AHS Blog
Date Posted: May 21, 2013
Categories: 49 History
Even in a state whose history is populated with so many unique characters, Marvin “Muktuk” Marston stands out as one of the most incredible Alaskans of the twentieth century. In addition to organizing the Alaska Territorial Guard during WWII, a service that brought Alaska Natives into the political sphere with lasting effects to this day, Marston was as a miner, real estate developer in Anchorage, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1955-56.
While commanding the ATG, the always outspoken Marston wrote numerous memos advocating for the social and economic betterment of Alaska Natives. Although in describing his Native friends he often lapsed into the paternalistic rhetoric common of the time—“dusky-skinned,” “simple, kindly folk,” that sort of thing—Marston was a staunch advocate for equality and civil rights. There is little evidence his superiors at Fort Richardson ever acted on or even paid attention to Marston’s missives. In fact, he often found himself combating the overt racism of the officer class who believed Alaska Natives to be inferior beings who lacked the capacity for military discipline.
Reading Marston’s memos today one is struck by his foresight and passion. One can also see his thinking that led him, as a Constitutional Convention delegate a decade after the war, to speak so forcefully in support of Native land claims.
What follows is an excerpt from his “Five Point Post-War Program for the Eskimo,” an undated memo (circa 1945) that resides in the Otto Geist Collection (ATG Papers) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A biography of Muktuk Marston needs to be written; I hope a historian out there is willing to take on the task!
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“In light of [Alaska Natives’ service in the ATG], I submit the following post-war program for the Eskimo, believing it to be a sound military program, as well as an humanitarian undertaking:
“FIRST, make adequate fuel supplies available immediately for all native villages by opening up nearby coal and oil deposits. There is an unestimated amount of good coal and fuel oil scattered generously throughout Alaska.
“SECOND, segregate the active cases of tuberculosis…so that young and healthy members of the family can have a fair chance to escape this prevalent plague. . . . Complete hospital equipment should be retained at each [village]. Furthermore, a long range health program should be set up and initiated immediately.
“THIRD, reestablish the reindeer industry. . . . These reindeer herds can become one of Alaska’s most valuable industries, if properly handled. . . . All too often, the Eskimo faces the winter with overalls and cotton shirt, or shoddy cloth garments, wholly inadequate for the severe northern climate. As a result, he is unable to follow his trapline, and he and his family go hungry. Even if benevolent Uncle Sam rescues him from starvation, he has been robbed of his self-reliance and independence. These reindeer herds should be a guarantee of food and clothing for him.
“FOURTH, restore and conserve as many of the tribal customs as practical. Establish a community center, so it can take its true place as the center of tribal life. In making available the so-called blessings of civilization, encourage the native to retain his racial distinction, and respect his tradition and mores.
“FIFTH, some means of travel and communication between villages, particularly in the winter season, should be devised and inaugurated immediately. In the absence of roads and landing fields, snowmobiles of some type might be used on the ice.
“The above suggestions, I consider, represent the minimum possible in any post-war program for the Eskimo. These simple, kindly folk can become happy, useful citizens of our most northern frontier, if they are considered first by the Territory. Much has been written and said about our treatment of another primitive race whose lands we appropriated. We are about to open up and develop the wealth and natural resources of the Arctic. Let it not be said that the white man sacrificed the native on the altar of his own greed.”
Date Posted: May 15, 2013
Categories: 49 History
The Petersburg Public Library has digitized editions of the Petersburg Weekly Report, Petersburg Press, Petersburg Herald, and The Progressive from 1913 to 1931. The issues are keyword-searchable and available online at:
As the library notes, “Discover people, places and events in the early days of our town. Use the archive to gain a local perspective on historical news, to research your family history or to read about a person or event that interests you.”
Date Posted: May 12, 2013
Categories: 49 History
When it came to Alaska fisheries, Anthony Dimond and W. C. Arnold didn’t see eye-to-eye very often. As the territory’s congressional delegate from 1933 to 1945, Dimond advocated local fisheries management, a hiring preference for Alaska residents, and the abolition of fish traps. As lawyer and lobbyist for the Seattle-based packing industry, Arnold opposed all of those things.
On at least one point, however, the two men were in full agreement.
In July 1937 at least ten and possibly as many as thirty Japanese fishing vessels entered Bristol Bay intent on catching salmon. They had neither license nor permission from the U.S. Fisheries Bureau to be there, but the Japanese government insisted the vessels were engaged only in a scientific research program. Alaska fishermen observed and photographed the Japanese crews harvesting large quantities of salmon, however. The outraged Alaskans estimated the catch of one factory trawler alone at 20,000 fish, a number that could only be for commercial, not scientific, purposes.
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The Taiyo Maru, a Japanese factory vessel, and
auxiliary trawler in Bristol Bay in July 1937. |
Both Dimond and Arnold—not to mention every other American with an interest in the Alaska fishing industry—supported political and diplomatic strategies that would exclude the Japanese from domestic fisheries. Dimond proposed extending the boundary of territorial waters as much as four hundred miles, a distance that would enclose all offshore waters over the continental shelf.
The 1937 controversy, for essentially the first time, aligned the interests of Alaskans and non-resident fish corporations. Just six packing companies accounted for well over half the annual Bristol Bay salmon pack at that time, a degree of corporate monopolization and attendant political power that infuriated Alaskans in normal times. But since the Japanese “invasion” might lead to a fishery collapse that would endanger the livelihoods of all stakeholders equally, common cause was not hard to find.
Arnold concurred with Dimond on the key points regarding the territorial boundary. The canned salmon industry had opposed Dimond for years and contributed heavily each election cycle to the campaigns of his Republican opponents. But now, Arnold wrote a letter to Dimond stating the packers were “deeply appreciative of your efforts.”
Political historians have tended to view Alaska residents and the Outside cannery owners as opponents with little to no common ground—or common waters, I should say. The statehood movement in particular has been characterized in terms of this conflict. Although such a focus is by no means misplaced, the 1937 Japanese fishing crisis shows an overlap in the interests of the two stakeholder groups was at times possible. As Alaska historians bring a renewed focus to the history of canneries, we would do well to consider interpretations that challenge previously accepted orthodoxy.
Date Posted: May 2, 2013
Categories: 49 History
By Katie Myers
Eighty-six years ago today, the Alaska Legislature adopted the official flag of the Territory of Alaska. The flag, designed by 13-year-old John Ben “Benny” Benson, an Aleut originally from Chignik, was the winner in the Alaska Department of the American Legion’s 1926 contest for 7th-12th graders. In his original entry, Benny wrote:
“The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear – symbolizing strength.”
The Territorial Legislature unanimously adopted Benson’s flag on May 2, 1927, and passed an act proclaiming it the official flag of the territory. In part, the act stated:
“The design of the official flag is eight gold stars in a field of blue, so selected for its simplicity, its originality and its symbolism. . . . The stars, seven of which form the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear, the most conspicuous constellation the Northern sky, contains the stars which form the ‘Dipper,’ including ‘pointers‘ which point toward the eighth star in the flag, Polaris, the North Star, the ever constant star for the mariner, the explorer, hunter, trapper, prospector, woodsman, and the surveyor. For Alaska the Northernmost star in the galaxy of stars and which at some future time will take its place as the Forty-ninth star on our National Emblem.”
This simple flag inspired Marie Drake, a secretary to the Commissioner of Education, to write the stirring poem “Alaska’s Flag” in 1935. Soon after, in 1938, Elinor Dusenbury, the wife of the Commanding Officer of the Chilkoot Barracks at Haines from 1933-1936, composed the familiar song to Drake’s words. She said, “I wrote the music for Marie’s beautiful poetry from pure unadulterated homesickness for Alaska! I shed more tears on the boat going out than I ever have before or since.”
In 1955, when the Alaska Constitutional Convention gathered, Benny Benson was invited as a guest of honor. When he was introduced, he was greeted by a standing ovation. Benson later said, “The noise was so loud I couldn’t hear a thing; people whistled and hollered and stamped.” The convention fittingly ended with the crowd singing the “Alaska’s Flag” song.
When Alaska became a state, the flag became the state flag, and the song became the state song.
Today, the work of these three people; the simple, clean and meaningful design of a remarkable teenage boy, the emotional words of a poet, and the score inspired by homesickness that even today, brings tears to some Alaskans’ eyes when they hear it; are inseparable from Alaska. The flag, poem, and song ARE Alaska, and the stories of the creative trio who made it happen are still inspiring to this day.
More information on the Alaska Flag can be found on Museums Alaska ‘s website here:
Date Posted: May 1, 2013
Categories: 49 History
Orin Seybert of Anchorage sent along this photo – taken Wednesday afternoon from his living room window – of the USS ANCHORAGE arriving for its commissioning this Saturday.
Below we are re-posting a January column by Pennelope Goforth about the ANCHORAGE and other Navy vessels in Alaska waters.
First USN Ship in Alaskan Waters on Humanitarian Mission
By Pennelope Goforth
The U.S. Navy has long and wide wake in the state’s history and is about to make history again with the commissioning of its newest warship in Alaskan waters. Next May the newest naval transport vessel, LPD-23, will steam north to Alaska where she will be officially commissioned as the USS ANCHORAGE. She will be the second Navy ship to bear the name of Alaska’s largest city and home of the state’s major port.
While most people have heard of christening a ship, the ceremony of commissioning is less commonly known. Commissioning inducts the ship into the operating fleet of the United States Navy. It is a formal rite of passage in the life of warship when the commanding officer comes aboard, calls the crew to their quarters and reads aloud the naval orders.
A commissioning pennant is hoisted up the mast with the Stars & Stripes, and the moment is noted on the first page of the logbook. For sailors, it at this moment the ship is said to ‘come alive’ as she receives the official designation USS, United States Ship. Now under orders, she and her crew are charged with the honor and responsibility to support the citizens of the nation in peace and defend it in time of war.
The U.S. Navy first dispatched a vessel into Alaskan waters on a peacetime mission in the summer of 1855. USS FENIMORE COOPER, a 3-gun, 95-ton wooden sailing schooner, was tasked to find any survivors or word of a missing New Bedford whale ship MONONGAHELA. Rumor of a cask from the ship had been reported the previous year floating in the Bering Sea. So the COOPER detached from her survey mission off the China coast and sailed north under Commander C. Ringgold through the Aleutian Islands, searching for and hoping to rescue survivors. None were found.
So, with the autumn storms increasing by mid-September, the COOPER followed the Japanese Current across the top of the North Pacific bound for the Russian American capitol: Novo Arkhangelsk (New Archangel). The port, later to become Sitka, was the most important seaport on the Pacific coast of North America boasting a working shipyard with carpenters, shipwrights and ironworkers, all the professional services a sailing ship of the times might need. Commander Ringgold, well aware that the COOPER would be the first U.S. Navy ship to enter the Russian port, adhered to Navy protocol. Upon entering Sitka Sound in front of the governor’s mansion prominent on the hill of the town, he ordered a booming three-gun salute before dropping anchor.
The mansion was home to Governor S. V. Voyevodsky, lately an admiral in the Russian Imperial Navy. The governor promptly sent out a small vessel, cordially inviting Commander Ringgold and his officers to a fine welcome. In Russian Navy style, with all the best the cosmopolitan capitol had to offer he ordered a formal ball to be held and several rich feasts. They swapped a lot of sea stories and toasted each others’ ships and country with a lot of vodka. The political situation that had pitted the Russians against the British and French in the Crimean War favored a closer relationship with the young American nation. Governor Voyevodsky obliged with gusto.
Several days later, heads and hearts throbbing, the two seafaring commanders parted fast friends. In full uniform, saluted by the Russians, the officers boarded the lightering vessel and were rowed out to their ship. The USS FENIMORE COOPER sailed out on the morning high tide headed for the deep ocean swells of the Pacific. By the time she pulled into San Francisco Bay in late October, the days-long party had become a legend, launching a long beneficial relationship between the U. S. Navy and Alaska.
The USS ANCHORAGE Commissioning Committee plans a festive commissioning for LPD 23. Their hope is after ten days of festivities, shipboard tours, and the formal ceremony at the Port of Anchorage, the USS ANCHORAGE crew and officers will, like the FENIMORE COOPER command before her, return to California waters with a new legend of Alaskan hospitality and goodwill.
