American Studies 288

Winter Quarter, 2009

ALASKA: THE LAST FRONTIER

Instructor: Julianne Seeman

Email: jseeman@bellevuecollege.edu

Land of adventure and opportunity, complexity and contradictions; a vast wilderness with awesome beauty and incredible wealth, from Russian explorers, to ambitious miners and waves of awestruck tourists, Alaska has lured our hearts, minds and imaginations.

Alaska launched Seattle during the gold rush, and our economies are still closely interconnected. Ted Stevens, until recent Alaska’s lifetime Senator, held regular campaign meetings in downtown Seattle, at the Washington Athletic Club.

Sarah Palin, burst from Wasilla onto the front page of Time Magazine, her initial appeal from Alaskan mystique: brash, independent, wilderness savvy, and beautiful.

What is it about our 49^th state that is so romantic, So mysterious? So compelling?

Historian Frederick Jackson Turner says the Frontier experience defines The United States, the same Frontier spirit boldly announced on Alaska’ yellow and blue license plates and lived daily from Point Barrow to Juneau where bush planes are more common than cars. Isolated, larger than Texas and the only pristine wilderness left in North America, it names the lower 48 ‘outside’

I grew up in the Alaskan bush, 80 miles northeast of Fairbanks, where my father ran a placer gold mine. I love Alaska. And I love the stories that come from the Alaskan people. I hope to share both with you as we explore the history, the people, the stories and the many diverse views and claims of the Last Frontier and in doing so come to a clearer understanding of the frontier soul of America.

Our course will be shaped around the following readings:

• Walter R. Borneman: Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land: From Russian Fur Traders to the Gold Rush, Extraordinary Railroads, World War II, the Oil Book, and the Fight over ANWR.

• Nancy Lord: Survival and Green Alaska

• Velma Wallis: Two Old Women, based on an Athabasca legend, and her memoir, Raising Ourselves.

• Robert Hedin and Gary Holthaus: Alaska: Reflections on Land and Spirit.

• Sue Henry: Murder on the Iditarod trail.

• Nick Jans and Art Wolf, Alaska

• Subhankar Banerjee: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, a photographic essay. Recommended

Course work will include weekly quizzes based on the readings, four short essays, a project and weekly self-evaluations.

Please contact me by email if you have any questions about the course.

State song of Alaska

Alaska’s Flag (written in 1935, published in 1955)

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue --

Alaska's flag. May it mean to you

the blue of the sea, the evening sky,

The mountain lakes, and the flow'rs nearby;

The gold of the early sourdough dreams,

The precious gold of the hills and streams;

The brilliant stars in the northern sky,

The Bear--the Dipper-- and,

shining high, the great North Star with its steady light,

Over land and sea a beacon bright.

Alaska's flag--to Alaskans dear,

The simple flag of a last frontier.