Alaska’s Culture: Wild, Strange, Fierce
When you ask about Alaskan culture, the first thing most will think about is the rich and expressive culture of Alaskan Natives. Their art, dance, and costumes are distinctive, their people are wealthy and proud, and their commitment to tradition in the face of modern progressivism is nothing short of admirable. Alaskan Natives account for only sixteen percent of our state’s population, however, and the other eighty-four percent of us don’t necessarily identify with Alaskan Native culture, even if our families have been here for a long time.
For example, I am a second-generation Alaskan: my great grandparents arrived in Alaska in the 1930s, my grandmother grew up here, and my mother was born here in 1956 before Alaska even received its statehood! It is unusual to be a second-generation Alaskan with a relatively long history in the state as most people who live here were born somewhere else and then moved here. I consider myself to be a native of Alaska, but that does not make me an Alaskan Native, and it means the culture with which I identify and the things that I consider customary are distinct from the old traditions of this place.
Culture is defined as the sum of a people’s beliefs and customs that characterize their way of life. Think of the things that stand out, or that are exceptionally unique about the places that you have visited: those things are the pillars of culture in that place. Characteristics such as North Carolina’s love affair with pickled food, or Oregon’s careful treatment of the environment, or Washington’s refusal to use an umbrella even in its rainiest cities are all cultural traits that are unique to those places. Does Alaska have any distinguishing cultural traits separate from its Alaskan Native history? Even after a brief interlude of consideration, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. In fact, our culture is so off the wall that every single cultural trait I can think of sets us apart as the oddest of odd balls the world has ever seen.
Astounding Weekend Warriors
In other places I have lived or visited, who a person is during their work week is consistent with who they are on the weekend when they are enjoying their free time. IT people played video games, teachers read or volunteered in their community; I did not meet many people whose hobbies surprised me based on what I knew of them from the office or the classroom. This is not the case with Alaskans! In this adventurous state, the quiet, hardworking, and bookish girl in the office down the hall is the fastest mountain runner in her age group, and the man in the expensive suit leading important meetings in the board room every morning is a monster off-road mountain biker, and a fierce sport fisherman, too. You would never know of these peoples’ double lives if you met them in the office, and that seems to be a standard that is distinctly Alaskan; we clean up pretty for work when we must, but the snow and the trails and the mountains call to us and we answer that call every chance we get.
Corporate Duties vs. The Call of the Wild
I bet if you were to tell your boss at your new job that you will miss work for two weeks in June or July each summer and ten days in the month of September ever single year, you would probably get fired on the spot. What would get you fired is considered a normal part of life for an Alaskan. Winters are cold, dark, and long in this state, and although summers are breathtaking and exhilarating, they are tragically short. As a result, Alaskans pack as much fun into their summers as they can; if we are fierce weekend warriors, we are even more enthusiastic in our enjoyment of Alaska when it resembles its designation as the Land of the Midnight Sun. This is a place where corporate policies about tardiness, attendance, and early departures go to die. When Alaska rolls out her very best with beautiful weather and show stopping scenery, every Alaskan kicks off their heels or loosens their ties to answer the call of the wild. The freedom to enjoy the beauty and the bounty of this great state is a freedom unlike anything else in any other state, and it is something that makes the culture here unique and very special.
Bikini Babes at Forty Below
There are other places in the world that are as cold as the state of Alaska; in fact, there are some places that are quite a bit colder. But the people who live in those places seem to have a practical perspective on how to prepare for the temperatures. Alaskans, on the other hand, seem to have missed the memo that they are supposed to wear more clothing, not less, when the outside temperatures take a dip. Even in the dead of winter you can find people in shorts or sandals, myself included, and Alaskans will often wear nothing more insulating than a light jacket even when the temperatures are intolerable. Whether you chalk it up to heartiness or insanity, Alaskans seem to have a distinctly blasé attitude about the cold. I feel there is nothing that illustrates this cultural standard better than the hundreds of pictures that circulate on the internet of college students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks standing outside in their skivvies next to a sign at the main entrance of the campus that displays the current outdoor temperature. In nothing more than boots and underwear, college students pose next to a sign that reads temperatures as cold as -55 F. We are just as impervious to the cold as we are absolutely insane.
Funky Clogs & Fancy Rubber Boots
I spent my freshman year of college in Pullman, Washington attending Washington State University; it was the first time I had lived someplace other than Anchorage, Alaska. I went through a lot of culture shock moving to a place like Pullman, but now that I think back on my experience there, I think that the people of Pullman experienced a lot of culture shock in their interactions with me as well. One thing that always stands out in my mind regarding the differences between myself and my fellow students at WSU is the first time someone confronted me about my choice of footwear. First, I was well known as I mentioned already for wearing sandals outdoors even if it had snowed. Second, however, was the reactions I would get from people when I wore my Danskos out in public. Danskos are a high-quality shoe sold in all the specialty footwear stores here in Alaska, and they look a bit like a luxurious, modernized version of a Danish clog. Everyone in this state wears Danskos — even the men! To have someone ask me why I always wore my funky clogs while I was living in Washington was just the strangest thing. The shoes are so comfortable, and can easily be casual or sophisticated, that I cannot imagine anyone having less than two pairs in their closet. Equally strange is our dedication to a brand of insulated rubber boots called Xtra Tuffs. These are a great fishing boot and can often be found on the feet of harbor workers in places like Seward or Homer. But at some point, someone decided that Xtra Tuffs were a fashion staple, and now you can find them in funky colors or with beautiful designs painted on them, or sewn into the lining of the boots on the inside. There are lots of fashion related characteristics that set Alaskans apart from people in other places, mostly because we are so poorly dressed, but I would say that our commitment to eccentric footwear is probably at the top of the list.
Fiercely Local Economy
More than any other place I have ever visited, Alaskans support local businesses. You will not find many franchises that come here and make a killing, and even if they are successful, they rarely outperform locally owned businesses in the same industry. We love big box stores as much as the next person, but this is the kind of place where a mom & pop supermarket can thrive as well because they listen to what we want as consumers and we support them because we know they are the true lifeblood of this place. My favorite example of local businesses outperforming corporations is the battle waged between coffee supergiant Starbucks and locally owned Kaladi Brothers Coffee: long story short, the locally owned business won. Anchorage, Alaska is one of the only places in the world where Starbucks had to reduce their presence because they had been pushed out by a locally owned favorite. We are fiercely local when it comes to our community as well; when an Alaskan person and a person from outside are competing for the same job and they have the same qualifications the job will almost always go to the local kid. Luckily there are more jobs than people in this state and this scenario is almost never an issue, but it is a place where we take care of our own before we bring in someone from the outside. It is a beautiful thing to belong to a community like the special people who live in Alaska.
As I was writing, I kept thinking of more and more things that are uniquely Alaskan that I have never experienced anywhere else in the world. You might drive around town in the summer time and see windows that have tinfoil on them; we are trying to keep out the midnight sun, so we can get some sleep at night. You might find people running on the trails with big jingle bells attached to their running belts; these are called bear bells and we wear them even though they are annoying in hopes that it will keep us from sneaking up on a bear and provoking an attack. You also might notice that there are more old, beat up vehicles on the road here than there are shiny new ones; its not that we don’t have the money for shiny new cars, its just that you cannot take your brand-new vehicle off-roading because the insurance company will not allow it. Alaskans are fortunate enough to live in one of the most unique environments in the whole world, and the pillars of our contemporary, mainstream culture illustrate the ways in which we have adapted and innovated to keep up with life in this crazy, beautiful place.
