Friends, family and community members gathered near the Petersburg Indian Association’s Hallingstad-Peratrovich Building on June 28 to celebrate the town’s first annual Amy Hallingstad Day, honoring a Tlingit woman who shaped Petersburg’s history in the 20th century.
Nicole Hallingstad, Amy Hallingstad’s granddaughter, flew in from Anchorage to welcome attendees to the event, which was organized with PIA. She said her grandmother’s decades of activism for Alaska Native rights inspired her to serve on the Sealaska Board of Directors, a regional Alaska Native corporation.
“My heart is so full of gratitude today for everybody who worked so hard to acknowledge and uplift the incredible contributions of Amy Hallingstad to the rights not just of Native people, but to people everywhere,” Nicole Hallingstad said.
Amy Hallingstad, a late Petersburg resident, advocated for the end of segregation in Alaska’s schools, lobbied for better conditions for cannery workers and was a delegate to the Democratic National Committee.
Hallingstad is also remembered as a champion for women’s rights — and for her assertiveness. Many of her family members at the celebration said they see that in themselves, like her great-granddaughter, Brooklyn Hallingstad. She and her family traveled 10 hours from Kake by boat to be in Petersburg for the event.
“I was always taught how strong of a woman she was and how stubborn, too,” Brooklyn Hallingstad said in a speech. “My dad says I’m [as] stubborn as her. I take it as a compliment, because if she wasn’t so stubborn, nothing would have changed. She was a great leader, and I hope to follow in her footsteps.”
Several longtime Petersburg residents also spoke at the celebration, including Mike Schwartz, who has lived in Petersburg his whole life.
“As long as I have memory, I have her in my mind. She was a matriarch,” said Schwartz. “It’s hard not to be emotional when you think about the impact that that woman had on this community.”
Donnie Nelson is another lifelong resident who spoke of Hallingstad’s impression.
“Wherever Amy walked, even in her high heels, she left an indelible first footprint, and she attracted a crowd of people,” he said.
Nelson said Hallingstad’s advocacy for better working conditions in Alaska canneries as an AFL-CIO union representative made Petersburg’s seafood workers “the cream of the crop.” He referenced one instance of Hallingstad’s commitment to the cause, even at the cost of her own comfort.
“The cannery was considering putting in a new bathroom and restroom down on the dock,” he recalled in his speech. “Amy said, leave me out of it. Just give me higher wages, and I’ll use the plank with a hole in it under the stairs. I don’t need a bathroom.”
After the event speeches concluded, over 20 members of the Hallingstad family gathered together for a picture. They were wearing an array of regalia, including red and black kaayuka.óot’i x’óow (button blankets). Three of her adult grandchildren wore red koogéinaa (sashes) of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and blue of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, the latter of which Hallingstad was grand camp president for seven terms.
Nicole Hallingstad said it was “phenomenal” to see both her family members and the Petersburg community show up to recognize her grandmother’s legacy. Now that June 28 is officially Amy Hallingstad Day, she hopes this is a step toward better acknowledging her contributions and Petersburg’s history.
“My hope is that Petersburg really embraces the fact that it was an Indigenous place before it was a Norwegian settlement,” she said. “We have that wonderful combination of cultures that are so strong together.”
