‘New Free Resources for Teaching Alaska Civil Rights History’ by Alexander Roider

“We’re hoping that the graphic novel and trading cards can serve as a resource for teachers in Alaska and help make kids excited about our unique civil rights history.”

In the spring of 1961, the citizens of Utqiaġvik were hungry. After a particularly poor whaling season, the migrating eiders appeared almost mana-like to families with empty larders. Yet when the first bird was taken, the hunter was immediately arrested by federal game wardens for violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The treaty had banned duck hunting in spring—the only time the bird was present in Alaska. Given the choice between prison and starvation, the villagers solicited the local magistrate, Sadie Neakok. Sadie was the first Alaska Native magistrate and worked to desegregate Point Barrow Long Range Radar Site. And, she had a plan.

That night, the best hunters of Utqiaġvik went out and fell as many eiders as they could. Sadie worked to distribute the harvest among the town. The next morning, as the game warden made his way to his office, he was greeted by a line of more than a hundred townsfolk, each with a bird in hand and asking to be arrested. Terrified of how to explain this to his superiors, the game warden ran to consult the best legal mind in town: Sadie Neakok. Sadie calmly began explaining the mountain of paperwork that would need to be filed, how many flights should be reserved to transport the hunters down to a Fairbanks jail, and the dozens of social workers that would need to be imported to address the hundreds of newfound parentless children. After some careful consideration and a national public outcry, the game warden chose to drop all charges. Utqiaġvik would not starve that year.

This is just one of many stories of Alaska civil rights history featured in new publications released by the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights (ASCHR). The Commission, which serves as the state’s civil rights enforcement agency, has come out with a graphic novel and set of twenty trading cards telling the stories of Alaska civil rights leaders. “All too often, the history of civil rights is boiled down to just Rosa Parks and Brown v. Board of Education,” said Rob Corbisier, the Commission’s Executive Director. “We’re hoping that the graphic novel and trading cards can serve as a resource for teachers in Alaska and help make kids excited about our unique civil rights history.”

The graphic novel contains three stories: William Paul’s efforts to obtain voting rights for Alaska Natives after his mother and uncle were denied the right to vote; Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich’s struggle, inspired in part by the teenaged Alberta Schenck’s forcible removal from a “whites only” section of a Nome theater, leading to the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945; and the 97th Engineer Battalion’s perseverance through segregation to build the Alaska Highway. All these stories are beautifully illustrated by Alaskan artist, Elyse Applegate, resulting in an exciting graphic novel ideal for upper elementary students through to early high school.

The set of trading cards features twenty trailblazers in Alaska’s civil rights history. The list ranges from well-known activists like Ernest Gruening, Alaska’s first senator who signed the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945 into law, to more obscure figures such as Rev. Smile Gromoff, the Pribilof deacon who worked to get federal reparations paid out to Aleutians sent to internment camps during the Second World War. All cards feature historical photographs of their subjects, biographical information, and brief explanations of their contributions to Alaska’s civil rights story.

Low-resolution versions of both projects are available on the Commission’s website suitable for printing by teachers in the classroom and for homeschool students. The graphic novel file can be found at https://humanrights.alaska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ASCHR-Graphic-Novel-Vol.-1.pdf. The printable trading card file can be found at https://humanrights.alaska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Printable_ASCHR_Cards-5.pdf. Both will also be distributed at the Commission’s many outreach events in the coming months. The Commission will make the high-resolutions files available if any organization wants to print copies professionally. If you would like to receive the high-resolution files or have copies of either project mailed to you directly, please contact the Commission’s Special Projects Attorney, Alex Roider, at alexander.roider@alaska.gov.

“These stories belong to all of us—they are Alaska’s legacy of courage, conviction, and change,” said Dorene Lorenz, ASCHR Chairperson. “We honor them, so the next generation knows the power they carry.”