Activity 1: Alaska Timeline

On St. John's Day, officials of the Russian-American Company witness a volcanic eruption in the Bering Sea.

The find by George Washington Carmack, Skookum Jim, and Tagish Charlie led to the founding of Dawson City.

A trading post was established on the Chena River, a tributary of the Tanana. Its boosters named it Fairbanks, after Indiana Senator Charles Fairbanks, who later became Teddy Roosevelt's VP.

From 1880-1890, Juneau's mines produced over $17 million in gold, trumping Sitka's fur industry.

An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities was passed by the U. S. Congress on June 8, 1906. (34 STAT.L.225) It provides penalties for the removal, defacement, etc. of antiquities on ground controlled by the Federal Government such as the National Parks, Monuments and Forests of Alaska. Fines of $500 and/or 6 months imprisonment are provided. (AFTC)

An Act Authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to allot homesteads to the Natives of Alaska

People in Juneau, 750 miles away, head the blast, and sulfuric fumes reached south to Vancouver, BC.

One year prior, surveyors traveled north to study routes for the Alaska railroad. Woodrow Wilson ruled in favor of extending the existing Alaska Central track.

Between 1915-1919, botanist Robert Fiske Griggs led four expeditions into Katmai. Due to the vast basin of sulfur vents that looked like ash-covered moonscape, he nicknamed the area "Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes." It was Griggs' reports to the National Geographic Society that led to President Wilson's declaration as a national monument.

Alaska was the first new state since Arizona in 1912, eight months ahead of Hawaii.

Alaska Natives organize to protest "Project Chariot" - a plan to use nuclear weapons to blast an artificial harbor into existence in Northwest Alaska.

Atlantic Richfield geologists discover a field with a capacity approaching 10 billion barrels- the country's greatest oil find.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act becomes law with the important provision that Alaska Native would be able to continue traditional use of marine mammals.

This law helped settle land claims by the state and Natives related to statehood in 1959 and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

The New Archangel Seminary opened with 54 students, three teachers, and a library. 23 of the students were Alaska Natives and the curriculum included six years of Native languages- Aleut, Tlingit, and Yupik.

The move from Sitka to Yakutsk was made to strengthen the missionary effort in that area.

The Swedish Evangelical, Moravian, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Congregational, and Roman Catholic Churches establish schools throughout Alaska

From 1867-1884, Alaska had a barely existing civic government. Jackson became convinced that Natives could only be sheltered from liquor and exploitation via wholesale political and educational reform for whites and Natives alike.

The funds were never put into use as no agency was found to administer them.

First School in Alaska established by the Russians at Three Saints Bay-Kodiak Island.

Along with Jackson were Amanda R. McFarland, a white lay worker, and Sarah Dickinson. Dickinson was a Tongass Tlingit Native woman that translated for S. Hall Young and was educated by William Duncan, and later became a Christian educator so as to help their people face the challenges visited on them.

The couple was commissioned by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions to open a school in Klukwan, 30 miles from the Willards' mission where Sarah Dickinson was a translator/teacher.

Funds for education in Alaska appropriated to be distributed among the existing mission schools

For the next 20 years, Jackson's goal was to protect young Natives within a framework of law and, through education, prepare them to cope with modern times.

The Board of Education in Alaska was directed to prescribe a course of study for all government schools.

Frances (Fannie) Willard, a Tlingit woman whom missionaries named for the famous Presbyterian worker active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Subsidizing of mission schools discontinued. Federal Bureau of Education took over most mission schools.

The Alaska School Service developed a tentative course of study for the schools of Alaska.

1917-1919 The first boarding schools established by Catholic, Moravian, and Lutheran Churches. Federal boarding school was established at White Mountain.

This was a significant act in what the Orthodox perceive as a government-sponsored and supported campaign against Orthodox and Native culture in Alaska. This suppression of Orthodox and Native culture teachings would continue without letup until the 1970s.

A policy and programming of industrial training for boarding pupils was initiated.

A more formal and permanent course of study for the first eight grades in Alaska

The American Legion, Department of Alaska, announced a contest in school grades 7-12 to design a flag for Alaska. Benny Benson’s design was winner in a field of 142 and in May, 1927 The Territorial Legislature made it official. Benny received $1,000 which he spent on his education and an inscribed watch which later he gave to the State Museum.

Federal Bureau of Education field administrative headquarters moved from Seattle, Wash. to Juneau, Alaska

After the Presbyterian General Assembly held in Cincinnati in 1930 declared women eligible to be elected church elders, the Native Presbyterian Church of Wrangell made Tillie Paul Tamaree an elder. Thus she became one of the first women in the U.S. to hold such a position.

Control of education among the Natives of Alaska was transferred to the Office of Indian Affairs. Became known as the Alaska Indian Service.

Elizabeth grew up with them in Petersburg and Ketchikan, Alaska. She attended Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, and the Western College of Education in Bellingham, Washington (now part of Western Washington University).

Mt. Edgecumbe, a former military installation is opened as a boarding school for Alaska Natives, operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Johnson O'Malley Act provides for the transfer of schools in Alaska to the administrative control of the Territory.

to improve consultant services to teachers.

First edition of "We Teach in Alaska" issued to provide a manual for BIA teachers in Alaska's remote schools.

First area-wide in-service training program for Principal-Teachers emphasizing community relations and development of Native leadership.

First secondary level program in a BIA day school established with opening of 9th grade at Unalakleet.

Supplemental nutrition program changed to provide complete school lunch. Agreement that education is a State and local responsibility.

The Tundra Times established, the first state wide newspaper devoted to representing the views and issues of Alaska Natives.

Governor's Committee issues first report entitled "An Overall Education Plan for Rural Alaska" as a basis for cooperative relationship of BIA and State of Alaska.

Area-wide workshop for primary teachers with emphasis on teaching English to children as a second language.

William E. Beltz School opens as first State-operated regional boarding high school. Teacher aides provided in BIA day schools. Special education program introduced at Hooper Bay.

Area-wide workshop for all education personnel emphasizing the linguistic method in teaching English as a Second language.

School Boards contract for instruction in cultural and linguistic heritage

Full high school program at Kotzebue Community School established

Bureau's first pre-school programs for 2- and 3-year-olds. Administration of program funding at Agency level established.

Modeled in many respects on the urban school districts in state with the allowance of local school boards to set many policies in their schools.

The so-called "Molly Hootch" (Tobeluk vs. Lind) case is settled with the commitment by the state to provide local schools for Alaska Native communities as it had in predominately white communities in the state.