In 1868, a year after he had negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia, Secretary of State William Seward spoke in Sitka. The Alaska Natives, he said, “can neither be preserved as a distinct social community nor incorporated into our society. The Indian tribes…will merely serve the turn until civilized white men come.” Too bad he did not live long enough to have Elizabeth Peratrovich put him in his place.
Thank you for this welcome obituary.
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Wonderful to see her remembered! However, calling the Alaska Native Brotherhood a 'non-profit organization meant to address racism' is trivializing and somewhat inaccurate. The ANB was established in 1912 as a means for AK Natives to advocate for their own citizenship and later land claims, one of the first indigenous organizations of it's kind!
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So proud to know this amazing family that were truly among the first social justice, civil rights leaders.
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Was an obituary written for Mr. Peratrovich at the time?
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@D - Guess you didn't read the article.
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Overlooked no more. Thank you for illuminating a life that was so meaningful and yet so short.
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Ms. Peratrovich was one of the early leaders in the Alaska Territory, along with Ernest Gruening, Bill Egan, and other visionaries and pioneers. She was way ahead of her time in her fight for Native rights and is revered even today for her fighting spirit. Growing up in Alaska in those days was exciting, and people like Ms. Peratrovich and others were larger than life to me. It's sad that Alaska has become what it is today.
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Thank you for this obituary.
As an aside, I am not sure I would say "living at a subsistence level." In Alaska, "subsistence" does not mean "just getting by," it means living mostly off food that does not come from a store.
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@Dubious. So true! In southeast Alaska, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Subsistence, commonly harvested "subsistence" foods include halibut, Chinook (king) salmon, sockeye salmon, black cod, venison, butter clams, red king crab, shrimp, wild blueberries...hardly a meager diet. In Sitka in 2013, the most commonly used subsistence food (by 78% of households) was king salmon, 19.9 lbs per person per year. That's a pretty good diet!
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