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Between Empires and Frontiers Alaska Native Sovereignty and U.S. Settler Imperialism

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Between Empires and Frontiers Alaska Native Sovereignty and U.S. Settler Imperialism Between Empires and Frontiers Alaska Native Sovereignty and U.S. Settler Imperialism A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Jessica Arnett IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Jean M. O’Brien, Barbara Welke March, 2018 Copyright Jessica Arnett 2018 Acknowledgements My time in academia, first as an undergraduate, then an adjunct instructor, and finally as a graduate student, has spanned nearly two decades and involved numerous cross-country relocations. I cannot begin to assess the number of debts that I have accrued during this time, as friends, family members, devoted advisors, and colleagues supported the winding trajectory of my academic life. I am grateful for my committee and the years of insight and support they have provided for me as I developed my research questions and attempted to answer them. I am deeply indebted to my advisors, Jean O’Brien and Barbara Welke, who have tirelessly dedicated themselves to my project and have supported me through my many achievements and disappointments, both academic and personal. Jeani is an amazing historian who throughout my six years in Minnesota has continuously asked critical questions about my project that have triggered new ways of understanding what I was perceiving in the documentary record and how I eventually came to understand Alaska. Her immediate support and tireless enthusiasm for my radically different framing of Alaska’s relationship to the contiguous states and what that meant for Alaska Native sovereignty struggles encouraged me to continue theorizing settler imperialism and to have confidence that my research was not only worthwhile, but path breaking and relevant. Jeani’s feedback every step of this project inspired me to ask difficult questions and to work diligently to find the answers in spite of how overwhelmed I might—and many times did—become along the way. Barbara’s confidence in my project’s relevance to numerous fields and her diligent feedback and encouragement has had a tremendous hand in the development of this project as well. As a legal historian, she perceived my work in ways I could never have imagined, which i compelled me to think even more critically and broadly about the work I was doing. I initially did not know the focus on law that my dissertation would assume, and without her expertise I would not have come to see empire in Alaska—and elsewhere—in the same ways I do now. Both Jeani and Barbara were also fundamental to my survival of the turbulent times graduate student life inevitably brings, and the dedication they showed to me and all of their graduate students has inspired my own sense of responsibility and dedication to my students, current and future. I am extremely grateful for the serendipitous meeting of Juliana Hu Pegues at Minnesota. A fellow Alaskan and scholar of Alaska Native Studies, her mentorship has been imperative to my research and my development as a historian. Her theoretical expertise and her own insights on Alaska have shaped this dissertation in truly amazing ways, and her willingness to include me on conference panels and in scholarly circles have been truly formative to my research and matriculation. Over all, I am immensely thankful for her friendship, and I am so glad that her academic trajectory brought her back to Minnesota. I am also grateful to David Chang, who told me once to “let the mess be the story itself.” I thought often of that advice while wading through documents and piecing together the narrative that this dissertation would come to tell. I am thankful to Kat Hayes, whose directed readings with me on race formation and anthropology gave me invaluable tools for teasing out the ways in which ideas about race informed policy in Alaska and how they varied in important ways in the territory as compared to the contiguous states. And I am also greatly appreciative for Bianet Castellanos. She has pushed me to think more expansively about settler imperialism and her insight and ii questions about how settler imperialism fits into the larger story of U.S. empire and expansion will guide this project moving forward. At the University of Minnesota I had the great fortune to engage with an outstanding group of graduate students and faculty in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Workshop. These weekly meetings formed the bedrock of my experience at Minnesota and the dynamic, inclusive, intellectual environment contributed immensely to my development as a scholar. The collaborative nature of this workshop, and the unyielding support of its members made so many of the hardships of graduate school bearable, and led to the development of lifelong friendships. Thank you Kasey Keeler, Katie Philips, Bernadette Perez, Amber Annis, Jimmy Sweet, Mike Dockry, Samantha Majhor Alton, Sasha Suarez, Joseph Whitson, and many others for your feedback and friendship. And thank you to my 2014-2015 AIISW co-chair, Jesús Estrada-Pérez. Rest in power, friend. I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful funding I received as a graduate student. I am especially grateful to the Council on Library and Information Resources fellowship. Without this year of research, that included archival institutions across the country, this dissertation would not have been possible. Likewise, the time and travel made possible by the Newberry Library Consortium in American Indian Studies facilitated fundamental research in both the Newberry Collections in Chicago, and the National Archives in Seattle. Additionally, my time at NCAIS lead to lively intellectual discussions and connections with fellow Alaska Native Studies scholars, which have continued to influence my scholarship and enrich my academic career. I am indebted to the Harry S. Truman Library and Archives and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential iii Library for their generous contributions, and I’d also like to thank the Western Washington University Center for Pacific Northwest Studies for their generous support of my research and to the discovery of rich archival material that I would not have encountered without their award. The History Department graciously provided yearly travel funds, and awarded me the Graduate Research Partnership Program funding for summer research and collaboration with faculty. I am also grateful to the Graduate School for the Thesis Research Travel Grant, and the University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, which provided an entire year to devote to writing. All of these funding awards account for tremendous strides in the completion of this dissertation. Numerous institutions and individuals made this dissertation possible. Thank you to the staff and archivists at the Alaska State Archives, especially Abby Focht who took me running in the mountains of Juneau. You made my time in Juneau truly an adventure. Thank you to the Sealaska Heritage Institute, especially to Chuck Smyth and Heather McClain for their welcoming assistance. I am also grateful to friends and colleagues I have made along the way. Thank you Kasey Keeler for your friendship and mentorship. Our cookouts, sleepovers, happy hours, and skype conversations in addition to your feedback on countless dissertation chapters, funding and job applications, and conference papers have been a cornerstone of my graduate school experience. Evan Taparata, thank you for the frequent beer breaks, skype happy hours, and conversations. I am grateful for your friendship as we celebrated the joys and navigated the disappointments of graduate school these past few years. I cannot express how grateful I am for the friendship of Michelle Stolz whose unyielding spirit, love of running, and infectious personality inspired me to take on iv challenges that I never thought possible and that have forever enriched my life. Running has been a fundamental practice that ensured my survival through the demands and stresses of graduate school, and she helped me develop my passion for the sport and my ability to strive to complete ever-increasing distances with joy in my heart. Through her, I have an amazing group of running friends who have all inspired me to run wild and be free. I am forever indebted to my amazing and generous family. Thank you to all of the aunts and uncles and cousins who fed me, let me stay in their homes, and welcomed my dog(s) to stay as well while I traveled the country for research: Ken, Lucy, Mary, Bob, Sue, John, Cindy, Dale, Michael, Kendall, Michelle, Chris Newell, Chris Bowser, and Ben. Juanita, who bought my books every semester of undergraduate study and provided a home away from whatever location I happened to be in at any given time, deserves special mention. Juanita, I am immensely grateful for all you have done for me throughout my life. Thank you to Doug Heinlein, in whose home I stayed while researching in Seattle. Those trips provided a lifetime of stories in addition to your generosity. I am also thankful for my sister Kirsten and nephew Milo. They bring such joy and laughter to my life, and I am glad to have been able to visit so often the last few years and for the phone and video conversations in the interim. My parents and stepparents also deserve special mention. Thank you to Wendy Bowser Anderson and John Arnett for always believing in me and raising me with a hunger for social justice. I know now in my adulthood what a gift it is to have parents like you, and I cannot thank you enough for all of the opportunities that you have given me. Thank you to Paul v Anderson and Maggie Arnett for your support and for loving my parents, my siblings, and me. Thank you, Skyler York, for your unconditional love and support throughout this rollercoaster of a ride.
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