In late August, city council member Qaiyaan Harcharek introduced the ordinance. As the Sounder reported following that meeting, the ordinance's authors wrote:

"To do so would acknowledge, honor and be a reclamation of our beautiful language which is moribund."

The authors also acknowledged that Inupiaq is the "original, ancestral language of this area and our people" and that returning to Utqiagvik would "promote pride in identity" and would "perpetuate healing and growth from the assimilation and oppression from the colonists."