When first-grade teacher Sophia Armstrong went searching for a picture book to help her students learn about Alaska Native civil rights activist Elizabeth Peratrovich, she came up empty.

Instead of shrugging her shoulders and moving on to the next lesson plan, Armstrong saw an opportunity and tasked her class with making their own book about the woman who was integral to the passage of the first anti-discrimination law in the United States.

First, Armstrong printed off some adult literature about Peratrovich and read it to her students. “That was really annoying,” said 7-year-old Sydney Salmon. “We were so tired,” added 6-year-old C.C. Elliott, and her classmate Brody Ferrin chimed in: “Boring!”

What Armstrong wanted to see was what information stuck out to young children. After she finished, Armstrong asked her students to repeat back to her what they remembered, noting their remarks on the white board.

Elliott said one of the things she remembered was that there were stores with signs that said “No Natives Allowed.” “In the old days, the white people didn’t like Natives,” Elliott explained. “(Peratrovich) tried to stop it.”

Why was it important to stop it? “Because it wasn’t fair,” Ferrin piped up.

Armstrong organized the book as a chronological progression of Peratrovich’s life, and her work that led to the passage of the Alaska Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945. In the section “Returning Home,” Elliott drew a picture of Peratrovich with a big frown on her face in front of a house with a white picket fence.

“She was sad because she couldn’t get the (nice) house,” Elliott said, pointing at the page. “The Natives got all the crummy houses.”

The three students also recalled Peratrovich’s famous speech to the Alaska Legislature about the anti-discrimination act, and bickered over whether she was forced to endure harsh questions from legislators for two or three hours.

The students drew and colored furiously for days, trying to reach the deadline for the Feb. 14 Elizabeth Peratrovich Day celebration at the Haines ANB Hall. (Elizabeth Peratrovich Day is officially on Feb. 16).

“I tried to think about, ‘OK, this person is really good at drawing people, and this person is really good at drawing houses, and this kid is really good at drawing totem poles,’” Armstrong said. “A lot of my students who are Native Alaskan and who are pretty tied into their culture, they were really into doing their best work on the drawings and on the art.”

When the class finished, Armstrong laminated and bound the book, and displayed it at the ANB Hall celebration.

Armstrong is entering the book in Scholastic’s “Kids Are Authors” competition, which publishes one or two works by children every year. “I would like to get this published because I know every single library in Alaska would like a copy of a picture book about Elizabeth Peratrovich. We have this day and everyone should know about it,” she said.

If the book isn’t picked up by Scholastic, Armstrong said she will look into publishing it through a service like iBooks or Amazon. “If there’s not a book for kids, they’re not going to know about her and that’s a shame,” Armstrong said. “So I know there’s an audience of people who would like this book in at least Alaska and probably other places, too.”

Asked if the book was worth all the hard work, the students acknowledged it was. Would they want to do all that hard work and coloring again anytime soon? “No! No way!” they exclaimed in unison.

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