History of Alaska

Common card · No. 231748

The history of Alaska dates back to the Upper Paleolithic period (around 14,000 BC), when foraging groups crossed the Bering land bridge into what is now western Alaska. At the time of European contact by the Russian explorers, the area was populated by Alaska Native groups. The name "Alaska" derives from the Aleut word Alaxsxaq (also spelled Alyeska), meaning "mainland" or "continent" (literally, "the object toward which the action of the sea is directed"). While initially used to refer solely to the Alaska Peninsula, the name eventually broadened to represent the entirety of Alaska. The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. In the 1890s, gold rushes in Alaska and the nearby Yukon Territory brought thousands of miners and settlers to Alaska. Alaska was granted territorial status in 1912 by the United States of America. In 1942, two of the outer Aleutian Islands—Attu and Kiska—were occupied by the Japanese Navy during World War II and their recovery for the U.S. became a matter of...

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