What's a sourdough, anyway?

To distinguish between newcomers and old-timers in Alaska we have two words. A cheechako is a newcomer and a sourdough is an old-timer. Apparently there is no middle ground. Definitions of those two categories vary as evidenced by the facebook string above. It's worth going there and following the comments, the whole episode is pretty funny. Quite a way down you will find my own comment in which is said "after years of storytelling (both listening and telling) I have come to the conclusion that a sourdough is someone who's been here a year longer than you have.
Here's how I came up with that definition. Years ago I was standing in line at a Post Office behind two old-timers, obviously sourdoughs. The conversation I overheard was fascinating. These guys had been in just about every gold camp in Alaska over the years, often at different times but in the same ones together occasionally, though they had never met.

As these conversations go, the conversation eventually evolved to the question, "How long you been in Alaska?"
The answer spoken with some pride came out at "31 years."
And the response? "Oh just a cheechako, huh?"
"So how long you been here?"
And with bigger pride: "33 years."
At which time I decided upon my definition. A sourdough is a guy who's been here a year longer than you.
Having passed 40 years in the state a couple of years ago I felt I had reached sourdough status, but I know several people who have been here longer than that. I did draw the line one day though, when a guy at a job I did for a while asked me if I was born here. He had, so thought he had one up on me until I figured out he was 28 years old and I had been here 38 years. Even counting time in the womb, I had been here longer than he had, and by a decade.
Along with the sourdough/cheechako differential there's another aspect of life here to be aware of as well. No matter what you do, someone has done it better, hiked farther, climbed higher, sailed more water, had a harder time doing it and came back from closer to the precipice than you have. It is the way of the country.
Incidentally by all appearances the woman who put up the facebook post has been here at least a year longer than I have. She and I both attained a 100% score on the attached quiz. I would however give whoever wrote the quiz a lower grade for calling us Alaska natives. You see, a sourdough would never call himself or herself a native no matter how long he or she had been here. That word is reserved for the First People, the only true Native Alaskans.