By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Dozens of Sitkans gathered Sunday afternoon to celebrate the installation of a yellow cedar bench dedicated to Tlingit civil rights advocate Elizabeth Peratrovich in the courtyard in front of Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Peratrovich’s niece by marriage, Patricia Alexander, was appreciative of the degree of support the new bench has received from community members.
Harriet Beleal sits on a newly installed yellow cedar bench outside Harrigan Centennial Hall during a short ceremony Sunday. The bench honors Tlingit civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich. (Sentinel Photo)
“Everyone did their part to move us forward. And it’s not just one person or one leader. It’s everyone in the community that steps forward and the allies who are so strong for us. We are fortunate… I’m very grateful to each and every person that has come out and helped us on this project and many other things and in the future as well,” Alexander said. “You make this a fabulous place to live. Gunalchéesh.”
Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich were instrumental in the passage of the 1945 Anti-Discrimination Act.
Passed 19 years prior to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Alaska law ensured “full and equal accommodations, facilities and privileges to all citizens in places of public accommodation.”
Hand-hewn by local craftsman Zach LaPerriere from a cedar tree that fell on Galankin Island, the bench is adorned with a plaque commemorating Peratrovich’s legacy of civil rights advocacy as well as a copper tin’aa.
Situated only a few feet away from the pedestal where a statue of Russian colonialist Alexander Baranof sat until 2020, the placement of the bench is symbolic, past Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Paulette Moreno told the 50 or so Sitkans who assembled to witness the installation.
“It is significant that we’re standing on the very ground that we’re standing on at this moment,” she said.
There was “something else that stood where we stand right now,” Moreno said from the concrete block where Baranof’s statue was situated. “And what it represented and who it honored was hurtful to us and at times painful. We stand here today proud, we stand here today strong, resilient and absolutely persistent.
“It has been a journey for over a year and a half to come forward with this beautiful gift to the City of Sitka… We thank the community who stood behind us, stood with us, who said what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong, and they stood with those who gathered around us when we felt tired – and we moved a mountain,” Moreno continued.
The bench was placed in the courtyard after an outpouring of public support for the project in February. Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is celebrated annually on February 16, the anniversary of the passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act.
The placement of a bench in honor of a civil rights advocate is part of a larger conversation about the types of monuments people choose to construct, Sitka Tribal Council member Dionne Brady-Howard told the crowd.
“We’ve really started to think a lot more deeply about what kind of monuments we have and what kind of people we honor,” she said. “When it comes to looking at someone like Elizabeth Peratrovich, we remember of course the power of words… To take down the monuments that don’t represent us the way we want to be represented… Like our revered elder here said, it takes everyone.”
Immediately beside the bench a vacant space remains. Moreno said plans are underway to design a second bench as an accompanying piece. In honor of Peratrovich’s birthday on July 4, she added, a larger ceremony in front of Centennial Hall is planned.
