Alaska+-+Valborg+&+Malene



Alaska has a motto that goes like this: ”North to the future”. In Alaska they speak English because it is an American state. The Americans bought the country from the Russians in 1867. Alaska has none official languages, but 89, 7% of the people speak English, 5, 9% speak Native North American and 2, 9% speak Spanish. Inupiaq is spoken in most of the northern Alaska, and it is close to Canadian Inuit dialects and the Greenlandic dialects. That may be called "Inuit" and the name ”Inupiaq” means ”real” or ”genuine person”. The thing that makes the English language so rich is that the English words come from different languages. In Alaska there are around 84, 7 % over the age of 5 speaks English at home. The first people who came to Alaska were some Eskimo tribes called Inupiaq, Inuit and Yupik. Later there came a lot of Indian tribes too. The name Alaska comes from the Aleut word Alyeska that means ”big country”. Alaska became a colony because Russia invaded the country to hunt the sea otters, the bears, the foxes and many other animals. The Russians wanted the fur. In 1867 the Russians sold Alaska to the Americans for 7, 2 million dollars (today it is the same as 134 million dollars). A little bit later, in 1890 the Americans found a lot of gold in Alaska and earned a lot of money. The Russians regretted that they had sold the country. Today the gold – rush is over, because it is not much gold left in the mines. Alaska became an American state in 1959. ** Population ** Alaska is the biggest state of all the states in America and one of the smallest in population. In 1999 there were living 619 500 people in Alaska and almost half of them lived in the biggest city Anchorage. It lives on average only 1 person on 2, 59 km2 and in New York it would be living around 16 people at the same space. The population has increased very much since the Second World War and it still increases. About 70% of the people in Alaska are white people, and the rest of the people are Inuits (Eskimos), Indians and Aleuts. The largest religious organization in Alaska is the Roman Catholic Church. The organization had 54 359 people and 102 congregations in year 2000. The largest protestant denomination is the Southern Baptists   witch had 22 959 people and 68 congregations in year 2000. Alaska has also some Orthodox people because they got converted by the Russians. Alaska is the largest state in the USA and it is almost 4 times bigger Norway and has a surface area that is 1 530 700 km2. The capital is Juneau, and it is one of the tree biggest cities in Alaska. The other big cities are Anchorage and Fairbanks. The biggest river is Yukon and it starts in Canada, and flows westward to the Bering Sea. Big areas are protected, and the largest national park is Wrangell-St. Elias. It is the largest national park in the United States by area. It is 53,000 km² and was established in 1980. Alaska borders to Pacific Ocean in south. The climate in Alaska is very cold, especially in the Northern part of the country. In the south there usually are long summer days. The longest days are around the summer solstice on June 21. Some tourists travel to Alaska in the wintertime, but most of them travel to Alaska in the summer, because of the long days and because the temperatures are moderate. Many people means that the period between May and early September is the best time to visit Alaska. The clearest weather is in spring and in the early summer. Late in the summer and autumn is it most rain, witch is the rainy season. In the winter the heaviest snowfalls is in the coastal mountains. In the area around Valdez you can find the biggest snowfall. It can be down to -60 °C. Alaska has short, hot summers and long, cold winters. But sometimes in the south it can be green fields all the year. Alaska is located in an earthquake area. There are also many volcanoes. At the south coast of Alaska there is a lot of conifer forest. The grass vegetation is very good and sometimes the cows can pasture all the year. In the north of Alaska the ground is frozen, and there is tundra vegetation. It is much moss and dwarf birch because of the cold climate. There are no big forests in the north. When it comes to animals in Alaska, there are a lot of birds like ducks, cormorants, gulls, auks and wading birds. At the north coast, there are ice bears and in the rest of the country there are elks, reindeers, black bears and brown bears. Some places there are buffaloes, snow goats and mule deers. Some of the predators are lynxes, red foxes, arctic foxes, wolves, wolverines and many other marten animals. Almost 90 % of all the products that travel to and from Alaska are sent by sea and ships routes to Seattle and other cities on the Pacific coast. The most impotent transport in Alaska is aircraft asset, if you are travelling around in Alaska. They have about 700 airports in the state and 2 railways. Alaska has been more and more dependent on the earnings from oil and gas. The state is the second biggest oil producer in USA, after Texas. There is also gold and silver there, but you can find coal all over Alaska. Other important minerals are sand, gravel, lead, mercury and zinc. The fish industry is very important in Alaska. They fish salmon, halibut, cod, herring and shellfish and either freeze the fish or preserve it. Alaska is the biggest fish producer in USA. Some people hunt seals, but the authorities controls the exploitation of them. They cultivate potatoes, salad, cabbage, dairy products and eggs for locally use. ** Alaska **** ’s flag ** The flag came through in a competition, where school students submitted proposals. A 13 year old Native American boy named Bennie Benson won. It had been sent in 142 proposals. He won 1000 dollars and a watch for winning the contest. The flag is blue with 8 stars on. The 13 year old boy, Benny Benson explained that the blue colour in the flag stands for the sky. 7 of the stars constitute ”Charles's wain” and the largest star is the Polar Star. Benson explained that the Polar Star represents Alaska's future, while ”Charles’s wain” symbolizes strength. Alaska has a song to the flag and the song became Alaska's official song in 1955. The song was written by Marie Drake and was first written in 1935 as a poem. The composer Elinor Dusenbury made late music to the poem and it’s now the Alaska’s official song. // Alaska's Flag Song Eight stars of gold on a field of blue, Alaska's Flag, may it mean to you The blue of the sea, the evening sky, The mountain lakes and the flow'rs nearby, // // The gold of the early sourdough dreams, The precious gold of the hills and streams, The brilliant stars in the northern sky, The Bear, the Dipper, and shining high, // // The great North star with its steady light. O'er land and sea a beacon bright, Alaska's Flag to Alaskans dear, The simple flag of a last frontier // There are not many similarities between Alaska and Great Britain, but one thing is the language. Both of the countries speak English, but they have different dialects. An other similarity is that they bought are democracy; people can choose leaders or make other important decisions by voting. In Alaska there is a lot of farming like it is in Great Britain as well and the fish industry is very important in bought of the countries. England has also oil, coal and gas like Alaska. In Alaska most of the people are Catholics and some of the people in Great Britain are Catholics too. The last thing that these countries have in common is the school system, the children starts at school when they are ca. 5 years and go to high school when they are ca. 12. They finish high school when they are ca. 18 years old. 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 * Similarity between Alaska and Great Britain  **