The Daily History Chronicle

On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William Seward and Russian diplomat Baron de Stoeckl signed a treaty at 4 A.M. transferring Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. We know the 'Seward's Folly' punchline. What most people don't know is that the United States didn't actually complete the purchase for another 104 years because the transaction never included the 50,000 Alaska Natives whose land it was. This episode holds four uncomfortable truths simultaneously and asks a question that Greenland, the Arctic, and indigenous rights activists are still demanding we answer today.