“We have a special place in our hearts in Alaska for the Pacific Rim. You are Alaska’s neighbors and partners. Alaska is one of America’s most trade-oriented states and by providing more than 60% of Alaska’s top ten export markets, Asia plays a key role in sustaining Alaska’s economy.
“Personally, I’ve always been really interested in the ideas too about the land bridge. Ideas that maybe so long ago, had allowed Alaska to be physically connected to this part of our world so many years ago. My husband and my children, they’re part [unintelligible] Eskimo, Alaskan natives. They’re our first people, and the connection that may have brought ancestors from here to there is fascinating to me. Making our world seem a little bit smaller, more united, to consider that connection that allowed sharing of peoples and bloodlines and wildlife and flora and fauna, that connection to me is quite fascinating.
