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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska has issued a corrected birth certificate for the teenage designer of the Alaska flag after researchers who were looking into his heritage found records indicating he was born more than a year earlier than previously believed.
Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman last week ordered the state to issue a birth certificate for John Ben Benson Jr. with the birth date of Sept. 12, 1912 and for his mother’s maiden name to be corrected. The order followed a petition by researcher Michael iqyax̂ Livingston, who was part of the team studying Benson’s heritage that uncovered church and other records supporting the changes.
Benson is known as Benny Benson, and in 1927, he won a territory-wide contest with his flag design, which became the state flag after Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. Benson is believed to be the only Indigenous person to design a state flag. He died in 1972.
And the change means he was 14 when he designed the flag, not 13.
The flag features the Big Dipper and the North Star on a simple field of blue.
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