Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitkans Pay Tribute to Elizabeth Peratrovich

By Sentinel Staff

Sitkans honored Elizabeth Peratrovich by word and deed Monday in commemoration of her leadership in fighting for civil rights in Alaska.

Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp 1 and Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 4 were hosts for a downtown parade, a community lunch, and a community  celebration at the ANB Founders Hall.

Mt. Edgecumbe High School Yupik Dancers march in the Elizabeth Peratrovich Day parade Monday on Lincoln Street. The students marched to ANB Founders Hall where a community celebration was held. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

This year’s theme was “Celebrating Fair and Equal Citizenship,” which refers to the Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945 that Elizabeth Peratrovich and her husband Roy helped bring about.

On Feb. 8, 1945, Elizabeth Peratrovich stepped from the gallery and addressed the Territorial Senate in Juneau, where the anti-discrimination bill was pending. After some legislators spoke against the legislation, Peratrovich’s sharp response was applauded by the large crowd, and the bill was passed.

Gov. Ernest  Gruening signed the bill, and said “Had it not been for that beautiful Tlingit woman, Elizabeth Peratrovich, being on hand every day in the hallway the bill would have never passed.”

Mt. Edgecumbe High School students  performed a skit recreating Peratrovich’s speech to the Senate; and Dionne Brady Howard,  granddaughter of Native rights proponents Isabella Brady and Liz Howard, gave a keynote address.

“We have citizenship for all regardless of race. We have voting rights for all, regardless of race,” Howard said. “And discrimination is against the law thanks to Elizabeth Peratrovich and those from the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood....

“However, the work is not all done. Not everyone has citizenship, and it’s still being made difficult for some subsets of our society to vote. And discrimination still exists in far too many corners of our country.”

She spoke of subsistence rights, and of a recent House education subcommittee member’s questioning the need for Mt. Edgecumbe High, and said there are battles “that will continue to need fighting...”

Sitka High School students Braden Case, Michael Unger, Mariyah Harrell and Ivy Cawthon were announced as winners of the Elizabeth Peratrovich essay contest.

Other students on the program were Sitka’s Gajaa Heen Dancers and Mt. Edgecumbe High School’s Athabascan, Yupik and Inupiaq dance groups, all of whom were also in the parade.

The evening ended with a showing of the documentary movie “For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska.”