Fairbanks, 1915

In 1914 construction began on the Alaska Railroad. The new railroad running from Seward to Fairbanks would give easy access to thousands of acres of previously inaccessible land in the interior. In the words of Judge Wickersham, Alaska's first elected representative in Washington,

"White men are coming out and taking up the land. They are staking homesteads, cultivating the land, raising potatoes and all kinds of crops".

The opening up of the interior to American settlement created the problem of how to protect the land interests of Alaskan Natives while allowing for settlement and development. In July of 1915, the first conference devoted to Native land rights took place to discuss this issue in Fairbanks.

The meeting had been called by James Wickersham, Alaska's delegate to Congress. Wickersham brought the group together because area Athabaskans had asked him how they could preserve their lands against settlement by others. It was attended by 14 persons, including six Tanana chiefs, the Athabaskan group that would be most impacted by the new railroad coming through their land. What the chiefs wanted, in the words of Chief Alexander of Tolovana was that the government "not let the white people come near us. Let us live our own lives in the customs we know."