Sponsor Statement HJR 22

Wrangell Island was discovered and possessed in 1881 by the U.S. This island was subsequently added to the Territory of Alaska by the U.S. Treasury Department, which had governmental responsibility for Alaska for much of the 19^th century.

The Soviets took Wrangell Island by military force in 1924. Despite this occupation by Soviet forces, the U.S. maintained it sovereignty over Wrangell Island as recently as 1973. In 1977 the State Department abruptly changed it’s position.

First , the U.S. established a 200-mile limit for exclusive economic use of the ocean and it’s seabed. However, the State Department then informed the U.S.S.R., that it would accept a maritime boundary between Alaska and Siberia that put Wrangell Island and certain other islands and their seabed in the Arctic Ocean and in the Bering Sea on the Soviet side. The line extends1200 miles from near the end of the Aleutians to the Bering Straits and due North.

But, in 1980 when the folks at the State Deparment attempted to use the new boundary line, they became aware that their line and the Soviets’ line did not match ( the Soviets wanted more seabed going to themselves).

A series of secret meeting were held in the 1980’s. The result was a proposed maritime boundary treaty that implicitly relinquishes all U.S. claims to territories in the Chukchi Sea, as well as certain islands in the Bering Sea, including part of little Diomede. The U.S. Senate consented to this treaty late in 1991, but the U.S.S.R. dissolved before it ratified the treaty. The matter is unresolved and someday all parties will have to return to the bargaining table to resolved these issues.

Under U.S. law and International law, Alaska clearly has rights that have been ignored.

HJR 22 asserts the right of Alaska to have a representative at any meeting where Alaska’ territorial lands and waters are negotiated.