When Tupe Smith heard a knock at her door on Nov. 30, 2023, she thought it was her mother-in-law coming to see her grandkids. Instead, two Alaska State Troopers stood outside. They arrested her in front of her children — and in front of the small town where she had lived and worked since 2017.
“This was the lowest point of my life,” Smith said in a prepared statement. “I never thought I would go through something like this.”
Smith was born in American Samoa, a United States territory, and moved to Whittier, Alaska, to be closer to family. A regular volunteer at Whittier’s only public school — where nearly half of the students are Samoan — Smith was encouraged by teachers and community members to run for the local school board. In 2023, she was elected with 96% of the vote.
Like many American Samoans living in Alaska, Smith said she understood that she could vote in state and local elections and, therefore, run for school board. When she registered to vote, she said election officials instructed her to check the “U.S. citizen” box on the forms, since no option was available for “U.S. nationals.”
According to the state’s argument, it doesn’t matter what officials told Smith. The court ruled that if she “knowingly and falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen,” she could be found guilty of voter misconduct — a felony that carries up to five years in prison. In February, a petition for review of her case was granted.
“If the elections office can’t figure this out, how are election workers or American Samoans supposed to figure it out when they’re given this broad range of contradictory information?” said Neil Weare, Co-Director of Right to Democracy, the organization representing Smith in her legal defense.
One year later, in September 2024, there was another knock at Smith’s door. This time, troopers arrived in more than a dozen unmarked vehicles. They carried a list of about 20 American Samoan residents of Whittier — triggering a wave of prosecutions across the small town. The raid came less than a month after Anchorage Police shot and killed Easter Leafa, a 16-year-old who had recently moved to Alaska from American Samoa, a death that rocked the state’s Samoan community.
On Friday, 10 of those American Samoan Whittier residents will be arraigned in Anchorage, after receiving summons on charges of perjury, voter misconduct and unsworn falsification based on their births in American Samoa.
“We have gone from feeling like valued members of the community to feeling like unwanted criminals,” said Michael Pese, Smith’s husband, a volunteer firefighter in Whittier who is among the 10 people being arraigned Friday.
According to 2020 U.S. Census data, around 2.5% of Alaska’s population identifies as Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian, with about 6,000 of those identifying as Samoan. Thousands of American Samoans live in Anchorage, and growing communities can be found in Utqiagvik and Whittier.
Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, the executive director of the Pacific Community, said many American Samoan families leave the islands seeking better opportunities, for military service, or to be closer to family. Building community — especially through church and volunteer service — is a core part of Pacific Islander culture.
“We have folks in the American Samoa community that want to participate, that want to dedicate their time to bettering Alaska at the local level,” Toleafoa said. “They want to be involved. This really restricts them from becoming involved. What’s a pathway for them to be civically involved and have a voice, whether your voice is red or blue or purple or whatever? I would love for them to participate to the best of their ability, and work in bettering the community.”
Charging documents show the state targeted the American Samoans in Whittier because of an anonymous complaint, and that their voting records indicated they were born “outside of the United States.” But to Smith’s legal team, and to many American Samoans, that phrasing misrepresents a century-old reality.
Whether American Samoa is “outside of the United States” or “in the United States” is the key question, saidattorney Charles Ala’ilima, who also represents Smith and is also American Samoan. American Samoans living in American Samoa are able to vote and participate in local elections, however, when they move to a state like Alaska, they don’t have the right to vote in those local elections back home. They can’t vote in their new home either.
“They have basically been disenfranchised despite the fact that they were born on U.S. soil, and are subject to U.S. jurisdiction,” Ala’ilima said. “And nobody disagrees with that, so why are you not then considered a citizen under the 14th Amendment?”
The answer should be clear, Ala’ilima said, as American Samoa has been a territory of the U.S. since 1900, with generations of people owing allegiance to the U.S. since birth. Many of them have confirmed that allegiance through service in the U.S. Armed Forces at higher rates than any state.
Meanwhile, according to Right to Democracy, troopers during the September 2024 raid in Whittier, questioned American Samoan residents at their homes, workplaces, and even on the street, asking about their immigration status, state benefits and voting history. People from American Samoa are considered U.S. nationals, and are eligible for state benefits, including the Permanent Fund dividend. They carry U.S. passports and are citizens in almost every way, except for the ways they are not. If someone from American Samoa wants to vote or to become an officer in the military, for example, they will be required to go through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen, which can cost around $700.
Weare argues that federal statutes labeling American Samoans as “nationals but not citizens” cannot be squared with the text and history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
“Idiosyncrasies in Alaska law and the ambiguous nature of so-called ‘non-citizen’ U.S. national status mean public officials in Alaska have often sent contradictory messages to American Samoans about their eligibility to vote,” Weare said. “American Samoans and public officials alike are confused — because it is confusing.”
The confusion is not isolated to Alaska. Weare said similar cases have emerged in Oregon, where a few hundred American Samoans were automatically registered to vote. Some later voted after being told by officials that they were eligible.
“Because American Samoans carry U.S. passports, many public officials in Alaska might assume they are U.S. citizens,” Ala’ilima said. “When American Samoans ask which box to check on voter registration forms, people report that officials often instruct them to select the U.S. citizen box — because there is no option for ‘U.S. national.’ Some elected officials have even organized Get-Out-The-Vote campaigns aimed at the American Samoan community.”
For years, advocates like Toleafoa have pushed for change. She lobbied state officials to update the Permanent Fund Dividend application to recognize U.S. nationals as eligible applicants. Although that system has been updated, Toleafoa said a much larger conversation is needed about the contributions of American Samoan people at the state level.
“It has been a systematic problem,” Toleafoa said. “It’s never been the people. These people came to the United States legally because American Samoans are U.S. nationals and have passports. They have pledged allegiance to the United States since 1900.”
She emphasized that there has been no push for independence from the U.S. among American Samoans. “American Samoa is very proud of their connection to the United States and are proud Americans,” she said.
April 17, 2025, marked the 125th anniversary of American Samoa’s Deed of Cession, when traditional leaders signed over sovereignty to the U.S. “Your beautiful islands are a beloved part of the United States,” President Donald Trump said in a video statement commemorating the day.
Toleafoa believes Alaska could lead the nation by allowing American Samoans to vote in state and local elections — recognizing their deep ties to the U.S. and their communities.
“This is a block of voters that are not even acknowledged,” Toleafoa said. “They contribute to Alaska, and they do not have any power to vote anywhere, not even local governments, or even for school boards. We could be the first state to consider them as voters, which then makes them citizens. That’s the right they should have after pledging allegiance to the United States for over 100 years.”
There will be a gathering in solidarity with American Samoan community members of Whittier on Friday, 8 a.m. at the Nesbett Courthouse in Anchorage.
Victoria Petersen is an Anchorage-based freelance journalist covering food, culture and climate.
