View source for Alaska Day

{{Short description|U.S. holiday commemorating the Alaska Purchase}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name  = Alaska Day
|type          = Historical
|longtype      = 
|image         = Alaska Day reenactment 2017.jpg 
|caption       = Transfer ceremony reenactment in 2017
|official_name = 
|nickname      = 
|observedby    = Alaskans
|begins        = 
|ends          = 
|duration      = 1 day
|frequency     = annual
|scheduling    = same day each year
|date          = October 18
|mdy           = yes
|significance  = Anniversary of the 1867 [[Alaska Purchase]]
|celebrations  = 
|observances   = Parade in [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]], paid holiday for employees in Alaska
|relatedto     = [[Seward's Day]]
}}

'''Alaska Day''' is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of [[Alaska]], observed on October 18.<ref name="Festival">{{cite web | last =Finkenbinder | first =Maria | title =Alaska Day Festival | publisher =Shelter Cove Publishing | year = 2012 | url =http://alaskadayfestival.org/index.html | access-date =October 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608232309/https://www.alaskadayfestival.org/index.html |archive-date=June 8, 2017}}</ref> It is the anniversary of the [[Alaska Purchase|formal transfer]] of [[Russian America|territories in present-day Alaska]] from the [[Russian Empire]] to the [[United States]], which occurred on Friday, October 18, 1867.

==Background==
On March 30, 1867, the United States [[Alaska Purchase|purchased Alaska]] from the Russian Empire for the sum of $7.2&nbsp;million<ref name="Treaty">{{cite web|title=Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska |publisher=Library of Congress |date=April 18, 2012 |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html |access-date=October 18, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329025653/http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html |archive-date=March 29, 2015 }}</ref> (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|7.2|1867}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}{{Inflation/fn|US-GDP}}). It was not until October of that year that the commissioners arrived in [[Sitka City and Borough, Alaska|Sitka]] and the formal transfer was arranged. The formal flag-raising took place at [[Castle Hill (Sitka, Alaska)|Fort Sitka]] on October 18, 1867. The original ceremony included 250 [[United States Army]] troops, who marched to the governor's house at "[[Castle Hill (Sitka, Alaska)|Castle Hill]]". There, the American soldiers raised the American flag, and the Russian flag was lowered.<ref name="nrhpinv2">William S. Hanable (April 4, 1975) {{NHLS url|id=66000162|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: American Flag-Raising Site (AHRS Site Sit 002) / Baranov Castle / Castle Hill}}, National Park Service and {{NHLS url|id=66000162|title=Accompanying 5 photos, from 1954, 1965, 1967.|photos=y}}</ref>

The official account of the affair as presented by General [[Lovell Rousseau]] to Secretary of State [[William H. Seward]]:

{{blockquote|... The troops being promptly formed, were, at precisely half past three o'clock, brought to a 'present arms', the signal given to the ''[[USS Ossipee (1861)|Ossipee]]''&nbsp;... which was to fire the salute, and the ceremony was begun by lowering the Russian flag&nbsp;... The United States flag&nbsp;... was properly attached and began its ascent, hoisted by my private secretary [and son], George Lovell Rousseau, and again salutes were fired as before, the Russian water battery leading off. The flag was so hoisted that in the instant it reached its place the report of the big gun of the ''Ossipee'' reverberated from the mountains around&nbsp;... Captain Pestchouroff stepped up to me and said, "General Rousseau, by authority from his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, I transfer to the United States the Territory of Alaska" and in a few words I acknowledged the acceptance of the transfer, and the ceremony was at an end.<ref name="Festival"/><ref name="Letters">{{cite web|url=http://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Rousseau-and-Seward-1908.pdf|title=Transfer of Alaska to the United States – Letters between William H. Seward and Lovell H. Rousseau|publisher=The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Oct., 1908), pp. 83–91|access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>}}

Due to the 11-hour time difference between [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]] and [[St. Petersburg]], and the fact that Russia still used the [[Julian calendar]], the date is sometimes given as Saturday, October 7.<ref>{{cite news |title=On this day in history, October 18, 1867, United States purchases Alaska from Russia for cool $7.2 million |url=https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/day-history-october-18-1867-040231471.html |access-date=18 October 2024 |work=Yahoo Life |date=18 October 2024}}</ref>

==Observance==

Alaska's territorial legislature declared Alaska Day a holiday in 1917. It is a paid holiday for state employees.<ref name="Dispatch">{{cite news
  | title =Happy Alaska Day, Great Land!
  | newspaper =Alaska Dispatch
  | date =October 18, 2011
  | url =http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/happy-alaska-day-great-land
  | access-date =October 18, 2014
  | archive-date =May 2, 2012
  | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120502232826/http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/happy-alaska-day-great-land
  | url-status =dead
  }}</ref><ref name="Calendar">{{cite web
  | title =State Calendar
  | publisher =Alaska Department of Administration
  | year = 2011
  | url =http://doa.alaska.gov/calendars.html
  | access-date =October 18, 2014  }}</ref> The annual celebration is held in Sitka, where schools release students early, many businesses close for the day, and events such as a [[parade]] and reenactment of the flag-raising are held.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alaska Day Festival |url=https://visitsitka.org/events/alaska-day-festival |website=Visit Sitka |publisher=Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce |access-date=18 October 2022 |date=6 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sitka marks Alaska Day with parade and transfer re-enactment |url=https://www.kinyradio.com/news/news-of-the-north/sitka-marks-alaska-day-with-parade-and-transfer-re-enactment/ |website=kinyradio.com |publisher=[[KINY]] |access-date=18 October 2022 |language=en |date=18 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Woolsey |first1=Robert |title=Human Rights Commission to join Sitka's Alaska Day Festival |url=https://www.kcaw.org/2022/10/14/human-rights-commission-to-join-sitkas-alaska-day-festival/ |website=kcaw.org |publisher=[[KCAW]] |access-date=18 October 2022 |date=14 October 2022}}</ref>

It should not be confused with [[Seward's Day]], the last Monday in March, another state holiday commemorating the signing of the treaty for the Alaska Purchase in which the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867.<ref>{{cite web | title = Student Information | url = http://www.dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/student.htm | access-date = 2008-03-12 | publisher = State of Alaska | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090208194844/http://dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/student.htm | archive-date = 2009-02-08 }}</ref>

==Modern view==
Alaska Day is protested{{r|Russell}} by some [[Alaska Natives|Alaska Native]] people, who view the holiday as a celebration of the violence used to take their land away.{{r|Gibson}}{{r|Kwong}}{{r|Kwong2}}  Native organizers assert that the land was not Russia's to sell in the first place; therefore, the sale of the land to the U.S. is illegitimate.{{r|Woolsey}} Even despite being a holiday tradition in Alaska and October 18 being marked the day Russia transferred Alaska to the United States, some Alaska Natives have argued about the holiday as [[cultural genocide]], and there is a chance of healing in time. A former resident of Sitka, Peter Bradley, had given an idea about a resolution that called for renaming Alaska Day to Reconciliation Day.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sitka |first=Emily Kwong, KCAW- |date=2017-11-25 |title=AK: Various looks at the controversial Alaska Day |url=https://alaskapublic.org/2017/11/24/ak-various-looks-at-the-controversial-alaska-day/ |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=Alaska Public Media |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Russell>{{cite news
 | last =Russell
 | first =Emily
 | title =Alaska Day Dilemma: celebrating history without colonialism
 | newspaper =KCAW News
 | location =Sitka, United States
 | language =en
 | publisher =KCAW
 | date =October 26, 2016
 | url =https://www.kcaw.org/2016/10/26/alaska-day-dilemma-celebrating-history-without-colonialism/
 | access-date = October 17, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=Gibson>{{cite news
 | last =Gibson
 | first =Sarah
 | title =Clans Give Views On Events of 1867
 | newspaper =Sitka Sentinel {{subscription required}}
 | location =Sitka, United States
 | language =en
 | date =October 18, 2017
 | url =http://sitkasentinel.com/7/2012-05-10-22-08-10/local-news/12071-clans-give-views-on-events-of-1867
 | access-date = October 17, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=Kwong>{{cite news
 | last =Kwong
 | first =Emily
 | title =150 years in the making, Kiks.ádi gather to commemorate loss of land
 | newspaper =KCAW News
 | location =Sitka, United States
 | language =en
 | publisher =KCAW
 | date =October 17, 2017
 | url =https://www.kcaw.org/2017/10/17/150-years-making-kiks-adi-gather-commemorate-loss-land/
 | access-date = October 17, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=Kwong2>{{cite news
 | last =Kwong
 | first =Emily
 | title =Indigenous voices call for a new kind of Alaska Day
 | newspaper =KCAW News
 | location =Sitka, United States
 | language =en
 | publisher =KCAW
 | date =November 24, 2017
 | url =https://www.kcaw.org/2017/11/24/indigenous-voices-call-new-kind-alaska-day/
 | access-date = November 24, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=Woolsey>{{cite news
 | last =Woolsey
 | first =Robert
 | title =In Sitka, Indigenous Peoples Day a prelude to broader 'reconciliation'
 | newspaper =KCAW News
 | location =Sitka, United States
 | language =en
 | publisher =KCAW
 | date =16 October 2019
 | url =https://www.kcaw.org/2019/10/16/in-sitka-indigenous-peoples-day-a-prelude-to-broader-reconciliation/
 | access-date = 21 October 2019}}</ref>
}}

{{U.S. Holidays}}

[[Category:Annual events in Alaska]]
[[Category:State holidays in the United States]]
[[Category:October observances]]
[[Category:1917 establishments in Alaska]]
[[Category:Recurring events established in 1917]]
[[Category:Native American-related controversies]]