Aska Me - Moondog

Aska me about Alaska, if you care a tinker’s damn

What I have to say about the Russian Bear and Uncle Sam

Vitus Bering rediscovered Streights that somehow Bear his name

After they had been discovered many times before he came

Alexander Baranov, Administra (i)tor to the Czar

Sat in Sitka with his books and paintings, eating caviar

Then, in 1867, Seward bought it for a song;

Sing a song of seven million, and a fifth of something Strong

Playing for itself in gold, some twenty times the price he payed

«Seward's Folly» was, by golly, where a killing could be made

1912, a territory, 1952, a state

All the Tlingits were so sorry, Uncle Sam had come so late

When the exploitation’s over and the last exploiter’s gone

Then whatever left of life and limb can try to carry on