Alberta Schenck Adams and the Fight for Indigenous Equality in Alaska

This report examines the life and activism of Alberta Schenck Adams, a pivotal figure in the fight for Indigenous rights in Alaska. It details her early life in Nome, her Inupiat heritage, and the discrimination she faced. The report highlights her courageous stand against segregation, including the Dream Theatre incident, and her crucial role in advocating for the Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, predating the national civil rights movement. It discusses the historical context of Indigenous people in the United States, including the challenges they faced. The report concludes with an overview of the legacy of Alberta Schenck Adams, her impact on the fight for equality and the lasting significance of her work, and the changes that occurred after her death.

4/22/2019
Running head: Alberta Schenck Adams 0
Alberta Schenck Adams
Her activities for Indigenous people
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Alberta Schenck Adams 1
Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Early life of Alberta Schenck Adams,.................................................................................................2
Indigenous people history in US........................................................................................................3
Alberta’s work for equality by indigenous people in US territory of Alaska.........................................5
Alberta Schenck Adams work for indigenous equality rights.............................................................5
Alaska Dream Theatre incident..........................................................................................................6
Anti-discrimination legislation...........................................................................................................6
Death of Alberta Schenck Adams......................................................................................................8
After the death of Alberta Schenck Adams........................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................12

Alberta Schenck Adams 2
Introduction
Alberta Schenck Adams was an adolescent civil rights activist who struggled for
impartiality by the indigenous individuals in the United States Territory of Alaska. In 1944
she challenged to segregation related practices and her activities was cited throughout the
Territorial Legislature's reports in the passage of Alaska's 1945 law of anti-discrimination
(Guise, 2013). Nearly a decade beforehand the Brown v. Board of Education pronouncement
forbidden segregation in community schools, and earlier Rosa Parks in the Alabama flashed a
community bus boycott by declining to give up her chair to a white individual. Alberta
Schenck Adams at 81 years age died due to congestive heart failure (CHF) at Anaheim
Memorial Hospital on July six, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Alberta Schenck Adams was
blessed with the longevity, a soldier spirit and a big extended family (Martinez, 2016). She
was the daughter of Mary Pushruk Schenck and Albert “Whitey” Schenck, she was born and
raised in the Nome, Alaska. She is still recalled for her essential role as the 16-year old, in the
passageway of Alaska’s Anti-Discrimination Act imposed in 1945 when Alaska was
considered as Territory. The Act approved punishments for cultural discrimination in Alaska
extended before the Civil Rights drive happen in the rest of the country (Boochever, &
Peratrovich 2019).. In this particular report the different problems experienced by the tribe
group of Alerta Schenck Adams will be discussed. What she has done for the aboriginal
people and how their situations changed after she died will also be discussed in this report.
Early life of Alberta Schenck Adams,
Alberta Schenck was actually born in the Nome, Alaska on 1st June, 1928, to Mr
Albert Schenck, who was a white Military trouper of World War I. Her mother was Mrs
Mary Pushruk Schenck of native Inupiat custom. She was actually born into the era when the
indigenous individuals of Alaska were exposed to segregated activities that frequently left
non-white children deprived of an education for nonexistence of amenities. Some separated

Alberta Schenck Adams 3
business institutions promoted that all their staffs were white (BSNC, 2013).in the era where
the discrimination and inequality was on its peak, this 17 years lf young girl step out decides
to fight for the indigenous people. She speak out on the topic which is not spoken by others.
Her spirit of fighting rather than just being unspoken like other left her mark in the history of
United States.
Though some people call her the “Rosa Parks of the Arctic,” Alberta Schenck’s
assistances to the Native rights in Alaska are not famous. Rising up half-Native during the
World War II era Nome, Alberta was only an adolescent when she started getting publicly
challenging those who wanted to treat her as the second-class resident. “If my brothers
involve into war to combat for us, why cannot we partake the same liberties as everyone
else?” asked Alberta (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014). “I required to be ornery and display the white
people of Nome that something could be done there.” She stopped an all-white dance at her
institute. She also wrote indignant mails to the newspaper Nome Nugget. Although she was
arrested by police for meeting with her white date, who was a Sergeant of Army, in the last
two residual chairs of the Dream Theatre, which occurred to be in the “Whites Only” unit. As
an outcome, she converted an early supporter for the Native public privileges. Subsequently
writing to the Governor Ernest Gruening related to the happening at the place called Dream
Theatre, Alberta’s story was discussed in the course of discussion of the Alaska Anti-
Discrimination Act, which was accepted in 1945 well earlier the civil rights drive in other
portions of the United States (MacDonald, 2007).
Indigenous people history in US
US history, in addition to inherited Indigenous suffering, cannot be understood or
assumed deprived of addressing the discrimination crimes that committed by the United
States against the Indigenous individuals. From the actual colonial period through the
establishment of the United States and ongoing in the 21st century, this has involved torture,

Alberta Schenck Adams 4
terror, sensual abuse, exterminations, systematic military works, eliminations of Indigenous
persons from their family territories, and eliminations of Indigenous broods to Army-like
boarding institutes. The lack of even the least note of remorse or disaster in the yearly
festivity of the US freedom deceives a deep separation in the awareness of US Americans
(Warren, & Jackson, 2003).
The initial twenty-first century has seen augmented misuse of energy resources
causing new burdens on Indigenous properties. Misuse by the major corporations, frequently
in conspiracy with political figure at local, state, and the federal stages, and even inside some
Indigenous supervisions, could spell a concluding decease for Indigenous property bases and
possessions (Echo-Hawk, 2016). . Consolidation Indigenous dominion and self-determination
to stop that outcome may take over-all public crime and ultimatum, which in turn necessitate
that the common population, those sloped from colonisers and immigrants, distinguish their
history and undertake accountability. Confrontation to these influential corporate forces
endures to have thoughtful insinuations for US socioeconomic and the political growth and
the future (Scholtz, 2013).
In the period of US treaty-making from the freedom to 1871, the notion of the
reservation was considered as one of the Indigenous country reserving a tapering property
base from a abundant larger one in interchange for US government defence from colonisers
and the facility of social amenities (Nielsen, 2012). In the dawn nineteenth century, as the
Indigenous confrontation was debilitated, the perception of the reservation altered to one of
property being imprinted out of the communal territory of the United States as the
compassionate sign, a "gift" specifically to the Indigenous individuals (Ford, & Rowse,
2012). Rhetoric altered so that the reservations were supposed to have been "given" or
"created" for the Indians. And with this change, the Indian reservations derived to be
understood as reserves surrounded by state' limits. Notwithstanding the political and financial

Alberta Schenck Adams 5
realism, the impression to numerous was that Indigenous individuals were captivating a free
ride on community domain (Lavallee, & Poole, 2010).
Canada has recognised long before at the front position of the internationalization of
the indigenous rights. Front-runners from the Six Nations, a Mohawk assembly from central
part of Canada, pursued association in and the responsiveness of the Association of Countries
in 1923, only to be snubbed (Axelsson, Kukutai, & Kippen, 2016). The condition facing
indigenous individuals in Canada leftovers far from perfect, with systematic difficulties of
poverty, communal relegation and severe social pathologies consecutively through numerous
remote standby societies and urban centres. The nation is not deprived of its political and
lawful attainments, though, all produced by the perseverance and forcefulness of numerous
generations of indigenous frontrunners (Lavallee, & Poole, 2010).
Alberta’s work for equality by indigenous people in US territory of Alaska
Alberta Schenck Adams work for indigenous equality rights
As an adolescent, Alberta Schenck recognised segregation was incorrect and she
decided to do something about this problem. When she was removed from a isolated film
theatre in the Nome, she was imprisoned as the theatre’s rules prohibited Natives and the
‘half-breeds’ from sharing same place or sitting with white people (Calma, & Priday, 2011).
She consequently spoke out in the historic essay that seemed in the Nome Nugget in the year
of 1944 and she tracked up by writing mail to the elected officers stating the sentimentality
that was reverberated later in the public rights drive of the 1950s: “I only honestly know that
I am one of God’s kid irrespective of race, colour or creed.” She openly facilitated to bring
about the Alaska Civil Rights Act approved by the Territorial Parliament 10 years beforehand
the Brown vs. the Board of Education pronouncement (Watson, 2011).

Alberta Schenck Adams 6
Most of Alberta’s support was linked to her family, in specific her Aunt Frances Longley and
Frances’ companion, Territorial Senator O.D. Cochran, their broods, and friend, Ernest
Gruening. Alberta’s distinctive family relations allowed her to discuss her thoughts with
individuals openly included in voting for the Alaska Civil Rights Act in fever indigenous
people. Alberta’s aunt was the associate of the Arctic Native Sisterhood in the Nome which
delivered the association with Roy and Elizabeth Peratrovich. Due to this Alberta was
capable to deliver critical evidence from North-western Alaska that openly subsidised to the
passageway of the Bill related to the Anti-Discrimination (Case, & Voluck, 2012).
Alaska Dream Theatre incident
When Alberta was the high school adolescent in 1944, she had part-time work
escorting at the Alaska Dream Theatre in the Nome, where she supposed to ensure that non-
white customers be seated in their labelled segregated zone. She ultimately listed an objection
with the theatre's director and was dismissed. Alberta's reaction turn into an opinion article on
3rd march, 1944, in the newspaper The Nome Nugget (Huhndorf, & Huhndorf, 2011). She
reverted later with the white date, and other two of them be seated in the section of "Whites
Only". Alberta and the Army sergeant date declined to change their seat when the director
commanded to move to the non-white segment. The theatre supervisor telephoned the native
police who detained Schenck and retained her in prison for single night. Schenck's capture
united the local Inupiat communal who performed a protest at the theatre till her freedom
from prison (Roderick, 2010).

Alberta Schenck Adams 7
Anti-discrimination legislation
Alberta has been privileged by the Alaska Government for her involvement as a
fledgling adult. In the spring season of 1944 Alberta was employed in Nome’s Dream
Theatre as the attendant. She was dismissed from her place for articulating her disagreement
to the theatre’s Jim Crow rules which prohibited Natives and the “half-breeds” from sharing
seats with the white’s solitary segment (Maddison, 2013). Outraged and strongminded not to
be discouraged, Alberta transcribed a letter to the Alaska Governor named Ernest
Gruening and connected the event. The previous year, the Governor had viewed his anti-
discrimination bill be whitewashed in the Territorial Parliament. Albert’s letter encouraged
the Governor to partake the bill re-presented in the Territorial Parliament, throughout which
her involvement was quoted in the legislature of Alaska. He replied her letter promising that
from now no one would again obtain that type of action in Alaska (McCormick, 2014). The
re-presented bill, Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act approved both houses linked to legislature
and was included into law on 16th February, 1945. She had been a great motivations for the
indigenous people and other societies of communities diminished by the people who thinks
they are superior to other groups.
She became an idol for young indigenous children as the youngest activist who fought
for the rights of underprivileged people (Allison, 2013). Her fight for the right of those
people reduced and discriminations at some point, although the narrow thinking were not
removed completely as it was in the roots of the system, but the efforts made by Alberts
encouraged the white people also to fight alongside the non-white people to their equal rights.
She also gained the attentions of government officials about the discriminations happening
with the non-white people and force them to pass the bill that equalise the indigenous with
the whites. A share of Alberta’s realism has been apprehended on the soon-to-be open out

Alberta Schenck Adams 8
and released nationwide one-hour PBS Distinctive movie, “For the Rights of All: Ending Jim
Crow in Alaska,” a teamwork of Talking Circle Media, possessed and functioned by
Alberta’s second-cousin, named Jonathan Butzke, and the principal Production corporation,
Blueberry Productions’ Jeffry Silverman (Case, & Voluck, 2012).
Death of Alberta Schenck Adams
Alberta Schenck wedded a man named Adams and relocated to California. She
expired on 6th July, 2009 in Anaheim due to CHF or congestive heart failure. In that period
Alaskans were the citizens of the United States meanwhile the 1867 Alaska Purchase. The
part Alberta Schenck played in the passageway of Alaska's anti-discrimination legislation in
1945 was the share of the Civil Rights Drive (Martinez, 2016). Landmark actions in that fight
would derived to comprise the 1954 Brown v.Board of Education pronouncement
illegalisation separated schools, and Rosa Parks's 1955 denying to give up her community
bus seat to the white individual, an action that flashed the Montgomery Bus Refuse in
Alabama. In the year of 2011, Alberta Schenck Adams was welcomed into the Alaska
Women's Hall of Fame (Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame, 2010).
After the death of Alberta Schenck Adams
Nowadays in the US, more than 5 hundred federally accepted Indigenous countries
are there including nearly three million persons, offspring of the fifteen million Native
persons who once settled this property. The centuries-lengthy genocidal course of the United
States settler-colonial routine has mainly been misplaced from the history. Today, for the first
time, celebrated historian and the activist named Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz proposals a olden
times of the United States expressed from the viewpoint of Indigenous individuals and

Alberta Schenck Adams 9
discloses how Native Americans, for eras, actively fought enlargement of the US territory
(Axelsson, Kukutai, & Kippen, 2016).
With increasing support for actions such as the movement to abolish Columbus Day
and substitute it with the Indigenous Societies’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline objection
led by the Tribe named Standing Rock Sioux, the Indigenous Individuals History of the
United States is the important resource delivering historic threads that are vital for
considerate the present-day. In the Indigenous Individuals History of the United States,
Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly encounters the establishing myth about the United States and displays
how rule in contradiction of the Indigenous persons was colonialist and intended to seize the
lands of the real occupants, moving or excluding them (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014). And as revealed
by Dunbar-Ortiz, this programme was acclaimed in widespread culture, through authors like
James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the uppermost workplaces of government
and the army. Outrageously, since the genocidal strategy touched its peak under the President
Andrew Jackson ruling, its mercilessness was best spoken by the US Army general named
Thomas S. Jesup, who, in the year of 1836, wrote about the Seminoles: “The nation can be
freed of them solitary by eliminating them.” Straddling more than 400 years, this typical
bottom-up individual’s history fundamentally reframes the US history and detonates the
quiets that have troubled the national story (Lobo, Talbot, & Carlston, 2016).
After the death of Alberta the indigenous individuals everywhere form the globe met
through the 1980s and 1990s to converse their historic experiences, privileges and political
ambitions, Canada projected to be detained up as somewhat of an standard for contributions
and legal-political preparations, if not for results. To the disappointment of successive federal
administrations, Aboriginal frontrunners from Canada frolicked a high-profile and uttered
role, emphasising Canada’s inadequacies more than admitting collective attainments

Alberta Schenck Adams 10
(Boochever, & Peratrovich 2019). Though indigenous population of Canada lived with the
significances of historic discrimination and current inequalities and unfairness, the nation was
of the attention that the yearly expenditures, joint with major contracts on legitimate
privileges, self-government and contemporary treaties, provided the proper measure of
reimbursement (Axelsson, Kukutai, & Kippen, 2016).
After the equality related activities of Alberta the scenario for indigenous people have
changed a lot as the underprivileged community nowadays seen as the people with equal right
as the other people has (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2008). However the
discrimination related activities had been observed and the fluctuation about the development
of indigenous population had be recognised previously now days the rules and regulations
related to the equality of indigenous people is imposed everywhere in the world and the
people are living much better life than they ever lived. Different government and non-
government organisations are continuously working to eradicate the discriminations issues
for its root (Axelsson, Kukutai, & Kippen, 2016). The Canada Government collaborated with
the United States, Australia and New Zealand to larger or slighter degrees, concerned that
UNDRIP would distressed the prudently advanced balance of the indigenous and newcomer
privileges in the nation (Warren, & Jackson, 2003). The challenging negotiations over current
treaties, the application of court decisions and the Aboriginal self-government had, over
nearly 30 years, shaped a political, legitimate and legal steadiness that Canadians had
developed to admit. Indigenous individuals had gained the important rights and powers inside
the Canadian governmental and legal organisation, and the Government of Canada accepted
its enduring fiduciary and the treaty accountabilities for the Aboriginal individuals (Papillon,
2011).

Alberta Schenck Adams 11
Conclusion
Alberta Schecnk Adams was a civil activist who fought for the equality of the
indigenous people in United States. She was considered as the youngest activist who
encouraged the people and gained the attentions of government officials towards the
inequalities between the white and non-white people in the country. She was born in the
Nome, Alaska on first June, 1928. Some of her life events still encourages the young people.
One of her life events happen in the 1944, when she set on the seat reserved for the white
people only, when she was asked to leave the chair, she refused by the manager. She removed
from the chai, after she wrote a letter to the government officials about the incidents. She also
stated that if my brother are involved in the military activities than why we cannot have the
same liberties. Indigenous people experienced a range of discrimination in different parts of
the world including United States. Their lands had been taken from them and occupied by the
colonizers their children were forced to fight in war, and they were prohibited from sitting on
the sears reserved for white people or sharing places with them. Alberta were the first
teenager who fought bravely for the equality and continued her fight for long time she died in
2009 due to Chronic Heart Failure. After the brave movement by Alberta in 1945 Alaska
Anti-Discrimination Act were passed by the government that equalise the right for both white
and non-white people. The lands occupied by the colonizers for powerful people were
provided back to their real owner or individual people. The discrimination was reduced to a
great degree. Although the discrimination have d]been seen on different occasion but the
indigenous people nowadays have the same right as the other people and live a much better
life and discriminations become an illegal and offensive actions in all parts of US.