It’s pretty sexy to be an Alaskan woman these days. While Sarah Palin roves the country showing off both her prowess and her recipe for moose stew, women back in the home state are enjoying a certain celebrity status of their own. Inquiring minds still want to know the true authenticity of all this Alaska-ness. There are those who doubt Palin’s affection for a way of life that means cold weather, darkness, and large animals. What makes a woman a true Alaskan? For the answer we must turn to the state’s early days upon this swath of land inhabited by Native people not exactly thrilled when the first colonists showed up. Plucky Amanda McFarland started it all with her arrived at Fort Wrangell in 1877 bearing a mission to preach to the “natives”. The first woman to do so, she also brought with her a resolution to stay even though the terrain, rough lifestyle, and indifferent indigenous people must have made her uneasy. McFarland also possessed something most women who have made Alaska their home share; the dogged determination to keep going. This now-common characteristic continued as more people headed to the Alaska Territory. Men now brought their wives on the trip North and quickly realized the benefits of doing so. Women grew magnificent gardens that thrived on the long summer days, they fished, picked berries and wild greens and canned the results, and worked alongside their partners to build a homestead. By the early 1900’s, it was clear that women had a valuable place among Territory residents. Sarah Palin is by no means the first Alaska girl to enter the political arena. Alaskan women secured their place in politics by 1913 when the Territorial Legislature granted them the right to vote, and in 1916 Lena Morrow Lewis became the first woman to run as a prospective delegate to the U.S. Congress. Women with adventurous spirits and capabilities to manage not only a family, husband, and often a business with little outside help took naturally to the political frameworks set forth previously by men. Why the current fuss by so many Alaska voters of the female persuasion?  Many women remain unmoved by Palin’s declaration that she is “just like us”;  that her lifestyle reflects that of the thousands of other Northern Women. Indeed, we are an active lot; like Palin we enjoy the fruits of our crazy labors; fishing in the middle of the night to hook the elusive King salmon, picking berries all day to make sure we have enough until next summer, tromping around in the wet underbrush making noises reminiscent of somebody hurling in a trash can just so a horny male moose will come trotting out and sacrifice himself to feed the humans. Antics aside, Alaskan women also epitomize the term “independence”. Every female, from Ketchikan to Barrow, is and always will be, her own woman. We don’t particularly like it when some missy with lots of lipstick pretends to emulate our personal sense of self. We’ll speak for ourselves, thank you very much. That’s what got us up here, and that’s the way it is going to stay. 

Erin K. Kirkland, a freelance writer and one of our MomBloggers, lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Check back for more on this series on her insider take on this historic election year.