Alaska News

Bartlett was true architect of statehood

Next Thursday, October 8, is the anniversary of the birth of William A. Egan, Alaska's first state governor, president of the constitutional convention in 1955-56, and Tennessee Plan Senator (1956). The only governor so far to serve three terms (1959-62, 1962-66, 1970-74), Egan has been well-recognized during the 50th anniversary of statehood. Most attention has been directed to his role in the convention, appropriately, for many delegates testified to his fairness and insistence on inclusion, an account of which has been written by historian Betsy Tower.

The three Tennessee delegates, named so because Tennessee was the first territory to use the tactic, were elected as two U.S. "Senators" and one "Congressman" to travel to Washington, D.C., before Congress actually voted for Alaska statehood. After symbolically demanding seats in Congress, they were to work in Washington as statehood lobbyists. Along with Egan, former territorial governor Ernest Gruening (1939-53) was elected "Senator," and Ralph Rivers "Congressman."

But, as historian Claus Naske has explained, once in Washington, the delegation did not work well together. Gruening was overbearing and condescending. Rivers had trouble meeting House members and spent very little time with any. Egan, unwilling to put up with Gruening, worked from the basement of his rented home; he dealt mostly with Senate staffers.

Little of this was known back in Alaska, however, and once statehood was achieved, Egan's effective role in the convention, and his efficient work previously in the territorial legislature, endeared him to enough people to secure his election as governor. Egan's memory for the names and circumstances of people he had met was legendary; it was symptomatic of his genuine regard for people, a quality he maintained as governor.

Reliance on the Tennessee delegates to make Alaska a state would have doomed the statehood effort. The foremost architect of Alaska statehood was actually Bob Bartlett, as unassuming and self-effacing a politician imaginable. Having served as territorial secretary, essentially assistant governor, Bartlett earned election to Congress as Alaska's territorial delegate in 1944. As the territory's lone representative in Washington, he worked for 14 years making the case for Alaska's maturity and capability, countering the arguments of the salmon industry that the territory had too few people and too small an economy to be a state, and threading the needle between advocating economic development and protecting Native land and other rights.

As they had come into the union, all the Western states had negotiated the amount of land within their borders that would be transferred to state title, and how much would remain federal. Different considerations, including the states' unwillingness to be saddled with large acreages of unproductive land, led to large percentages being held in federal title in many states, including Nevada (85 percent), Utah (65 percent), Idaho (50 percent), and even California (45 percent). The land grant for Alaska, the size of which would be determined by Congress in the statehood act, was considered essential to the state's ability to support itself, mainly through mineral leases, which include oil and gas. Through several different statehood bills, it was Bartlett who mediated the discourse on this issue; at times the proposed grant was as little as 42 million, at others as large as 200 million (of Alaska's total acreage of 375 million). The final tally was about 103 million.

In the interest of justice for Alaska Natives, Bartlett also was responsible for the Native lands disclaimer in the Alaska Statehood Act, Section 4, in which Alaskans disclaim any right or title to land that may be subject to Native title. No one knew just which lands those might be in the 1950s as statehood was being debated. Bartlett insisted, despite the contrary wishes of Gruening and others, that the disclaimer be included, probably at the suggestion of Felix Cohen, an Indian rights lawyer in the Interior Department.

ADVERTISEMENT

Many Alaskans contributed to the successful statehood campaign, as historian Claus-M. Naske chronicles in a new book, "49 at Last." In addition to Egan, Rivers and Gruening, Ted Stevens worked from within the Interior Department. Robert and Evangeline Atwood organized support on the home front. But of them all, none is more deserving of the title "architect of Alaska statehood" than the assiduous congressional advocate Bob Bartlett.

Steve Haycox is a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Steve Haycox

comment

Steve Haycox

Steve Haycox is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

ADVERTISEMENT