WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 You know, if you think about the history of the 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.719 world in terms of, like, a high school classroom, 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:08.980 Alaska's kind of like the quiet, ignored kid 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:11.119 sitting way in the back. The one nobody really 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.419 pays attention to. But then, over summer break, 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:18.059 that quiet kid suddenly inherits a billion dollars 00:00:18.059 --> 00:00:22.300 and, like, a military arsenal. Oh, wow. And abruptly, 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:24.920 every one in the room is forced to pay attention. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:27.420 That is a very apt way to put it. Welcome to 00:00:27.420 --> 00:00:30.030 this custom deep dive. Today we're exploring 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:32.729 the history of Alaska and we're basing our entire 00:00:32.729 --> 00:00:35.509 journey today on a really comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:35.509 --> 00:00:38.090 article that covers, well, pretty much everything. 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:40.890 Yeah, from ancient Paleolithic foragers crossing 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:43.770 the ice all the way up to 21st century pandemics. 00:00:43.990 --> 00:00:46.420 Exactly. And our mission for you today is to 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:49.799 unpack how this massive, super isolated region 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.179 transformed from a frozen kind of ignored frontier 00:00:53.179 --> 00:00:56.780 into the ultimate geopolitical and economic prize. 00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:00.399 It really is. And we want to discover what its 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:02.679 endless boom and bust cycles can actually teach 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:04.879 us about humanity's relationship with nature. 00:01:05.929 --> 00:01:08.629 So, okay, let's unpack this. Let's do it. It's 00:01:08.629 --> 00:01:10.769 just a remarkable transformation to witness. 00:01:11.530 --> 00:01:13.810 And honestly, whether you, our listener, are 00:01:13.810 --> 00:01:16.450 interested in economics or military strategy 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:20.569 or environmentalism, Alaska serves as the ultimate 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:23.290 extreme case study for all three. Yeah. Because 00:01:23.290 --> 00:01:25.469 for a very, very long time, it wasn't a prize 00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:29.269 to be won or a resource to be extracted. It was 00:01:29.269 --> 00:01:31.120 just home. Right, and we really have to start 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:33.260 there. Because it's so easy to fall into the 00:01:33.260 --> 00:01:35.359 trap of thinking Alaska was just, I don't know, 00:01:35.540 --> 00:01:38.640 discovered one day by guys with flags. Exactly. 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:41.760 But it was a vital bridge and a completely thriving 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:44.700 ecosystem long, long before that. I mean, human 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:47.280 habitation goes back to around 14 ,000 BC. During 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.620 the Upper Paleolithic period. Yeah, you literally 00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:51.519 had foraging groups walking across the Bering 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:54.299 Land Bridge from Asia into Western Alaska. And, 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:56.299 you know, while some of those early coastal migrants 00:01:56.299 --> 00:01:58.959 just kept moving right into the interior of what 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:02.120 is now Canada and beyond, many of them recognized 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.519 the sheer abundance of the region and just stayed. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:08.379 Over millennia, they didn't just survive. They 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:12.060 developed incredibly diverse complex cultures 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:15.300 perfectly adapted to this really vast, challenging 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:18.360 geography. It's amazing. It is. In the southeast, 00:02:18.419 --> 00:02:20.960 you have the coastal Indians, so the Tlingit, 00:02:21.099 --> 00:02:24.099 the Haida, and the Tsimshian. In the rugged interior, 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:27.000 you've got the Athabaskans out on the harsh island 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.039 chains, the Aleut. And further north, the two 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:32.840 distinct groups of Eskimos, the Inupiat and the 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:35.300 Yupik. Yeah, and reading the source, the very 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:38.419 name Alaska comes from the Aleut word alaksak. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.080 Right? Yes. Which translates to the object toward 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:43.960 which the action of the sea is directed, or I 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:46.419 guess more simply, the mainland. The object toward 00:02:46.419 --> 00:02:48.180 which the action of the sea is directed. That 00:02:48.180 --> 00:02:50.379 is just incredibly poetic. It really is. And 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:52.960 for thousands of years, these indigenous groups 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.400 have the run of the place entirely self -sufficient. 00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:58.300 But then, you know, the 18th century rolls around 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:00.439 and the sea brings something else entirely. Yeah, 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:03.500 it does. By the early 1700s, Russian expeditions 00:03:03.500 --> 00:03:05.960 arrive, and they're followed pretty closely by 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.120 commercial fur traders. And those traders, they 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:12.099 were driven by a very specific, highly lucrative 00:03:12.099 --> 00:03:14.900 commodity. The sea otter. The sea otter, specifically 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.539 the Carilion cumchactin and Aleutian sea otters. 00:03:17.979 --> 00:03:21.780 Their fur was, it was thicker, glossier, and 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:23.819 blacker than anything found further south. Like 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:25.639 the ultimate luxury good. Exactly, it was the 00:03:25.639 --> 00:03:28.080 ultimate luxury good in global markets at the 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:32.099 time. So in 1784, Grigori Shilikov arrived on 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:34.659 Kodiak Island, killed hundreds of indigenous 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:37.840 Konyak people, and just founded the first permanent 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.419 Russian settlement. Just brutal. Truly. Soon 00:03:40.419 --> 00:03:42.860 after, Alexander Baranov took over management 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:45.599 of the fur enterprise, eventually establishing 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.659 New Archangel, which we now know as Sitka as 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:50.719 the colonial capital. See, I'm trying to wrap 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:52.620 my head around this idea of a Russian colony 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:55.680 in North America. Was this some massive, heavily 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.280 armed empire expanding across the continent? 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.639 Not exactly. Because it sounds like Russia basically 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:04.300 treated Alaska like a giant. icy ATM and when 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:07.000 it ran out of cash or in this case sea otters, 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:09.680 they just put a for sale sign on the lawn. That's 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.599 a great way to look at it. The empire was remarkably 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:15.479 thin on the ground. Despite Baranov's ambitions, 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.560 the Russians never fully colonized the region. 00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:22.519 At the absolute height of Russian America, the 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.980 Russian population reached only 700 people. Wait. 00:04:26.139 --> 00:04:29.079 Only 700. Yep, 700. That's the size of a small 00:04:29.079 --> 00:04:31.639 high school. It really puts the scale into perspective, 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:34.720 doesn't it? But what's fascinating here is the 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.879 disproportionate, just devastating impact those 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:40.680 few hundred people had. Yeah. They relied entirely 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:43.120 on exploiting the native populations to do the 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.019 dangerous work of hunting. During the first two 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:49.220 generations of Russian contact, 80 % of the elute 00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:52.910 population died. Wow. 80%. Primarily from old 00:04:52.910 --> 00:04:55.370 world diseases that they just had no immunity 00:04:55.370 --> 00:04:57.949 against. And on top of that, the traders enslaved 00:04:57.949 --> 00:05:01.370 individuals split up families and forced relocations 00:05:01.370 --> 00:05:03.829 just to maximize their fur harvests. That is 00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:06.550 incredibly stark. It is. Though it's worth noting 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:08.649 the coastal Tlingits were never fully conquered. 00:05:08.829 --> 00:05:11.050 They actually waged active war against the Russians 00:05:11.050 --> 00:05:13.689 well into the 1850s. And the Russians left a 00:05:13.689 --> 00:05:17.740 huge control footprint too, right? In the 1780s, 00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:19.879 Shelikov brought over resident missionaries from 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:22.600 the Russian Orthodox Church. He did, and they 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:25.480 translated rituals and texts into a lute very 00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:28.079 early on. If you travel through Alaska today, 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:30.519 the characteristic onion domes of the Orthodox 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.220 Churches remain one of the most visible architectural 00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:36.519 traces of this whole colonial period. But it 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:38.480 wasn't just the Russians poking around, though. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:40.819 The Spanish and the British were mapping the 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:43.439 coastline at exactly the same time. Right, Captain 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:46.439 James Cook. Yeah, he sailed through in 1778, 00:05:46.579 --> 00:05:48.600 basically trying to find a way through the Bering 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:51.439 Strait. And Spain actually claimed the region 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.660 based on a papal bull from 1493. Which is wild 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:56.860 to think about. Right. They sailed all the way 00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:00.120 up to 61 degrees north latitude, claiming Sitka 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:02.889 Sound. the european powers were essentially just 00:06:02.889 --> 00:06:05.350 drawing lines on a map over territory they barely 00:06:05.350 --> 00:06:08.350 understood yeah i mean the nitka crisis of 1789 00:06:08.350 --> 00:06:10.670 almost started a literal war between britain 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:14.290 and spain over these overlapping Pacific claims. 00:06:14.290 --> 00:06:16.449 Oh, wow. They eventually resolved it in Madrid, 00:06:16.889 --> 00:06:19.550 and Spain effectively withdrew from the North 00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:23.029 Pacific entirely. Today, the Spanish legacy in 00:06:23.029 --> 00:06:25.709 Alaska is mostly just geographic place names. 00:06:25.889 --> 00:06:29.790 Like the Malaspina Glacier. Exactly. Valdez Cordova. 00:06:29.990 --> 00:06:33.129 OK, so by the mid 19th century, Russia's Sea 00:06:33.129 --> 00:06:37.310 Otter ATM is basically running dry. The superior 00:06:37.310 --> 00:06:39.870 otters are severely depleted. Russia is dealing 00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:42.029 with heavy financial difficulties back home. 00:06:42.069 --> 00:06:44.750 Oh, yeah. And they're terrified that Britain 00:06:44.750 --> 00:06:47.269 is just going to seize Alaska anyway. So they 00:06:47.269 --> 00:06:49.470 start looking for a buyer. Enter United States 00:06:49.470 --> 00:06:52.889 Secretary of State William Seward. In 1867, he 00:06:52.889 --> 00:06:55.189 orchestrates the purchase of the entire territory 00:06:55.189 --> 00:06:58.509 for $7 .2 million. Which is what, about $0 .02 00:06:58.509 --> 00:07:00.649 an acre? Roughly, yeah. And yet the American 00:07:00.649 --> 00:07:03.110 public... absolutely hated the idea. They did. 00:07:03.329 --> 00:07:05.449 They mocked it endlessly. They called it Seward's 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:10.209 Folly, Seward's Icebox, Andrew Johnson's Polar 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:13.029 Bear Garden, which is hilarious. Here's a great 00:07:13.029 --> 00:07:14.930 name. They just couldn't fathom why America would 00:07:14.930 --> 00:07:18.009 spend millions on what they saw as a frozen wasteland. 00:07:18.350 --> 00:07:21.689 And. Honestly, the U .S. government acquired 00:07:21.689 --> 00:07:24.149 this massive landmass and then had absolutely 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:26.230 no idea what to do with it. Right. During the 00:07:26.230 --> 00:07:28.230 early years, which is known as the Department 00:07:28.230 --> 00:07:31.009 of Alaska Era jurisdiction, it just awkwardly 00:07:31.009 --> 00:07:33.470 bounced around. Who's in charge? Well, the Army 00:07:33.470 --> 00:07:36.930 ran it first, then the Treasury Department, then 00:07:36.930 --> 00:07:39.810 the Navy. It was basically an administrative 00:07:39.810 --> 00:07:41.889 afterthought. See, here's where it gets really 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:45.589 interesting to me. The U .S. buys this massive 00:07:45.589 --> 00:07:48.500 territory for pennies. completely ignores it 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:51.459 for decades, and then suddenly, boom, gold. Yeah. 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:53.699 It's like buying a junked car, letting it sit 00:07:53.699 --> 00:07:56.360 in your driveway to rust for years. And then 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:58.759 one day, popping the trunk and finding it just 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:01.259 stacked with gold bars. That's a perfect analogy. 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:03.699 And the mechanism of how that gold rush happened 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:06.060 is crucial. The initial catalyst wasn't even 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:08.480 in Alaska. Right, it was in Canada. Yes, the 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.639 1896 Klondike Gold Rush in the neighboring Canadian 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:15.329 Yukon. But to get to the Yukon, tens of thousands 00:08:15.329 --> 00:08:17.449 of prospectors had to funnel through Alaskan 00:08:17.449 --> 00:08:20.389 ports, spawning these instant boom towns like 00:08:20.389 --> 00:08:22.709 Skagway. Which brought a whole new kind of chaos 00:08:22.709 --> 00:08:25.019 to the region. Total chaos. You have characters 00:08:25.019 --> 00:08:28.259 like Alaska's outlaw, Sophie Smith. He was this 00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:31.399 crime boss who literally ran a criminal empire 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:34.580 in Skagway, exploiting the influx of desperate 00:08:34.580 --> 00:08:37.620 prospectors. Until he was finally killed by vigilantes 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:40.139 in a famous shootout. It was the Wild West, just 00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:42.080 with more snow and way less law enforcement. 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:45.120 Exactly. And then the wealth shifted directly 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.220 into Alaska itself. In 1899, gold was found in 00:08:48.220 --> 00:08:51.539 Nome, then Fairbanks. The population just surged. 00:08:52.110 --> 00:08:53.929 But if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:08:54.389 --> 00:08:57.350 this era represents Alaska's second major cycle 00:08:57.350 --> 00:09:00.049 of resource depletion. And it carried a very 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:02.309 dark ecological reality. Right. You're talking 00:09:02.309 --> 00:09:04.909 about the whales. American whalers expanded into 00:09:04.909 --> 00:09:07.870 Arctic waters to hunt bowhead whales. And they 00:09:07.870 --> 00:09:10.269 did this with absolutely no regard for sustainability. 00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:13.289 Exactly like the otters. They pushed the bowheads 00:09:13.289 --> 00:09:15.990 to the very edge of extinction purely to harvest 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:18.409 the oil in their tissue. And this wasn't just 00:09:18.409 --> 00:09:20.629 like an animal conservation issue, right? It 00:09:20.629 --> 00:09:23.110 was a direct human survival issue. Absolutely. 00:09:23.429 --> 00:09:25.389 The Aleuts relied heavily on the bowhead whale. 00:09:25.409 --> 00:09:28.070 Yeah. Not just for food, but they used the whale 00:09:28.070 --> 00:09:30.629 skins to cover their hunting boats. Right. Without 00:09:30.629 --> 00:09:32.710 those specific skins, they couldn't build the 00:09:32.710 --> 00:09:34.769 boats. And without the boats, they couldn't hunt 00:09:34.769 --> 00:09:37.889 anything else. It's a chain reaction. Outsiders 00:09:37.889 --> 00:09:40.529 were extracting wealth at the direct expense 00:09:40.529 --> 00:09:43.210 of the indigenous people's ability to even survive. 00:09:44.110 --> 00:09:46.330 It perfectly encapsulates that boom and bust 00:09:46.330 --> 00:09:48.559 cycle we've been talking about. Yeah. get in, 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.519 take the most valuable resources fast as possible, 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.259 and leave the locals to deal with the systemic 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.919 fallout. So as the gold rushes start to kind 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.799 of cool off in the early 20th century, Alaska 00:09:59.799 --> 00:10:02.480 is officially reorganized into a territory in 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.580 1912. But the people living there are still dealing 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:07.919 with this heavy feeling of being exploited by 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:10.669 outsiders. A massive source of that resentment 00:10:10.669 --> 00:10:13.929 was the Jones Act of 1920. This was a federal 00:10:13.929 --> 00:10:16.549 law that mandated all goods entering or leaving 00:10:16.549 --> 00:10:19.230 Alaska had to be transported by American carriers. 00:10:19.929 --> 00:10:22.549 Functionally, this forced almost all Alaskan 00:10:22.549 --> 00:10:24.610 shipping to funnel directly through Seattle. 00:10:24.830 --> 00:10:26.950 Which created a massive economic bottleneck. 00:10:27.269 --> 00:10:29.870 A huge one. Seattle shipping businesses basically 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:32.370 had a government mandated monopoly. They could 00:10:32.370 --> 00:10:33.950 just jack up their prices however they wanted. 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:38.190 Exactly. Alaskans were watching the wealth generated 00:10:38.190 --> 00:10:40.950 by their own hard work being siphoned off to 00:10:40.950 --> 00:10:43.450 Washington state. They wanted statehood to gain 00:10:43.450 --> 00:10:46.629 some control. But the lower 48 just saw Alaska 00:10:46.629 --> 00:10:49.649 as too sparse and too isolated. And that extreme 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:52.690 isolation was Alaska's defining characteristic. 00:10:52.850 --> 00:10:55.230 I mean, the the only way to truly open up the 00:10:55.230 --> 00:10:57.789 vast mountainous interior was through aviation. 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:01.129 Right. Bush pilots. Yes. But flying in Alaska 00:11:01.129 --> 00:11:04.409 was and honestly still is incredibly dangerous 00:11:04.409 --> 00:11:07.470 due to the unpredictable, fierce weather. To 00:11:07.470 --> 00:11:10.389 this day, there are over 1700 aircraft wreck 00:11:10.389 --> 00:11:12.990 sites scattered across the state. Which brings 00:11:12.990 --> 00:11:14.889 us to the global crisis. that forced the rest 00:11:14.889 --> 00:11:17.970 of the country to finally respect Alaska's strategic 00:11:17.970 --> 00:11:20.350 value World War II. Yeah. And I have to say, 00:11:20.750 --> 00:11:23.269 the fact that Japan actually invaded and occupied 00:11:23.269 --> 00:11:25.830 part of North America during WWII completely 00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:27.730 blows my mind. Most people don't know about it. 00:11:27.769 --> 00:11:29.789 Why isn't this front and center in every history 00:11:29.789 --> 00:11:31.490 class? It feels like the rest of the country 00:11:31.490 --> 00:11:33.250 only started caring about Alaska when it suddenly 00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:35.909 became a literal human shield. This raises an 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:38.090 important question about how geography dictates 00:11:38.090 --> 00:11:42.450 geopolitics. In June 1942, Japanese forces bombed 00:11:42.450 --> 00:11:45.299 Dutch Harbor. And shortly after, they invaded 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:48.200 and occupied two of the outer Aleutian Islands, 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:51.860 Atu and Kiska. Wow. The goal was to control the 00:11:51.860 --> 00:11:54.279 northern Pacific routes. It was the only part 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:56.659 of the continental United States occupied by 00:11:56.659 --> 00:11:59.539 an enemy during the entire war. And the human 00:11:59.539 --> 00:12:02.429 cost to take it back was staggering. The battle 00:12:02.429 --> 00:12:06.470 to retake Attu in May 1943 took two weeks of 00:12:06.470 --> 00:12:10.929 intense, brutal fighting. There were 3 ,829 American 00:12:10.929 --> 00:12:13.570 casualties. Just massive numbers. And a huge 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:16.330 chunk of those weren't even from combat. 1 ,200 00:12:16.330 --> 00:12:19.190 soldiers suffered severe cold injuries and over 00:12:19.190 --> 00:12:21.909 600 died from disease. The environmental conditions 00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:23.889 were just as deadly as the enemy. And you know, 00:12:23.990 --> 00:12:26.370 we also have to acknowledge the profound tragedy 00:12:26.370 --> 00:12:29.090 of the Aleut people during this conflict. The 00:12:29.090 --> 00:12:31.210 native villagers living on Atu were captured 00:12:31.210 --> 00:12:33.610 by the Japanese and interned in Japan. That's 00:12:33.610 --> 00:12:35.850 awful. Meanwhile, the U .S. government forcibly 00:12:35.850 --> 00:12:38.289 evacuated other Aleuts from the islands and placed 00:12:38.289 --> 00:12:40.610 them in internment camps down in southeast Alaska. 00:12:40.669 --> 00:12:43.370 Right, their own government. Yes. And the conditions 00:12:43.370 --> 00:12:45.590 provided by the federal government were entirely 00:12:45.590 --> 00:12:48.389 inadequate, terrible food, lack of winter shelter, 00:12:48.870 --> 00:12:52.190 and virtually no health care. Many Aleuts suffered 00:12:52.190 --> 00:12:54.529 and died from preventable diseases during those 00:12:54.529 --> 00:12:57.009 two years of internment. It's just a deeply dark 00:12:57.009 --> 00:13:01.090 chapter. But WWII fundamentally changed Alaska's 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:03.539 trajectory, didn't it? It did. Suddenly, it wasn't 00:13:03.539 --> 00:13:06.480 a forgotten icebox. It was a vital strategic 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.480 stronghold. The military poured money into bases. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.740 They rushed to construct the Alaska -Canada military 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:16.120 highway, the Alcan, just to establish a secure 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:18.759 overland supply route. Anchorage doubled in size 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:21.399 in five years. The illusion of the distant, dependent 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:24.090 territory was completely shattered. Geopolitical 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:26.750 crises drive massive infrastructure, and that 00:13:26.750 --> 00:13:28.950 infrastructure paved the way for political legitimacy. 00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:31.629 When oil was subsequently discovered at Swanson 00:13:31.629 --> 00:13:34.289 River on the Kenai Peninsula, proving the territory 00:13:34.289 --> 00:13:36.610 could actually economically support itself, the 00:13:36.610 --> 00:13:38.730 political tide finally turned. It was the tipping 00:13:38.730 --> 00:13:42.029 point. Exactly. In 1958, President Eisenhower 00:13:42.029 --> 00:13:44.649 signed the Alaska Statehood Act. And on January 00:13:44.649 --> 00:13:48.570 3rd, 1959, Alaska officially became the 49th 00:13:48.570 --> 00:13:51.250 state. They even adopted a visionary new state 00:13:51.250 --> 00:13:55.220 motto in 1967. North to the future. I love that 00:13:55.220 --> 00:13:57.860 motto. It captures that momentum perfectly. But 00:13:57.860 --> 00:14:00.539 just as Alaska is flexing its new political muscles, 00:14:01.059 --> 00:14:03.879 nature reminds everyone who is actually in charge. 00:14:03.899 --> 00:14:08.620 Oh yes. On March 27, 1964, the Good Friday earthquake 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:13.559 hits. A magnitude 9 .2. 9 .2. That's almost unimaginable. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.759 It churned the earth for four terrifying minutes. 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:18.759 It remains one of the most powerful earthquakes 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:20.740 ever recorded in human history. The physical 00:14:20.740 --> 00:14:23.309 devastation is hard to even comprehend. It killed 00:14:23.309 --> 00:14:26.850 139 people. mostly from the resulting tsunamis. 00:14:27.149 --> 00:14:29.850 Coastal towns like Valdez and Chenegah were just 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.169 torn apart. And the land itself fundamentally 00:14:32.169 --> 00:14:34.429 shifted. Wait, the geography actually changed. 00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:37.870 Yes. The ocean uplift was so severe it permanently 00:14:37.870 --> 00:14:40.570 destroyed ancient salmon streams. Wow. The fish 00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:43.029 could no longer physically jump the newly created 00:14:43.029 --> 00:14:45.870 geological barriers. Ships were lifted by massive 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:47.629 waves and dropped right over the docks into the 00:14:47.629 --> 00:14:49.330 middle of towns. Is it an apocalyptic event? 00:14:49.389 --> 00:14:51.909 It really was. But from the literal rubble of 00:14:51.909 --> 00:14:54.789 that disaster. the state rebuilt. And shortly 00:14:54.789 --> 00:14:58.350 after, in 1968, they stumbled upon a modern gold 00:14:58.350 --> 00:15:01.549 that would define the next half -century. Oil. 00:15:01.710 --> 00:15:05.250 Yep. Black gold. Specifically, the discovery 00:15:05.250 --> 00:15:08.149 of massive reserves at Prudhoe Bay on the remote 00:15:08.149 --> 00:15:10.570 north slope. But there was a massive logistical 00:15:10.570 --> 00:15:13.750 catch. Oh boy. The oil was way up north on the 00:15:13.750 --> 00:15:15.929 edge of the Arctic Ocean, and the nearest ice 00:15:15.929 --> 00:15:19.090 -free port was Valdez, almost 800 miles to the 00:15:19.090 --> 00:15:21.669 south. So they needed to build a pipeline. Exactly. 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:24.210 But before they could lay a single inch of pipe, 00:15:24.649 --> 00:15:26.730 the federal government realized they had a roadblock. 00:15:27.090 --> 00:15:29.850 They had to finally settle a long overdue question. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.580 Who actually owned this land? Right, because 00:15:32.580 --> 00:15:34.879 for decades, Alaska Natives have been fighting 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.299 for legal title to the lands taken from them. 00:15:37.899 --> 00:15:39.860 The Prudhoe Bay discovery stalled completely 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:42.279 until those claims were resolved, because no 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:44.940 company was going to invest billions in a pipeline 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:47.320 on disputed territory. Not a chance. The result 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:50.600 was the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:55.350 Act, or ANCSA, signed by Richard Nixon. It was 00:15:55.350 --> 00:15:57.750 a totally unique approach to indigenous land 00:15:57.750 --> 00:16:00.549 rights. Natives relinquished aboriginal claims 00:16:00.549 --> 00:16:03.450 to the state in exchange for legal access to 00:16:03.450 --> 00:16:07.809 44 million acres and a payment of 963 million 00:16:07.809 --> 00:16:10.210 dollars. And the fascinating mechanism here is 00:16:10.210 --> 00:16:12.450 how that was managed. They didn't just hand over 00:16:12.450 --> 00:16:15.009 a check. The funds and land were to be managed 00:16:15.009 --> 00:16:17.509 by newly created regional and village native 00:16:17.509 --> 00:16:20.350 corporations. Yeah. So the hot oil wouldn't melt 00:16:20.350 --> 00:16:22.990 the frozen ground and cause the entire structure 00:16:22.990 --> 00:16:25.769 to just sink into the mud. It was completed in 00:16:25.769 --> 00:16:29.309 1977 and the oil and the money started flowing. 00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:33.190 Which brings us to a huge pivot. State leaders 00:16:33.190 --> 00:16:35.610 looked at their history. The sea otters, the 00:16:35.610 --> 00:16:37.929 whales, the gold. And they were determined not 00:16:37.929 --> 00:16:39.889 to repeat the mistakes of the past. Exactly. 00:16:40.070 --> 00:16:43.210 They knew oil was a finite resource. So to avoid 00:16:43.210 --> 00:16:46.289 the inevitable bust, they amended the state constitution 00:16:46.289 --> 00:16:49.570 in 1976 to create the Alaska Permanent Fund. 00:16:49.789 --> 00:16:51.870 It functioned as an economic shock absorber. 00:16:51.970 --> 00:16:53.990 Right. It's like setting up a massive trust fund 00:16:53.990 --> 00:16:56.960 or endowment instead of going on a wild weekend 00:16:56.960 --> 00:16:59.080 in Vegas. That's a great way to put it. Instead 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:01.559 of spending every dollar of oil revenue on daily 00:17:01.559 --> 00:17:03.879 expenses and risking bankruptcy when oil prices 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:06.740 drop, you invest a percentage of it. And that 00:17:06.740 --> 00:17:09.059 fund pays out annual dividends directly to the 00:17:09.059 --> 00:17:11.279 residents. It connects the state's wealth to 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:14.500 the people. Yeah. And by 2005, that fund was 00:17:14.500 --> 00:17:17.519 worth over $30 billion. It was incredibly forward 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:20.480 -thinking, but oil extraction carries immense 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.660 environmental risk. Yeah, it does. The tension 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:24.920 between industrial development and ecological 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:27.859 conservation quickly became the defining political 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:30.980 battle of modern Alaska. This tension was made 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:34.500 tragically clear on March 24, 1989, when the 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:37.339 tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:40.220 Sound. 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:43.940 into the water. It coated 1 ,100 miles of pristine 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:47.640 coastline. The ecological damage was just staggering. 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.079 At least 300 ,000 sea birds and 2 ,000 otters 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:54.339 died. Devastating. Exxon spent $2 billion on 00:17:54.339 --> 00:17:57.079 cleanup in the first year alone, but the long 00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:59.579 -term harm to the ecology of the Sound lasted 00:17:59.579 --> 00:18:03.619 for decades. The spill permanently brought environmentalism 00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:06.099 to the forefront of Alaskan politics. By 1980, 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:08.299 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 00:18:08.299 --> 00:18:11.019 Act had already protected massive swaths of the 00:18:11.019 --> 00:18:13.559 state. Today, more than half of all Alaskan land 00:18:13.559 --> 00:18:15.220 is owned by the federal government, and the state 00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:17.519 contains two -thirds of all American national 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:19.980 park lands. And that dynamic leads to endless 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.140 legal and political tug of wars between the state 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.380 and the federal government. Take the Supreme 00:18:24.380 --> 00:18:28.309 Court case from 2004. The EPA versus the Alaska 00:18:28.309 --> 00:18:30.410 Department of Environmental Conservation, or 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:33.829 ADC. Right, the Tech Kaminko mine case. A mining 00:18:33.829 --> 00:18:36.289 company wanted to expand zinc extraction, which 00:18:36.289 --> 00:18:39.230 would boost the local economy. The state agency, 00:18:39.410 --> 00:18:42.630 ADC, issued a permit, but the federal EPA stepped 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:45.049 in and blocked it. Overruling the state. Yes. 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:47.759 Arguing the state wasn't requiring the company 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:50.279 to use the best available control technology 00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:52.980 to prevent air pollution, the state argued the 00:18:52.980 --> 00:18:55.420 federal government was overreaching and stifling 00:18:55.420 --> 00:18:57.940 state economic decisions. Right. The Supreme 00:18:57.940 --> 00:19:00.359 Court ultimately sided with the EPA in a five 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:02.900 to four decision, cementing federal environmental 00:19:02.900 --> 00:19:05.640 oversight over state developmental desires. It's 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:07.759 a constant balancing act. And nowhere is that 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:10.539 more obvious than the ongoing debate over drilling 00:19:10.539 --> 00:19:13.339 in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or ANWR. 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:16.640 Absolutely. The USGS found large deposits of 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:18.680 crude oil in a specific coastal plain there. 00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:21.859 And looking objectively at the viewpoints laid 00:19:21.859 --> 00:19:23.380 out in our research, and we're just here to map 00:19:23.380 --> 00:19:25.119 those perspectives. We're not taking a side on 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:27.079 this. Right. Just looking at the facts. It's 00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:30.140 a stark divide. You have Alaskan residents, trade 00:19:30.140 --> 00:19:32.640 unions, and business interests who generally 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:34.880 support drilling there because it's a massive 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:37.740 financial lifeline for the state economy. On 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:40.250 the other hand, environmental groups and many 00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:43.089 Democrats strongly oppose it due to the severe 00:19:43.089 --> 00:19:45.710 ecological risks to a really fragile sanctuary. 00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:49.059 And among Native Alaskan tribes, the support 00:19:49.059 --> 00:19:51.039 is pretty mixed depending on their proximity 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:54.859 to the site and economic needs. It remains a 00:19:54.859 --> 00:19:57.559 deeply complex political football, constantly 00:19:57.559 --> 00:19:59.819 subject to filibusters and vetoes in Washington. 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.759 It is the perfect encapsulation of the modern 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.740 Alaskan dilemma. How do you weigh the immense 00:20:05.740 --> 00:20:08.539 wealth of the earth beneath against the irreplaceable 00:20:08.539 --> 00:20:10.819 value of the pristine wilderness above? Which 00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:13.880 brings us into the 21st century. where Alaska's 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:16.539 defining trait, its extreme isolation, shows 00:20:16.539 --> 00:20:18.839 up in entirely new ways. It really does. When 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:21.420 the COVID -19 pandemic arrived in March 2020, 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:23.960 the geography entirely dictated the response. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:26.140 We saw this vividly in places like Ketchikan, 00:20:26.339 --> 00:20:29.079 a remote coastal town of about 8 ,000 residents 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:31.839 in southeast Alaska. By late March, they had 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:34.619 identified a cluster of cases. And because of 00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:36.819 their limited medical infrastructure and physical 00:20:36.819 --> 00:20:40.279 isolation, the entire town had to strictly shelter 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:42.740 in place. Think about what that means. for you, 00:20:42.900 --> 00:20:44.700 you know, living in a place like that. While 00:20:44.700 --> 00:20:47.119 pipelines and aviation have connected Alaska 00:20:47.119 --> 00:20:50.779 economically, geographically, it remains incredibly 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:52.980 vulnerable. Isolation is a double -edged sword. 00:20:53.339 --> 00:20:55.839 Exactly. It can leave you completely cut off 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:58.640 when global supply lines freeze, just like the 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:01.160 Aleut stranded during the fur trade or the residents 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:04.819 of Autu during World War II. But that same isolation 00:21:04.819 --> 00:21:07.819 demands an incredible level of self -reliance 00:21:07.819 --> 00:21:10.039 and community resilience. Oh, absolutely. When 00:21:10.039 --> 00:21:12.309 you are snowed in, hundreds of miles from the 00:21:12.309 --> 00:21:14.890 nearest major hospital. Your neighbors are literally 00:21:14.890 --> 00:21:17.210 all you have. The physical distance from the 00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:20.130 lower 48 fundamentally shapes the Alaskan character. 00:21:20.509 --> 00:21:23.609 It demands fierce independence, but also a deep 00:21:23.609 --> 00:21:26.890 understanding that survival often requires collective 00:21:26.890 --> 00:21:29.650 effort. So we've gone from the ancient land bridge 00:21:29.650 --> 00:21:33.170 to the modern pandemic, from sea otters to whales 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:36.190 to gold to oil. It's been quite a journey. Alaska's 00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:39.450 entire history. has been defined by these extreme 00:21:39.450 --> 00:21:42.289 boom and bust cycles tightly tethered to extracting 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:45.009 resources for the outside world, which leaves 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:47.829 us with a final thought to mull over today, something 00:21:47.829 --> 00:21:50.950 we all have to wonder about, right? What happens 00:21:50.950 --> 00:21:54.670 to the great land when the global economy inevitably 00:21:54.670 --> 00:21:57.269 transitions away from fossil fuels? That's the 00:21:57.269 --> 00:22:01.049 big question. Will Alaska face its biggest, most 00:22:01.049 --> 00:22:05.109 devastating economic bust yet? Or, in an increasingly 00:22:05.109 --> 00:22:08.769 crowded hyper -connected world, will its 53 million 00:22:08.769 --> 00:22:11.730 acres of preserved national parks, clean water, 00:22:12.029 --> 00:22:14.690 and untouched wilderness become its most priceless 00:22:14.690 --> 00:22:17.490 sustainable commodity? Maybe the quiet kid in 00:22:17.490 --> 00:22:19.390 the back of the classroom still has a few surprises 00:22:19.390 --> 00:22:21.930 left for us. That is a profound question. The 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:24.230 future of Alaska may well depend on whether it 00:22:24.230 --> 00:22:26.390 continues to be valued primarily for what can 00:22:26.390 --> 00:22:28.769 be taken from it or for what can be preserved 00:22:28.769 --> 00:22:30.829 within it. A perfect place to leave it. Thanks 00:22:30.829 --> 00:22:32.170 for taking this deep dive with us.