Alaska Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

For its American years Alaska followed the common law — the body of judge-made rules that England built up over centuries, passed on to its colonies, and that the United States kept after independence. Before that, from 1784 to 1867, Alaska was Russian America, run for the Tsar by the Russian-American Company under Russian law, a system built on written codes. For those years the records to look for are Russian Orthodox Church registers and company records.

Russia handed Alaska to the United States in the Treaty of Cession of 30 March 1867¹. Government came slowly. For the first seventeen years, an Alaska marriage, will, or estate was handled by the military, by local custom, or by the church. The First Organic Act of 17 May 1884² made Alaska a judicial district and adopted Oregon's general laws as its own, so from 1884 to 1899 Alaska's civil law was Oregon's law as it stood in 1884. Congress then wrote Alaska its own Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure³ and its own Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure⁴, gathered together as the Carter Code in 1900. The Second Organic Act of 24 August 1912⁵ created the Territory of Alaska with an elected legislature, which first met in 1913 and passed laws of its own. Statehood came in 1959, after the years this guide covers.

Three bodies of law therefore apply, one after another, and the date on a record tells you which one to use. Because Alaska's codes were copied from Oregon's, many rules read the same in both. The qualifications for a juror and the rules on a child as a witness are word for word alike⁶. Others are not: the age of adulthood, the age to marry, the reach of dower, and the age to make a will all changed when Alaska got its own code. The territorial legislature also amended the codes freely from 1913, so a rule in force in 1940 is usually a territorial change rather than the code of 1900, and the territorial compilations of 1933 and 1949 are where the later rule is printed.

One feature shapes almost every Alaska record: probate was handled locally. From 1884 the commissioners had the powers of justices of the peace and handled all wills and estates, and their courts were courts of record⁷. From 1900 the court divided the district into recording districts and made a commissioner the recorder of each⁸. Marriages, deeds, wills, estates, and guardianships from this period are therefore all in one officer's books.

Legal Age of Adulthood

From 1884 to 1899, while Oregon's law applied, a man became an adult at 21 and a woman at 18⁹. The Alaska Civil Code of 1900 made the age the same for both: everyone reached majority — full legal adulthood — at 21, and from then on controlled his or her own affairs, with all the rights and responsibilities of an adult citizen¹⁰. It was still 21 at the end of this period, for men and for unmarried women alike¹¹.

One rule made a woman an adult sooner: a woman became an adult the day she married, no matter how young she was¹². A married woman under 21 could therefore handle her own property, and if she had a guardian, the guardianship ended at the wedding (see Inheritance).

Marriage

Marriage age, and a marriage that stands unless canceled

Marriage was a civil contract. From 1884 to 1899 Oregon's law set the ages at 18 for a man and 15 for a woman¹³. From 1900 the Alaska Civil Code raised them to 21 for a man and 18 for a woman, each otherwise able to marry¹⁴.

Those code ages stayed on the books through 1950, but after 1917 they are not the whole answer. When the Territory first required a marriage license that year, the licensing act worked from lower ages. It treated 18 for a man and 16 for a woman as the age at which a person could marry, and 21 and 18 as the age of adulthood. A commissioner could license someone who fell between the two if a parent consented¹⁵. So from 1917 the working ages for a licensed Alaska marriage were 18 and 16, even though the code still said 21 and 18 (see A parent's consent, below).

A marriage could be canceled if one party was under the legal age, did not understand what he or she was doing, or was forced or tricked into consenting. But only the person under that disability could ask a court to cancel it¹⁶. That matters for a researcher: a young person's marriage counted as a valid marriage, and its children were legitimate, unless that same young person went to court to undo it. An underage Alaska marriage therefore leaves an ordinary marriage record in the commissioner's files.

A parent's consent

Oregon's law, which applied from 1884, called for a license from the county clerk of the county where the woman lived, and no license without a parent's written consent if the woman was under 18 or the man under 21¹⁷. How much of that could work in a district that had no counties and no county clerks is an open question, and the first Alaska licensing requirement on record is the act of 1917.

Under the Alaska code of 1900 a couple needed no one's permission to marry. The code set the ages and the other rules for a marriage, but it called for no license and no parent's consent¹⁸.

Consent arrived along with licensing, in that same act of 1917. A man aged 18 to 21, and a woman aged 16 to 18, could marry with the consent of a parent, a guardian, or the parent who actually had care, custody, and control of the minor. The consent had to be sworn to, or signed and backed by an affidavit. Below 18 for a man and 16 for a woman, no license could be issued at all. Where there was no guardian and no suitable person caring for the minor, the commissioner of the precinct could allow the marriage for good reason shown¹⁹. The commissioner filed the consent and entered it on the marriage license docket before issuing the license, so it survives with the license papers and names the parent or guardian who gave it.

Common-law marriage and the license of 1917

The code required no particular form of ceremony. It asked only that the couple declare, in front of each other, the officiant, and at least two witnesses, that they took each other as husband and wife²⁰. Before 1917 the courts treated that as a description rather than a requirement, so a couple who agreed to be husband and wife and then lived as married were married at common law. The Alaska courts upheld such marriages three times²¹. A man and a woman living together as husband and wife before 1917 may have been lawfully married with no ceremony, no officiant, and no paperwork of any kind.

In 1917 the Territorial Legislature required that no one be married in the Territory until a license had been obtained from a United States commissioner, and that rule held through 1950²². So an Alaska marriage from 1917 on leaves a license in the commissioner's files as well as a certificate, and one from before 1917 may leave neither. The Alaska Supreme Court decided in 1961 that the license law was mandatory and that a marriage attempted without a license was invalid²³. That answer came late: a federal digest of Alaska law prepared as of 1958 still listed common-law marriage as recognized²⁴, so couples in the decades in between could, and did, believe an informal marriage was good.

Two further rules made a marriage hard to upset. A marriage was still good even where the person who performed it had no authority to do so, as long as the couple believed they had been lawfully married²⁵. And a marriage performed according to the ritual of any religious organization was valid where there was no legal obstacle²⁶ — the rule that covers Quaker and other self-performed religious marriages.

A child's status followed the marriage: the children of a valid marriage were legitimate, and where a child was born before the parents married, the later marriage made the child legitimate (see Inheritance).

The restrictions on marriage

Under Alaska's own code only two things blocked a marriage, and they applied to everyone on the same terms²⁷:

• An existing marriage. Neither party could already have a husband or wife living.
• Close kinship. People related more closely than the fourth degree of blood relationship could not marry. The fourth degree itself was allowed, half-blood relatives counted the same as full-blood ones, and the degrees were counted by the rules of the civil law.

Those two were the whole list, and Alaska's own legislature never added to it. So from 1900 a marriage between a white settler and an Alaska Native was as valid as any other marriage, and the children of it were legitimate. Mixed marriages appear in the ordinary marriage, church, and commissioner records. Russian, Creole, and Native marriages, both from the Russian period and later, are recorded in the Orthodox church registers.

A marriage from the years 1884 to 1899 is worth a second look, because Oregon's general laws applied to the district then and they barred marriage across racial lines in two places. The marriage title forbade a marriage between a white person and a Black person, or a person who was one-quarter or more Black by descent. The criminal code went further, carrying Oregon's act of 1866: a white person could not marry a Black person, a Chinese person, anyone one-quarter or more Black, Chinese, or Kanaka (a term then used for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders), or anyone more than one-half Native American. Such marriages, and attempts at them, were declared completely void²⁸.

Both sections were written to cover what was done “within this state,” and the Organic Act of 1884 adopted Oregon's laws only so far as they fit Alaska. Neither section appears in any reported decision of the district court for those years, and when Congress wrote Alaska its own code in 1900 it left both out²⁹. So a mixed marriage from the district years leaves an ordinary marriage record, just as one from 1900 onward does.

Property Ownership

Owning land

Land could be owned from birth: a person of any age could hold land that came by inheritance, by gift, or by devise (a gift of land made in a will). Full power to buy, sell, and transfer land in your own name came with adulthood — 21 from 1900 for a man or a woman alike, and 18 for a woman during the years Oregon's law applied³⁰. A minor could hold land, but a deed signed by a minor was voidable under the common law: it was good unless the minor chose to cancel it, and he could do that on turning 21.

Women and land

A married woman owned her land and her personal property in her own name, and from 1900 the code said so plainly. Her property could not be taken for her husband's debts, and she could manage, sell, transfer, or leave it by will exactly as her husband could his own³¹. Whatever each spouse owned stayed that spouse's own and answered only for that spouse's debts³². She could go to court over her property as if she were single³³, and husband and wife could transfer property to each other³⁴. Deeds and mortgages taken in a married woman's own name are therefore normal in Alaska, and are worth following as evidence that the land was hers.

So her power to sell was never the difficulty. Her husband's interest in what she sold was. Until 1923 a right called curtesy attached to any land she held, giving him the use of it for the rest of his life if he outlived her (see Inheritance), and a buyer who wanted clear title wanted his signature to give that up. The code also said that when a wife did sign a deed along with her husband, she had to acknowledge it — state in front of an officer, who wrote it on the deed, that she signed freely and willingly³⁵. A separate rule covered a married woman living outside the district³⁶.

Two territorial acts cleared all that away. In 1923 the Territory removed curtesy from any land the wife had already sold or transferred, and said plainly that she could sell without her husband signing the deed. In 1935 it abolished curtesy outright, so she could leave her land by will as well³⁷. A husband's name on a deed of his wife's land before 1923 therefore usually means he was releasing his curtesy, not that she needed his permission to sell. Either way the deed is worth following, because land held in a wife's own name came to her by inheritance, by gift, or by her own purchase, and each of those leads somewhere.

When a wife signed her husband's deed

Dower — a widow's right to use part of her husband's land for the rest of her life — is what put a wife's name on her husband's deed, and its reach changed when Alaska got a code of its own.

From 1884 to 1899, while Oregon's law applied, dower was the old common-law kind. A widow took the use, for the rest of her life, of one-third of every piece of land her husband had owned at any time during the marriage³⁸. Because that reached land he had already sold, a buyer needed her to give it up, and she gave it up only by signing the deed with him and being questioned separately, away from her husband. Her signature and seal alone did not release it.

From 1900 the Alaska Civil Code narrowed dower to the land the husband still owned when he died³⁹. Land he sold during his life went to the buyer with clear title, and his deed carried his signature alone.

That homestead exception matters. The family homestead could not be deeded or transferred unless both husband and wife signed, and a mortgage on a married couple's homestead had to be signed by both⁴⁰. A deed of the family home signed by the husband alone is the one to look at twice.

So on an Alaska deed after 1900, a wife's name usually means one of two things: the land was hers, or the property was the family homestead. On a deed from the district years, expect her name on any land her husband held during the marriage.

Deed formalities and witnesses

A deed of land in the district had to be signed in front of two witnesses, who signed their own names to it. It then had to be acknowledged before a judge, the clerk of the district court, a notary public, or a commissioner, who wrote a certificate of that acknowledgment on the deed. The deed was then recorded⁴¹. The law fixed the number of witnesses at two but set no age. A witness only had to meet the general test: he had to understand what he was doing and be able to give a sensible account of it. In practice that meant an adult, because a witness who signed a deed could be called years afterward to prove it, and had to give his own address and swear he knew the person who signed⁴². The two witnesses on a deed are two names worth collecting, since they were commonly relatives or neighbors of the grantor — the person selling or giving away the land.

Citizenship and land

Alaska's own codes set no limit on ownership by a foreigner, and on one point ran the other way: the Civil Code said a woman was not barred from her dower just because she was a foreigner⁴³. The limits that did reach Alaska were federal, and they turned on citizenship.

Most Alaska land reached an individual through one of two federal doors, and both were shut to a foreigner who had not begun to naturalize. The Organic Act of 1884 put the United States mining laws in force in the district while deliberately keeping the general land laws out, and the mining laws were open to citizens and to people who had filed a declaration of intention to become citizens⁴⁴. The homestead laws were extended to Alaska only in 1898, and a homestead claim was likewise open to a citizen or to someone who had filed that declaration⁴⁵. A mining location notice or a homestead file therefore states the claimant's citizenship, and a naturalization record or a declaration of intention is often the record behind it.

A general federal law pointed the same way. An act of 1887, amended in 1897, made it unlawful for anyone who was neither a citizen nor a declarant to buy or own land in a United States Territory, and let the Attorney General sue to take back land held against that rule. The exceptions were wide, and the two that mattered most in Alaska were lots in an incorporated or platted town and any mine or mining claim. Land received by inheritance or taken to collect a debt was also excepted, and a foreigner who became a genuine resident of the United States could own land on the same terms as a citizen⁴⁶. The act speaks of “the Territories,” and Alaska was formally a district until 1912 and a Territory afterward, so how far it reached the district years is an open question, like the reach of Oregon's racial bar above.

The citizenship rule fell hardest on Chinese residents of the district. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 forbade any court to make a Chinese person a citizen⁴⁷, so a Chinese immigrant could neither naturalize nor file a declaration of intention, and was shut out of a mining claim and a homestead alike. A town lot was still open to him, and Chinese-held property in an incorporated Alaska town can appear in the ordinary deed books. Alaska Natives stood outside the citizenship rules for most of this period and took land instead under the two acts written for them, below; on Native citizenship see Courts.

Alaska Native land

In the Russian period, Native possession rested on Russian practice and on the Russian-American Company's control of the coast. When the United States took over, the First Organic Act of 1884 said Natives were not to be disturbed in the possession of any land they actually used or occupied, and left the terms for getting formal title to later legislation⁴⁸. Individual Alaska Natives could obtain title under two later federal acts, and both left record trails that are among the richest sources for Native families:

• The Alaska Native Allotment Act of 17 May 1906⁴⁹ let an individual Alaska Native receive up to 160 acres of non-mineral land by proving nearly continuous use and occupancy. The United States held the title in trust, and the allotment could not be sold or taxed without federal approval. An application had to prove use and occupancy, often with maps and family testimony, so an allotment case file can document a family's presence on the land for generations.
• The Alaska Native Townsite Act of 25 May 1926⁵⁰ gave Alaska Natives restricted lots under their homes in villages and towns, also free from tax and from sale without approval.

Inheritance

A person who died without a valid will died intestate, and the code decided how the estate was divided. That division changed once before 1950, so the date of death decides the shares.

An intestate estate: the widow and the children

Oregon's law, which applied from 1884, set out substantially the same plan Alaska's own code later carried forward: equal shares to the children, with the children of a child who had died first dividing their parent's share; and where no direct descendants survived, everything to the widow or widower, and after that to the father⁵¹.

Under the Civil Code of 1900, land passed in equal shares to the children, and the children of a child who had died first divided between them the share their parent would have taken. If there were no descendants, the land went to the surviving spouse; if there was no spouse, to the father, then the mother, then the brothers and sisters and next of kin⁵². In 1917 the Territory rearranged the end of that list. With no direct descendants the land still went to the wife or husband. After them it went to the father and mother in equal shares, or to whichever parent was still living, and only then to the brothers and sisters and the children of a brother or sister who had died⁵³. Where there were children, the land itself went to them, subject to the widow's dower. Where there were no descendants, the surviving spouse took the land outright.

The widow's interest in that land was dower: the use, for the rest of her life, of one-third of the land her husband owned when he died⁵⁴. The land passed to the children at his death subject to her third, and became fully theirs when she died. Her third was measured out by three neutral commissioners, described by metes and bounds — a written description that walks the boundary line by line — where that could be done, and their report in the estate file often describes her third field by field. Where her husband's will left her something in lieu of (in place of) dower, she chose between the two, in writing filed with the commissioner⁵⁵.

Personal property worked differently, and her share was hers outright. She first received her clothing and jewelry and an allowance to support herself and her minor children⁵⁶. After the debts and the costs of settling the estate were paid⁵⁷, whatever was left went to the same people who took the land — that is, the children. But a widow with children took one-half of what was left, and all of it where there were no children⁵⁸. A surviving husband took the same one-half, or the whole⁵⁹. Where there was no spouse and no relatives at all, what was left escheated — passed for want of an heir — to the United States⁶⁰.

In 1946 the land itself was split as well. A widow with surviving children took one-half of the real property outright, and the rest was divided equally among the lawful children and the children of any child who had died. In 1947 the same share was given to a widow or a widower alike. Dower continued alongside that new share⁶¹. The shares of the personal property stayed as they were. Dower itself lasted until 1963⁶², after the years this guide covers.

Curtesy was the husband's mirror image of dower. Under the 1900 code, where his wife owned land that could pass to her heirs, the husband kept the use of that land for the rest of his life after she died, whether or not a child had been born to the marriage⁶³. Like dower, it was a right to use the land, not ownership of it. Curtesy ended in two steps before this period closed. In 1923 it was removed from any land the wife had already sold or transferred. In 1935 the Territory abolished it outright: a wife could sell, transfer, or leave her land by will free of it, and if she died without a will her land went to her own heirs⁶⁴.

Minors' inheritance and guardians

A minor's inheritance went to a guardian, who worked under the commissioner's supervision and under bond — a written promise, backed by other people's money, to account for the child's property. The guardian also managed the minor's land, and sold it when necessary, under that same supervision and bond⁶⁵. The commissioner appointed guardians for minors living in the district whenever it was necessary or convenient, and for minors living elsewhere who owned property in the district⁶⁶. Relatives were preferred, the nearest first, if they were of good character and capable⁶⁷. A parent could name a guardian in a will⁶⁸. Where an Alaska deed transfers a child's land, the guardianship file in the commissioner's records names the family.

A minor could choose his or her own guardian at 14, boys and girls alike: under 14 the commissioner picked and appointed the guardian, and at 14 or older the minor named someone, who was appointed if the commissioner approved⁶⁹. Guardianship ended at adulthood — the guardian stayed in office until the minor turned 21 or was discharged — and a girl's guardianship ended when she married⁷⁰, matching the rule that a woman became an adult on marrying. Both ages held from 1884, since Oregon's law had used the same two figures in the same terms⁷¹.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage inherited from the mother just as if the child had been born within a marriage, taking from the mother herself. If such a child died without a will, without a spouse, and without children, the property went to the mother⁷².

The route that reaches furthest into a family's records was legitimation by the parents' marriage. Where the parents of a child born before their marriage later married, the child became legitimate for all purposes⁷³, and even a formal marriage of the parents that was later held void made the child legitimate⁷⁴. When an inheritance runs to a child born before the parents married, the marriage is the record to find.

Wills

From 1884 to 1899 the two kinds of property were treated differently. A will covering land as well as personal property required the maker to be 21, and could not take away the widow's dower. A will covering only goods and chattels — money, livestock, household goods — required only 18. Either way, two or more competent witnesses had to sign in the will-maker's presence⁷⁵.

From 1900 the age to make a will was 21 for land and personal property alike, for anyone of sound mind. Where the person making the will was married, the will could not defeat the other spouse's dower or curtesy⁷⁶.

Every valid will was in writing and signed by the testator — the person making the will — or by someone else at his direction and in his presence, and witnessed by two or more competent witnesses who signed their names in his presence⁷⁷. The law fixed the number of witnesses at two and set no age. A witness of any age could serve who understood what he was doing and could describe it.

An executor or executrix had to be an adult. A person named in a will who was still a minor could take the job only on reaching 21, and in the meantime the court appointed an administrator with the will annexed — a substitute who carried out the will instead⁷⁸. Every executor and administrator gave bond. A minor named as executor appears in the file, but someone else takes the letters — the court's written authority to settle the estate — so read the letters to learn who actually settled it.

Taxation

The taxes that fell on an ordinary Alaskan were charged by the head — a poll tax or a road tax. A "poll" is simply the taxable person — a head — and a poll tax, also called a capitation tax, is a fixed amount charged to a person just for being there.

Nothing of the kind reached an ordinary Alaskan before 1904. The Organic Act of 1884 gave the district no legislature and no power to tax itself, and the license taxes Congress set in the codes of 1899 and 1900 fell on trades and businesses rather than on people⁷⁹. The first two taxes on individuals both date from 1904, and the Territory added two more after 1913.

Four taxes reached the ordinary person, and each left a record:

• The road tax, 1904 to 1913. Every able-bodied man between 18 and 50 who had lived thirty days in the district owed two days' work of eight hours each on the public roads and trails, under the precinct road overseer. He could send a substitute, or pay $4 a day instead of working⁸⁰. A pauper supported by the precinct was exempt. The first Territorial Legislature repealed the federal road-overseer and road-district act in April 1913⁸¹, so these rolls belong to the years before that. Each year the road overseer reported the names of everyone who owed the tax, who had worked it off, who had paid, and who had not⁸². These precinct road-tax rolls name every able-bodied man aged 18 to 50 — the closest thing to a yearly census of the district's men.
• The town poll tax, from 1904. An incorporated town could charge a poll tax of not less than $2 and not more than $4 a year on every male resident over 21 and under 50, except an unpaid volunteer firefighter, and the tax became a lien on the man's property. A town could also charge a dog tax of up to $2 and a general tax on all real and personal property for school and town purposes, capped at two percent of the assessed value⁸³.
• The territorial poll tax, from 1913. The first Territorial Legislature charged $4 a year to every male in the Territory over 21 and under 50. It fell on men alone, and it passed over soldiers, sailors of the Navy and the Revenue Cutter Service, volunteer firefighters, paupers, people declared insane, and anyone supported by the Territory⁸⁴. Before the first of March each year the commissioner of each precinct wrote out the names of everyone in his precinct who owed the tax, kept one copy, sent the other to the Territorial Treasurer, and gave notice in a local newspaper or by posting it in five public places. He gave a receipt from a numbered stub book for each payment. Those yearly precinct lists name every man aged 21 to 50 in the Territory, year by year, from 1913.
• The school tax, from 1919. The Territory charged $5 a year to every male in the Territory or its waters over 21 and under 50, passing over the same groups as the poll tax. In each incorporated town the town council appointed a school tax collector; elsewhere the school board saw to the collection. In 1943 the Territory re-imposed the tax on every male and female over 21 and under 55. A wife who had no job, depended entirely on her husband's income, and whose husband had already paid for the year was passed over. So were people on active military or naval duty, paupers, people declared insane, anyone supported by the Territory, and anyone permanently injured or disabled so that he could not earn a living. The tax came due on 1 January and had to be paid by 1 December, with a penalty of half again the tax if it was late⁸⁵. A school-tax roll from 1919 to 1943 names men; from 1943 it is the one territorial head-tax record that names women too.

Courts

Serious matters were heard by the United States district court, with commissioners acting as local magistrates, probate judges, and recorders — which is why so much early Alaska probate and deed material sits in the commissioners' books.

No court sat in Alaska before 1884, so there is no Alaska jury list, and no Alaska civil or criminal case file, from the first seventeen American years. The Organic Act of 1884 created the district court and gave it the civil and criminal powers of a United States district court. That act also put the first Alaska jury in the box, by providing that a question of fact in an ordinary civil case be decided by a jury if either side asked for one⁸⁶.

Jury service

A juror had to be a male citizen of the United States, living in the district, over 21 years old, in possession of his natural faculties and of sound mind, and never convicted of a felony. That was the rule from 1884, when Oregon's law applied and set those same four qualifications, through the Alaska act of 1899 that repeated them, and it held until 1923⁸⁷. Certain people could be excused from the duty⁸⁸.

The Territorial Legislature opened jury service to women on 1 May 1923. From that date every person, regardless of sex, who was a United States citizen, lived in the Territory, was over 21, had his or her natural faculties, was of sound mind, and had never been convicted of a felony could serve on a grand or trial jury. No woman was to be discriminated against because of her sex, or because she might ask to be excused. A woman who wanted to be excused on that ground signed a written notice and returned it to the clerk of the court or to the marshal within two days of getting her summons⁸⁹. That rule held through 1950.

So a woman's name may appear on an Alaska jury list from 1923, though in the first years most of the women summoned asked to be excused. Two changes in who counted as a citizen or a voter sit behind the lists the jury box was filled from. Women became voters in Alaska in 1913, by the very first act the Territorial Legislature passed⁹⁰. And from 1915 an Alaska Native could establish citizenship by petition and hearing in the United States District Court, on a certificate of examination whose file names people, places, and years⁹¹.

Age of criminal responsibility

The common law set the age of criminal responsibility in Alaska. A child of 14 or older was fully responsible for a crime. Between 7 and 14 the law assumed the child was not capable of one, and the prosecution had to prove otherwise. A child under 7 could not be guilty of a crime at all. Alaska's own criminal law defined the crimes and said nothing about capacity, so the common-law ages held from 1884 through 1950⁹².

Witnesses

Who could testify — in a criminal case, a civil one, on a deed, or on a will — came down to competence rather than age. A witness had to be of sound mind. A child was competent from the age of ten, and younger where the child could take in the facts correctly and tell them truthfully. Oregon's law had put it in the same words before 1899, so this test held from 1884⁹³. A child over ten, and any adult of sound mind, could testify, and children did testify.

Having an interest in the case, having been convicted of a crime, and holding any religious opinion at all were no bar: those things went only to how much the jury should believe the witness⁹⁴, so a party could testify in his own case. A husband or wife could testify for or against the other only with that spouse's consent, and what they had said to each other in confidence stayed protected, except in a case between the two of them or where one had committed a crime against the other⁹⁵. In a criminal case the accused could testify if he asked to, but not otherwise; staying silent was not held against him, and taking the stand gave the prosecution the right to cross-examine him⁹⁶.

These rules applied to everyone on the same terms: women and Alaska Natives were competent witnesses. In an 1897 Alaska murder case, a Native woman was sworn and testified against both the defendant and her own husband, and the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction because the trial judge had refused to let the defense question her about matters bearing on her truthfulness⁹⁷.

Sources & Where to Verify

Codes and Compilations

• Barker, Fred F., comp. Compilation of the Acts of Congress and Treaties Relating to Alaska from March 30, 1867, to March 3, 1905, with Indices and References to Decisions of the Supreme Court and Opinions of the Attorney-General. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1906. Senate Document 142; prepared in the Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department; 496 p. Known in Alaska legal writing as the Charlton Code, and often credited to John Charlton, though the volume itself names Barker. Its section numbers are printed in the 1913 compilation next to the Carter Code numbers. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101072330937 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Carter, Thomas H., ed. The Laws of Alaska: Embracing the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Political Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Civil Code, with the Treaty of Cession. Chicago: Callaghan, 1907. The compilation known as the Carter Code, whose section numbers the 1913 compilation prints in the margin. A second Callaghan printing of 1907 is cataloged separately; both printings have page images at HathiTrust, the 1900 at catalog record 008597554 and the 1907 at record 100471415. The Alaska Court System Law Library lists the work variously as 1900 and as 1907; see its "Prestatehood Statutes," below.
• Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933. Published by authority of ch. 126, Session Laws of Alaska, 1933; compiled under the supervision of Henry Roden, Jas. S. Truitt, and Frank A. Boyle, Law Revision Board. No open-access copy has been located; the Alaska Court System Law Library lists it only on HeinOnline.
• Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, cited here as the compiled laws of 1949. Published under authority of ch. 28, Session Laws of Alaska, 1947, by the Alaska Law Compilation Commission, J. Oliver Tucker, editor in chief. The code in force at the close of this period, and the volume that settles the later territorial rules on inheritance, curtesy, selling a homestead, marriage consent, and jury service. No free copy has been found; the Alaska Court System Law Library lists it only on HeinOnline, so its sections are reached here through the U.S. Women's Bureau summary, below.
• The Compiled Laws of the Territory of Alaska, 1913. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1913. Senate Document 1093, 62nd Congress, 3rd session; compiled by Frank T. Wolcott, F. C. Moon, and Victor E. Van Ameringen for the Joint Committee on Territories. It runs one continuous set of section numbers, from the federal acts at the front through the Alaska codes at titles XI to XV, which makes it the standard citation for the early decades covered here. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034620149 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Hill, William Lair, comp. The Codes and General Laws of Oregon. 2nd ed. 2 vols. San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1892; first edition 1887. Each section prints its date of passage in the margin. The law Alaska received in 1884 was Oregon's law as it then stood, so Hill is used here because it is the easiest printing to reach, and that marginal date is what shows a section was already in force in 1884. Volume 1 has the codes of civil and criminal procedure, including the qualifications of jurors and the rules on who could be a witness; volume 2 has the civil-law titles, including domestic relations at §§ 2852–2953 and dower and curtesy at §§ 2954–2983. This is the place to read Alaska's rule for the years 1884 to 1899. Digital images. Internet Archive. Vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral00hillgoog; vol. 2, https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral01hillgoog (accessed 3 August 2026).

Session Laws and Federal Acts

• Alaska Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure. Act of 6 June 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321. Three titles in one act: title I, the government of the district; title II, the Code of Civil Procedure; title III, the Civil Code. The source of the marriage, majority, dower, curtesy, descent, wills, guardianship, and witness rules. Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_31 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska Native Allotment Act. 17 May 1906, 34 Stat. 197. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska Native Townsite Act. 25 May 1926, 44 Stat. 629. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. Act of 3 March 1899, ch. 429, 30 Stat. 1253; juror qualifications at § 11, 30 Stat. 1286. Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alien Owners of Land. Act of 3 March 1887, ch. 340, 24 Stat. 476, “An Act To Restrict the Ownership of Real Estate in the Territories to American Citizens, and So Forth”; amended by the Act of 2 March 1897, ch. 363, 29 Stat. 618, which added the exceptions for bona fide resident aliens, town lots, and mining claims. Codified at 48 U.S.C. §§ 1501–1507. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 6 August 2026). Text as codified, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title48/chapter11&edition=prelim (accessed 6 August 2026).
• Chinese Exclusion Act. Act of 6 May 1882, ch. 126, 22 Stat. 58, “An Act To Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to Chinese.” Section 14, at page 61, closed naturalization to Chinese immigrants and so closed to them the federal land laws that required citizenship or a declaration of intention. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 6 August 2026).
• First Organic Act. 17 May 1884, ch. 53, 23 Stat. 24. Adopted Oregon's general laws as the law of Alaska (§ 7), gave the commissioners probate jurisdiction (§ 5), and protected Native possession (§ 8). Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 (accessed 3 August 2026). Also Alaskool. http://www.alaskool.org/projects/native_gov/legislation/organic_act/organic_act_1884.htm (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Homestead Laws Extended to Alaska. Act of 14 May 1898, ch. 299, 30 Stat. 409. Section 1 extended the homestead land laws to the District of Alaska, which the Organic Act of 1884 had expressly kept out, and capped an Alaska homestead at eighty acres. Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Mining Laws of the United States. Revised Statutes § 2319, from the Act of 10 May 1872, ch. 152, § 1, 17 Stat. 91, opening mineral deposits on the public lands to citizens and to those who have declared their intention to become citizens; put in force in Alaska by the First Organic Act, § 8. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 6 August 2026).
• Road Overseers and Road Districts in Alaska. Act of 27 April 1904, ch. 1629, 33 Stat. 391. The source of the road-labor requirement on men aged 18 to 50, reprinted as § 36 of the 1913 compilation and repealed by the first Territorial Legislature in 1913. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 6 August 2026).
• Second Organic Act. 24 August 1912, ch. 387, 37 Stat. 512. Created the Territory and its legislature. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1913. Juneau: Daily Empire Print, 1913. The title page gives the date of publication as 11 August 1913. Ch. 1, the elective franchise extended to women; ch. 3, the federal road-overseer and road-district act repealed; ch. 35, registration of vital statistics; ch. 54, the territorial poll tax at pages 115–117. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4374847 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1915. Ch. 24, the political status of certain Native Indians; ch. 44, amending the marriage-certificate sections. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sessionlawsreso00coungoog (accessed 3 August 2026). Also Alaska State Library. https://library.alaska.gov/hist/fulltext/ASL-KFA-1225.A3-1915.htm (accessed 3 August 2026). The Internet Archive record dates this volume 1913; its title page dates it 1915. That title page names no place and no printer: it gives the date of publication as 28 July 1915 and states that the volume was published under authority of ch. 6, Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, by Charles E. Davidson, Secretary of Alaska.
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1917. Ch. 45, amending the descent of real property; ch. 56, the first Alaska marriage-license act, whose § 3 sets the parental-consent ages, carried forward as §§ 21-1-1 and 21-1-12 of the compiled laws of 1949. The title page names no place and no printer. Digital images of the cover and chapters. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/ (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1919. Ch. 29, the territorial school tax on males aged 21 to 50. The title page names no place or printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1919/CH 29 SLA 1919.pdf (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1923 and 1925. Ch. 40 of 1923, which removed curtesy from land a wife had already sold and let her sell without her husband signing; ch. 68 of 1923, which made every person competent to serve as a juror regardless of sex. Neither title page names a place or a printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/ (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1935. Ch. 37, abolishing the estate by curtesy and amending § 4601 of the 1933 compilation. The title page names no place or printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1935/CH 37 SLA 1935.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1943. Ch. 38, the territorial school tax on men and women aged 21 to 55, repealing art. III of ch. LXI of the 1933 compilation, which carried the act of 1919. The title page names no place or printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1943/CH 38 SLA 1943.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1946 and 1947. Ch. 35 of 1946 and ch. 12 of 1947, giving a surviving widow, then a widow or widower, one-half of the intestate's real property where issue survive, by amendment to § 4651 of the 1933 compilation. Neither title page names a place or printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1946/CH 35 SLA 1946.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Session Laws of Alaska, 1963. Ch. 38, § 30, repealing AS 13.35, the dower chapter, effective 1 July 1963. The title page names no place or printer. Digital images. Alaska State Legislature. https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1963/CH 38 SLA 1963.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Town Incorporation in Alaska. Act of 7 June 1904, ch. 1778, 33 Stat. 529. Section 4 gave a town common council its powers, including the municipal poll tax on men aged 21 to 50, the dog tax, and the general property tax; reprinted as § 627 of the 1913 compilation. Digital images of the bound volumes. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 6 August 2026).
• Treaty of Cession (Alaska Purchase). 30 March 1867, 15 Stat. 539. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_15 (accessed 3 August 2026).
• U.S. Congress. United States Statutes at Large. Full bound volumes, the set in which every federal act cited here is printed. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/us-stat (accessed 3 August 2026).

Court Cases

• Edwards v. Franke. 364 P.2d 60 (Alaska 1961). Holds the 1917 license requirement mandatory and traces the history of Alaska marriage law. Justia. https://law.justia.com/cases/alaska/supreme-court/1961/45-1.html (accessed 3 August 2026).
• McDaniels v. McDaniels. 5 Alaska 107 (D. Alaska 1914).
• Parks v. Parks. 6 Alaska 426 (D. Alaska 1921).
• Reed v. Harkrader. 264 F. 834 (9th Cir. 1920).
• Tla-koo-yel-lee v. United States. 167 U.S. 274 (1897). Justia. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/274/ (accessed 3 August 2026).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Alaska Court System Law Library. "Prestatehood Statutes." Traces the Oregon, Carter, Boone, Charlton, 1913, 1933, and 1949 compilations and where each may be read. https://courts.alaska.gov/library/docs/prestatehood-statutes.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska State Archives. "Collection Guides." The territorial holdings, chiefly District and Territorial Court records and the land records of the Recorder's Office, and the birth, marriage, death, and probate images digitized in partnership with FamilySearch. https://archives.alaska.gov/for_researchers/coll_guides.html (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska State Archives. "Guide to Probate Records." Confirms what the probate files hold and where they were filed. The commissioners served as justices of the peace and probate judges — one for the whole District in 1884, and about sixty by statehood — and this guide also describes the two name indexes to Alaska probate cases. https://archives.alaska.gov/for_researchers/guides/probate.html (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Alaska State Library. "Genealogy Resource Guide." Where the Alaska birth, marriage, and death records from 1913 are held, and where the earlier court and probate material sits. https://library.alaska.gov/public/akgene.html (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Brown, Frederic E. "The Sources of the Alaska and Oregon Codes." Part I, "New York and Oregon," UCLA-Alaska Law Review 2 (1972): 15–33; Part II, UCLA-Alaska Law Review 2 (1973): 87–112. Traces the Alaska codes of 1899 and 1900 back through Oregon to the Field codes of New York, and notes that the dower and curtesy chapter Oregon had borrowed from Michigan lasted in Alaska until it was repealed in 1963. Digital images. Alaska Bar Association. Part I, https://alaskabar.org/wp-content/uploads/Sources-of-the-Alaska-and-Oregon-Codes-Part-I.pdf; Part II, https://alaskabar.org/wp-content/uploads/Sources-of-the-Alaska-and-Oregon-Codes-Part-II.pdf (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Bureau of Land Management. "Alaska Native Allotment Act." The allotment program and its case records. https://www.blm.gov/programs/lands-and-realty/regional-information/alaska/land_transfer/ak-native-allotment-act (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Case, David S., and David A. Voluck. Alaska Natives and American Laws. 3rd ed. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2012. 520 p. The standard treatment of Native land and civil status, covering 1867 through 2011.
• CourtListener. Free Law Project. Full text of the decisions of the District Court for the District of Alaska from 1884, as printed in Alaska Reports and Alaska Federal Reports, and of the Ninth Circuit's Alaska appeals; searchable across the whole run. https://www.courtlistener.com/ (accessed 4 August 2026).
• FamilySearch. "Alaska, Anchorage, land records: patented Native allotment case files, 1920–1969." Catalog entry 2835355. Digital images of originals held by the National Archives and Records Administration, Seattle — the allotment case files described under Property Ownership.
• National Archives and Records Administration. "Native American Heritage: Record Group 49, Records of the Bureau of Land Management." Correspondence, allotment schedules, patent files, and maps relating to Alaska Natives. https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/bureau-of-land-management (accessed 3 August 2026).
• National Park Service. "First Territorial Legislature of Alaska." https://www.nps.gov/people/first-territorial-legislature-of-alaska.htm (accessed 3 August 2026). And "Alaska and the 19th Amendment." https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-and-the-19th-amendment.htm (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Coolidge, Calvin. "Special Message to Congress on Enactments of the Alaska Legislature." 10 December 1923. Transmits the 1923 session laws under § 20 of the Organic Act and singles out ch. 68, the act making women competent jurors, as amending the federal rule of 30 Stat. 1286. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-congress-enactments-the-alaska-legislature (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Russell, Judy G. "Alaska's Oregonian Law." The Legal Genealogist. https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/08/25/alaskas-oregonian-law/ (accessed 3 August 2026).
• Russian-American Company records and Russian Orthodox Church registers. Library of Congress; Alaska State Archives. The core sources for the Russian period, 1784–1867.
• U.S. Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Alaska as of January 1, 1958. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 157-51. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1958. vi + 14 p. Prepared by Laura H. Dale. A section-by-section summary, with citations, of the Constitution of Alaska, the Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, and the session laws of 1949 through 1957. It is the fastest way to find the rule in force at the close of this period on adulthood, married women's property, dower, curtesy, wills, intestate estates, guardianship, marriage consent, and jury service. Digital images. FRASER. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-51_dolwb_1958.pdf (accessed 3 August 2026). The earlier report covering the territories as of 1 January 1948 is Bulletin 157-50 in the same series. FRASER. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/5430 (accessed 3 August 2026).

Citations

1. Treaty of Cession (Alaska Purchase), 30 March 1867, 15 Stat. 539; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_15 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
2. An Act Providing a Civil Government for Alaska, 17 May 1884, ch. 53, 23 Stat. 24; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
3. An Act To Define and Punish Crimes in the District of Alaska and to Provide a Code of Criminal Procedure for Said District, 3 March 1899, ch. 429, 30 Stat. 1253; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
4. An Act Making Further Provision for a Civil Government for Alaska, and for Other Purposes, 6 June 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321, comprising title I (government of the district), title II (Code of Civil Procedure), and title III (Civil Code); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_31 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
5. An Act To Create a Legislative Assembly in the Territory of Alaska, 24 August 1912, ch. 387, 37 Stat. 512; digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
6. Act of 17 May 1884, § 7, declaring the general laws of Oregon then in force to be the law of the district, so far as applicable; William Lair Hill, comp., The Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1892), 1: §§ 711, 947, which the Alaska codes carried forward; digital images, Internet Archive, vol. 1 (https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral00hillgoog) and vol. 2 (https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral01hillgoog : both accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
7. Act of 17 May 1884, § 5, giving commissioners the powers of justices of the peace under the general laws of Oregon and jurisdiction in all testamentary and probate matters. ↩
8. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. I, providing for recording districts and designating a commissioner as ex officio recorder of each. ↩
9. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: §§ 2951, 2953, headed "Majority of males and females, time of" and "Marriage of females equivalent to majority." ↩
10. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 34, 31 Stat. 498; The Compiled Laws of the Territory of Alaska, 1913 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1913), § 460; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034620149 : accessed 3 August 2026). The compilation numbers the Civil Code sections 426 higher than the act, and the Code of Civil Procedure sections 832 higher. ↩
11. Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 20-1-1, 20-1-2, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Alaska as of January 1, 1958, Bulletin 157-51 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1958), 1; digital images, FRASER (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-51_dolwb_1958.pdf : accessed 3 August 2026). The 1949 compilation is available only through a subscription database; the section numbers and their substance are taken from this digest, which lists that compilation among its sources. ↩
12. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 35; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 461. ↩
13. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 2852, enacted 15 October 1862, the section Alaska took in 1884. ↩
14. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 5, 31 Stat. 494; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 431. ↩
15. Session Laws of Alaska, 1917, ch. 56, § 3, which forbids a license to a party under the marriageable age of consent and then fixes that age at eighteen for a male and sixteen for a female, treating twenty-one and eighteen as the legal age of majority; digital images of the chapter, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA%201917/CH%2056%20SLA%201917.pdf : accessed 3 August 2026). The two pairs of figures are still reported side by side as the law in force on 1 January 1958 in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 9 — the code ages at Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, § 21-1-1 and the license ages at § 21-1-12. ↩
16. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 7; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 433. ↩
17. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: §§ 2863–2865; and see Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d 60, 63 (Alaska 1961), which records no Alaska licensing requirement before 1917; Justia (https://law.justia.com/cases/alaska/supreme-court/1961/45-1.html : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
18. The marriage chapter, headed "Of husband and wife," runs from Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 431 to § 443, and carries no licensing or consent provision; nor does its source, Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 5–17. ↩
19. Session Laws of Alaska, 1917, ch. 56, § 3, "Relating to and regulating marriage and marriage license in the Territory of Alaska"; digital images of the chapter, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1917/CH 56 SLA 1917.pdf : accessed 3 August 2026); carried forward as Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, § 21-1-12, as digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 9. ↩
20. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 9; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 435. ↩
21. McDaniels v. McDaniels, 5 Alaska 107 (D. Alaska 1914); Reed v. Harkrader, 264 F. 834 (9th Cir. 1920); Parks v. Parks, 6 Alaska 426 (D. Alaska 1921); and see Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d at 63, holding these decisions confined to marriages contracted before 1917. The Oregon marriage statute that governed from 1884, enacted 15 October 1862, is at 2: § 2852 of Hill’s Codes and General Laws of Oregon, and its solemnization provisions were read as directory in Reed v. Harkrader. ↩
22. Session Laws of Alaska, 1917, ch. 56, § 1, carried forward as § 21-1-1, Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949; quoted and construed in Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d at 63. ↩
23. Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d at 63–65, holding the words of the licensing statute mandatory. ↩
24. U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 9, stating the law as of 1 January 1958 and reporting that the courts had construed the license, witness and solemnization requirements as directory and had recognized marriages good at common law, citing McDaniels and Reed. ↩
25. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 11; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 437. ↩
26. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 12; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 438. ↩
27. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 6; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 432; still the whole of the list in Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 21-1-2, 56-5-2, as digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 10–11. ↩
28. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 2853, subd. 3, listing among the prohibited marriages one in which either party is a white person and the other a negro or a person of one fourth or more negro blood; and 1: §§ 1927–1928, from the Oregon act of 24 October 1866, effective 18 January 1867, reaching the wider list and declaring such marriages and attempted marriages absolutely null and void, with punishment for the parties. Digital images, Internet Archive, vol. 1 (https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral00hillgoog) and vol. 2 (https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral01hillgoog: both accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
29. Both Oregon sections reach only what is done “within this state.” Under the Act of 17 May 1884, § 7, Oregon’s general laws reached the district only “so far as the same may be applicable,” a question the Attorney General of the United States declined to settle, leaving it to officials on the ground until challenged in court: Frederic E. Brown, “The Sources of the Alaska and Oregon Codes,” pt. II, UCLA-Alaska Law Review 2 (1973): 87, 90–91; digital images, Alaska Bar Association (https://alaskabar.org/wp-content/uploads/Sources-of-the-Alaska-and-Oregon-Codes-Part-II.pdf : accessed 4 August 2026). Neither section appears in the reported decisions: a full-text search of all sixty-two decisions of the District Court for the District of Alaska filed before 1901 — those printed in Alaska Reports, vol. 1, and Alaska Federal Reports, vol. 1 — and of the Ninth Circuit’s Alaska appeals of the same years returns no instance of the terms used in those sections, against control terms that return the expected cases; CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/ : accessed 4 August 2026). The Alaska Civil Code of 1900 lists only the two impediments given above: Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 6; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 432. ↩
30. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 34, 31 Stat. 498; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 460; and, for the earlier window, Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 2951. ↩
31. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 63–64; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 489–490, headed “Separate property of wife not subject to husband’s debts” and “Property acquired during coverture”: a married woman’s property, whether held at her marriage or afterwards acquired by gift, devise, inheritance, or her own labor, is not subject to her husband’s debts or contracts, and she may manage, sell, convey, or devise it by will to the same extent and in the same manner as her husband may property belonging to him. Carried forward as Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 21-2-6, 21-2-11, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 3–4. Section 86 of the same code, cited below, prescribes the form of acknowledgment a wife makes when she does join her husband in a deed; it is not a requirement that she join in order to convey land of her own. ↩
32. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 13; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 439. ↩
33. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 14; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 440. ↩
34. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 15; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 441. ↩
35. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 86; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 512. ↩
36. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 87; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 513. ↩
37. Session Laws of Alaska, 1923, ch. 40 (S.B. 79), “To amend Section 482, Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, relating to estates by the curtesy, and providing for conveyance of real property by a wife without her husband joining in the conveyance,” approved 16 April 1923, which limits curtesy to lands not previously sold or conveyed by the wife and provides that she may sell or convey without her husband joining; and Session Laws of Alaska, 1935, ch. 37, amending Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933, § 4601 (approved 11 March 1935), which abolishes curtesy and adds disposal by will. Digital images of the chapters, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA%201923/CH%2040%20SLA%201923.pdf and https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA%201935/CH%2037%20SLA%201935.pdf: both accessed 3 August 2026). The wider package of a married woman’s powers as it stood at the close of the period is at Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 21-2-6, 21-2-11, 22-3-13, 22-3-14, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 3–4. ↩
38. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 2954, headed "Dower, in what widow entitled to": the widow of every deceased person takes the use during her natural life of one-third part of all the lands her husband was seised of an estate of inheritance in at any time during the marriage, unless lawfully barred; barred by jointure at § 2967. For the release, § 3015 and the note printed under it, citing Moore v. Thomas, 1 Or. 201: without an acknowledgment taken separately and apart from her husband, a married woman does not relinquish her dower by signing and sealing his deed. ↩
39. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 36, 31 Stat. 498; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 462. ↩
40. Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 22-3-1, 55-9-79, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 2: the family homestead cannot be deeded or conveyed unless both husband and wife join in the instrument of conveyance, and a mortgage of the homestead of a married owner must be executed by husband and wife. ↩
41. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 82; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 508. ↩
42. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 89–91; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 515–517: proof of the execution of a conveyance is made by a subscribing witness, who states his own place of residence and that he knew the person described in and who executed it; where the grantor is dead, outside the district, or refuses, and the subscribing witnesses are dead or outside the district too, the deed may be proved before the district court by proof of the handwriting; and a witness who refuses to appear may be subpoenaed. ↩
43. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 49; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 475, headed “Alien or nonresident entitled to dower”: a woman being an alien is not on that account barred of her dower, and a woman residing outside the district is entitled to dower in the Alaska lands of which her husband died seized. ↩
44. First Organic Act, 17 May 1884, ch. 53, § 8, 23 Stat. 24, 26, putting the laws of the United States relating to mining claims and the rights incident thereto in force in the district, and providing that nothing in the act should be construed to put the general land laws of the United States in force there; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 : accessed 3 August 2026). The mining laws so extended opened valuable mineral deposits on lands belonging to the United States to exploration and purchase by citizens of the United States and those who had declared their intention to become such: Revised Statutes § 2319, from the Act of 10 May 1872, ch. 152, § 1, 17 Stat. 91. ↩
45. An Act Extending the Homestead Laws and Providing for Right of Way for Railroads in the District of Alaska, and for Other Purposes, 14 May 1898, ch. 299, § 1, 30 Stat. 409, extending the homestead land laws of the United States to the District of Alaska and capping an Alaska homestead at eighty acres; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 : accessed 3 August 2026). A homestead entry was open to a person who was the head of a family or had reached twenty-one and who was a citizen of the United States or had declared his intention to become one: Homestead Act of 20 May 1862, ch. 75, § 1, 12 Stat. 392 (Revised Statutes § 2289). ↩
46. An Act To Restrict the Ownership of Real Estate in the Territories to American Citizens, and So Forth, 3 March 1887, ch. 340, 24 Stat. 476, as amended by the Act of 2 March 1897, ch. 363, 29 Stat. 618, and codified at 48 U.S.C. §§ 1501–1507. Section 1 bars a person who is not a citizen and has not declared his intention to become one from acquiring title to or owning land in a Territory of the United States, saving rights secured by treaty; the amended § 2 exempts land held on or before 3 March 1887, admits a bona fide resident of the United States and a declarant on the same terms as a citizen, and excepts lots or parcels in an incorporated or platted city, town, or village and any mine or mining claim; § 3 excepts land taken by inheritance or in the ordinary course of justice in the collection of debts; and §§ 5–6 give the Attorney General a suit to escheat land held in contravention of the act. Digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 6 August 2026). Text as codified, Office of the Law Revision Counsel (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title48/chapter11&edition=prelim : accessed 6 August 2026). ↩
47. An Act To Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to Chinese, 6 May 1882, ch. 126, § 14, 22 Stat. 58, 61, providing that thereafter no state court and no court of the United States should admit a Chinese person to citizenship. Digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 6 August 2026). ↩
48. First Organic Act, 17 May 1884, 23 Stat. 24, § 8. ↩
49. Alaska Native Allotment Act, 17 May 1906, 34 Stat. 197; digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
50. Alaska Native Townsite Act, 25 May 1926, 44 Stat. 629. ↩
51. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 3098, the descent of real property. ↩
52. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 168, 31 Stat. 513; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 594. ↩
53. Session Laws of Alaska, 1917, ch. 45 (S.B. 51), amending subdivisions 2 and 3 of Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 594, approved 3 May 1917; digital images of the chapter, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1917/CH 45 SLA 1917.pdf : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
54. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 37–39; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 463–465. ↩
55. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 46–47; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 472–473. ↩
56. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(1); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(1). ↩
57. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(2); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(2). ↩
58. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(3), (5); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(3), (5). ↩
59. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(4); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(4). ↩
60. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(6); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(6). ↩
61. Session Laws of Alaska, 1946, ch. 35 (H.B. 56), amending subsec. (1) of Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933, § 4651, approved 3 April 1946, giving a widow who leaves issue one-half of the residue of the real property with the remainder divided among the lawful children and the issue of a deceased child by representation; extended to a widow or widower by Session Laws of Alaska, 1947, ch. 12, approved 5 March 1947; digital images of the chapters, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1946/CH 35 SLA 1946.pdf and https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1947/CH 12 SLA 1947.pdf : both accessed 3 August 2026); carried into Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, § 60-1-3, with dower alongside it at § 63-1-1, as digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 6–7. ↩
62. Session Laws of Alaska, 1963, ch. 38, § 30, "Relating to decedents’ estates," repealing AS 13.35, the dower chapter, along with a list of other sections, and taking effect 1 July 1963; digital images of the chapter, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1963/CH 38 SLA 1963.pdf : accessed 3 August 2026). Dower was still in force as of 1 January 1958, U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 7. ↩
63. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 56, 31 Stat. 500; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 482. ↩
64. Session Laws of Alaska, 1923, ch. 40, amending Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 482, which lifts curtesy from land the wife has sold or conveyed; then Session Laws of Alaska, 1935, ch. 37, "To abolish estate by the curtesy," amending Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933, § 4601, approved 11 March 1935; carried into Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, § 63-1-21, as digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 4, 7. ↩
65. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), §§ 890, 903; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 1722, 1735. ↩
66. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 888; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1720. ↩
67. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 887; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1719. ↩
68. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 892; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1724. ↩
69. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 889; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1721. ↩
70. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), §§ 890, 907; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 1722, 1739: a guardian continues in office until the minor reaches twenty-one or is discharged according to law, and the marriage of a female minor under guardianship operates as a discharge of her guardian. ↩
71. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: §§ 2881 (under fourteen the county court nominates and appoints; above fourteen the minor nominates, subject to the judge's approval), 2882, and 2883 (the guardian continues in office until the minor reaches twenty-one, or until discharged). ↩
72. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 171–172; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 597–598; carried forward as Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 60-1-5, 60-1-6. ↩
73. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 12, 171; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 438, 597. ↩
74. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 171, proviso; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 597. ↩
75. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2: § 3066 (every person of twenty-one years and upwards, of sound mind, may by last will devise all estate real and personal, saving to the widow her dower), § 3067 (every person over the age of eighteen years, of sound mind, may by last will dispose of goods and chattels), and § 3069 (attested by two or more competent witnesses subscribing in the testator's presence). ↩
76. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 137, 31 Stat. 510; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 563; still 21 for every person of sound mind, married or not, at Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, § 59-1-2, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 6. ↩
77. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 138; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 564. ↩
78. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 779; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1611; a minor named as executor could still not qualify until full age in the 1949 compilation, U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 1. ↩
79. First Organic Act, 17 May 1884, ch. 53, § 9, 23 Stat. 24, 26, providing that there should be no legislative assembly in the district and no Delegate sent to Congress from it, so that the district had no power to tax itself; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 : accessed 3 August 2026). For the license taxes, which fall on trades and businesses rather than on persons, see Act of 3 March 1899, ch. 429, tit. III, 30 Stat. 1253, and Act of 6 June 1900, tit. I, 31 Stat. 321. ↩
80. An Act To Authorize the Appointment of Road Overseers and To Create Road Districts in the District of Alaska, and for Other Purposes, 27 April 1904, ch. 1629, 33 Stat. 391, 392, requiring the overseers to warn out all male persons between eighteen and fifty years of age who have resided thirty days in the district, are capable of performing labor on roads or trails, and are not a precinct charge, to perform two days’ work of eight hours each, or furnish a substitute, or pay four dollars a day; reprinted as Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 36, headed “Two days’ road work, etc., required of male residents.” Digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 6 August 2026). ↩
81. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 3 (S.B. 12), repealing the Act of Congress of 27 April 1904, ch. 1629, 33 Stat. 391, which had authorized road overseers and road districts, approved 5 April 1913. ↩
82. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 37, requiring the overseer’s annual report of all persons subject to the road tax. ↩
83. An Act To Provide for the Incorporation of Towns in the District of Alaska, and for Other Purposes, 7 June 1904, ch. 1778, § 4, 33 Stat. 529, 531–532, subdivisions “Seventh” (a poll tax of not less than two nor more than four dollars a year on male residents over twenty-one and under fifty who are not unpaid members of a volunteer fire company, made a lien on their property), “Eighth” (dog tax), and “Ninth” (a general tax for school and municipal purposes on real and personal property, capped at two per cent of assessed value); reprinted as Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 627, the powers of a town common council. Digital images of the bound volumes, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us-stat : accessed 6 August 2026). ↩
84. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 54 (H.B. 98), "An Act to impose a poll tax upon male persons in the Territory of Alaska and providing means for its collection," §§ 1–10, pages 115–117. ↩
85. Session Laws of Alaska, 1919, ch. 29 (H.B. 5), "To impose a tax upon male persons in the Territory of Alaska for school purposes," approved 1 May 1919, §§ 1–2, laying $5 a year on every male person over 21 and under 50 and excepting soldiers, sailors in the Navy or Revenue Cutter Service, volunteer firemen, paupers, insane persons and Territorial charges; amended as to collection by Session Laws of Alaska, 1921, ch. 19, § 2, and 1925, ch. 10, carried into Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933, ch. LXI, art. III, and there amended as to the collector's accounting by Session Laws of Alaska, 1937, ch. 72, § 1. Replaced by Session Laws of Alaska, 1943, ch. 38, §§ 1–3, "To impose a school tax upon certain male and female persons in this Territory," which repealed art. III of ch. LXI with all its amendments and extended the tax to women and to the age of 55. Digital images of the chapters, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1919/CH 29 SLA 1919.pdf and https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1943/CH 38 SLA 1943.pdf : both accessed 4 August 2026). No act between 1919 and 1943 altered the rate, the ages, or the sex of those liable, on a reading of every chapter in the volumes from 1919 through 1941. ↩
86. First Organic Act, 17 May 1884, ch. 53, §§ 3 and 7, 23 Stat. 24, 25–26: § 3 establishes a district court for the district with the civil and criminal jurisdiction of district courts of the United States and of district courts exercising the jurisdiction of circuit courts; § 7 provides that in all civil cases at common law an issue of fact shall be determined by a jury at the instance of either party. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
87. Act of 3 March 1899, § 11, 30 Stat. 1286; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 2120; for the Oregon rule in force from 1884, Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 1: § 947, headed "Who are competent to act as jurors." ↩
88. Act of 3 March 1899, § 12; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 2121. ↩
89. Session Laws of Alaska, 1923, ch. 68 (S.B. 53), "Prescribing the qualifications for persons serving as jurors in the courts of the Territory of Alaska, exempting certain classes of persons from such service," approved 1 May 1923, §§ 1–3; digital images of the chapter, Alaska State Legislature (https://www.akleg.gov/pdf/billfiles/SLAs/SLA 1923/CH 68 SLA 1923.pdf : accessed 4 August 2026). The act displaced the male qualification of the federal Act of 3 March 1899, § 11, 30 Stat. 1286, codified at 48 U.S.C. § 867; transmitting it to Congress on 10 December 1923 under § 20 of the Organic Act, President Coolidge said so in terms and reported that nearly ninety per cent of the women summoned claimed the exemption, and Congress let the act stand. Carried forward as Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 55-7-21, 55-7-22, 55-7-24, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 14, and reported as the rule in force on 1 January 1948 in the same Bureau's Reports and Summary for the Territories and Possessions, Bulletin 157-50, 27. ↩
90. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 1 (H.B. 2), "An Act to extend the elective franchise to women in the Territory of Alaska." ↩
91. Session Laws of Alaska, 1915, ch. 24, "An Act to define and establish the political status of certain Native Indians within the Territory of Alaska," approved 27 April 1915, §§ 1–6, resting on the Act of 8 February 1887, ch. 119, § 6, 24 Stat. 390. ↩
92. The common-law rule. Neither the Oregon law in force from 1884 nor the Alaska Penal Code of 1899 fixed an age of criminal responsibility, so the common law governed throughout. Oregon later let a court suspend judgment on a minor under sixteen and commit him to a reformatory instead of prison, but that act was passed on 25 February 1885, after the Organic Act had fixed the body of Oregon law Alaska took: Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 1: § 1414. ↩
93. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 1034; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1866; for the Oregon rule in force from 1884, Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 1: § 711, headed "Who cannot be witnesses." ↩
94. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1865. ↩
95. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1867; the same rule, with its exceptions for actions between the spouses and for a crime by one against the other, at Compiled Laws of Alaska (Annotated), 1949, §§ 58-6-3, 66-13-58, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, Report for Alaska, Bulletin 157-51, 5–6. ↩
96. Act of 3 March 1899, ch. 429 (Code of Criminal Procedure), § 149, 30 Stat. 1253, 1301: a person charged with a crime shall at his own request, but not otherwise, be deemed a competent witness, the credit to be given his testimony being left to the jury; his waiver of the right creates no presumption against him, and offering his testimony gives the prosecution a right to cross-examine. Section 148 of the same act makes the law of evidence in civil actions the law of evidence in criminal actions except as otherwise specially provided. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩
97. Tla-koo-yel-lee v. United States, 167 U.S. 274, 277 (1897); Justia (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/274/ : accessed 3 August 2026). ↩

Note: This law guide was created with assistance from multiple AI tools. Though a diligent effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, there may be unintentional errors. It's important to check the primary sources as needed to ensure accuracy.