The Great Land – An Indigenous History of Alaska

Indigenous nations shaped Alaska’s destiny before—and long after—Russia or America claimed the regionAlaska’s past is often told through Russian and US imperial histories. In The Great Land author Thomas Michael Swensen overturns those narratives by reconstructing Alaska’s history from Indigenous perspectives, showing how Native communities forged the region’s political, economic, and cultural foundations. He constructs a timeline based on Indigenous archives, oral traditions, and Native-authored sources—what he terms first space. Beginning with Indigenous encounters with Russian expeditions in Unangan territory in the 1740s, Swensen traces how key features of modern Alaska emerged from Indigenous labor and knowledge. The book demonstrates that after being drawn into coercive relationships with the Russian American Company, Native people navigated the territory’s transfer to the United States in 1867 and engaged democratic institutions to pursue citizenship and political influence by the early twentieth century. Across more than two and a half centuries, Alaska Native communities defined the region and state’s cultural and political life—from designing the state flag to leading movements that culminated in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The book details that through statehood, Cold War tensions, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Indigenous people articulated cultural beliefs and practices that are central to Alaska’s political life. By framing Alaska as an Indigenous homeland rather than a colonial frontier, The Great Land offers a powerful new understanding of how Native peoples shaped the modern Alaskan state.