“I understand the concerns being highlighted by previous members,” he said. He said he had not heard any opposition to the bill from local residents or mining interests. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Sitka, is one of the bill’s sponsors. The Funter Bay families want to make sure they can care for the graves - and that the site will serve as a memorial of the Internment.ĭemocratic Rep. It’s on private land, and the owner has blocked access. The movement to protect the cemetery was motivated in part by what happened at another internment site, on Killisnoo Island, near Angoon. Most of the people who died at Funter Bay were elders or very young children who were left to survive without clean water or basic medical care in the remains of an old cannery, more than a thousand miles from their homes. “We don’t know what technologies and future mineral discoveries might happen involving this area.” “We are going in the wrong direction for a mere 30 interned individuals in the cemetery,” Eastman said. (Courtesy of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum) A recent photo of the Unangax̂ cemetery at Funter Bay. Dave Eastman (Wasilla) said the bill could stand in the way of future resource extraction. Without the amendment, McCabe said, the state would be transferring additional acres, “including an island that’s offshore and not even part of this cemetery - that is unneeded transfer of Alaska’s wealth into a state park.” Kevin McCabe, Big Lake, said he supports the intent of the bill, but he proposed an amendment that would transfer 90 acres to the park instead of 251. This year, a group of Republican representatives complained during floor debate that the bill transfers too much land to the park. Last year, the bill looked to be on its way to passing when the COVID-19 pandemic cut the session short. military forced them from their homes and held them for much of the war at the remote spot on Admiralty Island. George who died at Funter Bay during World War II after the U.S. The cemetery holds more than 30 graves of people from St. The bill would add about 251 acres of state land, including the cemetery, to Funter Bay State Marine Park. The Alaska House of Representatives is expected to vote today on a bill to protect the Unangax̂ cemetery at Funter Bay. Update: The bill passed 31-8 and is headed to the Senate. It now moves to the Alaska Senate.Funter Bay on the Mansfield Peninsula of Admiralty Island on Aug. The House passed the bill 29-4 last week. "The descendants of the families who are buried there had some real anxiety about whether they would always have access to be able to visit the graves of their family," said Hannan. But the Juneau Democrat said she wanted to ensure it would remain open to the public by adding it and surrounding lands to the nearby Funter Bay park. Sara Hannan said the cemetery is already on state-owned land managed by the Department of Natural Resources. "The value of protecting the social and historical significance of this land will cement the history for good, and we will never have to repeat this history again," he said.īill sponsor Rep. Stepetin was testifying in support of House Bill 122, which would expand Funter Bay State Marine Park by about 250 acres to include the historic cemetery. "Even my grandma used to say, late into her late 90s, things like, 'I hope it never happens again,'" he said. Martin Stepetin told the committee that all four of his grandparents spent the war at Funter Bay in miserable conditions. More than 1,000 miles away from their ancestral home in the Pribilofs, the Unangax̂ had to make do with few provisions and little heat in a shuttered salmon cannery.
"I think it's very important in terms of the state of Alaska protecting the Unangax̂ historic cemetery site," Monteith told the House Resources Committee. George Island were relocated to southeast Alaska in a makeshift camp on Admiralty Island.Īround 30 marked graves remain near the shores of Funter Bay, which descendants continue to visit. University of Alaska Southeast anthropology associate professor Daniel Monteith told lawmakers last month that 290 residents of St. authorities forcibly evacuated more than 800 Unangax̂ from nine villages in the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands ahead of the Japanese advance. Alaska lawmakers are considering expanding a state park to include the historic graves of Unangan people who died during the evacuation of World War II.Īfter the Japanese bombed Unalaska in 1942, U.S.