Thursday, October 27, 2011

Today's Poem --- Alaska Headlines

I fell off the blog wagon for a while. Funny how life does that. For today, just a poem. Something I wrote a while back.

 These were all real headlines, except for the ones I crossed out...



Headline: State of Alaska*


December 1935

Women Kill Wolf Near Ketchikan


December 1936
Eskimos in Alaska still

leave cherished items

Paddles, Tools, Pots, Pans

on the graves of their dead.

June 1937

Miners Dig Up Story of the Past

conducting searches for minerals
found hundreds of skeletons and skulls
prehistoric mammoths, horses, musk-ox,
wolves, and saber-toothed tigers.

January 1938
In Nichols Bay, 25-Foot Octopus Stalls Boat
small steam launch stalled
octopus attached to the propeller.

October 1939
“Hootch”
a discharged soldier taught them
Indians at Hootznahoo,
the science of distilling liquor.

November 1940
Record Day’s Catch
seventy-two seals in one day,
a Prince William Sound Record.

January 1940
A Hanging at Juneau . . . 7th in Alaska
thirty-seven-year-old Indian,
paid the supreme penalty
for killing his mother-in-law in a drunken rage.

May 1941
Recent Census
results
population at 72,524.


February 1942
Wartime Blackouts
Cities practice
several hours of the night.

June 1942
Japanese
            Bomb
                    Dutch
                           Harbor.

May 1943

Eskimo Troops Aid War Effort

modern rifles instead of spears,
Eskimo troops act
as scouts and lookouts.

June 1944

Aleut Children Spurn Candy for War Stamps

The storekeeper at the evacuation colony
Says he stocks war stamps
Instead of than candy
to keep the young Aleut customers happy.

June 1945

Barrow’s First Talkies Flown in by Army

An Eskimo woman watched
scantily clad women dance for the first time
“Now we know why our store is always short of cloth. 
People outside must be really hard up for cloth!”

March 1946

POWs Choose Atka

Twenty-five Attu Aleuts
survive Japanese imprisonment, decide against returning home,
choose to live on Atka.

1946

Navy Pushes Barrow Oil Search…Early Results Encouraging


There’s Lumber in Wrangell’s Future


1947-----------Pork Chops, Whisky, Cheer Stranded Flyer. Fur Rich Natives on Spending Spree. Voters of Statehood . . . 9625 to 6822. First Woman to Climb McKinley. Eskimo Hunter Surprised from Behind.

1948
94,000 Civilians
 in Alaska
Now.

1949
Trapped Behind Iron Curtain…Alaskan Eskimos Held for Two Months. Raging River Relents. 17 Days Adrift on Bering Strait Ice Floes.  It’s All-out War Against Wolf, Coyote. Air Force Bombs Ice-Choked Interior Rivers. Wolf Bounty Now $50.

Man Stabs, Kills Bear.

April, 1950.

Ingenius Eskimo Repairs His Own Watch.

March, 1950.

Inventive Indian Masters Balky Motor


1959
WE’RE IN!
VOTE MAKES ALASKA
49th STATE

1960
Oil Biggest Well Yet.

$4 Million Oil Leases. The ‘Iron Dog’. . . A Threat to Alaska’s Historic Dog Team. Death of a Dog Musher. Grizzly Wrecks Plane. 118 Rural Schools. Fierce Gales, Mountainous Seas…Boats Lost…Three Sailors Missing.  Perils of the Hunt…Walrus Attacks Boat.  Whaling Fleet Idled.

Skookum Jim’s Legacy


She Recalls First Whites to Visit Her People


Man Eating Sharks Invade Southeast Alaska. Free Farm Land for the Asking?


Ice Box for Eskimos


Gas Find. Major Oil Find. Milestone for Oil. Big Tonnage Gain for Anchorage. Oil Well in Cook Inlet Fuels 14-month Fire.

1964


Eskimo Chiefs Convene


First Bank Robbery


Boom in Oil Drilling.

EARTHQUAKE!

1965. 67. 69. 70.
Alaskan Totems – Heritage in Peril. Live Network TV for Southeast Soon.  Pipeline Project Bogs Down. Alaska Grows.
Highest Pay.                        
High Bids For Land.                         
Alaskan Boating Deaths
Exceed National Average.

1974

Law Okays the Pipeline,
Cost Spirals to $4.5 Billion

Cash for Natives


PIPELINE WORK BEGINS

Four Year University for Barrow this Fall

TV for Eskimos Good News and Bad News

1985.
State Mistakes Cost Millions: Native Corporation Got Oil, Gas Worth $500 Million

March 25, 1989.
VALDEZ SPILL CRUDE OIL FOULS SOUND
LARGEST EVER IN U.S.
  

1991.
War Touches Banks of Remote Kobuk River.
Alaskan Falls in Battle.
Soldotna Man, a father-to-be,
Killed in Action.

1992.
HIGH BIRTH RATE BOOSTS ALASKA
POPULATION 587,000
ANCHORAGE, 240,258.

1997.
Group Appeals to Halt Timber Sale, Says it Threatens Birds. 
State Doctors Told to Watch
for Bird Flu.

Alaskans Prepare for 2000 Census.
                       
                                    Pipeline Shooting Trial Set in Fairbanks, 2001.

ANWR’s Dead, Say all Sides, 2002.

2003.                                     2004.
Suicide Strikes Village.                     
Alaskans At War.
Drilling Plans Irk Native Whalers.
Alaskan Guard Heads to Kosovo. Leaving for Iraq. National Guard Troops Depart for Training and Middle East. Japanese War Planes Return to Alaskan Skies. Anti-terror Unit Comes to Anchorage.

Wounded Alaskan Recovers.

Saving Ourselves.             Urban Bear Attack.

Save Yourself.             Bears’ Attack Kills Eagles.

Oasis of Hope.
Bear Attacks Lead Officials to Ban Fishing at Night.

Wildflowers with the Natives
Plant with the Native Society
Plant Society with the Native
Celebrate the Native Plants
Natives Celebrate. Wildflower Celebrates. Wildflowers with Natives Celebrate Society.  Society Celebrates. Natives Celebrate Society. Native Society. 
Society Celebrates Wildflower Plants with Natives.

Celebrate Wildflowers with the Native Plant Society


*A catalog of actual headlines from Alaskan Newspapers, 1935-present. Taken from Bits and Pieces of Alaskan History and The Anchorage Daily News.

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