Alaska Education

 

 

 

 
Many new educational and cultural facilities were opened in Alaska as a result of the influx of people and funds attendant to the start of large-scale petroleum production in the 1970s.

 

Education
The first mission school for native Alaskans was founded at Wrangell by Presbyterian missionaries in 1876. By 1884 the free public school system had been established in the territory. Today, general public schools are supported by the state and local governments. Schools for Native American children are operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the late 1980s public education facilities included 207 elementary and secondary schools, and annual public school enrollment totaled about 81,700 elementary pupils and 27,600 secondary students. About 5000 children attended private schools. In the same period there were 8 institutions of higher education in Alaska, with a combined enrollment of about 28,600 students. These institutions included the University of Alaska (1915), with its flagship campus at Fairbanks and branches in 11 communities, and Alaska Pacific University (1959), at Anchorage.

Alaska, one of the Pacific states, and the northernmost state of the United States, occupying the northwestern extremity of North America. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean; on the east by the Yukon Territory and British Columbia; on the southeast, south, and southwest by the Pacific Ocean; and on the west by the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Arctic Ocean. The state includes two major island groups, the Aleutian Islands, which extend in an arc west from the southwestern corner of the mainland, and the Alexander Archipelago, adjacent to the southeastern coast of the mainland.
Sometimes called the Last Frontier, Alaska entered the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. The wild grandeur of Alaska has fascinated people for several hundred years. Its economy, traditionally dominated by the exploitation of natural resources, entered a new phase in 1977, when production of petroleum began at the vast Prudhoe Bay oil field on the Arctic coast. The name of the state is derived from an Aleut word meaning “mainland.”

Land and Resources
Alaska, with a total area of 1,700,139 sq km (656,424 sq mi), is the largest state in the United States; about 81 percent of the land area is owned by the federal government. The state is roughly square in shape with two major projections: the Alaska Peninsula, with its geographical extension, the Aleutian Islands; and the Panhandle, which extends from the southeastern body of the state along the border of British Columbia. Its extreme dimensions are about 1770 km (about 1100 mi) from north to south and about 3220 km (about 2000 mi) from east to west. Alaska has the greatest relief range of any state; elevations begin at sea level and extend up to 6194 m (20,320 ft) in Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America. The approximate mean elevation is 579 m (1900 ft). Alaska has 8980 km (5580 mi) of shoreline on the Pacific Ocean and 1706 km (1060 mi) of shoreline on the Arctic Ocean.

Physical Geography
The entire southern coastal area of Alaska belongs to the Pacific Mountain system. The group of ranges that form this area belong to a geologically unstable belt that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. Volcanic and earthquake activity is much in evidence in this region. The southeast (or Panhandle) is a region of fjords and glaciers and consists of the rugged Boundary Range and the offshore Alexander Archipelago. Located here is the sheltered Inside Passage, a fine natural waterway and one of the most scenic in the world. At the northwestern corner of this region is the Saint Elias Range, with some of the highest peaks on the continent, largely covered with ice and snow and containing the spectacular Malaspina Glacier, the largest in the state.
The Pacific Mountain system also includes the Chugach Range, flanking the northern periphery of the Gulf of Alaska and containing the massive Columbia Glacier. The Kenai Mountains constitute a southwestern continuation of the mountain system. Inland from the Chugach Range, the low relief of the Copper River Basin is broken by the Wrangell Mountains, which contain Mount Wrangell (4269 m/14,006 ft), the highest active volcano in Alaska.
Inland from the Copper River Basin is the extensive arc-shaped Alaska Range, which includes Mount McKinley. The mountain system continues to the southwest in a series of volcanoes, the Aleutian Range, which extends far west into the Pacific Ocean as an archipelago, the Aleutian Islands.
North of the Alaska Range is the complex Central Highland and Basin Region, sometimes called the Yukon Plateaus. In the west, elevations are low, and extensive areas flood with the spring thaw. A low range here, the elongated Kuskokwim Mountains, separates the Yukon and Kuskokwim valleys. The eastern interior is occupied by the Yukon Highlands.
The Brooks Range has been little known until recently. It extends across the entire width of Alaska and consists of a complexly folded sedimentary mass with a series of longitudinal valleys, chiefly those of the Kobuk and Koyukuk rivers. Maximum elevations reach only about 3050 m (about 10,000 ft).
Alaska's Arctic Lowland, also known as the North Slope or Arctic Plain, slopes gradually downward from the base of the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean. In the south, where elevations exceed 610 m (2000 ft), drainage is good. In the north, however, are many hundreds of undrained ponds.

Rivers and Lakes
Alaska's major river, the Yukon, is one of the longest on the continent; it flows across the state from east to west, emptying in the Bering Sea. Its tributaries include the Porcupine, Koyukuk, and Tanana rivers. Among the state's shorter streams are the Colville and Kobuk rivers, which drain to the Arctic Ocean, and the Kuskokwim, Susitna, Matanuska, and Copper rivers, which drain to the Pacific Ocean. Thousands of small lakes and ponds are found in Alaska. The state's largest lakes (Iliamna, Becharof, and Ugashik) are located on the Alaska Peninsula.

Climate
Alaska can be divided into three major climate zones: a region of maritime influences (a marine west coast climate), a region of continental (or subarctic) climate, and a region of tundra (or arctic) climate.
The region of maritime climate comprises the Panhandle, the coast of the Gulf of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. This region is greatly affected by the relatively warm Alaska Current and by the proximity of the Gulf of Alaska, where storms form throughout the year, especially in winter. Gray skies, successive wet days, dampness, fogginess, and occasional gale winds are characteristic. Annual precipitation is heavy, amounting to more than 2540 mm (more than 100 in) in many places. The abundant snowfall provides the source for many glaciers. Summers are cool here, and winters, relatively mild.
Interior Alaska, the area north of the Alaska Range and south of the Brooks Range, is a region of continental climate, with mild, brief summers and harsh winters. This region is drier and has an average annual precipitation of about 610 mm (about 24 in). For half of the year the ground is covered with powdery snow that accumulates to depths of several feet. Invasions of warmer maritime air from the Gulf of Alaska may break the extreme winter cold for a week or so at a time. Average January temperature is -22.8° C (-9° F), with extremes of -51.1° C (-60° F) or colder. A record low temperature of -62.2° C (-80° F) was measured at Prospect Creek Camp, in northwestern Alaska, in 1971.
The area north of the Brooks Range is a region of tundra (arctic) climate and has weeks of continuous darkness in winter and of daylight in summer. Moderated by ocean influences, the winter is somewhat less harsh than in interior Alaska. While the snow cover is thin, strong winds at times create extremely cold windchill temperatures. The average annual precipitation is less than 203 mm (less than 8 in).

Plants and Animals
Slightly less than one-third of Alaska is forest covered, and the state contains the two largest national forests in the nation. Lush coniferous forests, located in the Panhandle and on the coast of the Gulf of Alaska, are dominated by hemlock and spruce trees, with an understory of mosses and shrubs. Much of the interior is covered by taiga, or northern forest, consisting largely of spruce and birch; these forests are slow growing and of limited commercial value. Over much of western and northern Alaska is the treeless tundra, with a vegetation ranging from shrubs to mosses and sedges. Alaska's many flowers include fireweed, lupine, and the state flower, forget-me-not.
Alaska has a rich and diverse fauna. Surrounding waters are renowned for whale, fur seal, walrus, and sea otter, as well as salmon, halibut, crab, shrimp, and other marine life. Bears, including polar, brown, and black, are well represented. Great herds of caribou still migrate across the Brooks Range, followed by packs of wolves. Other mammals include moose, as well as such furbearers as beaver, wolverine, mink, otter, and muskrat. Several species of ptarmigan are widespread, and large numbers of ducks and geese spend summers on the Arctic slope. Mosquitoes swarm in vast numbers in summer; also present are flies and “no-see-ums,” as the biting midges are known.

Mineral Resources
Petroleum and natural gas are by far Alaska's most important mineral resources. Considerable quantities of copper (from the Copper River Basin) and gold (especially around Juneau, Fairbanks, and Nome) have been mined. Coal is found near the Alaska Railroad. Large deposits of molybdenum are known, near Ketchikan and in the western Brooks Range. Other mineral resources include sand, gravel, and clay. In the future, exploration is likely to reveal additional deposits of other minerals.

Population
According to the 1990 census, Alaska had 550,043 inhabitants, an increase of 36.9% over 1980. The average population density in 1990 was less than 1 person per 3 sq km (less than 1 per sq mi), the lowest overall population density of any state. Whites made up 75.5 percent of the population and blacks 4.1 percent. Other major population groups included some 44,401 Inuit (Eskimo), amounting to 8.1 percent of the total population (see INUIT); 31,245 Native Americans, or 5.7 percent of the total; and 10,052 Aleuts (see ALEUT), accounting for 1.8 percent of the total. Most of the Inuit population lived in the northern and western parts of the state. The Tlingit, Haida, and Athabaska, the state's principal Native American groups, lived in the south and southeast. The Aleuts were concentrated in the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska Peninsula. Some 7976 persons of Filipino background and 2066 people of Japanese descent also lived in Alaska. In 1990, about 67 percent of all Alaskans lived in areas defined as urban, and the rest lived in rural areas. The largest cities in the state were Anchorage; Fairbanks; Juneau, the capital; Sitka; and Ketchikan.


Cultural Institutions
The Anchorage Museum of History and Art contains outstanding collections on Alaskan history and native arts. The University of Alaska Museum, in Fairbanks, includes extensive exhibits on Alaskan archaeology and wildlife. The Alaska State Museum, in Juneau, and the Sheldon Jackson Museum, in Sitka, feature exhibits of Native American and Inuit artifacts. The state's largest public library is at Anchorage. The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is located in Anchorage.

Historical Sites
The sites of 18th-century Russian settlements are found on Kodiak Island and at Sitka, and Sitka National Historical Park includes the site of a fort used by the Russians to gain control over the Tlingit in the early 19th century. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, at Skagway, commemorates the great gold rush of 1897-1898.

Sports and Recreation
Alaska's leading resort area is Denali National Park and Preserve, where hiking, mountain climbing, and skiing are popular activities. Other outdoor sports in Alaska include fishing, hunting, swimming, ice skating, and dogsled racing. Popular indoor sports are basketball and bowling.

Communications
Alaska's communications facilities are concentrated in the state's few cities. Most small towns are connected with larger urban areas in both Alaska and the continental United States by radio and telephone service. In the early 1990s Alaska had 40 AM radio stations, 43 FM radiobroadcasters, and 15 television stations. The state's first radio station, KFQD, began operation in Anchorage in 1924. In the early 1990s Alaska was served by seven daily newspapers, which had a combined daily circulation of about 136,300 copies. Among the leading dailies were the Anchorage Daily News, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska's first general newspaper, the Sitka Times, began publication in Sitka in 1868.

Government and Politics
Alaska is governed under a constitution adopted in 1956 (three years before it became a state), as amended. State constitutional amendments may be proposed by the legislature or by a constitutional convention. In order to become effective they must be approved by voters in a general election.

Executive
Alaska's chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a 4-year term and may not serve more than two consecutive terms. The lieutenant governor, the only other state-wide-elected official, succeeds the chief executive on the governor's death, removal from office, or incapacity to serve. The governor appoints cabinet officers, who are called commissioners.

Legislature
The Alaska legislature consists of a house of representatives of 40 members popularly elected to 2-year terms and a senate of 20 members popularly elected to 4-year terms. The senate elects a president from among its members, and the house chooses a speaker as its presiding officer. The legislature meets every January for a session of unlimited duration. A veto of legislation by the governor may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the senate and house.

Judiciary
The highest judicial body in Alaska is the supreme court, made up of five justices, one of whom is chosen by the court to serve a nonrenewable 3-year term as chief justice. The governor appoints each justice, who must be confirmed in office by voters in the first general election held after the justice has served for three years on the court. Thereafter, the justice must be reconfirmed by voters every ten years. The chief trial courts in the state are the superior courts, which have a total of 30 justices.

Local Government
Alaska is not divided into counties; the chief units of local government in the early 1990s were 12 boroughs, 3 unified home-rule municipalities (combining the functions of boroughs and cities), 149 other incorporated communities, and 132 unincorporated communities. Most of the boroughs and incorporated communities had elected mayors and councils.

National Representation
Alaska is represented in the U.S. Congress by two senators and one representative. The state casts three electoral votes in presidential elections.

Politics
Since statehood no single party has dominated politics in Alaska. Although Republicans outnumber Democrats among registered voters, nonpartisan registrants are in the majority. Control of the state governorship has been closely balanced between the two major parties; in the state legislature, Republicans tend to dominate the senate, while the Democrats usually control a majority of the house of representatives. In presidential elections, the state has generally gone Republican. The Libertarian party has a significant following, and Libertarians have won election to the state legislature.

Economy
Until the 1960s Alaska's economy developed slowly, despite the gold rushes of the Klondike (1897-1898) and Nome (1898). Fishing and forestry have traditionally been important to the economy, but agriculture, at these high latitudes, employs few people. In the late 1970s, extraction of petroleum began along the Arctic shore, and substantial reserves of natural gas are also being developed. Although known mainly for the exploitation of natural resources, Alaska's economy is also heavily dependent on tertiary activities, largely government and service industries, which employ some three-quarters of the total labor force. The preponderance of military and government workers is a result of the state's strategic military location and the presence of vast areas of land under federal government jurisdiction.

Agriculture
Farming accounts for less than 1 percent of the annual gross state product in Alaska. The state has some 560 farms, averaging about 715 hectares (about 1770 acres) in size. Crops account for about 70 percent of the annual farm income, and livestock and livestock products for about 30 percent. Greenhouse products, dairy products, potatoes, and cattle dominate agricultural output. Most agricultural activities are carried on in areas adjacent to or near the Pacific coast. The Matanuska Valley near Anchorage is the most important agricultural region, followed by the inland Tanana Valley and the Kenai Peninsula. Alaska is not self-sufficient in farm products.

Forestry
Forestry is important to Alaska's economy. In the early 1990s, commercial timberland comprised about 9.2 million hectares (about 22.8 million acres), or 6.2 percent of Alaska's land area. The principal species harvested in the state are western hemlock, Sitka spruce, cedar, and other softwoods that are used for lumber and for making paper.

Fishing
Alaska has excellent marine and freshwater fisheries. The value of the fish catch in the early 1990s exceeded $1 billion annually. Salmon accounts for a major share of the value of the annual catch, followed by shellfish (crabs, shrimp, scallops) and finfish other than salmon (halibut, herring, flounder).

Mining
The mining industry accounts for nearly one-third of the annual gross state product. Petroleum dominates the list of mineral products, accounting for at least 85 percent by value of the annual mineral output. Nearly all production now comes from Prudhoe Bay, with minor amounts taken from fields on the McArthur River, Middle Ground Shoal, Granite Point, the Swanson River, Trading Bay, and Beaver Creek. The Prudhoe field has an estimated 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil, and other fields on, or offshore, the Arctic coastline may contain even more reserves. Natural gas output is also substantial, most natural gas occurring with or near petroleum. Among the other minerals produced are sand and gravel, stone, coal, and gold.

Manufacturing
Manufacturing is a comparatively minor economic sector in Alaska, accounting for no more than 5 percent of the annual gross state product. Processing of fish and other food is the leading industry in the state, followed by production of lumber and wood products; printing and publishing are industries of lesser importance. These activities occur mainly along the Pacific coast, especially at Anchorage, but also inland at Fairbanks.

Tourism
Tourism is a growing industry in Alaska. Each year more than 600,000 people visit the state, a figure amounting to considerably more than that of the resident population. Income to Alaska from tourism exceeds $800 million each year. Large areas in the state are administered by the National Park Service; Denali and Glacier Bay national parks and preserves are two of the most popular areas. In addition the state maintains a system of 116 parks and recreation areas.

Transportation
Because of Alaska's enormous size and small population, water and air transportation are critically important. The state has numerous places that are officially recognized as ports, of which Anchorage is the most important; the great majority of these are located on the Pacific coast. The international airports serving Anchorage and Fairbanks are the busiest of the state's 477 airports. Alaska also has 105 seaplane bases and 20 heliports. The airplane not only links settled places but also allows isolated hamlets to maintain contact with one another and with more populated centers.
Anchorage and Fairbanks are important hubs in a network of about 21,710 km (about 13,490 mi) of federal, state, and local roads, of which 89 percent are rural and 11 percent urban. Principal highways connect Fairbanks with Anchorage, and Anchorage with the Kenai Peninsula. The Alaska Highway, linked to this system, is a major overland route to Canada and the rest of the U.S. The publicly owned Alaska Railroad has about 845 km (about 525 mi) of operated track; it connects Fairbanks with Anchorage and extends south to Seward.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline (opened 1977), 122 cm (48 in) in diameter, connects Prudhoe Bay to the Pacific port of Valdez, carrying crude petroleum. Lack of funding stalled a plan to build a natural-gas pipeline south from the same field.

Energy
Although Alaska has great hydroelectricity-generating potential, only a small amount of energy is consumed within the state, and this comes mostly from wood in rural areas and mostly from petroleum and natural gas in urban places. The electricity generating plants in Alaska have a total capacity of about 1.5 million kw and produce 4.5 billion kwh of electricity each year. More than three-quarters of all electricity comes from thermal plants consuming petroleum and natural gas.

History
The original inhabitants of Alaska included four ethnological subdivisions. The Aleuts of the western Alaska Peninsula were expert mariners; their economy relied on sea otter, seal, sea lion, and fish, and they were skilled at basketry. The Inuit (Eskimo), inhabiting the coastal area from Bristol Bay to Point Demarcation on the Arctic, sailed in kayaks to hunt whale, seal, and walrus and to fish. On land they used dogs and sleds for hunting. The Inuit deftly carved ivory into tools, utensils, and ornaments. The Tlingit-Haida people of southeastern Alaska, skilled in totem-pole carving and basketry, were great traders and canoe builders who lived from the sea. Native American tribes of the interior belonged to the Athabascan family; they caught salmon and hunted land animals. The seminomadic Athabascans had few arts but made knives of stone and native copper.

Russian Alaska
The first Europeans to visit Alaska were part of a Russian expedition led by the Danish navigator Vitus Bering, who landed on the southern coast in 1741. Bering and much of the crew died on the return voyage; the remaining crew reached Russia with otter skins in 1742, prompting ruthless promshlenniki (“fur traders”) to swarm into the Aleutians. In 1784 Grigory Shelekhov colonized Kodiak Island; in 1786 Gerasim Pribilof located the opulent Seal Islands. The Russian-American Company was granted a monopoly over the fur trade in 1799.
Aleksandr Baranov, the first chief manager, founded Sitka as the colony's commercial center, along with 23 other posts. Despite penetrations by Spanish, British, French, and American explorers and traders, dating from the 1770s, Russian control over Alaska lasted until 1867. Although the Russians discovered gold, copper, and coal, they were mainly preoccupied with furs. A decline in fur profits and a threatened invasion by the British from Canada motivated Russia in the 1850s to consider selling Alaska to the United States. The American Civil War delayed the purchase, astutely negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward, until 1867.

Alaska Under the U.S.
Army troops garrisoned in Alaska from 1867 to 1877 constituted the first U.S. presence there. When the troops were withdrawn, the only U.S. officials present were customs collectors of the U.S. Treasury Department. After U.S. warships arrived in 1879, the commanding officers of those ships exercised de facto jurisdiction over Alaska until Congress established a civil and judicial district in 1884.
Salmon canning became a major industry by the 1880s; in the following decade the Alaskan gold rush nearly doubled the population and attracted capital. In 1906 Alaska was given a delegate to Congress; in 1912 it gained territorial status. Its failure to achieve self-government hindered economic development, however, and the population declined between 1910 and 1930. New Deal measures of the 1930s improved housing, created public works, stimulated mining, and demonstrated greater agricultural potential for Alaska.
During World War II, the strategic importance of Alaska was belatedly recognized. In June 1942 the Japanese occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians; it took U.S. forces 15 months to dislodge them. To circumvent a threat to Alaskan sea-lanes, the army built the Alaska Highway, connecting Alaska with British Columbia, in 1942.
The cold war with the USSR led to increased military construction in 1947 and the start of the radar stations of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line. The fishing industry, once the mainstay of the Alaskan economy, declined by the late 1940s. Between 1954 and 1959 the forest products industry, the first major year-round industry, expanded rapidly. The discovery of oil on the Kenai Peninsula in 1957 gave new encouragement to the economy.

Statehood
Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. Tourism soon developed into a major industry, and a state ferry system was authorized in 1961. A devastating earthquake struck south-central Alaska in 1964.
The discovery of vast oil deposits on the Alaska North Slope in 1968 resulted in construction of the approximately 1300-km (approximately 800-mi) Trans-Alaska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the ice-free port of Valdez, where the first oil arrived in July 1977. Oil revenues enabled the state to abolish its personal income tax and to distribute annual cash dividends to all state residents.
In 1980 Congress passed the Alaska Lands Bill, which excluded more than 42 million hectares (more than 104 million acres) in the state from commercial development. Many Alaskans opposed what they felt were unjustifiable federal attempts to limit exploitation of the state's resources, but calls for secession were rejected. One of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history occurred in March 1989, when an Exxon tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 10 million gallons of oil.