didn’t migrate there from solid middle class upbringings with down parkas and college degrees…There is a culture that existed in Alaska before statehood was established and still continues to work at surviving in an economy that clearly doesn’t favor the “Have-Nots.”
Posted by Gail, on January 6th, 2009 at 12:23 pm EST“Not Washington, but Lincoln — remember Seward’s Folly?”
Thanks for catching this. What Tom meant here was Washington, D.C. — that is, the United States government. We’ll change that sentence to make it clear.
Cheers.
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on January 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pm ESTP.S. “Seward’s Folly” (the agreement by which Russia sold Alaska to the U.S.) was in 1867, so it wasn’t Lincoln but Andrew Johnson who was president at the time.
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on January 6th, 2009 at 3:52 pm ESTI have lived in Alaska since 1988 and I LOVE it. My website has an FAQ about moving to or living in Alaska that gets visited by thousands of people a month. I get emails daily from people all over the world who dream of moving here.
People ask: “what’s the weather like in Alaska?” or “what are the people like?”. People really don’t realize how huge and diverse the state is.\
When it comes to the per capita federal spending in Alaska, people need to realize that the infrastructure costs here are huge. A lot of people who live here are not on power grids, don’t have indoor plumbing, etc. It’s not like we’re all living high on the hog here, the cost of living is high, the cost of energy, food, housing etc. is more than most places in the lower 48.
The federal funding we have received are for projects that would be a given in any other state.
Posted by Elise, on January 6th, 2009 at 9:25 pm ESTAs an Alaskan resident for over a decade I want to clarify the dividend for 2008 was NOT $3000 per individual as earlier posted. The dividend was $2069 (largest ever) and was combined with the $1200 Alaska Resource Rebate from Governor Palin (let me say thank goodness – could not have paid our fuel bill for the winter without it). No small potatoes anyway you slice it, but we pay federal taxes on the dividend, cost of living is high and most AK residents qualify. So if you wanted to brave teh elements and the unique lifestyle, it too could be yours. It helps, but is not living high on the hog.
Posted by Tammy, on January 7th, 2009 at 6:32 pm ESTHi Jackie (and all),
Some photos are online here –> http://williehensley.com/Photos.php, and I’ll get in there and include the one(s) I think were described on the radio show.
- Priscilla
Posted by Priscilla, on January 13th, 2009 at 2:56 pm ESTOh! And there are some good ones at the Anchorage Daily News website.
http://www.adn.com/photos/v-gallery/story/636687.html
Posted by Priscilla, on January 13th, 2009 at 3:00 pm EST