Chapter 3: Foundations of Human Activity

Early Map of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands

Alaska's First Residents

Native people began to cross the Bering Land Bridge from Asia to Alaska 10,000-20,000 years ago. The people who would become Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida settled in the moist and moderate climate in Alaska's panhandle. Yupik and Inupiaq cultures moved into the western and northern portions of the state. Eyaks occupied an area of the south central coast, and Aleuts moved out the Alaska peninsula and Aleutian chain. Athabaskan s made their new home in the vast heart of the state occupying the Interior boreal forest; a land laced with wetlands and rivers.

European Settlement

The first Europeans to see Alaska were those on Vitus Bering's 1741 Russian exploration. More Russians soon arrived, moving across the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak Island and then to the Inside Passage, where they set up a government at Sitka.The first European settlement was established in 1784 by Russians at Three Saints Bay, near present-day Kodiak. With the arrival of the Russian fur traders.The Russians had gained control of the habitats of the most valuable sea otters, the Kurilian-Kamchatkan and Aleutian sea otters. Their fur was thicker, glossier, and blacker than those of sea otters on the Pacific Northwest Coast and California. The Russians, therefore, advanced to the Northwest Coast only after the superior varieties of sea otters were depleted, around 1788.

Financial difficulties struck  in Russia, the desire to keep Alaska out of British hands, and the low profits of trade with Alaskan settlements all contributed to Russia's willingness to sell its possessions in North America. At the instigation of U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, the United States Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. on August 1, 1867.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0103.html#article
http://cybersalmon.fws.gov/history.htm#section1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Alaska