citizenship issues
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Ten Alaska residents faced arraignment Thursday on voter misconduct or other charges in cases that have renewed attention on the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa.
Those facing charges — most of them related to one another —...
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale has made clear to a US congressional committee American Samoa’s message that any change to its political status and rights under federal territorial law, should be decided by local elected leaders, the territory’s people and the elected...

![Michael Pese and his wife Tupe Smith pose for a photo with their son Maximus and daughter cataleya in Whittier, Alaska, May 13, 2025. [AP Photo/ Mark Thiessen] Pese family](https://www.samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/alaska_samoans_copy.jpg?itok=QDbr_vIu)
![Screen shot of Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale testifying remotely from American Samoa yesterday morning during a US House Committee on Natural Resources, Insular Affairs hearing on H.R. 279 - “Insular Cases Resolution”, which deals with the political status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish-American War, and the periods shortly thereafter. [photo: fs] Screen shot of Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo V. Ale](https://www.samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/talauega_testify.jpg?itok=QJ9QKsFK)