Last Thursday Haines school students celebrated Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. Peratrovich was a civil rights activist who championed the Alaska Equal Rights Act that passed in 1945. In celebration of the day, Alaskan author Annie Boochever was invited as the keynote speaker. Boochever’s first book, Bristol Bay Summer, won a Literary Classics award for best first novel and was a middle-grade selection for the Alaska State Battle of the Books reading motivation program. Her most recent book, Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich, tells the story of the legendary Alaska Native woman written in collaboration with her only living child, Roy Peratrovich, Jr.
KHNS’s Brandon Wilks sat down with Boochever to talk about her book and the importance of the Peratrovich story. She says her first book opened the path to tell the story of Peratrovich.
Boochever: “So the book it kind of the idea happened after my first book came out Bristol Bay summer, that was published in 2014. And a lot of teachers and librarians since they saw, I could write a book asked me, come on, you need to write a book about Elizabeth Peratrovich, we’ve had Elizabeth Peratrovich, day since 1988. And at that time, there really wasn’t anything published about her for teachers, for librarians for it for anybody. And so I thought it sounded like a great idea. But who am I to write a book about Elizabeth Peratrovich? And I didn’t know any of her immediate relatives.
So I just kind of, you know, put it on the back burner. And then through a series of circumstances, I ended up getting in touch with her only living son, Roy Peratrovich, Jr. and I wrote to him and told him of my interest in his mother. And he wrote back and said, he would be delighted to help me document his mother’s life. And I had, you know, spent a lot of time as a, I mentioned in the assembly, a classroom music teacher and librarian. And when I first started teaching in this was in Juneau, I was I wanted to teach about the ethnic cultures that were in the Juneau area, and there was no material at all and very little about Alaska Natives. And I worked with the Indian studies to do it, I could, but I, I just realized I had to kind of develop my own.
And so that’s when I started working with Alaska native elders, and collaborating with them to adapt their stories and songs, and language into musical plays for my students. And I collaborated with Sealaska Heritage Institute and other entities like that. And it was amazing to see how it really helped my minority students to become more engaged and gave them a really well-earned sense of pride. And so I kind of had been doing this sort of thing already. And so it wasn’t like a totally new idea to work with Roy. And he was just wonderful. I mean, he was totally a collaborator. He’s helped me with every single thing that I wrote, he reviewed and critiqued and oftentimes would make changes.
I didn’t get the date right, or the place right. And he was just a wonderful help. And then he has a daughter, Betsy was Elizabeth Peratrovich, his granddaughter, who lives in Anchorage, and she also contributed to the book. So you know, my hope was that teachers, everyone would finally have a book about her, and it would have been vetted, and then accurate and factual. Things like the story about her birth had been a secret for years. And even Roy only learned about it a few years ago. And he told me about it.
He gave me documentation and told me I could use that in the book. And I’m glad because before that, if you went on the internet, or you tried to look her up, they would say, Oh, her parents died in a car crash, or they, you know, she, most people would say adopted, but they didn’t know anything about the background of that. And I think it’s a big part of her history and Alaska history. So I think that was a really important thing for people to know about. So I don’t know. Does that answer your questions?”
Wilks: “Well, I think your book has definitely played a role and kind of bringing this day more to fruition. Now, you know, our local clinic is closed for it. You know, we’re having school assemblies, which obviously, I don’t think we’re going on as a child growing up in Alaska in the 80s. And the 90s. This is not a day…
Boochever: “I didn’t know anything about it.”
Wilks: “Yeah. So is it gratifying for you to play a part in kind of making this day of recognition and celebration here in Alaska, especially Southeast Alaska?”
Boochever: “Oh, absolutely! And, I should mention, too, when I actually, you know, when I was researching the book, working with Roy, I went into the archives. He was, I mean, I felt like in the beginning I said: Who am I to write a book about Elizabeth Peratrovich? But as I researched it, I realized I knew or my family, my family knew almost everyone who was involved except for Elizabeth herself. Her son Roy, remembers delivering newspapers to our house. He remembers watching my dad play basketball and the gold medal tournament.
In the story, I talked about how she is asked by Governor Gruening to fly around the state to get support for the anti-discrimination bill, but she doesn’t have enough money to pay for a plane and she meets Shell Simmons at the wharf. He was the owner of Alaska coastal airlines at the time. Shell offered to give her a ride whenever he had a seat available, which was huge. And he was our neighbor. And I knew Shell and I knew his wife, Marge, and, you know, even the Shattucks you know, when it talks about Senator Shattuck, who has had really harsh words for Elizabeth, they lived in my neighborhood is the descendants did and they are not like that, I should say, and they were. So I knew them. Earnest Gruening and Dorothy greening were friends and my family. We used to have them to dinner.
So I feel really connected to the story. I didn’t know how connected I was until I actually started writing. Even one of my friends as a child was Anna Paddack, and we called her Shuggie. And she, she was Elizabeth’s niece. She didn’t know it at the time, and neither did I. But so anyway, it was a pretty interesting experience.”
Wilks: “So for those who don’t know, why is she such an important character that needs to be recognized and talked about have a book and have a day?”
Boochever: “Oh, gosh, well, I’ve been thinking about that, actually. And it, it’s, I think she really appeals to young people, because she was, you know, subjected to a lot of discrimination and injustice. And she really stood her ground. But she did it with grace and dignity. And I think that’s inspiring to young people. And they can really relate to that. And it you know, it’s like Martin Luther King, it’s kind of that idea. And, since then, I think it’s bigger than that. I, I think she’s symbolic of the Native Americans’ experience nationwide. And I hope she becomes better known outside of Alaska because she’s definitely a hero of not, she should be in the rest of the nation, too.”
Wilks: “And finally, I know, you mentioned earlier, you have a play that will be going on tonight. Can you tell me a little bit about the play and where it came from?”
Boochever: “Yes. Well, just like people encouraged me to write a book about her. Now that one is out and widely read in Alaska, the same librarians and teachers have been pestering me to write another book for younger kids because this book is really for middle school and high school adults. So I’ve been working on that for the last few years and worked with an editor, and I finally have a finished manuscript. I need an illustrator before it can actually get published because it’s a children’s picture biography. But when Natalie and Deb invited me they really wanted to play about her and I did not have one at the time. But it occurred to me that I have adapted many stories for the theater. That’s what I did as a music teacher all the time. So I could adapt my manuscript and I chose to make it a reader’s theater rather than a full-blown play just because I thought it would be more user-friendly for the classroom teacher could do it just in the classroom.
I think having children speaking her words and saying those things and kind of internalizing them is huge and very powerful. Whether they take it the next step like we’ve been working on memorizing the lines and doing it more like a real performance, or just staying in the classroom. I think it can be a really useful tool for kids to better understand the whole story about Elizabeth Peratrovich.”
Wilks: “And where can people find your book?”
Boocher: “This book is available as usual places I saw a couple of copies at your local bookstore. I should also mention that last year, or maybe it was the year before I wrote a study guide to accompany the book for high school and middle school teachers. I thought it would be really helpful. I taught high school English for a while and I use those study guides all the time in my literature. classes. So there is a study guide available. I don’t know if they have it there but you can get it on Amazon. All the normal outlets, you can get it.”
Wilks: “Annie Boochever, I really appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here.”
Boochever: “Thank you and lovely to meet you.”
