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Photo courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, reprinted in the Pacific Marine Environmental Library, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Whaling in icy waters, c. 1880s
The first documented Black presence in Alaska occurred as early as the 1840s and 50s when whalers arrived from New England. The famously diverse whaling crews included immigrants, free men of color, and the formerly enslaved. Whaling crews often had rocky relations with Alaska’s Indigenous peoples, who relied on whales for subsistence rather than commercial purposes. For the Black men who joined whaling crews in the latter half of the 19th century, the job was often among the best they could hope to find in an era rife with discrimination and racism.
When commercial whaling and seal harvest began to endanger the livelihood of Indigenous Alaskans, Michael A. Healy, a renowned Captain of the US Revenue Cutter Service (later known as the US Coast Guard), devised a plan to introduce Siberian reindeer to the region. This helped prevent the starvation of Alaska Native peoples due to commercial overfishing of their waters. Healy was also the first Black man to command a ship of the US government.
Alaska & Polar Regions Collections and Archives, University of Alaska Fairbanks (66-10-136n)
Black whalers posing for a photo at Point Barrow, c. 1900s
The first documented Black presence in Alaska occurred as early as the 1840s and 50s when whalers arrived from New England. The famously diverse whaling crews included immigrants, free men of color, and the formerly enslaved. Whaling crews often had rocky relations with Alaska’s Indigenous peoples, who relied on whales for subsistence rather than commercial purposes. For the Black men who joined whaling crews in the latter half of the 19th century, the job was often among the best they could hope to find in an era rife with discrimination and racism.
When commercial whaling and seal harvest began to endanger the livelihood of Indigenous Alaskans, Michael A. Healy, a renowned Captain of the US Revenue Cutter Service (later known as the US Coast Guard), devised a plan to introduce Siberian reindeer to the region. This helped prevent the starvation of Alaska Native peoples due to commercial overfishing of their waters. Healy was also the first Black man to command a ship of the US government.
National Park Service, NPS SAFR P00.2178x
William Shorey and his wife, Julia Ann Shelton Shorey, and daughters, Zenobia Pearl and Victoria, c. 1890s
While most whalers endured one or two journeys at sea and then moved on to other pursuits, a few ascended the ranks of the whaling industry and emerged quite wealthy. One of these men, William Shorey, amassed considerable wealth captaining whaling ships from the Gulf of Alaska to the islands of the South Pacific. By the end of his life, he and his wife, Julia Ann Shelton Shorey, and their two children, were among San Francisco’s leading families.
Alaska State Library Collection, F.B. Bourn Photograph Collection, ca. 1899, ASL-P99-168
Company L of the 24th Infantry Division marching in a Skagway parade, 1899
A generation after the Treaty of Cession with Russia in 1867, thousands of fortune seekers traveled north in search of gold. By 1899, the Southeast Alaska towns of Skagway and Dyea were largely overrun with ill-prepared settlers and prospectors eager to reach the gold fields of the territory’s interior and Canada’s Yukon. Black soldiers, many of whom participated in the forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains region, were known as Buffalo soldiers. In Alaska, Buffalo soldiers provided law enforcement, shelter, and other basic services, keeping a lid on the volatile town of Skagway for over two years before the gold rushers moved on to the next big strike. A few Black soldiers even caught gold fever and participated in the bonanza upon completing their deployment.
Alaska State Library Collection, William R. Norton Photographs, ca. 1890-1920, ASL-P226-867
Six soldiers with three halibut, Skagway, c. 1896-1913
A generation after the Treaty of Cession with Russia in 1867, thousands of fortune seekers traveled north in search of gold. By 1899, the Southeast Alaska towns of Skagway and Dyea were largely overrun with ill-prepared settlers and prospectors eager to reach the gold fields of the territory’s interior and Canada’s Yukon. Black soldiers, many of whom participated in the forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains region, were known as Buffalo soldiers. In Alaska, Buffalo soldiers provided law enforcement, shelter, and other basic services, keeping a lid on the volatile town of Skagway for over two years before the gold rushers moved on to the next big strike. A few Black soldiers even caught gold fever and participated in the bonanza upon completing their deployment.
Alaska State Library Collection, William R. Norton Photographs, ca. 1890-1920, ASL-P226-868
Company L of the 24th Infantry Division, Dyea, Alaska, 1899
A generation after the Treaty of Cession with Russia in 1867, thousands of fortune seekers traveled north in search of gold. By 1899, the Southeast Alaska towns of Skagway and Dyea were largely overrun with ill-prepared settlers and prospectors eager to reach the gold fields of the territory’s interior and Canada’s Yukon. Black soldiers, many of whom participated in the forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains region, were known as Buffalo soldiers. In Alaska, Buffalo soldiers provided law enforcement, shelter, and other basic services, keeping a lid on the volatile town of Skagway for over two years before the gold rushers moved on to the next big strike. A few Black soldiers even caught gold fever and participated in the bonanza upon completing their deployment.
Bassoc Photograph Collection, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Black miners working a claim on Dominion Creek, Alaska, c. 1890s
A generation after the Treaty of Cession with Russia in 1867, thousands of fortune seekers traveled north in search of gold. By 1899, the Southeast Alaska towns of Skagway and Dyea were largely overrun with ill-prepared settlers and prospectors eager to reach the gold fields of the territory’s interior and Canada’s Yukon. Black soldiers, many of whom participated in the forced removal of Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains region, were known as Buffalo soldiers. In Alaska, Buffalo soldiers provided law enforcement, shelter, and other basic services, keeping a lid on the volatile town of Skagway for over two years before the gold rushers moved on to the next big strike. A few Black soldiers even caught gold fever and participated in the bonanza upon completing their deployment.
Anchorage Museum, Bessie Couture Collection, B1987.2.44c
Portrait of Bessie Couture, late 19th to early 20th century
Bessie Couture was the first Black person to own a business in Alaska. Her first restaurant was called The Kitchen, which she ran during the Klondike Gold Rush between 1897 and 1900 in Skagway. Her second restaurant, co-owned with her husband, was the Broadway Restaurant and Bakery, also in Skagway, which served customers in the 1920s.
Despite her remarkable achievements, there is not much information in the historical record about Bessie Couture. A letter from the donor of these archival images, as well as a marriage license housed in the University of Alaska Anchorage/Alaska Pacific University Consortium Library provide some clues that help shed light on her story. We know that she married Frenchman William Couture in 1920, and they both lived in Skagway working as cooks. We also know that she was twice married prior to William. The first marriage ended in divorce, and the second marriage, to a man named Kendall, ended in tragedy with his death in the shipwreck of The Princess Sophia in 1918.
Alaska State Library Collection, H. Marion Thornton Photographs, 1942-1945, ASL-P338-0799
Soldiers baking and pancake serving, Dutch Harbor, c. 1942-1945
In June 1942, the Japanese attacked and occupied the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu, the only North American land invaded by enemy forces during World War II. In response, Black soldiers constructed runways and set up encampments in preparation for a counteroffensive to retake the islands in the spring of 1943. Due to the racist belief that Black troops were unfit for combat, they also prepared meals and worked the mess halls. These labor battalions, as they were known, served an essential function throughout the Aleutian Islands campaign and paved the way for Black veterans to serve as a vanguard for an emerging civil rights movement.
Alaska State Library Collection, Fred B. Dodge Photograph Collection, 1943, ASL-P42-100
One of the Black Engineers who broke the route of the new Alaska Highway, 1942
Black soldiers arrived in Alaska and Canada from other regions in the US to construct key sections of the nearly 1400-mile Alaska Highway. More of a rustic gravel road than a modern superhighway, the ALCAN was among the biggest wartime infrastructure projects in North America and precipitated Alaska’s position as a strategic location during and after World War II. Black soldiers composed 40 percent of the workforce and completed the most strenuous stretches of the road, including a bridge over the treacherous Sikanni Chief River in British Columbia. They did so without power tools or mechanical equipment. Temperatures in the winter fell to fifty below zero and exceeded 90 degrees in the summer.
Anchorage Museum, Candace Waugaman Collection, B1998.25.192
Black troops in Attu mess area, Aleutians, c. 1942-1945
After the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands in 1942, the urgency of the war effort necessitated Black involvement, despite efforts to maintain segregation in the nation’s military. Over the next three years, Black soldiers demonstrated valor on and off the battlefield, despite being targets of derision and racism. Many of the soldiers who participated in the construction of the Alaska Highway assisted in the Aleutian Campaign, the bloodiest setting of the war’s North American theatre.
The conflict in the Aleutians was devastating for the Indigenous Unangax̂ people, who were removed from their ancestral homelands in a measure the US military justified as necessary to conduct the war. For the Black troops who served in the Aleutians, however, the campaign was an opportunity to demonstrate their centrality to the war effort and bolster their claims to full and equal citizenship.
Diane Johnson Collection, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin
Novelist Dashiell Hammett with the integrated staff of The Adakian c. 1942-43
After the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands in 1942, the urgency of the war effort necessitated Black involvement, despite efforts to maintain segregation in the nation’s military. Over the next three years, Black soldiers demonstrated valor on and off the battlefield, despite being targets of derision and racism. Many of the soldiers who participated in the construction of the Alaska Highway assisted in the Aleutian Campaign, the bloodiest setting of the war’s North American theatre.
The conflict in the Aleutians was devastating for the Indigenous Unangax̂ people, who were removed from their ancestral homelands in a measure the US military justified as necessary to conduct the war. For the Black troops who served in the Aleutians, however, the campaign was an opportunity to demonstrate their centrality to the war effort and bolster their claims to full and equal citizenship.
Anchorage Museum, Ed Wesley Collection, B2021.004.50
Map of the Alaska-Canada Highway, 1994
After the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands in 1942, the urgency of the war effort necessitated Black involvement, despite efforts to maintain segregation in the nation’s military. Over the next three years, Black soldiers demonstrated valor on and off the battlefield, despite being targets of derision and racism. Many of the soldiers who participated in the construction of the Alaska Highway assisted in the Aleutian Campaign, the bloodiest setting of the war’s North American theatre.
The conflict in the Aleutians was devastating for the Indigenous Unangax̂ people, who were removed from their ancestral homelands in a measure the US military justified as necessary to conduct the war. For the Black troops who served in the Aleutians, however, the campaign was an opportunity to demonstrate their centrality to the war effort and bolster their claims to full and equal citizenship.