• The population of Alaska  approximately 621,400 in 1998. The native population was 16% of the total in 1992. There are over 100 Alaskan Native villages with no evangelical or Pentecostal witness.
• The blanket toss is not only a game, but a system of sighting whales. The Eskimos used to choose the person with the best eyesight and toss him up in a blanket high enough to spot whales out at sea.
• The word Cheechako, is a person new from the "Outside" (somewhere other than Alaska). It is derived from the Indian word chee meaning new or fresh, and chako meaning to come or approach.  A "Sourdough" has spent a winter or two in the state.
• Eskimo ice cream is a native delicacy traditionally made from whipped berries, seal oil and snow. Sometimes shortening, raisins and sugar are added or substituted.
• The igloo is an Alaskan dwelling usually made of driftwood, whalebone and sod. It is the Canadian Eskimos, not the Alaskan, who built igloos from blocks of snow.
• Other than English, Alaskan languages include: Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Aleut, and several dialects of Athabascan and Eskimo.  Twenty Native languages are spoken in  Alaska.
• Alaska has two time zones and six climatic zones and has the eastern most as well as the western most point in the U.S.
• Alaska has the longest day of the year in the U.S. No sunset for 82 days in summer. Alaska also has the longest night with no sunrise for 67 days in winter.
• Alaska has more coastline (33, 904 miles) than the rest of the U.S. combined.  It is the Eastern, Western, and Northern point in the United States (most Eastern because the Aleutian chain crosses the International Date Line).
• Alaska sustains about 1000 earthquakes measuring 3.5 or higher on the Richter scale every year.  In 1964 an earthquake under Prince William Sound measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, killed 131 people, and released 10 million times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan.
• 10% of the world's active volcanoes are located in Alaska.
• The Japanese held two Alaska islands -- Attu and Kiska -- for nearly a year during World War II.
• There are no penguins in Alaska (they live in Antarctica); however, Alaska has polar bears and Antarctica does not.
• For additional information see the Alaska State Local Facts or Alaskool.

Alaska Native Peoples