Alaska’s first U.S. senator did more for the state than Alaskans remember

Fifty years ago this month, Alaska’s first U.S. senator, Bob Bartlett, died on the operating table in a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. His death had an immediate impact on Alaska politics.

Bartlett had served in Congress for 23 years, first as Alaska’s territorial delegate in Congress, then as U.S. senator. From his first campaign for elected office, in 1944, he was a steadfast advocate for statehood; it was his driving passion. He is given credit for persuading Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson to support statehood; the support of both was necessary if Congress was to approve statehood for Alaska.

In a poll conducted not long before his death, his fellow senators voted Bartlett the most liked among them. On a visit to Alaska in 1974, Sen. Sam Ervin of Watergate fame confirmed his and his colleagues’ view of Bartlett as most liked and most effective. The Library of Congress estimates that Bartlett had more bills passed into law than anyone else in the history of the U.S. Congress.

Bartlett, a Democrat, was dedicated to the interests of Alaska and its people, above all other considerations. He was a quiet consensus builder who knew how to measure people and to enlist their aid. And he could be persuaded to change his mind if he thought the cause was right. The Alaska statehood act, for example, contains a section often called the disclaimer. It states that the people of Alaska disclaim any right or title to land that may be subject to Native title. At the time of statehood, which lands might be subject to Native title had not been determined; that determination was made in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. Most Alaska political leaders, territorial governor Ernest Gruening among them, opposed the inclusion of the disclaimer in the act; they thought it would withhold valuable lands from economic development.

However, as historian Peter Metcalf demonstrated in “The Sword and the Shield” (University of Alaska Press, 2014), the Alaska Native Brotherhood, then the principal organization advocating for Native rights and interests, made clear to Bartlett that they would not support statehood without the disclaimer in the act. Bartlett and others understood that if the ANB did not support statehood, Congress would be unlikely to vote for it. Hearing the ANB protest and the reasons for it — to protect aboriginal claims in Alaska — Bartlett changed his mind and became an advocate for it.

To note the many bills Bartlett nurtured through Congress during his tenure would take more space than is allotted this column. One, named for him, requires that all federal buildings include handicap access. Another established the Alaska Mental Health Trust. His commitment was to the best interests of all people. He would have been at home with the growing cultural embrace of diversity that has characterized American cultural life over the last several decades.

Fate sometimes plays interesting games. The same day Bartlett died, of heart failure, newly elected President Richard Nixon appointed Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel to be his Secretary of the Interior. Before leaving his Alaska office to enter federal service, Hickel, a Republican, as was his prerogative, appointed Ted Stevens, also a Republican, to replace Bartlett in the U.S. Senate. Both Stevens and Hickel would go on to play significant roles in Alaska’s development.

Had Bartlett survived another two years, his vacancy would have been filled by Gov. Bill Egan, a Democrat, and would have been a Democrat. Would that have made any difference in the way Alaska politics developed? No one can tell, and such speculations are dangerous, at best. And no one would gainsay the many contributions Stevens and Hickel made to Alaska and its people.

Bartlett was a heavy smoker and had been receiving treatment for serious heart problems for several months before his death. 1968 was a tumultuous year in America, and the tensions gripping the country and its politics cannot have rested easily on a heart already physically burdened.

Bob Bartlett was born in 1904; 64 is a young age at which to die. Alaska can be grateful for the many good years he gave us.

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

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