“Two-Step” Jake Hirsch panning for gold. (Delano Photo/Alaska State Library Historical Collections)

What qualifies someone as a “real” Alaskan? Do you have to be born here?” Maybe it’s just making it through a winter, or qualifying for your first Permanent Fund Dividend.

As public historian David Reamer points out in a recent installment of his column for the Anchorage Daily News, called Histories of Anchorage, there’s little doubt that Alaska Natives are “real” Alaskans. But what about everybody else?

Reamer did some digging through documents and Alaska literature in an attempt to get at this question, and he talked about it with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove.