On this day in 1867, Alaska was formally transferred from the Russian Empire to the United States, consummating the deal that was inked on March 30 (which is when Seward's Day is celebrated), making Alaska our 49th state. The holiday was officially established in 1917. The day is not without controversy, as some native Alaskans have always believed that Alaska was not rightly owned by Russia in the first place, so the purchase by the United States was illegitimate.
The AFN convention currently going on (Alaska Federation of Natives) is trying to have the holiday deleted.
It all reminds me of a conversation I had with a neighbor who was really into "native plants." I asked her (in a nice way) to define "native." Just like indigenous peoples, it all depends on how far back you go and how successful the invaders were in choking out the then-current populations. Plus, the history of our "union" includes a lot of kicking and screaming along the way. That being said, our two most recent additions seem to have more of a legitimate claim to their protests since (a) they are geopolitically isolated from the lower 48, with Hawaii being OCONUS, and (b) their populations were of a singular (or overwhelming majority) ethnicity. Plus, their "addition" occurred in more recent memory. @Don Alaska Did native Alaskans--like Native Americans--lack a concept of land ownership, titles and deeds?
I will celebrate with a bowl of Denali Moose Tracks ice cream. It's as good a reason to eat ice cream as any.
Yeah, they were nomads for the most part except perhaps in the Panhandle. In some areas the trails cna still be seen where the Native populations traveled from caribou to salmon and back, and from summer quarters to winter. The populations here are differentiated with native Alaskans being those born here and Alaska Natives as the indigenous peoples who came over some centuries ago.
They tried to get Columbus Day moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving and renamed something similar, but the Feds at the time didn't go for that. If they tried now, however, they might get a separate holiday, as we couldn't celebrate, Washington, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King as it would've been too expensive, but Juneteenth...WooHoo. Biden made a holiday nobody cares about outside a few activist populations. I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to Alaska, where they held a lot of Black slaves for centuries.
Good idea. I may have an Eskimo Pie. And then someone can shove my worthless butt onto an ice flow and bid me bon voyage. The Vikings at least got a fire...
I'm in one of the original 13 colonies. We operate the same way in some circles, at the state level and at county & town levels.