The Midnight Sun Archive

The Midnight Sun was first published in June of 1905 and was produced at the government school for native Alaskans at Cape Prince of Wales. The students at the school set the type and wrote several of the articles for the newspaper. It was edited by A.N. Evans, who was a teacher in charge of the school—alternately called a teacher or superintendent by other newspapers at the time.

The paper was officially a monthly but was actually published every few months through the first three issues. Several other Alaskan publications reprinted articles from the Midnight Sun that had been written by native Alaskans. The Sun reported on local news, as well as matters of trading, fishing, and hunting, and it printed several poems too. The paper discussed issues affecting Native Alaskans and reported on news from Siberia as well. Several topics mentioned in the paper include the practice of whalers supplying native Alaskans with alcohol as well as updates on the status of the reindeer herds in Cape Prince of Wales and the precise numbers and ownership of them. It was reported in the Nome Tri-Weekly Nugget that Evans was also in charge of the reindeer herd at Cape Prince of Wales. One article written by a native Alaskan was on the first white man in north-west Alaska and covered the interactions between him and the native Alaskans.

The Sun likely ended sometime in 1906. An article from the Sun was reprinted in the Douglas Island News on November 14, 1906, marking the last known reference to this publication among contemporary Alaskan newspapers; however, the article was from the December 1905 issue of the Sun. Evans later contributed some articles in 1915 to the Northern Light, a publication at the Unalakleet school for Alaska natives.