"It's a piece of human history because I like to say that we as a people, as a nation, as a state, we are still capable of these atrocities and this can happen again and is happening again at different levels throughout the country, throughout other countries," Stepetin said and added, "That is why we have to remember this so that we don't ever allow it to happen to us again as a people." Stepetin thanked Governor Dunleavy for signing the bill last week and Representative Hannan for her hard work through the legislative process. The group of six World War II Aleut relocation camp sites in southeast Alaska do not qualify as a National Historic Landmark. Unangan people from the Pribilof Islands were placed in internment camps in Southeast Alaska, including at Funter Bay, during World War II including both sets of Martin's grandparents. Paul reconsecrated the cemetery at Funter Bay. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The bill that formally protects the cemetery at Funter Bay on Admiralty Island was sponsored by Juneau Representative Sara Hannan but she gives the credit to Martin Stepetin. There was no such opposition mounted from the Senate Republicans during today’s debate and the vote was ultimately unanimous with several Democrats and Republicans signing on as cross sponsors, a sign of support.īecause the Senate made no changes to the legislation, the bill does not need a concurrence vote and will head to Gov. The bill had faced some skepticism from House Republicans when it passed earlier in the session, where they argued that it was a sweetheart deal for the neighboring landowners because it may preclude a future mine project in the area (Several mining groups wrote in after the vote, noting there was no known mining opportunities and therefore didn’t oppose the legislation). (Photo by Harold Hargrave, courtesy of Alaska State Library) He was testifying in support of House Bill. It doesn’t include any funding for improvements or memorials to the cemetery as there’s a separate effort underway for those improvements. Unangax women tend to graves near a World War II internment camp on Funter Bay in the 1940s. The legislation would transfer about 250 acres of state land from the state Division of Mining, Land and Water to the Division of Parks and Recreation. … The Alaska state Legislature can’t fix the history, we can’t change what was done, but we can protect the final resting place of more than 30 of our fellow Americans at Funter Bay.” They were treated vastly better than the Unangax̂ people-Americans-interred at Funter Bay More than 30 of those Americans at Funter Bay died before their internment ended. a wind harp) Funter Bay Internment camp (slats of the goldmine camp building where they were interned, windharp, rain) Windharp and weeds at a Cemetery. government forced people from their homes in the Aleutian Islands more than 1,000 miles away to internment camps after Japanese troops invaded. in the internment camps at Funter Bay will be. “Mostly Germans and some Italians at Excursion Inlet. The cemetery holds the graves of people who died at Funter Bay during World War II. A bill aimed at protecting a small Unangax cemetery near Funter Bay was signed into law Tuesday at a ceremony at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. federal government providing basic health care and adequate food to prisoners of war,” said Juneau Democratic Sen. “If you were to go about 23 miles west northwest of Funter Bay in those days, you would have found the U.S.
stories told by grandparents, past fur seal harvests, the internment at Funter Bay during. They given few supplies for the hasty relocation and housed in abandoned buildings from an old mine and cannery. Legend for Lukannon Bay, (1872) (Cleveland Museum of Natural. (It turns out, just two days ago, a bill was signed to protect this cemetery, adding it to the Funter Bay Marine Park so the land cannot be sold. Many of the supporters note the inhumane treatment of the people was steeped in racism, noting that prisoners of war were treated much better at a neighboring camp. government forced the Unangax people to live in an internment camp here in Funter Bay, and almost 40 people died and were buried in the cemetery.
Some 30 to 40 people died at Funter Bay where they were given inadequate housing and supplies by the U.S.
Sara Hannan, seeks to preserve and commemorate the Unangax̂ people who were forced to relocate from their homes in the Pribilof Islands to a camp 1,300 miles in Southeast Alaska. Legislation adding a cemetery that holds the graves the Unangax̂ people who died at a World War II-era forced relocation camp in Southeast Alaska to the Funter Bay Marine Park has cleared the Alaska Legislature.