Anchorage Assembly recognizes October as Filipino American History Month

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to approve a resolution Tuesday recognizing October 2026 as Filipino American History Month. The Assembly has passed a similar resolution every year since at least 2014. Assembly Chair Brawley, Vice Chair Daniel Volland, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and ten other Assembly members sponsored it.

The resolution traces Filipinos in Alaska to 1788, when the first arrived on the fur trading ship Iphigenia Nubiana. It notes later arrivals in coastal villages in Southeast Alaska and Bristol Bay in the early 1900s, and in Anchorage by the 1930s. It cites Filipino Americans' public and military service and their social justice work, including the United Farmworkers Movement.

The resolution also recounts the 1935 Filipino Repatriation Act, which offered free one-way passage to the Philippines to Filipinos who agreed never to return. At the time, only 50 Filipinos a year could enter the United States, and none could become citizens or own property. The resolution states the law's intentions "were rooted in anti-Asian sentiment and Asian exclusion." After the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act ended national-origin quotas, the Filipino American population grew from 176,000 in 1960 to more than 4 million in 2025.

The Alaska Legislature wrote the month into state law in 2023, nine years after the Assembly first marked it. Rep. Genevieve Mina sponsored the bill, which was signed into law that July. The Filipino American National Historical Society's theme for this year is "Beyond the Margins: Centering Intersectional Filipino American Histories."