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Happy belated Father’s Day! What better way than to celebrate with a few titles of Alaska newspapers worthy of dad jokes? Swipe for some punny newspaper titles in physical form and on microfilm at the Alaska State Library: ... 📷: The November 1987 issue of the Alaska Bar Rag with the headline “Matthews to head High Court.” ... 📷: Masthead of The Kodiak Fish Wrapper and Litter Box Liner, volume 1, number 1 from July 1975, illustrated with a fish wrapped in the pages of publication and a cartoon cat on top of an issue. Text beneath the title reads: “Being a compendium of information, news, social events, advertisements, divertisements [sic] and editorial frolic; Prepared especially for the populace of Kodiak Island and Environs.” ... 📷: Masthead of the Ptarmigan Ptimes, “Serving the people of Adak”, volume 1, no. 1, from the September 22, 1988 issue with the headline “Ptarmigan lands on Adak; The Ptarmigan has landed!” ... 📷: Cover page of volume 1, number 1 of the Yakutattler with an illustrated map of Alaska, published out of Yakutat Landing Field December 1940. ... 📷: Masthead from the December 7, 1995 issue of Not the Wrangell Sentinel, vol. 1 no. 1. with the headline "Situation explained; Sentinel facing trouble." ... 📷: Masthead of the “XMAS” 1899 issue of the Polar Bearings, decorated with an illustration of a gold prospector on a sled in the center of the image with a fellow prospector on the right with a pick axe. ... #DadJokes #HistoricalNewspapers #HappyFathersDay #FathersDay #HistoricAlaskaNewspapers #AdakAlaska #YakutatAlaska #KodiakAlaska #WrangellAlaska #NDNP #Puns #Mastheads #Lol #Digitization #Microfilm #ChroniclingAmerica #OldNewspapers

What goes into the raising of a totem pole? Members of the wolf clan (Yanyeidí) gathered on Douglas Island last week to raise a healing totem pole to remember a shameful chapter of Alaska history. In 1962, the city of Juneau forced the destruction of a native fishing village on Douglas Island by setting fire to the compound to build Douglas Harbor. This totem pole, carved by several talented artists, remembers those whose village and traditional clan objects were burned and livelihood lost. The totem pole’s official name is Yanyeidí Kootéeyaa, or wolf pole, after a specific clan of the Eagle moiety of the Tlingit tribe, and was designed by a committee of Elders from Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the Douglas Indian Association. Lead carver Nicholas Galanin explains the meaning behind the design: “A Yanyeidí clansman sits atop the pole, holding a spear as both a defender of his lands and a hunter. Below that are the giant brothers of legend who are represented by the two high mountain peaks that are visible as one enters the Taku River basin. Between the two figures of these brothers is a section signifying the Taku River itself. It will have salmon carved into it and a heart in the middle, representing an island in the river between the two mountains. The next figure below the brothers is a bear holding a copper shield, which represents truth, strength, endurance, longevity and spiritual vision. Below the bear is the sun, representing the village in Douglas that was burned down. The village was located in the part of Douglas where the sun shone first as it rose. At the bottom of the pole is a wolf, holding up the pole.” … 📷: Wolf totem on the ground with a crane in the background. … 📷: Totem pole supported and lifted by a crane. … 📷: Yanyeidí culture bearer Ben Coronell inserting the first two bolts securing the pole in place. … 📷: Detail from base of totem pole. … 📷: Detail from midsection of totem pole. … 📷: Detail from top of totem pole. … 📷: Crowd surrounding raised totem pole. … 📷: Photo of a totem pole on the cover of the Dec 1910 issue of The Thlinget. … #TotemPole #AlaskaNative #NativeAmerican #JuneauAlaska #Tlingit #Yanyeidí

This week marks Celebration, an event in Juneau held annually since 1982, that honors Alaska Native art, culture, and traditions. The Coming Ashore ceremony is the unofficial start, during which nine canoes paddle into Sandy Beach on Douglas Island from Ketchikan, Sitka, and all over Southeast Alaska and respond to welcoming calls from tribe members on shore. The Thlinget, a newspaper published in Sitka between 1908-1912, dealt primarily with “the interests of the Native People of Alaska”. Given that newspapers during this time were almost exclusively written by and for white populations, The Thlinget offers a valuable (and often missing) perspective. ... 📷: A photo collage of the nine canoes that paddled into Douglas Harbor on June 5. ... 📷: An article describing a flotilla of canoes arriving to a feast in Fort Wrangell in 1896 published in the April 1909 issue of The Thlinget. Selected portion of the text reads: “…The second morning a canoe appeared with word that the guests, having passed through a heavy rain storm were on a near island drying their clothes. A delegation of home natives in four large canoes went over to see what time they might be expected, and upon learning, came back to dress for the reception. All white people were asked to leave for the present. When the white people retired there were probably fifty yards of canvas raised as a shield behind which the main preparation went on. In a short time the strangers approached. There were seven large canoes lashed side by side with twenty four in each. In the bow of each stood a chief dressed richly, and while the colors were somewhat extravagant, they were all worn gracefully. Each chief held a beautiful silk flag, not letting it wave, but holding the flag down to the staff.” ... #Celebration #JuneauAlaska #SitkaAlaska #Tlingit #Haida #Canoe #AlaskaNative #NativeAmerican #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeCulture #HistoricalNewspapers #Digitization #Microfilm #NDNP #ChroniclingAmerica #NewspapersOnline

🐋🐋🐋 ... Last week’s unveiling of the Thaku whale statue at Mayor Bill Overstreet Park at the Seawalk in Juneau points to the majesty of these charismatic megafauna in the wild, as well as their legacy as a vital food source for native Alaskans. Funded by the Whale Project in celebration of 50 years of statehood, artist R.T. “Skip” Wallen sculpted Thaku from measurements from a beached whale, and created a mold that later became the bronze humpback whale statue. In Alaska, indigenous subsistence whaling remains a cultural tradition, with the International Whaling Commission granting native communities special permissions to continue subsistence whale hunts. The ubiquity of whales makes appearances in historic newspapers, too: As reported in 1908 by the Daily Alaskan newspaper in Skagway, a whale from Sitka struck a schooner and caused it to capsize! ... 📷: Thaku whale statue in Juneau. ... 📷: Text reads: “Sitka Whale Swats Launch: (United Press Telegram-Cable Service.) Sitka, Jan. 28- An exciting adventure and one which almost cost the lives of the parties to it is the topic of this town today. Captain William R. Hanlon, while navigating a gasoline launch from Sitka, to Silver bay carrying provisions to the Bauer silver mines at that place encountered a whale. The captain was loaded for whale, his rifle was in action at once. Four shots were well placed near where the whale lived before the whale began to take notice. Then the whale woke up to the situation and behaved like that other whale in the South Sea which the comic opera tells about, and struck out with his tail, The little schooner received a severe side wallop and went clear over, the crew and the cargo being flopped out into the sea. Captain Hanlon was quite severely injured and it was only through the most heroic efforts of Charley Haley that he was kept above water, Haley clinging the while to the side of the overturned schooner, until a party of miners from shore, who had seen the accident, came to their rescue in a small boat. The whale went about his business.” ... #Whales #JuneauAlaska #ThakuWhaleStatue #HistoricNewspapers #HumpbackWhale #BowheadWhale #SitkaAlaska #🐋 #1908 #SkagwayAlaska

One century ago, this article addressed the intersection between #Education and #Race in #SoutheastAlaska. Schools in Alaska were still segregated in 1918, with white students attending schools separate from schools for indigenous children. The U.S. Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted full citizenship to native Alaskan children, but many schools in the Territory still refused to admit indigenous students. Tlingit leader William Paul acted on behalf of native students in 1929 in a lawsuit against the Ketchikan school board, and the courts ruled in favor of school integration. ... 📷: "Final Examinations and End of School Term Are In Sight for Present Week: School days for Juneau are nearly ended, and for some of the pupils of the Juneau school the next two days will mean change from school children to men and women of the world. No longer may they be addressed as “school kids”, they are graduates, if you please. On Thursday the last of the examinations will be held and on Friday the pupils of the lower grades will report during the day for their report cards. Today and tomorrow the final examinations will be under way. Many of the children who received enough credit marks in their studies are not being required to take examinations. Thursday evening the commencement exercises will be held in the High School Auditorium and the school year will end on Friday the entire day being devoted to the Senior High School picnic, plans for which are now being perfected. Already white children born and educated in Alaska are holding positions of honor and trust, some of them with the Government in the present war, and each year an increasing number of Alaskans are taking part in world’s affairs. It seems but a few years that the first public school was established in Alaska and the first white child born in Alaska was “played up” in the newspapers as an event. Now every year larger graduating classes are being turned out from the various public schools and the young men and women are rapidly qualifying for the larger work that must be done to carve out another State for the Union.” ... 📷: Graduates from Juneau High School, class of 1918. ... #HistoricNewspaper #Graduation

This month’s Chronicling America Party celebrates #MomsInHistory, and who better to acknowledge than Harriet “Ma” Pullen, the pioneering woman made a name for herself through her business acumen. Harriet Pullen first ventured to Skagway, Alaska to seek her fortune during the Gold Rush in 1897 and provided for her family by baking apple pies. This enabled her to ship her horses from Washington state to haul freight for miners over the White Pass Trail. She later purchased a mansion from her prior employer and rented out rooms in what became known as the Pullen House, Skagway’s luxurious bed and breakfast. Her sons Dan and Royal became decorated veterans in the first World War, and because of her dedication to the army in sending beef from her cattle ranch in Dyea, Alaska, she was awarded the title of Alaska’s War Mother. Today, all that remains of the Pullen House is a stone chimney, but the spirit of Ma Pullen lives on in Alaska history. ... 📷: Harriet Pullen stands in front of the Pullen House circa 1900 in a white dress and hat, with a view of the green house and garden on the property. (Alaska State Library- Historical Collections) ... 📷: News article from the Alaska Daily Empire reads: “Col. Pullen of Skagway is Again Honored: Alaskan Has Been Decorated by the King of Belgium, in Addition to Other Honors. Seattle, April 12– A letter has been received here saying that the King of Belgium decorated Col. Dan D. Pullen of Skagway, Alaska. The reason for conferring the honor on the Alaskan is not given. Seattle friends of Col. Pullen have closely followed the rapid promotion of the Skagway boy ever since he entered the army. He is the son of Mrs. Harriet S. Pullen, who has gained fame in the North for her enterprise in farming and other industrial work." ... #ChronAmParty #PullenHouse #SkagwayAlaska #AlaskaGoldRush #HarrietPullen #MaPullen #AlaskasDigitalArchives #HistoricNewspapers #NDNP #DyeaAlaska #AlaskaHistoricalCollections #Digitization #Microfilm

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