State offices close Monday for Alaska Day; Indigenous Peoples Day is not a paid holiday

Alaska state offices close Monday, Oct. 19, for Alaska Day, marking the 1867 transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States. The anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, so the state holiday calendar moves the closure to Monday.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy's proclamation marks Sunday as Alaska Day, the 159th anniversary of the transfer. It says the United States bought Alaska for $7.2 million in March 1867 and recounts about 250 Army troops raising the U.S. flag at Castle Hill in Sitka. Statehood followed 92 years later, in 1959. The proclamation calls the transfer "this momentous milestone in our State's history."

Indigenous Peoples Day falls on the second Monday of October under state law, which this year was Oct. 12. The law provides for civic and public observances. It is not a paid state holiday. Then-Gov. Bill Walker first declared the day in 2015, and it became permanent in 2017, according to the National Park Service.

The Anchorage Assembly will consider a resolution Tuesday recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day in the municipality, Alaska News reported Oct. 18.

Bluesky user Cathy Pegau wrote Sunday, "Notice the people NOT involved in this 'transfer'." She added, "Interestingly enough, we did not get Indigenous People's Day off."