(Photo by Berett Wilber/KHNS)
Feb. 16 marks more than 70 years since the territory of Alaska passed the Non-Discrimination Act of 1945.
In Haines, the celebration included song, dance and praise for one of Alaska’s best-known civil rights leaders: Elizabeth Peratrovich.
Haines community members crowded into the school gym to pay their respects to an Alaska civil rights icon: Feb. 16 is Elizabeth Peratrovich Day.
After two weeks of practicing, the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders sang and danced into the gym to the beat of a Tlingit drum. Their leader?
“My Tlingit name is Wei haa. We are doing this dance because this is what an elder said before his last days.”
Stitch Phillips is a member of the Deishú Dancers, who helped the students learn “Tsu Heidei,” written by Tlingit elder George Davis in the 1980s.
“It’s very important. Translates to, ‘once again we’ll open this container of wisdom left to us by our ancestors.’ That’s where you get “Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan.”
Philips played the drum for the performance, one of many adult volunteers who helped arrange the celebration.
Others made sure each student had regalia to wear: a felt vest, and a pearl-button headband.
Wayne Price came up with a back design, featuring both Raven and Eagle, that students sewed onto the vests themselves.
The whole school, K-12, gathered to watch the performance.
Afterward Marilyn Wilson, the vice president of Haines’ chapter of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, gave a short speech.
“I want to thank Elizabeth Peratrovich for saying that I can go into the restaurants, I can be part of the community, I can be in the Legislature. So, dream big. You can make a difference in your community also.”
And for those who struggle to remember precisely what it is Elizabeth Peratrovich did, about 40 kindergarteners and first-graders were there to lend a hand — through song.
The law Alaska passed, which Peratrovich worked for, was the territory’s 1945 Anti-Discrimination Act.
Motivated by racist treatment of Alaska Natives, it criminalized segregation and race discrimination 20 years before the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.
The Haines Drama Debate Team re-enacted an excerpt of the Alaska Senate’s floor debate on the bill.
Petratrovich, the grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood at just 34, spoke from the gallery in response to what she heard on the floor.
“I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentleman with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind them of our bill of rights.”
And while those are her most famous words, she didn’t stop there.
“Do you think this proposed bill will stop discrimination? Do your laws against robbery and even murder prevent those crimes? No laws will do away with crimes, but at least you, as legislators, can say to the world that you recognize how bad it is and you speak your plan to stop discrimination.”
Wilson says it’s that second part of Peratrovich’s speech that makes recognizing her so valuable now.
“Elizabeth Peratrovich made a big impact on the words she said. It really swayed the vote. I think when kids look at things that they’re afraid to talk, or afraid to ask questions. I think this kind of teaches them — to speak out.”
For Wilson, having the celebration in a school — where Native and white students were once segregated and Tlingit language and dance forbidden — it’s especially meaningful.
“I’m just excited when I see all the children, and the whole school sitting there. I think this is a long time coming.”