Because im stupid.
The people of Alaska.
to make money.
Probably the gold rush.
to become more interested in them and learn about them
Interestingly, you become interesting by becoming interested in other people and things (other than yourself).
The renaissance caused people to become more inquisitive about subjects. So they naturally became interested with other parts of the world and decided to start exploring to find out what was out in the world that they didn't know about.
Competition for jobs
They want to know how much distruction it caused and if the hurricanes got stronger from the past.
Of course by making paintings that interested people.
Yes there are people in Alaska. To be exact the population of Alaska is 654,786 in 2008.
People kept hunting them for their skin and teeth.