William Earnest Beltz (April 27, 1912 – November 21, 1960) was an American politician and carpenter. Born in Bear Creek on the Seward Peninsula, Haycock, Alaska, Beltz was an Iñupiaq, the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. Beltz worked as a carpenter, elected President of the Alaska Council of Carpenters, and lived in

Unalakleet, Alaska Unalakleet ( ; , or ''Uŋalaqłiit''; Yup'ik: ''Ungalaqliit''; Koyukon: ''Kk'aadoleetno’'') is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2010 census the population was 765, up from 688 in ...

. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

, Beltz served as a member of the House in the Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1949. He then served in the Territorial Senate from 1951 until 1959, when Alaska became a state. Beltz served in the

Alaska State Senate The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It convenes in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska and is responsible for making laws and confirming or rejectin ...

from 1959 until his death in 1960. Beltz died at

Alaska Native Medical Center The Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) is a non-profit health center based in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, which provides medical services to 158,000 Alaska Natives and other Native Americans in Alaska. It acts as both the secondary and t ...

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

from a cancerous brain tumor. He was born to John Skyles Beltz who went to Alaska during the Yukon Gold Rush in 1897 and Susie Goodwin Beltz. In 1953, Beltz married Arne Louise Bulkeley who was a U.S. Public Health Service village nurse in Unalakleet when they met; they had seven children. In 1958 the first senate of the state of Alaska, unanimously elected Beltz president of the first senate of the state. Nome-Beltz Junior/Senior High School was named in his honor because of his efforts to provide education for rural residents. A conference room in the Thomas B. Stewart Legislative Office Building was named for Beltz.

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* 1912 births 1960 deaths 20th-century Alaska Native people American carpenters Deaths from brain cancer in the United States Inupiat people Members of the Alaska Territorial Legislature Native American state legislators in Alaska Presidents of the Alaska Senate Democratic Party Alaska state senators Inuit politicians 20th-century Native American politicians 20th-century Inuit people {{Alaska-politician-stub