In the latter half of the 20th century the State of Alaska hosted numerous regional periodicals, most notably the Tundra Times, managed by artist Howard Rock. There was also the Kadiak Times, a community-based newspaper, serving the Kodiak, Alaska Archipelago from 1976 into the early 1980s. Over the course of its life it was published and co-owned by numerous people including Alaska political leader Alan Austerman.
The October 24, 1986 issue, pictured above, belongs to my personal archive because it lends significant detail about the history of the Woody Island Ice Company. The United States included approximately 200,000 dollars for the ice company contracts in its of payment 7,200,000 dollars to the Russia from the ownership of the region. The Woody Island Ice Company served the contiguous part of the nation for decades. More than being a purveyor of history, the Kadiak Times was also a place for local communities to reach out to its members.
Above is an installment of the "Pista Pilipiniana Bali Balita," section from the Kadiak Times written by Manby Narra, on behalf of the Fil-Am Association of Kodiak. The article is written twice once in Tagalog and another in English set beside one another. In the column Narra congratulates the parents of a new born as well as mentioning that celebrities, pop singer and actress Pilita Corrales, actress Jackie Lou Blanco, and Corrales' partner Amado Del Paraguay, would be visiting Kodiak. In closing Narra reminds readers to pay their association dues. The brief "Pista Pilipiniana Bali -- Balita" provides informative insight into the life of the Kodiak Filipino community in the 1980s.
A 1953 portrait of a two women, Tlingit and Filipina, at the Seward Sanitorium, a vocational training center. "Esmailka" under the female on the left, and "Auelino" under the female on the right. uaa-hmc-1148-1-53
Many people unfamilar with Alaska may not know that most southern coastal towns, and villages, hold sizable if not predominant Filipino populations. The late Alaskan political activist and historian Thelma Garcia Buchholdt, who served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1974-1982, wrote the compelling Filipinos in Alaska 1788-1958, documenting Filipino participation in the development of Alaska. In the sixteenth century, Filipino sailors accompanied Spanish galleons throughout the Pacific, including stops along the Alaska coast. Buchholdt marks that a "Manila Man" was on board a ship that docked in the newly Christened "Cook Inlet" in 1788. These "Manila Men" took part in the development of nineteenth century the whaling in Alaskan waters. In the previous blog post Three Thousand Filipinos and the William Lewis Paul Papers I briefly discussed that Filipinos, who became known as Alaskeros, were active in the burgeoning early twentieth-century fishing industrial complex in Alaska. These communities also worked in Alaska mines, as well.
During the late nineteenth century, capital investments in new canning techniques changed the rapidity and safety in the process of fish canning at an industrial level. This advancement allowed many large-scale companies to set up shop in southern Alaska. In the growth of the industry hundreds if not thousands of Alaskeros worked in the cannery slime-lines and packing houses by 1911. At the University of Washington Special Collections are the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 archive that document some of the work the Alaskeros performed in canneries. Founded in 1933 the union represented mainly Filipino workers throughout the Pacific American coast, many of them in Alaska canneries. I've spent a couple of days sifting through the extensive union records and find them quite a fascinating collection.
I grew up in the Kodiak neighborhood of the Aleutian Homes, which since I have been alive has been an area where many Filipinos live. Above is a short documentary by James Guilas about the history of the Aleutian Homes and how and when Filipinos moved there. Guilas talks about the size of the Filipino population in Kodiak as being 30 percent when he put this together, but the last I've read its between 35 and 41 percent, since he made the film.
Last March I spent a few days at the University of Washington library archive in Seattle. My incredible cousin David generously allowed me to stay with him. When he was a teenager he worked enrolling people for the claims settlement. Not only was it great to spend time with my cousin but to stay with him is to learn so much about what was happening in the Kodiak area amid the settlement era. At the archive I investigated the William Lewis Paul and William Lackey Paul papers. William Lewis Paul, 1885 – 1977, was a Tlingit attorney, activist, and Alaska territorial legislator who participated in most aspects of Alaska life for almost a century. His son William Lackey Paul, 1926 – 1972, was also an attorney and activist, most notably he was part of the legal team which brought Tee Hit Ton v. United States to the Supreme Court in 1955. The two are often referred to as William Paul, Sr. and William Paul, Jr. even though their middle names are distinct from one another.
Group portrait of the [men in the] Paul family; from left: William Paul, Jr.; William Paul, Sr.; and Frederick Paul. Collection Name: Alaska Native Organizations. Photographs. ASL-PCA-33 Identifier:ASL-P33-31
Paul Sr. was a survivor of Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Some attribute his political drive and philosophies to the coercive power of Richard Henry Pratt's maniacal techniques that attempted to snuff out Indigenous cultural values from Native children and young adults. Reading through the archive I found the letters and speeches of a very brave person whose actions and ideas centered around the general welfare of Native Alaska. The trajectory of his life proves breathtaking. Throughout his career he worked within a political structure bent on denying Native people their humanity and his papers reflect a host of complex positions and maneuvers that would intrigue any student of political history. My ambition in the archive was to help myself paste together the movement that lead to Tee hit Ton so I could simply understand it for myself. From the 1920s to the the end of the 1940s Paul was embroiled in a host of developments that I found very useful for my work. The research into his papers helped me finish an article that I'm sending out Monday. Paul Jr.'s papers embodied a more formal collection of letters and writings and may be featured in a future post.
This post concerns a document I found in Paul Sr.'s papers that speaks to the intertwined history of Native Alaska with the Filipino and Filipino American communities residing in region.
4th of July - Filipino float, 1958. (Juneau, Alaska) Collection Name: Caroline Jensen. Photographs, 1948-1972. ASL-PCA-417 IdentifierASL-P417-123 Photographer: Jensen, Caroline
There is a long history of migration around the Pacific Rim, into Alaska, with Filipino people. A student of literature would find this documented in Carlos Bulosan's America is In the Heart. The Kadiak Times used to publish a column in tagalog. Kodiak's non-seasonal population now stands with those of Filipino descent as a majority. This present state draws from the development of the industrial fishing complex, as well as mining and logging, from the late 19th century. These systems required a flexible and exploitable labor force who would do the back-breaking work that such enterprises entail inorder to produce a profit. As a result, there are strong and vibrant Filipino communities throughout Alaskan villages, towns, and cities.
Filipino Community, Juneau, Alaska, July 4, 1931. Collection: Winter and Pond. Photographs, 1893-1943. ASL-PCA-87 Identifier: ASL-P87-1210
In this photograph, the 30-40 people pose beside a parade float with a plaque reading "Jones Law." The Jones Law, 39 Stat. 545, c. 416, was an Organic Act passed by the United States Congress that mandated the first elected Philippine legislature while under US territoriality. In looking through William Lewis Paul's papers I found an article he wrote, entitled "Three Thousand Filipinos," published on the front page of the Alaska Fisherman newspaper dated July, 1930, a year before this photograph was taken at a 4th of July parade.
In this article Paul Sr. connects Native economic interests with those of Filipinos working in the 1930s Alaskan extractive colonial economy. He's asserting that both Filipino workers and Native fisherman are underpaid by the companies but because the "Pacific American Fisheries Co. is the largest and most successful salmon packer in Alaska" both parties possess few options for better wages. This presents a wonderful Indigenous primary source for understanding the relational histories between Native Alaska and Filipinos within the architecture of American empire in the early 20th century.
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