It Happened in Alaska

Alaska has a relatively short history as a state, coming in to the Union in 1959. But it also has a rich heritage going back much further, and all kinds of extremes in weather, landscape, residents and traditions. Author Diane Olthuis brings the reader up to date with 28 events dating back to the European arrival in the 1700s. Some of the 28 stories , including Russian enslavement of the Native Aleut people to help with the seal harvest, reflect the impact of outsiders on the Native peoples. Another story describes the famous Barrow "Duck-In" of 1961. Just two years after Statehood, the "feds" (as we Alaskans like to call them) suddenly decided to enforce a summer bird hunting ban. This caused distress for subsistence hunters in a number of Native areas of Alaska, including Barrow. They were being ordered to cease traditional hunting patterns by a distant federal government. The book shows how the Barrow folk demonstrated their opposition, and how the Migratory Bird Treaty was ultimately modified. Another story has to do with the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, constructed in the 1970s to deliver oil from the Arctic Prudhoe Bay field to the port of Valdez. Olthuis describes it as the first oil pipeline built above the Arctic Circle. The book comes out at a current time when half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field has been shut down because of a rather major corrosion problem. History can be a wonderful teacher! There are many other stories of interest to anyone who has ever been to Alaska, or who might one day want to visit. As we say in Barrow, "Don't stop till you get to the top (of the State)" Earl