Early Saturday afternoon, nearly two weeks after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, around a hundred people gathered in the Talkeetna Village Park in support of Black Lives Matter.
The event was organized by two teenagers, Indigo Moren and Abigail Campbell. Indigo says the Talkeetna event came about because they could not attend larger protests, but still wanted to do something.
“We really felt that we should be at the protests, and we felt horrible that we weren’t doing anything to support this movement. So, we ended up just talking, and obviously we should have one downtown…spread the word.”
Word did spread. While a hundred people would not be many people in a larger city, the organizers say the turnout exceeded their expectations for Talkeetna.
“I did not expect this. The amount of people that talked, it was inspiring.”
“I expected a couple people, maybe twenty or thirty…”
Saturday’s event began with an open forum. Anyone present who wished to speak was invited to the microphone.
One of the first people to take the stage was Talkeetna resident Tom Waite. Waite says he remembers speaking out against racial injustice as a teenager, specifically the South African policies of Apartheid. His family has seen two of its members who were people of color, killed at the hands of police, including a nephew last year in Las Vegas.
“He wasn’t black, but he was dark-colored. He was Inupiaq from White Mountain, and he was carrying a stick. They thought it was a gun. He was shot eight times. So, this kind of senseless killing, and I would say merciless killing, has got to stop.”
Many of Talkeetna’s youth also spoke out against police brutality and for equal treatment, including Sahai Benischek.
“This has been going on for so long, that I feel like we are finally, now, trying really hard to stand up for what we believe in. We just really need your guys’ help at this moment, because we can’t just do it ourselves.”
Abigail Campbell was the final person to speak before she and Indigo Moren led those gathered in the park in a march.
“Although my privilege stands, I feel your hurt, I understand your worth. Black lives matter. We need to fight for our people, research, donate, speak up, and take action when needed. Let’s march for solidarity and justice. Let’s march for the lives that have been forcefully taken away from them without a second thought. Let’s march to put to rest the undying racism in our country. Let us march until ‘liberty and justice for all’ is true.”
As is tradition with parades and marches in Talkeetna, there were multiple laps of Main Street. Indigo and Abigail say they were concerned that violence might flare up as it has in other protests around the country, but the crowd, both participants and bystanders, remained peaceful.
