-Shyler Umphenour, KUAC
Elizabeth Peratrovich
first challenged discriminatory treatment of Alaskan Natives.
The child of a Tlingit Native, born on the Fourth of July in 1911 in Petersburg, Alaska. Elizabeth Peratrovich's mother lacked the means to care for a baby and put her little girl up for adoption.
Jean and Andrew Wanamaker, a Tlingit couple, took the little girl in. They too were poor and, given the times, faced overt discrimination against Natives.
Elizabeth's father raised her to be an activist, bringing the girl with him to meetings of the Alaska Native brotherhood and to the Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Camp.
In 1941, Elizabeth and her husband Roy Peratrovich moved to Juneau. Both by then were prominent activists. Roy, leader of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Elizabeth, the grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood.
Late that same year, walking downtown across the channel from Juneau, the couple came across a "No Natives Allowed” sign. For Elizabeth, this was the last straw.
Prodded by Elizabeth’s letters demanding change, territorial Governor Ernest Henry Gruening pushed for an anti-discrimination law.
The proposal passed the House smoothly. over in the territorial Senate, some raised obstacles, eventually overcome by Elizabeth’s determination.
On February 16th 1945, Governor Gruening signed the nation’s first anti-discrimination law.