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Today there are approximately 222 million acres (90 million ha) of federal land in Alaska - that's about 60 percent of the state. And of that vast acreage, there are about 57.5 million acres (23.3 million ha) of designated wilderness, along with some 16.5 million acres (6.7 million ha) of proposed wilderness areas.

Alaska's indigenous people, who are jointly called Alaska Natives, can be divided into five major groupings: Aleuts, Northern Eskimos (Inupiat), Southern Eskimos (Yuit), Interior Indians (Athabascans) and Southeast Coastal Indians (Tlingit and Haida).

The early people to live on the peninsula took advantage of the natural features of the area to survive the sometimes harsh arctic environment. People living close to the preserve continue to use the natural features of the preserve for traditional subsistence hunting and gathering activities.

As a result of disease, cultural confusion and the growing number of whites, the percentage of Native Alaskans in the general Alaskan population plummeted from 45 percent in 1940 to 26 percent in 1950 to 19 percent at the time of statehood in 1959. The highway construction led to a new era for the original Alaskans.

Alaska's indigenous people, who are jointly called Alaska Natives, can be divided into five major groupings: Aleuts, Northern Eskimos (Inupiat), Southern Eskimos (Yuit), Interior Indians (Athabascans) and Southeast Coastal Indians (Tlingit and Haida).

In 1818, one party charted the coast between the Kuskokwim and Nushagak Rivers, and, in 1819, Andrei Ustiugov, an Aleut from Unalaska, charted Bristol Bay. In the 1830s, explorers traveled through the Yukon and explored Alaska's polar coast as far as Point Barrow.