Benny Benson, the Native Boy Behind Alaska’s Flag
Benny Benson was a half-Unangax̂ orphan living at the Jesse Lee Home in Seward when he entered a territorial flag design contest in 1926.
His simple but powerful design of eight gold stars on a blue field beat 141 other entries, local organizers tried to pressure him to withdraw because they didn’t want an Alaska Native to win.
Here’s the inspiring story of how one young man’s creativity triumphed over prejudice and gave Alaska its lasting symbol.
Tragedy struck young Benny Benson’s remote Alaska childhood
Benny Benson was born in 1912 in tiny Chignik on the Alaska Peninsula. His dad John was Swedish-American, while his mom Tatiana came from the Unangax̂ people.
When Benny turned three, pneumonia swept through their village and killed his mother. Soon after, a fire burned down their home.
His dad sent Benny’s sister Elsie to school in Oregon, while Benny and brother Carl went to the Jesse Lee Home orphanage in Unalaska. Their family split up during a time when sickness killed many Alaska Native families.
Methodist missionaries opened their doors to Alaska’s orphaned children
The Jesse Lee Home in Unalaska took in Benny and Carl along with hundreds of other Aleut orphans. The Methodist Church ran the place as a safe spot for kids who lost their families.
In 1925, the orphanage moved to a bigger building in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, taking the Benson brothers with them. This new spot let them care for even more Native children from all parts of Alaska.
While living there, Benny went to seventh grade at the local school in Seward.
Alaska’s missing flag sparked a territory-wide contest
In early 1926, Governor George Parks went to Washington D. C. on business. While checking out the Post Office Building, he noticed something.
Flags from all 48 states hung on display, but Alaska Territory had no flag among them. This bothered Parks.
He felt Alaska needed its own flag to fly alongside the others if the territory wanted to become a state.
When he got home, Parks got the Alaska American Legion to sponsor a flag design contest for students in grades 7-12 across the territory.
Students from remote villages to gold rush towns grabbed their pencils
By January 1927, contest rules reached schools in every corner of Alaska Territory. Local judges would pick the 10 best designs from each area.
These winners would then go to Juneau by March 1, 1927, for the final pick. Any Alaska student in grades 7-12 could join.
More than 700 entries came in from communities across Alaska’s huge landscape.
From fishing villages to gold rush towns, kids grabbed pencils and paper to create what might become Alaska’s first official symbol.
Eight golden stars on blue paper captured Alaska’s night sky
Fourteen-year-old Benny sat at his school desk in Seward with plain paper in front of him. He drew eight gold stars on a blue background: seven forming the Big Dipper and one for the North Star.
With his design, Benny wrote: “The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaska flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the Union. The dipper is for the Great Bear, symbolizing strength.”
Among hundreds of fancy entries with bears, mountains, and miners, Benny’s clean design stood out.
Town officials tried to push the Native boy out of the competition
When Seward judges picked Benny’s flag among their local winners, trouble started. Some contest organizers found out an Alaska Native boy created the design and didn’t like it.
Tribal historian Dr. Michael Livingston says these officials pushed Benny to drop out because they didn’t want a Native person representing Alaska.
The local judges ranked his design third place in Seward, which upset Benny so much he almost quit. This kind of treatment wasn’t unusual in 1927 Alaska, where many stores had signs saying “No dogs or Natives allowed.
Anonymous judging helped Benny’s design win against all odds
The final judging happened in Juneau, where 142 designs from across Alaska waited for review. The seven judges included three American Legion members and people from the territorial legislature.
They looked at each entry without knowing who made it or where they came from. The judges studied every design carefully before making their choice.
Benny Benson’s eight gold stars on a blue field won their full approval. They liked its “simplicity, originality and symbolism” without knowing anything about who made it.
Only after picking the winner did they learn a fourteen-year-old Unangax̂ orphan designed it.
Politicians unanimously backed the Native boy’s winning design
In May 1927, the Alaska Territorial Legislature voted to adopt Benny’s design as the official territorial flag. After decades without its own symbol, Alaska finally had a flag.
For his winning entry, Benny got a gold watch with his flag design on it and a $1,000 school scholarship, worth about $15,000 today. The legislature also set aside money for Benny to travel to Washington D.C. and show the new flag to President Calvin Coolidge.
This happened just four years after the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act finally gave U. S. citizenship to Alaska Natives.
Leftover cloth became Alaska’s first official banner
Fanny Kearns, a young Inuit woman who worked as a seamstress at the Jesse Lee Home, got to make the very first Alaska flag.
Using leftover cloth found around the orphanage, she carefully stitched the blue field and sewed on eight golden stars following Benny’s paper design.
Her skilled hands turned a schoolboy’s drawing into the real flag that would make history. The teamwork between Benny and Fanny showed how different Alaska Native peoples helped create this important moment.
Though history books often skip over Kearns’ work, her sewing skills proved key in bringing Benny’s vision to life.
Orphanage grounds hosted a historic flag-raising ceremony
On July 9, 1927, at exactly 4:00 PM, history happened at the Jesse Lee Home in Seward. During the opening of the new Balto Building, Alaska’s territorial flag flew for the first time.
Benny Benson stood watching as his design caught the Alaska breeze.
For the first time ever, Alaska Territory had its own official flag flying next to the Stars and Stripes. This date became so important that Alaska still celebrates July 9 as Alaska Flag Day each year.
The ceremony marked a win over discrimination and prejudice.
Statehood in 1959 cemented the orphan boy’s legacy
Native Alaskans across the territory saw Benny as a hero. His win showed what they could achieve despite facing daily discrimination.
Newspapers at the time, including the New York Times, described Benny in racist terms as a “half-caste boy, small in stature, swarthy” who spoke “clipped English. ” Yet his design rose above these insults.
When Alaska finally became a state on January 3, 1959, Benny’s territorial flag automatically became the official state flag.
The simple design created by a 14-year-old orphan in 1927 became the permanent symbol of America’s largest state. Alaska remains the only U.S. state with a flag designed by a Native American.
Visiting Benny Benson Memorial, Alaska
The Benny Benson Memorial in Seward honors the 14-year-old Unangax̂ boy who designed Alaska’s flag in 1927 while living at the Jesse Lee Home orphanage.
You can visit the memorial park with its bronze statue of Benny and see the flag design with the Big Dipper and North Star that became Alaska’s symbol.
The site includes interpretive panels telling how this Native Alaskan orphan won a territory-wide contest despite facing racial prejudice. The memorial helps you understand this important piece of Alaskan history.
This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.
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