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[[newspaper clipping]]

Saturday, February 5, 1977, The Anchorage Times  5

Letters To The Editor

Agrees With Peratrovich

Dear Editor:

I would like to write in regard to Roy Peratrovich's response to the article, "Poll Shows Anchorage Is Critical Of Natives."

Bravo and hurrah for Peratrovich! I wholeheartedly agree with every word he has written and was glad to see his response printed in your newspaper. I felt it to be an outrage and a disgrace for an established newspaper such as the Anchorage Times to print an article filled with such discriminatory undertones as it contained.

I am half Eskimo, was born in King Salmon, but was adopted and raised by an Irish mother. I have lived most all my life in Oklahoma and have come up this year on a teaching job. But since my arrival in Anchorage I have repeatedly heard about Fourth Avenue - which in my estimation is no worse than Reno Street in Oklahoma City. Activities going on there are probably pretty much the same and there aren't Alaska natives there - but a lot of whites. I certainly feel, as Peratrovich does, that drunkenness and being "casual about sex" certainly don't have a monopoly on one race of people.

There were also statements concerning resentment of some whites regarding the native land settlement, but I also have read the proposals of the whites as they jump at the chance to get a few shares and a little money themselves.

I'd like to tell some of those white people that out of all the 40 million acres and one billion dollars given to the natives I've got a grand total of $1,500 and others have received less. I don't see how such a little amount that I've received should be so resented by some of the whites when Alaska will be coming into billions of dollars as a result of the Alaska pipeline. I am striving and struggling to make ends meet and certainly have not gotten rich quick from the native land settlement.

My mother and I have found it difficult to find a place to live in Anchorage and the city to be a lot different than what we had expected. It certainly has changed to Mother, who had lived in Alaska for almost nine years in the '50s. It seems as though people are striving to run some sort of race, not only on the roads but also in the businesses, to push Anchorage into something too big, too fast.

I came to Alaska with good intentions and a bright outlook on seeing my country and native people. However, I do not feel that I drove 4,700 miles up here to be insulted by an article's headline, "Poll Shows Anchorage Is Critical Of Natives."

Sandra Smyrl
7800 DeBarr Rd.