JULY 12, 2025 — The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska has passed a formal resolution to honour Benny Benson, the Indigenous designer of the Alaska state flag, and to formally acknowledge the history of racial discrimination he endured, said the Alaska Public Media.
The resolution comes as the state approaches the 100th anniversary of the day Benson, then a 14-year-old student, first raised the iconic flag on July 9, 1927.
Benson, a seventh-grader of Unangax̂ (Aleut) and Scandinavian descent living at the Jesse Lee Home orphanage, created the winning design of eight gold stars on a blue field in a statewide contest.
The Qawalangin Tribe’s resolution aims to shed light on the hardships and prejudice that were deliberately obscured for decades.
“We’ve forgotten some of the terrible things that happened almost 100 years ago,” said Dr. Michael Livingston, a historian and tribal member who drafted the resolution. “I think people need to know that part of the story, if for no other reason, to respect how brave and strong Benny was.”
The resolution details a lifetime of injustices faced by Benson, beginning in his childhood. After his mother’s death, Benson’s father sent him and his siblings to the Jesse Lee Home. There, he was subjected to forced labour, forced relocation from his home in Unalaska to Seward, and constant racial torment.
When Benson entered the 1927 flag contest, his design was initially suppressed. In the local Seward portion of the competition, a panel of three white judges awarded his entry third place, giving the top prizes to two older, white students from the public school.
However, when 142 entries were sent to Juneau for the final, statewide judging, the students’ identifying information was concealed. The Juneau panel unanimously selected Benson’s design as the winner, awarding him a gold watch and a $1,000 prize
Following his victory, Benson became the target of what the tribal resolution calls a “smear campaign.”
A 1927 New York Times article described him as a “half-caste” boy, “swarthy of skin,” who spoke with a “staccato clipping of words common to the Indian race.” A Seward newspaper article offensively stated that Benson, who “carries the blood of the aboriginal ancestry from the most primitive,” would stand among the great when he was set to meet President Calvin Coolidge. He was falsely accused of plagiarizing the design from a Canadian contest, an allegation he publicly denied
The discrimination extended to his prize money. In 1939, the Territory of Alaska gave Benson his $1,000 award but kept the $334.85 in interest it had accrued. In 1963, the State of Alaska acknowledged the error but still shorted him $485 in a recalculation of the funds owed.
Benson passed away from a heart attack in 1972.
The resolution passed by the Qawalangin Tribe, a federally recognized sovereign nation, formally declares Unalaska as Benny Benson’s hometown and the official home of the Alaska flag.
In a recent effort to honour his legacy, Alaska Pacific University awarded him a posthumous Doctor of Humane Letters in April 2025, which was accepted by his grandson.
Of the 50 state flags, Alaska’s is the only one designed by a Native American Indigenous person.
