Creation of County Structure Will Be
One of Biggest Issues at Convention
By WENDELL G. SCHAEFFER
Public Administration Service
Alaska has no county govern
ment structure. Although the ter
ritorial legislature is empowered
by Congress to deal generally
with the subject of local govern
ment, it is specifically prohibited
from creating a county structure
without affirmative action by the
U.S. Congress.
When the delegates to the Con
stitutional Convention meet in
College, one of the most important
issues they will be called upon to
consider is the creation of a struc
ture of local government in Alas
ka. Consequently, the question of
dividing the new state into coun
ties is certain to arise.
There is little uniformity in
county government from one state
to the next. Even within the same
state, urban and rural counties
are likely to differ radically.
Counties came into existence in
New England primarily as judicial
subdivisions of the state, and to a
considerable degree they have re
’•mained little more than this. Local
government in towns or town
ships preceded the creation of the.
state and had already assumed
most local functions before the
county came into being. In the
early rural southern economy, the
county assumed great importance
as a local government unit with
legal, commercial, and political
activity centered in the various
county seats. County ties are still
strong in the rural South, but in
urban areas the larger cities have
taken over many of the local gov
ernment functions. The county
has nevertheless remained a most
important political division of the
southern states in spite of the
growth of large cities, and often it
has proved frustratingly effective
in blocking needed changes in lo
cal government structure designed
to accommodate better the politi
cal development of major indus
trial, commercial, and residential
centers.
Counties in general are more
appropriately designated as geo
graphical subdivisions of the state
than as units of true local self
government. While a board of
county commissioners is almost
universally provided, its legisla
tive authority is customarily lim
ited rigidly by state law, and its
authority over governmental ac
tivities at the county level usually
extends to but a part of the county
functions. The board may be el
ected at large, or from districts,
or may be made up of tbwnship
and city officials who constitute
the board in an ex-officio capac
ity. Almost without exception
there are a number of indepen
dently elected county officials
who perform their functions as
specified by state law and who
have little if any responsibility to
the county board. These include
judges, county clerks, assessors,
sheriffs, coroners, recorders, and
school superintendents. Most U.S.
counties have no executive officer,
but a host of independent officers
responsible to no one but the elec
torate'or, where they are appoint
ed, to the governor of the state.
Usually the county board has
little or no law-making authority
and no authority to prescribe pen
alties. Their authority derives
from the state constitution or
from state legislative enactment
rather than from the people of the
community they serve.
The following are among the
principal functions of the county:
ARCTIC SANITARY
SERVICE
PHONE RED 181
1. Administration of local jus
tice. A county judge is commonly
provided, either by gubernatorial
appointment or by election by the
voters of the county. Jurisdiction
of the county court is usually
confined to matters of probate,
lesser civil actions, and minor
criminal offenses.
2. Recording of legal documents
such as titles, mortgages, mineral
claims, births, deaths, and mar
riages. The function is sometimes
entrusted to a county recorder,
often elected, but frequently it is
the responsibility of the county
clerk, usually elected.
3. Assessment of property for
real and personal property taxes.
Normally, the county assessor is
an elected official. Utility assess
ments are commonly made by a
state agency.
2. Maintenance of law and or
der. The police function is com
monly assigned to an elected sher
iff whose authority extends to all
unincorporated areas and to in
corporated areas for certain types
of offenses with which many
small town police forces are ill
prepared to cope. The sheriff is
usually assisted by deputies or
marshalls. In many urban areas
the county sheriff has come to be
little more than an honorific offi
cial owing to the fact that other
jurisdictions with professional po
lice forces have assumed virtually
all police functions. Throughout
most of rural America, however,
the county sheriff is still an im
portant local official.
5. Consiruclion and maintenance
of roads In most states rural road
construction and maintenance are
county functions entrusted by
state law to a county road depart
ment headed by an elected or ap
pointed road superintendent. Road
work often consumes the major
part of the county’s financial re
sources. County road agencies
generally have no responsibility
for construction of state highways
or urban streets, but in a few
states the county road department
assumes maintenance functions on
state highways.
6. Health activities. County hos
pitals and asylums are traditional
institutions throughout most of
the states. They are usually oper
ated by a health department in
the more populous areas, and fre
quently they are reserved for in
digent patients only. It is also
common for the hospital to re
ceive paying patients when other
private hospital facilities are not
available. County health officers
also usually have responsibility
for sanitation and water inspec
tion and for administration of
public health programs designed
to combat particular diseases,
such as tuberculosis, venereal dis
ease, and heart disease.
7. Welfare activities. Most coun
ties have assumed welfare func
tions. Activities include provision
of relief to the indigent and un
employed, placement of needy
children in foster homes, and op
eration of orphanages and old
people’s homes.
8. Fire protection for unincor
porated areas or for forests.
9. Conduct of elections.
10. Operation of schools. The
operation of schools in unincor
porated areas is a very common
county level function. Counties
often operate schools in cities, too,
however. The county school sys
tem will have its own school
board, usually elected, and an
elected or appointed county su
perintendent of schools.
It should be noted, however,
that school operation is by no
means universally a county level
function. City school systems pre
vail in almost all states, and many
states permit the organization and
incorporation o f independent
school districts which may or may
not bear any relation to city or
county boundaries.
»
Geist Sending
Alaska Fossils
To University
Pleistocene fossils are piling up
at the University of Alaska as
Otto William Geist, research as
sociate in paleontology, hastens
from point to point in the terri
tory before the snow flies.
He worked at Nome, the Kou
garok mining district, Buckland,
Kotzebue, Kiana on the Kobuk
River and Candle. He searched
the known fossil areas and looked
for other possible sources of ma
terials.
At Candle, on the Seward Pen
insula, Geist hired George Moto,
an Eskimo, and the two men boat
ed down the Kiwalik River and
over to Elephant Point.
“The first report on fossil de
posits at Elephant Point was made
by Lt. Otto von Kotzebue in the
early 1800s,” Geist said. Several
other expeditions have visited El
ephant Point since then. Two ex
peditions compiled reports.
The Frick Laboratory of the
American Museum of Natural
History at New York and the uni
versity make Geist’s trips possi
ble. Various mining companies
also cooperate.
Geist said his summer expedi
tions have brought in Pleistocene
mammoth, bison, super bison, car
ibou, and muskoxen fossils.
Heads Dodge Drive J
JACK W. MINOR
Dodge sales manager—advertis
ing, merchandising and related
sales activities.
DETROIT, Sept. 23—Selection
of a record number of newsonpjrs
to be used in launching the 1956
Dodge advertising program was
announced today by Jack W. Mi
nor, Dodge sales manager in
charge of advertising and mer
chandising.
“Every important daily news
paper across the nation will carry
the 1956 Dodge model announce
ment advertisements beginning
Oct. 6,” Minor said. “More than
1,000 of these will be in major
market areas. In addition, some
-x
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\ ..,.<
Study of Eskimo Family Systems
Completed by Heinrich at U. of Alaska
COLLEGE, Alaska —. Alaska
Eskimos have two different kin
ship or family connection systems
despite the fact virtually all of
them are living on the coast.
Albert Heinrich, University of
Alaska social science instructor,
disclosed this following a sum
mer’s study.
“The kinship system that exists
in the Bering Strait differs from
that reported from Greenland,”
Heinrich explained. “Dr. Ivar
Skarland, head of the university’s
anthropology department, won
dered what does exist in north
ern Alaska and sent me to con
duct a reconnaissance survey of
the kinship systems.”
The University provided the
expenses for the study. Wien Al
aska Airlines donated the trans
portation to the remote areas
Heinrich- visited.
His studies took him to-Betties,
farthest interior extension of the
Eskimos, except Beaver. Heinrich
next went to Barrow, then down
the Arctic coast to Point Hope
and Kivalina. Next stop was Noa
tak, then Kotzebue. The latter is
the summer gathering place of1
the woodland Eskimos of that I
general area. Heinrich studied the !
Eskimos at Nome for Norton
Sound data.
“Originally there had been
among the Eskimos of Northern
Alaska two definite kinship sys
tems,” Heinrich explained. “One
system was among the sedentary
peoples of the coast and the Ko
buk woodland Eskimos. The sec
ond system was among the mi
gratory caribou-hunting Eskimos
of the interior. All of the Eskimos
now are on the coast, except the
Anaktuvuk Pass people. My
studios show that the two original
kinship systems still operate side
by side in the coastal areas.”
Heinrich joined the faculty this
fall. He spent a number of years
among the Eskimos. His summer
task was an outgrowth of his
masters degree work dealing with
Bering Strait kinship. He holds
a B.A. in social science from the
New School for Social Research
in New York. He also attended
Columbia University’s Columbia
College and School of General
Studies, and did work in the an
thropology and linguistic depart
ments of Columbia’s graduate
school. Heinrich received his
M.A. in education at the Univer
sity of Alaska last year.
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