Settling Alaska: 47 Photographs From When Americans Moved Up North

When the first Americans settled into Alaska, the land and the natives who lived in it went through some profound changes.

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A child native to Alaska.

Alaska. 1905.Library of Congress

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Eskimos dance near Nome.

Nome, Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A young boy raises his fist into the air on the beaches of Alaska.

Alaska. 1906.Library of Congress

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An eskimo shaman, dressed in a elaborate costume, tries to exorcise the evil spirits plaguing a young boy.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A group of Alaskan natives climbs out of their winter home, buried halfway under the ground and under a thick layer of snow.

Stebbins, Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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The Klondike Gold Rush sends up a rash of people from the American South, looking to get rich quick.

Nome, Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A family waits for breakfast inside their tent.

Nome, Alaska. 1916.Library of Congress

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An Alaskan reindeer team pulls a sleigh.

Alaska. 1922.Library of Congress

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Petroleum seeping through the ground lures in a group of oil men from the south.

Point Barrow, Alaska. 1900-1923.Library of Congress

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A native family poses outside of their leather hut.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A miner and his dogs ride the rail cart into Nome.

Alaska, 1912.Library of Congress

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A young boy with a defiant stare.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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An elderly woman cleaning the hair off of an animal hide.

Nome, Alaska. 1929.Library of Congress

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A mother nurses her child outside of their tent.

Alaska. 1907.Library of Congress

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A woman making snow shoes.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A shipment of goods is prepared to send south.

Petersburg, Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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An old witch doctor sits at the base of a totem pole.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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An ivory carver at work.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A train ploughs its way through an avalanche of snow.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A young Eskimo girl.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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An early shipment of US mail makes it all the way to Alaska, transported across the arctic on a horse-driven sleigh.

Nome, Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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Women skin a seal.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A group of Eskimo men hunts walruses.

Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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A young girl poses in front of a growing community.

Sitka, Alaska. 1897-1901.Wikimedia Commons

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A mother poses with her child, who is resting in her hood.

Alaska. 1906.Library of Congress

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A young child climbs over a block of wood.

Alaska. 1905.Library of Congress

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A group of children plays on sleighs.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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Young boys practice carpentry inside of a workshop.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A man holds the toy boat he made for his son.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A hunter poses with the bear he killed.

Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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An Eskimo man sits down to read The Saturday Evening Post.

Alaska. 1913.Library of Congress

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Two men pose with their bear pelts.

Snow River, Alaska. 1906.Library of Congress

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A harnessed moose waits outside a tepee.

Alaska. 1916Library of Congress

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A group of men cut up a blue whale.

Alaska, 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A classroom full of young girls learns how to snow.

Barrow Point, Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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An Eskimo woman.

Alaska. 1915.Library of Congress

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A child plays with a washtub.

Alaska. 1905.Library of Congress

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Two men pose with the ancient bones of mastodons.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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A group of hunters poses by the head of a whale.

Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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A mining company opens up operations.

Glacier Creek, Alaska. 1910.Library of Congress

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Men at work inside of the Treadwell Gold Mine.

Nome, Alaska. 1916.Library of Congress

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A family sits at the entrance of their tent.

Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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A shirtless man smokes a pipe inside of his home.

Alaska. 1900-1927.Library of Congress

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The home of an Alaskan family, with fish drying on the line.

Alaska. 1929.Library of Congress

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A hydraulic gold mine opens.

Alaska. 1900-1923.Library of Congress

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Eskimo women sit on the newly built streets selling berries.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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Alaskan Gothic.

Alaska. 1900-1930.Library of Congress

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Settling Alaska: 47 Photographs From When Americans Moved Up North

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The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. From that moment on, the future of a great northern territory -- and its original inhabitants -- changed forever.

Russians had lived in Alaska before, but most moved out after their land was sold to an expanding world power. Soon, just a few old houses and churches were all that could ever indicate Russian presence in the great north of the Americas. Other than a few army bases and the homes of native tribes, Alaska was all but empty.

Then the Gold Rush began. People -- some estimates have it at 100,000 -- rushed up north in search of their fortune and set up some of the first American Arctic towns, like Skagway and Nome. Americans were settling Alaska and starting to turn it into the state we know today.

They weren’t the only people there -- or even the first Americans, for that matter. At the time Russia formally ceded Alaska to the U.S., around 30,000 natives lived in the sprawling state -- far more than the non-native population. They had their own customs and cultures -- as they had had for thousands of years -- but with the Americans moving in en masse to their country, their land was changing whether they liked it or not.

Many, of course, did not like it at all. As Maj. Gen. Jefferson Davis wrote in 1869, the natives "frequently take occasion to express their dislike at not having been consulted about the transfer of the territory. They do not like the idea of the whites settling in their midst without being subjected to their jurisdiction, in some instances they have expressed a determination to exact tribute for the privilege of trading among them."

That same year, a U.S. Treasury report wrote that the Tlingits -- one of several native tribes in the region -- believed "that their fathers originally owned all the country, but allowed the Russians to occupy it for their mutual benefit, in that articles desired by them could be obtained from the Russians in exchange for furs."

Any semblance of mutuality was lost upon the transfer of land possession, however. According to the Treaty of Cession, any Russians who opted to remain in Alaska would be admitted to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States.” The natives — which the treaty called “uncivilized” — did not receive the same privileges.

Nevertheless, development forged on. To make way for gold and copper mines, settlers used dynamite and blew expanses of Alaskan earth to bits. Whaling and fishing businesses plucked out the food supply and catastrophically dwindled the animal population. And more and more natives started moving into American towns, learning trades and sending their children to schools set up by Christian missionaries.

Today, natives make up just under 16 percent of Alaska's population -- compared to approximately 100 percent before the lands' occupation by the Russians and Americans. Around a quarter of these natives live in poverty -- more than double that of the general population. The pictures offer insight into a state and a population on the cusp of economic and cultural transformation -- and one that does not always yield benefits for all.

Life, for the natives of the north, has gone through some incredible changes. Find out how much the lives of Canada's Inuit has changed or how an entire tribe disappeared.