Legal status of Alaska - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The legal status of Alaska is the standing of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

as a political entity. Generally, the debate has primarily surrounded the legal status of Alaska relative to the United States of America. Alaska is considered to be a sovereign state of the United States of America. Nonetheless, Alaska's legal status within the Union has been disputed at times, most recently by a movement launched by Joe Vogler

Joe Vogler

Joseph E. "Joe" Vogler was the founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, and either its chair or gubernatorial nominee for most of its first two decades of existence...

and the Alaskan Independence Party

Alaskan Independence Party

The Alaskan Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Alaska that advocates an in-state referendum which includes the option of Alaska becoming an independent country...

(AIP). In disputes over the legal status of Alaska, a key issue has been the tension between its de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

and de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....

international standing.

Background

In 1959, Alaska was admitted to the Union. However, opponents believe this was done contrary to international law as the vote for statehood did not follow United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

rules. Specifically, the vote did not allow Alaskans the option of independence. Although this argument has no de facto legal standing because the various international documents that support the existence of a people's right to self-determination also contain parallel statements supportive of the conclusion that the exercise of such a right must be sufficiently limited to prevent threats to an existing state's territorial integrity or the stability of relations between sovereign states. International law does not specifically grant component parts of sovereign states the legal right to secede unilaterally from their 'parent' state.

Alaska became a territory of the United States in 1867 when it was purchased from the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

. Events in the 20th century such as World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

led to the decision to add Alaska as a state to the American Union. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

signed the Alaska Statehood Act

Alaska Statehood Act

The Alaska Statehood Act was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 7, 1958, allowing Alaska to become the 49th U.S. state on January 3, 1959.-History: the road to Statehood:...

into United States law on 7 July 1958, which paved the way for Alaska's admission into the Union on January 3, 1959.

The vote for statehood was held in 1958. Voters approved the measure by a 6 to 1 margin. Critics of Alaskan statehood, though, claim the vote was flawed . The United Nations Charter requires that a non-self governing territory be given ballot choices of remaining a territory, becoming a separate and independent nation, accept Commonwealth status, or becoming a state. The options on the ballot were for statehood or to remain a territory. There was no option for independence on the ballot. Other people argue that there is no such provision in the UN Charter and that the corresponding UN Articles in Chapters XII and XIII of the United Nations Charter

United Nations Charter

The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries...

relate to former colonial territories.

Critics of the vote also note that American military personnel voted in the election. This is also pointed to as a violation of international law which specifies that only the civilian population of a territory may vote. Despite the criticism, the United Nations decolonization

Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

committee later removed Alaska from the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories

United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories

The United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories is a list of countries that, according to the United Nations, are non-decolonized. The list was initially prepared in 1946 pursuant to Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter, and has been updated by the General Assembly on recommendation...

.

The debate is considered by some to resemble the same academic discourse being argued by several other activist groups in the United States, including arguments around the legal status of Hawaii

Legal status of Hawaii

The legal status of Hawaii is the standing of Hawaii as a political entity relative to the United States of America. Locally, nationally and internationally, Hawaii is accepted as a state under the sovereignty of the United States of America...

and the legal status of Texas

Legal status of Texas

The legal status of Texas is the standing of Texas as a political entity. The legal status of Texas relative to the United States of America has been the subject of debate. Texas is considered to be a state under the sovereignty of the United States of America. United States sovereignty over Texas...

. The situation most closely resembles Hawaii as the Hawaiian statehood vote also lacked an option for independence.

History

Joe Volger began arguing about the validity of the statehood vote in 1973. Early in that year, he began circulating a petition seeking support for secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

of Alaska from the United States. Alaska magazine
Alaska magazine
Alaska is a periodical devoted to news and discussion of issues and features of and from Alaska. A great deal of its readership consists of persons outside of Alaska who are interested in the Alaskan way of life....

published a piece at that time in which Vogler claimed to have gathered 25,000 signatures in three weeks.

During the 1970s, Vogler founded the Alaskan Independence Party

Alaskan Independence Party

The Alaskan Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of Alaska that advocates an in-state referendum which includes the option of Alaska becoming an independent country...

(AIP) and Alaskans For Independence. The AIP and AFI, as Vogler explained, were intended to function as strictly separate entities — AIP primarily to explore whether the 1958 vote by Alaskans authorizing statehood was legal, and AFI primarily to actively pursue secession for Alaska from the United States.

Vogler would serve as the AIP's standard-bearer for most of the party's first two decades. He ran for governor in 1974, with Wayne Peppler as his running mate. Jay Hammond

Jay Hammond

Jay Sterner Hammond was an American politician of the Republican Party, who served as the fourth Governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982.-Early life:...

was elected over incumbent governor William Egan

William Allen Egan

William Allen Egan was an American Democratic politician. He served as the first Governor of the State of Alaska from January 3, 1959 to 1966, and the fourth Governor from 1970 to 1974...

, with Vogler trailing far behind. Typical political discussion of the day contended that Vogler was a "spoiler," and that the result would have been different had he not been in the race. However, this campaign opened up the doors for non-major party candidates to run for major offices in Alaska, and generally this accusation is leveled during every election cycle.

Vogler also ran for governor in 1978, 1982, and 1986. Several incidents during these campaigns raised his profile as a "colorful character". In the 1982 race, Vogler was taken to task for comments made during a debate. The issue of moving Alaska's capital appeared during the election, as it has on and off since 1960. The media and political pundits took great fun over Vogler's debate remarks that Alaska should "nuke the glaciers" along the coast of the Gulf of Alaska

Gulf of Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.The entire shoreline of the Gulf is...

and build a freeway to Juneau. Vogler would later contend that what he said was misinterpreted.

Vogler's running mate in 1986 was Al Rowe, a Fairbanks resident and former Alaska State Trooper

Alaska State Troopers

The Division of Alaska State Troopers is the state police agency of Alaska. It is a division of the Alaska Department of Public Safety . The Alaska State Troopers are a full service law enforcement agency and handle both traffic and criminal law enforcement...

. Rowe took out a series of newspaper ads, fashioning himself in the image of Sheriff Buford Pusser

Buford Pusser

Buford Hayse Pusser was the Sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee , from 1964 to 1970. Pusser is known for his virtual one-man war on moonshining, prostitution, gambling, and other vices on the Mississippi-Tennessee state-line. His story has directly inspired several books, songs, movies and at...

. These ads gained a lot of attention getter during the campaign. Between Rowe's ads and the turmoil existing in the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

over the nomination of Arliss Sturgulewski

Arliss Sturgulewski

Jane Arliss Sturgulewski is a retired businesswoman and Republican politician from the U.S. state of Alaska. In a political career in which she started appearing in the spotlight in 1975, she represented Anchorage in the Alaska Senate from 1979 to 1993...

, the AIP ticket was able to garner 5.5 percent of the vote, gaining the AIP status in Alaska as a recognized political party for the first time.

In 1990, Walter Joseph Hickel

Walter Joseph Hickel

Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel was an industrialist, focused mostly on construction and real estate development, and a politician of the Republican and Alaskan Independence parties from the U.S. state of Alaska. Hickel served as the second and eighth Governor of Alaska...

, a former Republican, won the election for Governor of Alaska as a member of the AIP. This was the only time in the 20th century that a non-major party candidate won the governship in Alaska, though Hickel's lack of enthusiasm for the party's secessionist goals contributed to his decision to rejoin the Republican Party shortly before the end of his term in office.

Sources

Breeze, Virginia. 1958: Alaska's Statehood Election, Alaska Division of Elections.
Enriquez, J. The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future. Crown Publishing, ISBN 0-307-23752-4.

Background

History

Sources

See also