Board: Alaska Historical Commission
Board identification number: 045
Department: NATURAL RESOURCES
Authority: AS 41.35.300
Status: Active
Sunset date:
Requirements: No Legislative Confirmation or Financial Disclosure required
Prohibitions: None
Term: 3 years
Chair: Selected by Commission
Description: The board consists of 9 members: 7 appointed by Governor, including three persons with professionally relevant backgrounds appointed from the fields of history, architecture, and archeology, 1 representative of indigenous ethnic groups, 2 persons appointed from a list of recommended nominees, containing at least 4 names, submitted each year by the Alaska Historical Society, and 1 public member; the Lieutenant Governor; and the state liaison officer (Alaska State Historic Preservation Officer) appointed under 16 U.S.C. 470-470n (P.L. 89-665, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.)
Function: Advises Governor and Legislature on matters related to Alaska’s history and prehistory; oversees state historic preservation plan; surveys, evaluates, and catalogs printed prehistory/history materials; registers work in progress; identifies sources; coordinates production and publication of works to present Alaska’s past; develops criteria for evaluation of monuments and historic sites; formulates and reviews surveys; approves recommendations to National Register; recommends historic preservation grant project for funding; determines names and changes names of geographic features; prepares dictionary of geographic names; state representatives for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.
Special facts: A quorum consists of 5 members. The board elects vice-chair from among members at the first meeting of each year. Legislative confirmation is required by statute but not permissible under the Constitution.
Compensation: Standard Travel and Per Diem
Meetings: 2or 3 times per year (usually spring and fall for 2 to 3 days each); 16 days maximum.
For further information and to reach individual members, contact:
Judy Bittner
Alaska Historical Commission
DNR, 550 W. 7th Ave., Suite 1310
Anchorage, AK 99501-3565
Phone: (907) 269-8715
Fax: (907) 269-8908
