niigerian is essentially right. When Palin used the term Cheechako, she meant someone who is someone who is new to Alaska. They’ve yet to prove that they have what it takes to live here successfully. Alaska is a vast land with many challenges and even today you will often find that Alaskans, tho’ a friendly bunch, in some of the more remote areas tend to hold off on totally embracing newcomers because there is a certain suspicion that those newcomers may not last past the first winter. Our cold certainly isn’t worse than in other places, so I disagree with Palin that this is the dividing line, but rather that it lasts longer and the winter days tend to be short with long hours of darkness. To become a Sourdough, you traditionally have to have lived here a winter and successfully faced the challenges of living as an Alaskan. I’m sure in the good ol’ days that this included things like staring down a bear or successfully feeding your family and keeping them warm in the wilderness, but the meaning has obviously softened as things have changed up here. But, in a weird way, I think the term was used to mean an “Alaska wannabe” as opposed to someone who has lived here and proven they’re “tough enough” to be called an Alaskan. What can I say, there is a certain ego to being Alaskan with all it conjures up, the tough survivor type who can face down a bear, field dress a moose, cut through ice to get to their water supply and mush dogs across the state, all of which very few Alaskans do or deal with but, hey, it gives us a certain “wow factor” while allowing us to live pretty much as you do in the “Lower 48” (Alaskan slang for non-Alaskans).