March is National Women’s History Month and Kenai Mayor Pat Porter said her family has a long matriarchal history in Alaska.
Porter: “Even my great grandma, she came up to Clear Alaska in about 1903, my grandmother then followed her up when she was about 16. My great grandmother was actually a cook in a gold mining camp in that era and my grandma just came to live with her mom, she met my grandfather who worked on the Alaska Railroad, which was not called that at the time, and was an engineer when they met. Then my mom was born in Anchorage in 1920 so 95 years ago and my mother is still living today.”
She added that due to her father’s military service in World War II she was not born here but the family moved back when she was twelve. Porter said she now has great, great grand daughters who make up a young Alaskan generation.
She also offered advice for young women to get involved in their communities.
Porter: “Once you become involved it’s just a natural progression that you’re going to learn about your community and things that happened in the past be it be the history as well then begins to creep up. And you then become a part of that history if you’re taking an active interest in what happens in your community.”
Mayor Porter said her grandmother was a part of the University of Alaska’s Consortium Library collection of Alaska Women’s Oral History Project in 1981.