Stuff You Missed in History Class · iHeartPodcasts

Elizabeth Peratrovich

March 16, 2026·44 min·4 clips

The 1867 Alaska Purchase Treaty explicitly excluded 'uncivilized Native tribes' from U.S. citizenship rights.

A voting law sits at the center of the episode. The host explains that it was meant to keep Alaska Native people from voting, especially people who could not read. The comparison is direct: the episode puts it beside the literacy tests used to block Black people after the 15th Amendment. The law stayed in place for decades and, according to the excerpt, lasted until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Then Elizabeth Peratrovich comes into focus. She was born in Petersburg, Alaska, on July 4, 1911, under circumstances the episode treats carefully rather than neatly. Her birth parents were not married, and her birth mother went to the Salvation Army for help. The organization arranged for Elizabeth Jean to be adopted by Andrew and Jean Wanamaker. Sitka became her first home, still fairly close to where she was born. Andrew was a fisherman and Presbyterian minister, described as a lay minister and missionary. Jean was a basket weaver who also took part in religious work. At home, Elizabeth heard both Tlingit and English. She spoke both languages and was raised in a largely traditional Tlingit way of life. Storytelling gets real attention here. It is not treated as decoration, but as part of the world that shaped how she learned to speak and listen. At 10, she moved again when the family went to Kluwak, in southeastern Alaska, in the archipelago south of Juneau and west of British Columbia, Canada. As she grew older, racism and discrimination against Alaska Native people became harder to miss, both in her own life and through her parents. Andrew Wanamaker's activism mattered too. He was among the earliest members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and was later named an honorary founder.

As heard by us

A careful setup for Elizabeth Peratrovich's story, rooted in Tlingit family life and Alaska Native civil rights history.

Stuff You Missed in History Class approaches Elizabeth Peratrovich by first sketching the world Alaska Native people had to navigate: voting restrictions aimed at people who could not read, segregation, and schooling shaped by legal fights over integration.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a clear account of Alaska Native voting rights and Elizabeth Peratrovich, start here.

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