59 - Alaska, Elizabeth Peratrovich
Alaska became a state after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, so was required to accept the Nineteenth Amendment in their constitution. But that did not mean they did not have issues and reasons to fight for equality of all people. This issue is rampant. And Ms. Peratrovich was at the helm.
Alaska became the 49th State of the United States of America on January 3, 1959.
Ms. Peratrovich was born a member of the Lukaax.adi clan in the Raven Moiety of the Tlingit nation. Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by a fisherman and minister.
The Peratrovich family was discriminated against as a Native in public facilities. The family advocated to ban signs for “No Natives Allowed”and lobbied for organizations. Governor Gruening passed a bill to provide full and equal accommodations for all citizens, 20 years before the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Living in Juneau with her husband and family, they found more extensive social and racial discrimination against Natives.
Her efforts against discrimination resulted in a day in her honor, award for Alaska Native Sisterhood, renaming of the Representatives chamber at the Capitol in her honor, and many more namesakes. She was declared in 2019 to appear on the Native American $1 coin. A documentary film on PBS in 2009 shared her advocacy for the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage entitled “For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska”.
Why this woman?
Alaska is an alluring place to me. I went there for the first time in 2018 with a family trip, on a cruise, which limited the ability to really explore the country. In college I wrote a paper on the Kenai Fjords National Park, and have held a plan to visit the park and kayak the still waters.
Visiting the state was as I imagined (cruise excluded). It is amazing country lands with diversity and variety that I have never known, even in Washington where we have the temperate zones of Earth. It is a land that both intrigues and perplexes me. Land so vast and huge, diverse and yet familiar, and spread with a unique culture that can only be experienced there. I want to spend more time in Alaska, if only there was a way to balance live on the continental.
The state of Alaska’s motto, “North to the Future”, is a promise and “a reminder that beyond the horizon of urban clutter, there is a Great land beneath the State’s flag that can provide a new tomorrow for this century’s huddled masses yearning to be free.” But with the lure to the resources of the country, they all suffered by the newcomers to the state.
Elizabeth struggled the same as so many in America. In many ways she showed that it was not just about one race but about all races needing to be accepted and provided equal opportunities. The Native Americans throughout America were challenged regardless of their origination in the country. In Alaska, a land so remote and unique, I would have anticipated more acceptance of the people. But the struggled as people came for the wealth and opportunity.
Alaska became the 49th State of the United States of America on January 3, 1959.
Ms. Peratrovich was born a member of the Lukaax.adi clan in the Raven Moiety of the Tlingit nation. Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by a fisherman and minister.
The Peratrovich family was discriminated against as a Native in public facilities. The family advocated to ban signs for “No Natives Allowed”and lobbied for organizations. Governor Gruening passed a bill to provide full and equal accommodations for all citizens, 20 years before the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Living in Juneau with her husband and family, they found more extensive social and racial discrimination against Natives.
Her efforts against discrimination resulted in a day in her honor, award for Alaska Native Sisterhood, renaming of the Representatives chamber at the Capitol in her honor, and many more namesakes. She was declared in 2019 to appear on the Native American $1 coin. A documentary film on PBS in 2009 shared her advocacy for the Alaska Federation of Natives convention in Anchorage entitled “For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska”.
Why this woman?
Alaska is an alluring place to me. I went there for the first time in 2018 with a family trip, on a cruise, which limited the ability to really explore the country. In college I wrote a paper on the Kenai Fjords National Park, and have held a plan to visit the park and kayak the still waters.
Visiting the state was as I imagined (cruise excluded). It is amazing country lands with diversity and variety that I have never known, even in Washington where we have the temperate zones of Earth. It is a land that both intrigues and perplexes me. Land so vast and huge, diverse and yet familiar, and spread with a unique culture that can only be experienced there. I want to spend more time in Alaska, if only there was a way to balance live on the continental.
The state of Alaska’s motto, “North to the Future”, is a promise and “a reminder that beyond the horizon of urban clutter, there is a Great land beneath the State’s flag that can provide a new tomorrow for this century’s huddled masses yearning to be free.” But with the lure to the resources of the country, they all suffered by the newcomers to the state.
Elizabeth struggled the same as so many in America. In many ways she showed that it was not just about one race but about all races needing to be accepted and provided equal opportunities. The Native Americans throughout America were challenged regardless of their origination in the country. In Alaska, a land so remote and unique, I would have anticipated more acceptance of the people. But the struggled as people came for the wealth and opportunity.
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