The 1951 Bristol Bay salmon strike: isolation, independence and illusion in the last frontier

Abstract

Many people consider Alaska the last frontier, isolated and independent from the rest of the United States. An analysis of the salmon industry in Bristol Bay and a strike that occurred in 1951 cast doubt upon this belief. The labor dispute and preceding events paint a vivid picture of a population clearly dependent on a fishing industry controlled by absentee owners who manipulated events from Seattle and San Francisco. The strikers included Natives and Non-Natives who joined together to fight the powerful cannery owners and west coast unions who sought to expand their membership. Some of these unions had suspected communist members, and Alaska joined in the paranoia that seized the rest of the United States in their cold war fear of Communism. The strike and the actions of participants in the strike illustrate how Alaska's isolation and independence was but an illusion in the last frontier.