Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has just posted scanned
images from a historic photograph album of Tlingit veteran Stanley D.
Peratrovich (1919-2002) online [click here to access]. Originally born at Klawock, Alaska, the photograph
album contains images of Peratrovich’s time as a student at the Wrangell
Institute during the late 1930s and then his journeys around Alaska during his
service in the U.S. Army during the Second World War. Recently donated to SHI by
Peratrovich’s widow, Evelyn M. Peratrovich, the photograph album documents
Alaska Native life and military service during an important period in Alaskan history.
Stanley D. Peratrovich was born in Klawock, Alaska, on
May 4, 1919 to James and Kathryn Peratrovich. His father was a Croatian
immigrant to Alaska and his mother was Tlingit from the Kuiu Island area of
Southeast Alaska, of the Raven Moiety and Dog Salmon Clan. Stanley Peratrovich was
raised in Klawock but then sent to a boarding school, the Wrangell Institute of
Wrangell, Alaska, where he completed his studies around 1938. Thereafter he
enrolled in Washington State College (now Washington State University) at
Pullman, Washington. While a college student, the Second World War began and Peratrovich
enlisted, later serving from 1941 to 1945 in his home state of Alaska in the
297th Infantry Battalion, Company B, Harborcraft Detachment. During
his time in Alaska he was based, operated at, or traveled to Haines, Seward,
Whittier, Anchorage, Harbor Craft, Attu, and Adak. His two home ports were
Seward and Adak.
After the war in 1948, Peratrovich married ex-army nurse
Evelyn Taber in Walla Walla, WA. For the next decade or longer Stanley served
as a boat captain for Harbor Tug & Barge in San Francisco, CA. After
Peratrovich and his wife retired, they moved to Bainbridge, WA. In
Peratrovich’s later years he was active in the American Legion and attended
veterans’ reunions for the 297th Infantry Battalion. Stanley
Peratrovich passed away on June 22, 2002, in Bainbridge, WA.
Sealaska Heritage
Institute is a private, nonprofit founded in 1980 to promote cultural diversity
and cross-cultural understanding. The institute is governed by a Board of
Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars. Its mission is to
perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast
Alaska.
Photograph credit: Image of Stanley Peratrovich
circa 1941 in his military uniform.
No comments:
Post a Comment