Volume 38, No. 3 Quarterly of the Alaska Historical Society Autumn 2010 Alaska Historical Society 2010 Annual Meeting in Fairbanks, September 15-18 Energizing Alaska Trans-Alaska pipeline leading to Pump Station number 3, North Slope, Alaska. circa 1975. Photograph by Steve McCutcheon. AMRC-b90-14-3-226. mong the many landmarks visited by tourists to Fairbanks or abundant, and in its many forms and uses, has played a every year is the Gold Dredge No. 8 on the outskirts of significant role in shaping our history. town. Once owned by the Fairbanks Exploration Company and operated from 1928 to 1959, the dredge features 68 Some three dozen presenters will expand on this theme in Ahuge buckets, each weighing over 1,500 pounds, which sessions on such diverse topics as mining, war, music, hospitals, chewed through countless tons of gravel contributing to the company’s Native land claims, fishing, and pioneer women. The meeting’s production of 7.5 million ounces of gold. The behemoth now sits in keynote speaker, arctic historian and archaeologist John a gravel pit the machine dug itself. Though its gears are rusty and the Bockstoce, has authored many books on the far north, including buckets have not moved an inch for many decades, the dredge still Whales, Ice and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western inspires awe and makes one wonder about the incalculable amount of Arctic and his latest, Furs and Frontiers in the Far North: The energy it once consumed in its quest for gold. Contest Among Native and Foreign Nations for the Bering Strait Fur Trade. This prize-winning book is a comprehensive Across the Steese Highway from Gold Dredge No. 8 is the Trans- history of the native and maritime fur trade in Alaska during the Alaska Pipeline visitor center, another monument of sorts to eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. humankind’s quest for precious natural resources. The 800-mile pipeline is now its thirty-third year of operation and has delivered In addition to the presentations related to the conference theme, over fifteen billion barrels of crude oil from the North Slope to the meeting features workshops on genealogy and oral history, Valdez. Much like the gold dredge, the sheer size of the pipeline and tours of the university, permafrost tunnel, and downtown bears witness to the effort, both human and mechanical, behind its Fairbanks. A full schedule of sessions and events is available at: construction and operation. www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org. The juxtaposition between the gold dredge on one side of Ross Coen, 2010 AHS Program Chair the highway and the pipeline on the other seems particularly relevant to the theme of this year’s Alaska Historical Society The conference planning committee extends a warm welcome to conference: Energizing Alaska. Both machines have not only everyone interested in Alaska history and we are looking forward shaped the landscape itself, but have had an impact on the people to seeing you in Fairbanks! and institutions of Alaska as a whole. Energy, whether scarce In the late 1960s, Humble Oil decided to rebrand their gas stations nationwide. “Enco” was considered but rejected when it was found the word was similar in pronunciation to the Japanese term for "stalled car." In 1972, “Exxon” was unveiled as the new, unified brand name for all former Humble Oil (Esso) outlets, and so it remains to this day. Exxon sign in Framingham, MA. Photograph by Brian Katt. Energizing Alaska: September 15-18, 2010 Alaska Historical Society Sessions Wedgewood Hotel and Conference Center, Fairbanks THUrsdaY, September 16 You are your organization’s own best advocate, or If you don’t advocate for your organization who will? • Mike Walsh Do you ever talk about the cool stuff that is going on within your organization? If so, you are already advocating for it. In this session you’ll learn how to make the most of your important advocacy work and move it to the next level with a solid, comprehensive Strategic Advocacy Plan. Up Close with John Bockstoce • John Bockstoce Following the AHS keynote address by John Bockstoce, this extended Q&A session provides conference attendees an opportunity to continue the conversation. Historical Perspectives on Oil • Shana Loshbaugh, “How Oil Transformed the Kenai” The discovery of oil at Swanson River in the summer of 1957 was one of those rare events instantly and widely recognized as a turning point in Alaska history. This presentation describes the transformation of the Kenai Peninsula communities of Sterling, Soldotna, Kenai, and Nikiski between the 1957 discovery and 1974, when Cook Inlet oil production slackened and North Slope oil reserves began dominating the state economy. • Rogan C. Faith, “Hope Gushes Eternal: The Story of Kanatak, a 1920s Oil Boom Town with Everything...Except Oil” Oil seepages in the storm-tossed region of Kanatak had long been used by the native Alutiiq people. Early Russian explorers noted them as did oil companies and geologists sent by the U.S. government to assess the area’s mineral potential. By the 1920s there was enough confidence that “boomers” touted Kanatak as a sure fire investment. Threatened by storms and nearby volcanoes, the town survived on dreams but it couldn’t survive the lack of oil. • Ross Coen, “Before Prudhoe: Exxon’s Early (Disappointing) Years in Alaska” The history of Humble Oil (now Exxon) in Alaska prior to the Prudhoe Bay discovery of 1968 is marked by frustration and failure. The company’s first exploration well on the Alaska Peninsula in 1957 cost $7 million and was the most expensive dry hole in company history. This paper describes how this and other failures nearly caused the company to abandon Alaska altogether, a move that surely would have altered Alaska history in innumerable ways had it come to pass. Women Who Energized Alaskans to Make Alaska a Better Place for Women, Children and Families to Live • Janine Dorsey, “Episcopal Women Missionaries of Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley, 1904-1915” Between 1894 and 1954, two hundred women came to Interior Alaska as missionaries of the Episcopal Church. They poured their energy into providing medical care, schooling, and religious services—primarily in Alaska Native villages. Episcopal women missionaries played a critical role in Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley during the particularly dynamic period from 1904 to 1915. • Phyllis Demuth Movius, “Women’s Role in Creating A Place of Belonging, 1903-1923” Women energized life in Interior Alaska from its inception. Ellen Gibson built a luxury hotel, Aline Bradley arrived as a physician and later became a lawyer, and Jessie Bloom started a private kindergarten and brought Girl Scouts to the Interior. These women and others were instrumental in creating an environment that attracted and held families, which allowed Fairbanks to grow and develop into a major center for commerce and social services. • Beverly Beeton, “Votes for Women and Prohibition of Liquor in Early Alaska” In early twentieth century Alaska, women petitioned the legislature to grant voting rights to women and persuaded voters to prohibit liquor in the territory. Cornelia Templeton Jewett Hatcher and Lena Morrow Lewis were two who organized and educated women to the political process. Resources of Southeast Alaska • Daniel Monteith, “Energy Efficient Tlingit Fishing Practices” Historical Tlingit fishing practices optimized efficiency and energy, but allowed for large scale harvest of salmon. The technology developed allowed for large numbers of anadromous fish to be caught. Tlingit fish weirs and stone traps required a great deal of labor and knowledge about streams and tides. Notions of property ownership and local ecological knowledge enabled the Tlingit people to harvest salmon without depleting the resources. • Yoko Kugo, “Fuel for Traditional Ecological Knowledge: The Use of Spruce and Cedar Trees in Southeast Alaska” Spruce root and cedar bark weaving has been practiced in the Tlingit and Haida culture for six thousand years. Spruce trees, roots, and cedar bark were harvested for cooking, heating, clothing, housing, and used to make baskets, food containers, and fishing tools. This paper discusses how these materials were used and how changes in utensils, appliances, and energy needs changed after Euro-American contact, and provides baseline information about resilient practices and vulnerable resources in a rapidly changing world. 2 Alaska History News • Anjuli Grantham, “’The Most Unfair Contrivances’: Fish Traps and Alaskan Statehood” From the beginning of industrialized salmon fishing in Alaska, the fishery was a highly contested resource replete with race, class, and social divisions. The fish trap represented nearly all of the ills of Alaska’s territorial status: absentee ownership, federal government neglect, and diminishing salmon runs. The battle against the fish trap became a rallying call for Alaskan statehood and the creation of an ethically managed fishery. Russia, Russian America, and 19th century Alaska • Odin Miller, “Are the Wanderers Lost?: Sedentarization and Cultural Change among Reindeer Herding Peoples of the Sakha Republic” Sedentarization has caused unprecedented changes in the lives of indigenous Even, Evenki, and Dolgan reindeer herders in the Sakha Republic during the past century. In the 1930s, the Soviet state collectivized reindeer herds, formed kolkhozy (collective farms) and sovkhozy (state farms), established permanent villages, and pressured indigenous nomads to settle in them. Traditional subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping have resurged in the post-Soviet era, but it is unclear whether nomadic reindeer herding is compatible with the cultures of modern Eveny, Evenki, and Dolgany. • David Wiswar, “Commercial Bowhead Whaling in the Eastern Beaufort Sea, 1889-1911” The discovery and exploitation of the bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus in their summer feeding areas in the eastern Beaufort Sea marked the beginning of the end for unrestricted commercial whaling. The time interval between discovery and cessation of exploitation lasted from 1889 to the early 1900s.