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It's 1741 in the kayak islands of southeastern Alaska.

A cold mist hangs over the water as strange unfamiliar ships appear on the horizon.

They're masked at sails, cutting across routes long-traveled by kayaks and umiacs of indigenous hunters and traders.

From shore, wary eyes watch their progress, already sensing that this arrival will bring uncertain change.

These are not empty lands being discovered.

These are ancient homelands of a diverse society of tribal cultures.

The arrival of Russian colonists in the land we now call Alaska

marks the beginning of an era of profound upheaval that will occur in cycles of violence,

negotiation, and resistance. I'm Don Wildman. Welcome to American History Hit. Our guest today is Professor Thomas Swenson at the University of Utah.

He's the author of Where Next Columbus, a Native punk mixtape, and his newest book, The Great Land, an indigenous history of Alaska, which will be published in October of 2006.

In today's episode, we will be discussing the annexation of Alaska.

Greetings, Thomas. How are you? Great to have you on the show. Thank you, Dawn. Thank you for having me here today. It's a pleasure to speak with you about the annexation of Alaska.

First of all, very basic stuff. This is a big subject, the last frontier, the frozen north. Alaska. Let's start with that. The name we call it. Where does Alaska come from?

Oh, the term Alaska comes from a Unungan word, a la Astak, which means the direction in which

the water flows towards the mainland. So the Yunungan people are the islanders along the

Aleutian chain. And that term aliaskak was then kind of anglicized into this word Alaska.

And yet another interpretation of that word is the Great Land.

So if we think of islanders pointing to this place where the waves are going, right, going

north towards the mainland. And so you have this kind of dual meaning are going, right, going north towards the mainland.

...