More than 100 years ago, when he was just 10 years old, Roy A. Peratrovich Jr.\u2019s grandfather, Andrew Wanamaker, traveled the 200 miles from Sitka to Ketchikan in a war canoe. He, his father, and others made the voyage to right a wrong done to one of their clan members.<\/p>\n
Now, that journey \u2014 fictionalized \u2014 is the subject of a chapter book Peratrovich wrote and illustrated for young readers, \u201cLittle Whale.\u201d Peratrovich is the eldest son of renowned Alaska Native civil rights leaders Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich; Andrew Wanamaker was Elizabeth Peratrovich\u2019s adoptive father.<\/p>\n
Wanamaker was born in the late 1800s and died in 1969. He voyaged in one of the last Tlingit war canoes, \u201cbut he also lived to see the landing on the moon,\u201d Peratrovich said. \u201cIt was quite a change in our culture, and along the way we kept losing our history, which is an oral history, because all of the old people were dying off and the children were trying to adjust to Western culture as best they could, and as fast as they could\u2026 In a way, my story was trying to bring a little bit back to the history of our past that made our people what we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Whale\u201d focuses on the journey of a boy named K\u00e9et (k\u00e9et means \u201ckiller whale\u201d in Ling\u00edt, the Tlingit language) at a time Westerners and Alaska Natives were just beginning to make contact. (K\u00e9et hasn\u2019t yet met any Westerners, though he sees signs of their presence.) On their way to Ketchikan, K\u00e9et, his father and the other men face a storm and make friends they never expected.<\/p>\n
Peratrovich has been working with Annie Boochever, author of the middle-grade book \u201cBristol Bay Summer,\u201d on a children\u2019s book about his mother\u2019s life. Boochever encouraged him to turn the story of his grandfather\u2019s journey into a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe thought it was a wonderful story, and she said \u2018You ought to write that down, if nothing else, for your children,\u201d Peratrovich said.<\/p>\n
He did \u2014 and one thing led to another. The story grew. It developed chapters. He began making illustrations. He faced disheartening edits. But his wife Toby Peratrovich, daughter betsy Peratrovich (she does not capitalize her first name), and Boochever, as well as other people, helped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhere along the way, I got hooked, and I was writing a book,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Somewhere else along the way, a young whale and its pod entered the story, as well. Peratrovich thinks that element of the story may have been inspired by a bronze sculpture he made of a canoe riding atop a diving whale.<\/p>\n
Other family members also made it into the book \u2014 a childhood picture of grandson Christopher Roy Peratrovich (who is now grown, and a propulsion engineer) served as the basis for an illustration of K\u00e9et; and the book is dedicated to his sons Mike and Doug (Andrew Wanamaker gave Doug the Tlingit name K\u00e9et) and daughter betsy.<\/p>\n
Peratrovich was born in Klawock. He moved to Juneau in 1941 and became one of the first Alaska Natives to attend public school with non-Native children; he graduated high school in Colorado in 1953, graduated from the University of Washington with a civil engineering degree in 1957, and returned to Juneau with his family from 1961 to 1972, when they moved to Anchorage. His career in engineering spanned 43 years, and he was the first Alaska Native civil engineer registered in Alaska.<\/p>\n
In 1979, he and Dennis Nottingham started PND Engineers, which has offices in Juneau, Anchorage and Seattle. When he got close to retiring, he returned to art, which he hadn\u2019t done much of since high school, he said. Then he started Ravenworks Art Studio, where he focuses on bronze sculptures.<\/p>\n
Alaskans may also be familiar with Peratrovich\u2019s work from other venues. He created the bust of his mother on display in the Capitol building; he designed the original Brotherhood Bridge (the medallions he designed are on display on the new one) and his work is on display at Roy and Elizabeth Peratrovich Park in Anchorage.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Whale\u201d also features \u201cWords to Know\u201d in Ling\u00edt, an introduction that explains cultural context for those who that may not be familiar with it, a map of the journey, and praise from readers, leaders and fellow authors. Sealaska Heritage Institute president Rosita Worl, who helped Peratrovich authenticate Tlingit customs for the time period in which the book is placed, wrote that \u201cLittle Whale\u201d \u201cprovides a rare glimpse into the daily lives of the Tlingit prior to the changes that occurred with the arrival of Westerners\u2026 Mr. Peratrovich\u2019s story reveals the warmth and humanity of the Tlingit who are more often portrayed as warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if there will be any more books, Peratrovich said \u201cWhen I finished that book, I figured this is my first and last one, but my daughter and my wife keep saying \u2018Do more.\u2019\u201d (\u201cDo more!\u201d his wife called out in the background.) \u201cMy wife keeps reminding me that the Tlingits are natural storytellers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The book will soon be available at local bookstores and can be purchased on Amazon and from the University of Alaska Press.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly managing editor Mary Catharine <\/em>Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 100 years ago, when he was just 10 years old, Roy A. Peratrovich Jr.\u2019s grandfather, Andrew Wanamaker, traveled the 200 miles from Sitka to Ketchikan in a war canoe. He, his father, and others made the voyage to right a wrong done to one of their clan members. Now, that journey \u2014 fictionalized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":9127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9126"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}