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Jan 19, 1976 Juneau Empire

Did Ju-Neau?
By LAURA McCARLEY

Just before the Civil War, John Peratrovich, as a 16-year-old Yugoslavian, ran away to sea and eventually landed in San Francisco at a time when there was a great demand for crews to serve aboard whaling and sealing ships in northern waters. Shipping out on a sealer for the Pribilofs, young John found himself shipwrecked off the rocky shores of the Seal Islands where along with the captain, the mate and the cook, he clung to a mast until they were all rescued by Eskimos in bidarkas. They spent four months living among the Eskimos until a Russian Revenue Cutter touched shore and offered to take them to Sitka where they could return to San Francisco.

The trip to Sitka was uneventful and then the canoe trip to Victoria began through the Inside Passage. It was the custom in those days for the Indian canoes going from Sitka to Vancouver Island to stop at every native village along the way, since few supplies were carried in order to make more room for furs.

When the canoes stopped at Klawock, young John Peratrovich decided to stay behind and make it his home. Like most boys from the Mediterranean area he was a skilled net maker and mender, and Klawock had the only salmon cannery operating in Alaska. Klawock also had a Tlingit Princess who became Mrs. Peratrovich. On the stroke of noon on July 28, 1887, her first son, Robert was born...the hereditary Royal Chief of Eagles. It is interesting to note that an ancient prophecy among the Tlingits had said the Princess' sons would be leaders of men.

As the hereditary Eagle Chief, Robert was tatooed in an ancient ceremony and potlatch when he was six years old, and he wore his high caste markings all his life with pride and honor, although he was never allowed to assume the chieftanship because of the arrival of missionaries in Klawock in 1902.

In 1921 young Bob Peratrovich decided that his people were not being treated right, and even though he only had a fourth grade education, he had educated himself and acquired a superb sense of business. Off he went to Seattle where he announced himself to the President of the First National Bank, and was given a loan of $30,000 to start a cannery in Klawock. With the $30,000 and 40 cases of empty salmon cans, he went back home where, with six women, including his wife, and four boys, his younger brothers Frank and Roy, he built his cannery, an electric light plant and a water system (the last two being the first ever built in a Native village in Alaska) and hand packed the 40 cases of salmon cans. The salmon was shipped to Seattle and Bob was paid in gold coins and groceries.  The groceries became the start of the Peratrovich General Store, and the gold went to pay off the loan at the Seattle bank.

By 1928 when he held masters papers for unlimited tonnage, and a membership in the Seattle Yacht Club, the loan was repaid, and Bob had increased his holdings to include a fleet of fishing boats, the first movie house in a Native village, and "Family Brand" salmon was on the market... Alaska's first salmon label...which was still fastidiously hand packed. Between 7,000 and 9,000 cases of fish were being shipped to Seattle, and the entire town of Klawock was employed. By the time the cannery was sold in 1945, it packed 50,000 cases a season.

Robert Peratrovich Sr. died on September 19, 1972 at the age of 85. He left 288 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to survive him, as well as his two brothers, Roy Superintendent of the Bureau of IndianAffairs in Anchorage, and Frank, a retired Alaska State Senator. 

In passing, the great Royal Eagle became part of the history of Alaska and the events of his long and fruitful life will always be part of this great state.

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Robert Peratrovich