Today is Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska, and Juneau school kids have spent recent weeks learning about the Native civil rights leader.
When the territorial legislature passed the Anti-Discrimination Act in 1945, it gave minorities in Alaska legal protections from racial bias two decades before the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Elizabeth Peratrovich’s testimony was crucial to overcoming comments like this from Allen Shattuck, a territorial senator from Juneau:
“Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites, with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?”
On a recent afternoon at Harborview Elementary School, fourth and fifth graders in the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program are rehearsing a shadow puppet play based on Peratrovich’s testimony. Half the kids are actors, reading lines from the territorial senate meeting where lawmakers approved the anti-discrimination bill. The rest are puppeteers, using paper cutouts to cast shadows on a backlit screen.
“I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights,” says Lyric Ashenfelter, who plays Peratrovich.
The 9-year-old says she was chosen for the part because she’s got a good, strong voice, and because she paid attention in class when they learned about Peratrovich’s testimony.
“She helped stop discrimination, and she was such a wide-hearted lady, and she was speaking for her rights,” Ashenfelter says.
Before the anti-discrimination act became law, segregation and racial prejudice were common in Juneau. Movie theaters, restaurants and shops refused entrance to Alaska Natives. Elizabeth Peratrovich and her husband, Roy, faced discrimination in finding housing because they were Tlingit.
It’s a different story today for Ashenfelter, who’s learning to speak Tlingit in school.
“Lyric yóo xat duwasáakw,” she says. “Which means I am Lyric, or my name is Lyric.”
Orion Dybdahl is Roy Peratrovich in the shadow puppet drama.
“Orion yóo xat duwasáakw,” he says. “I am Raven, yéil, Taakw.aaneidí, which is the sculpin clan.”
He adds that it was sad to learn about what Alaska Natives went through before the anti-discrimination act.
“It’s sad that they treated us differently, because where we were from or how we spoke,” Dybdahl says.
Ruby Hughes is the cultural specialist at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, where students are eating cake to celebrate Elizabeth Peratrovich’s life. Hughes says a lot has changed since she grew up in Juneau.
“When I was a kid we didn’t have Tlingit language in the schools,” Hughes says. “Occasionally we’d have an elder come in and they would speak fluent Tlingit. But it wasn’t really taught on the level that it is right now. So I think that’s pretty neat.”
Hughes made a timeline of Tlingit history that’s hanging in the commons at Dzantik’i Heeni. It starts in 1648 – the year Russian explorers first came to Alaska – and includes several entries that show the mistreatment and prejudice Alaska Natives experienced throughout history. The last entry on the timeline shows Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, who’s Tlingit.
Hughes says Elizabeth Peratrovich helped make that possible.
