“Asking you to give me rights implies that they are yours to give. I must demand that you stop trying to deny me the rights that all people deserve.” – Elizabeth Peratrovich

Happy Elizabeth Peratrovich Day!

Besides being an Alaska state holiday every February 16, what else should you know about Indigenous civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich?

SO MUCH.

The short version is Elizabeth Peratrovich was a Tlingit (Alaska Native) civil rights leader who is known to have given one of the most impressive clap backs to a Western legislative body in the history of colonization. She and her husband Roy Peratrovich were two amazing Native leaders in the 1940s who fought for, and helped pass, anti-discrimination laws in Alaska.

When debating the bill in the territorial legislature, a senator said of the Native people of Alaska – “The races should be kept further apart. Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?”

Elizabeth came back with- “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.”

So Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is a day to think about all our ancestors who fought for our rights to be recognized and upheld. And to consider what we can do, with our own gifts and time and resources, to ensure that the next generation lives in a more free, more just world than we do.

For more about Elizabeth, I wrote an episode of Molly of Denali called “Molly and Elizabeth” that highlights her, and PBS has the full episode along with educational resources.

There’s a book called “Fighter in Velvet Gloves” telling her story about available from many different platforms.

Or there’s a bit more detail in longer form, with some history – “A Recollection of Civil Rights Leader Elizabeth Peratrovich”.