Ever found yourself wondering about the Alaska Airlines logo? You're not alone

If you've ever sat on the tarmac at Sea-Tac International Airport and wondered who the smiling Inuit face on the tail of the Alaska Airlines flight next to you was, you're not alone. Even the airlines' "Chief Football Officer" isn't at liberty to say.

In fact, even the company is wondering.

The design itself came out of a rebrand effort in 1972: Coming off a turbulent time, the company was looking to redesign itself. Along with new leadership, improved financial oversight and a renewed focus on its operation, the Seattle-based airlines released four new logos. The designs were all meant to honor and represent the "spirit of The Last Frontier," as one Alaska marketing material refers to it.

And so planes were now donned with either a totem pole, for the native culture of Southeast Alaska; Russian spires, as a reminder of the early Russian heritage present in the 49th state; a gold miner, in honor of the Gold Rush days; and a native Alaskan adorned in traditional qulittaq, to honor the Arctic region and its indigenous people .

It wouldn't be until decades later, in 2016, that the smiling Inuit face would become the last logo standing.

In the years in between the face wouldn't go through many changes. Aside from a color tweak here and there, the biggest change came four years after its inception, when, Alaska Airlines marketing material stated , "a new attitude toward customer service (prompts) the Eskimo to smile."

SEE ALSO: Alaska Airlines uniforms through the years :

Other than that, the main variation over the years were slight alterations made by the artists painting the tail.

There's also the question of identity. When the company adopted the face as its sole logo, they did an investigation , heading up North to the rural Alaskan towns where the company got its start in 1932. And it was there they found the answer — well, answers .

"Everybody in Alaska knows who's on the tail – they just can't agree," laughed Perry Eaton, an Alutiiq artist based in Anchorage, in Alaska's video of the trip.

Technically the art was originally designed by artists in Alaska's marketing department in the early '70s.  The Inuit member, as well as the Klondike gold miner, were allegedly supposed to be generic representations, so it's hard to nail down whether there was one person in particular who they based the artwork on.

Which is not to say that that Alaska hasn't tried to figure it out. Their own website recounts, "even Alaska's archivists, a team of retirees and long-time employees passionate about preserving the company's history, can't agree."

Is the face based on Chester Seveck, who used to greet incoming flights from the airlines with his wife? Or it is Oliver Amouak, an Inupiat who worked for Alaska - starting in the 1950s - in a traveling show called, "It's Alaska!" There may never be one answer about who actually smiles from the tail of each flight as it leaves the gate.

Alaska Airlines — like the people of the Frontier State — are split. But the company sees that universality as a plus.

"If you're from Barrow, you think maybe he's from Barrow. If you're from Kotzebue, you think maybe he's from Kotzebue. If you're from Nome, you think maybe he's from Nome," former Kotzebue mayor Maija Lukin says in the Alaska video. "I have not met an Eskimo elder who doesn't sort of smile like that."

SeattlePI reporter Zosha Millman can be reached at zoshamillman@seattlepi.com. Follow Zosha on Twitter at @zosham . Find more from Zosha here on her author page .