By PAUL FUHS
I recently wrote an additional version of Alaska’s Flag song, in consideration of the recently failed legislative attempt to add an additional verse to our traditional State song.
It seems that when attempting to alter historical icons, there is always the potential to create controversy and division from those who love and want to keep them just the way they are.
So it was, with the proposed second verse of Alaska’s Flag song. It was controversial and a legislative attempt to officially add it to the song ultimately failed.
I have performed our State song hundreds of times over the years with guitar or piano, and wherever in the world that was, people said it was one of the most beautiful state songs they had ever heard. Simple and strong. A true masterpiece.
However, those calling for a second verse had a point: The only reference to any people in the song was to “sourdough” miners, invariably mostly white and newcomers, the only requirement for the designation at that time was having survived one Alaska winter. There was no reference to Alaska’s first people, our Native population. So, a writer penned a verse to correct this omission. The problem was, while more inclusive, it was almost completely unsingable. Many people tried but it just didn’t work.
While referencing our Native population and the design of our flag by a “Native boy” it is actually a bit more complex than that. While Benny Benson was an Alaska Native, his mother, Tatiana, was Aleut/Russian and his father was a Swedish fisherman, more reflective of the diversity of our Alaska population of today. And the state song also had no recognition of all the other wonderful people that make up our state.
So, rather than try to suggest a change to our iconic Alaska’s Flag song, I have written a completely new song, not to replace but to complement it; to capture the natural beauty of our state, but also to pay respect to all of our people, especially when we stand united together.
So many forces today try to divide us by race, politics and seemingly just about everything else. These forces see some short-term advantage to this approach, but overall it is destructive to Alaska and someone needs to say something about it. I have done so here and I hope you enjoy it.
Verse 1
Alaska’s flag, long may it mean to me
Our rivers strong, our mountains, the deep blue sea
But when I see our people
Standing together proud and free….
As can be
That’s when I feel, those 8 gold stars
Shining down on me (refrain: shine on)
Verse 2
We work the sea and land
Kids and parents hand in hand
No matter your race
I only see your smiling face
And when they try to divide us
We reach deep down inside us and see
What can be
When we stand as one, under the midnight sun
That great North star will always shine on me. (refrain: shine on)
4/4 time, moderate Latin tempo and feel
Intro: E G#m7 F#m7 Am7
Verse: E G#m7 F#m7 B X2
Bridge: A Am E C# F#m B
Outro: E G#m7 F#m7 Am7
A fitting tribute to Benny Benson
He was a wonderful man. He spent his early years as an orphan in the Jesse Lee home in Unalaska. While I lived there in the 1980’s and was mayor, I visited the home, which is now a private residence.
There, upstairs, I saw Benny’s locker with his name still engraved on it, just as he left it. The Jesse Lee home moved to Seward and so did Benny, where he received an education and learned many life skills. He designed Alaska’s flag there and graduated from high school in 1932.
Benny returned to the Aleutians, trapping and selling furs on the international market, and worked as a diesel mechanic in Seattle before returning to Kodiak where he raised his two daughters as a single father, using the skills of cooking and sewing he learned at Jesse Lee. He later used those sewing skills to sew and autograph Alaska flags presented to every newly crowned Miss Alaska.
Benny broke racial barriers as well, being the first Alaska Native to be initiated into the Kodiak Elks Club, despite strenuous objections by the Elks regional headquarters in Seattle due to race. He died, at 58 years old of a heart attack.
Benny stated the reasons and meaning behind his design of the Alaska Flag:
- The deep blue background representing the sea.
- The Dipper’s constellation, Ursa Major, the Great Bear because of its strength.
- The Great North Star to guide the future of Alaska.
The North Star is particularly symbolic since it was an actual guide for travelers for centuries, ‘O’er land
and sea, a beacon bright’ in the words of the song. Since the North Star stands directly over the North
Pole and the other stars appear to revolve around it, you readily know where North is. And its distance
over the horizon indicates your latitude. It was many years later that a double mirrored sextant and
accurate timepiece allowed for the calculation of longitude. And even much later for Loran stations and
the satellite GPS systems we now take for granted.
Yet, even to this day, the North Star remains a powerful symbol for all Arctic people as we look North to
the Future.
Paul Fuhs grew up in Anchorage, attending Denali Elementary, Central Junior High and graduated from West High in 1967. He was enlisted in US Army Military Intelligence, MOS 97 Delta, and a North Vietnamese linguist during the Vietnam War era, 1969-1971.
