JUNEAU, Alaska » It has been nearly a quarter-century since a former Alaska poet laureate composed a second verse for the Alaska state song, adding lines to celebrate the diverse indigenous people of the Last Frontier.

The verse begins:

A native lad chose our Dipper's stars
for Alaska's flag that there be no bars
among our cultures. Be it known
through years our natives' past has grown
to share our treasures, hand in hand,
to keep Alaska our Great Land.

And even though the Alaska Youth Choir sang the verse on the House floor on the opening day of the legislative session here in January, by the time the session ended in April, the verse remained what it always has been: unofficial.

For at least the third time, lawmakers rejected an effort to formally adopt the verse as part of the state song, “;Alaska's Flag.”; The reasons behind its second-class status reveal sensitive issues in a state with a complicated racial history. After all, the lyrics of the second verse make direct reference to Native Alaskans specifically because the original verse does not.

“;This is one of the few places in Alaska where the Alaska Native community will get some kind of recognition,”; said Albert Kookesh, a Democratic state senator who represents a vast rural district that includes many native villages and who supported a bill to add the verse. “;It's important for natives.”;

The original verse, written by Marie Drake in the 1930s, speaks of “;the gold of the early sourdough's dreams,”; a reference to the largely white gold miners who rushed up from the Lower 48 more than a century ago. The lyrics build from a description of the state flag, which features the Big Dipper and was designed by a native boy, Benny Benson, though he is not mentioned in the song.

The author of the second verse, Carol Beery Davis, a white woman who played the Wurlitzer organ during silent movies at the Palace Theater in the 1920s and later became the state poet laureate in 1967, devoted much of her life to learning and writing about native Tlingit songs and culture.

“;She really cared about them,”; said her daughter, Constance Davis, 83.

Citing shifting attitudes about race as Alaska begins its second half-century as a state, supporters of the second verse were optimistic that it would be made official this year.

Yet while the bill passed the Senate this time, it never came to a final House vote. Several lawmakers said the original song was a historic artifact that should not be altered. Some said a statewide contest should be held in which residents submit new verses of their own. Still others said they opposed adding Davis' verse because they did not think it measured up to the first. The dividing lines were not always predictable.

“;The flow of words is very even, the metering is very consistent, there's a lot of single-syllable words,”; Bryce Edgmon, a Democratic state representative from Dillingham who is of native descent, said of the original verse. “;It sings itself. Then you get to her words, and it's 'a native lad,' which, you know, I've never, ever heard of natives being called lads. That's off the mark for me right there.”;