Education and Cultural Self-Determination - Alaska Native

A newsletter of the Alaska Rural Systemic InitiativeAlaska Federation of Natives University of Alaska National Science Foundation Rural School and Community Trust

VOL. 9, ISSUE 1Jan/Feb 2004

Education and CulturalSelf-Determination

by Paul Ongtooguk, a son of Tommy Ongtooguk,Presentation to the 2003 AFN Youth and Elders Convention

Thank you for the privilege of sharing in this meeting inwhich we have all been gathered to consider the great

challenges facing us as Alaska Natives. The issue of this confer-ence of the Alaska Federation of Natives is central to the futuresuccess of Alaska Native peoples.

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Our very existence as distinctpeoples within Alaska—the very ex-istence of our communities—rest onhow we answer the challenge of thisconference: education and culturalself-determination. For the last thirtyyears we have avoided the heart of thedilemma about being Alaska Nativesin this world at this time.

Our political leaders in the 1960swere caught up in the conflicts andthreats resulting from federal and stategovernments and many other peopletaking Alaska Native lands — landsand waters we had been living on forcountless generations. We acceptedour life on these lands and waters asblessings with enough hard challengesto press the very best efforts from usas people. Many of the Elders heretoday are offering to share with us allthe lessons of our ancestors and whatthe land, the waters and the animals

have to share with us. The world ismore than money and there are les-sons we can best learn as a part of theworld our cultures have grown upwithin.

Our schools were originally in-tended to break the connection wehad to our lands and waters and tobreak the spirit within us that keepsus nurtured as Alaska Nativepeoples. Schools tried to cut out ofour minds our distinct understand-ing of the world and our place withinit. Schools tried to erase AlaskaNative cultures from the world. Mosttragically, schools tried to erasebeing Alaska Native from the heartsof our young people. Fortunatelyfor us and for the world, the heartof being Alaska Native could notbe erased. In many places ourElders and some very tough parents

Tommy Ongtooguk

ContentsThe Williwaw Way ............................... 3Native American Songs as Literature ....... 4Translations of Native Literature .............. 6NEC and BMEEC Merge for 2004 ......... 7ANKN Curriculum Corner ...................... 8Athabascan Region:

Environmental Group Visits Old Minto . 9Iñupiaq Region: Discovery, Native

Science After-School Activites ........... 10Annie Blue, Elicarai—Her Teachings . 16

Learning Styles Grant Summary ............ 11Southeast Region:

Southeast AK Tribal Resource Atlas ... 12Unangax Region

Values poster now available ............. 13Unangax Language and Culture ....... 14

Yup’ik Region:Cultural Accuracy in Curriculum ........ 15

2 S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S

Ray Barnhardt, Co-DirectorUAF/ANKN/AKRSIPO Box 756730Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730(907) 474-1902 phone(907) 474-1957 faxemail: [email protected]

Oscar Kawagley, Co-Directoron sabbaticalemail: [email protected]

Frank Hill, Co-DirectorAlaska Federation of Natives1577 C Street, Suite 300Anchorage, AK 99501(907) 274-3611 phone(907) 276-7989 faxemail: [email protected]

Alaska RuralSystemic Initiative

Sharing Our Pathways is thenewsletter of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative,funded by the National Science FoundationDivision of Educational Systemic Reform inagreement with the Alaska Federation ofNatives and the University of Alaska.Comments and suggestions can be sent to:

Alaska Native Knowledge NetworkUniversity of Alaska FairbanksP.O. Box 756730Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6730

(907) 474-5086 phone(907) 474-5615 faxhttp://www.ankn.uaf.eduemail: [email protected]

Newsletter Editor: [email protected]

Layout & Design: Paula [email protected]

Most of all our young peoplelearned through the lives of Elderswho demonstrated the importance ofgiving to the community as more im-portant than gathering for oneself.The best Elders taught with their livesthe value of sharing as more impor-tant than taking. The Elders alsotaught there was more to life thanothers would have us learn. The les-son of developing what one Elder,William Oquilluk, called the power ofimagination (www.alaskool.org) hasbeen essential in allowing us to existand grow as Alaska Native peoples.We must learn again to imagine morethan what is taught in our schools andon TV. We must again reject the les-son of ignorance about being AlaskaNative.

The challenge of cultural self–de-termination will not be won by theNative corporation with the biggestbank account. A good future for thenext generation of Alaska Natives willnot be established on winning somelawsuit. A political win will not pro-duce cultural victory. Success in busi-ness, in politics and in the courts isimportant for Alaska Native people toexist with dignity in this world to-day, but while these are necessarythey are not sufficient.

With the creation of Regional Edu-cation Attendance Areas (REAAs)Alaska Native peoples won the prom-ise of some measure of self-determina-tion and control over the education ofrural Alaska Native young people.This was a new and uncertain task 27years ago as Alaska Native communi-ties began to take over our schools.We, as Alaska Native communities,were so happy that our young peoplemight not have to leave anymore toacquire an education, we just wantedour young people to be as happy as wewere at simply being together.

For years many of our Alaska Na-tive communities had not experiencedhaving young people living withinour lives all year round. In some wayswe seem to have forgotten how to

help young people learn about theirresponsibility in contributing to thecommunity. I think some of us ex-pected the expert teachers to raise ouryoung people as boarding homeschools had raised us. We live in themidst of this challenge today.

It’s been 27 years since the REAAswere formed and 37 years since theAlaska Federation of Natives wasformed, and finally the issue has beenraised about Alaska Native educationand cultural self-determination. Ithink we can put this issue into somedirect questions for our communities,our schools, our teachers and mostimportantly ourselves.

By the time our young peoplegraduate from school what will theybe expected to know about our cul-tures? What will Alaska Native youngpeople learn about us? What shouldAlaska Native young people learnabout us? For schools and teachersand communities that think they aredoing pretty well on this issue con-sider these questions:• How many of our Alaska Native

high school graduates will haveread any—ANY—Alaska Nativeauthor? Most current Alaska Na-tive graduates will not have had asingle essay, speech, novel, shortstory, legend, oral history, pieceof poetry or anything written byan Alaska Native during their 12years of schooling.

• How many Alaska Native youngpeople can name an Alaska Nativeleader and what that leader foughtfor on our behalf?

• How many Alaska Native youngpeople know their Alaska Nativeorganizations and why they werecreated? Too many of our youngpeople are not being given thechance to learn about us. The shameis not theirs—it belongs to all ofus.As youth and Elder delegates you

can stand up and say this is wrong.We must reverse the direction ofschools. Schools and communities

(continued from previous page)ignored the falsehoods put forward inschools about Alaska Natives beingprimitive or savage.

Our young people learned verydifferent lessons at home, at fishcamps, at hunting camps, at pot-latches, around traditional feasts andduring ceremonies. Some of our younglearned from the lessons of traditionaldances and even from within the foldsof some culturally friendly churches.

S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S 3

must come together and ensure theopportunity to learn about our ownhistory, Alaska Native leaders andoral traditions that, in some cases,Alaska Native organizations havespent millions of dollars preservingand yet the lessons of our Elders stillremain silent in most of our schools.

I think the Youth and Elders Con-vention should ask the business andtribal delegates to address the themeof this year’s convention first beforethey get lost for another year in thepolitics and money issues that so of-ten preoccupy them. We need com-mitment to change. I suggest a newresolution asking the other delegatesto begin answering the questions:

“What should Alaska Nativeyoung people learn about us? Whatorganizations, leaders, legends, po-etry, stories, oral history, politicaland social issues should we learn aboutas young people? No professional edu-cators can answer these questions forus, nor should they. We, as AlaskaNatives, together should begin to askand then answer the questions our-selves. We have young people inBethel who do not know who JacksonLomack or Chief Eddie Hoffman was.We have young people from the Inte-rior who do not know who MorrisThompson or Rosemarie Maher were.We have young people from South-east Alaska who do not know whoElizabeth Peratrovitch was.

We need a resolution to ensurethat education does not come up ev-ery ten years or so but sits at the coreas a central focus of the Alaska Fed-eration of Natives. In this regard Irecommend a resolution calling for avice-president of education within theAlaska Federation of Natives.

We need a resolution asking AFNto seek funding to coordinate the learn-ing opportunities of the Youth andElder Convention in ways similar towhat Close–Up has done for learningabout federal and state issues.

We need a resolution coordinatingwhat is taught at cultural camps and

after-school programs, changing whatis taught in schools and changing whatteachers learn about Alaska Natives.

There are many other parts of thisissue that must be addressed. Weshould have a resolution that sup-ports web sites as places to learn andshare about our regional and state-wide cultures, organizations and is-sues. We need a resolution to supportAlaska Native young people who liveoutside the state to learn about us.These young people who live outsidethe state now number in the thou-sands. While they may be living out-of-state, they have not left our heartsnor have they left the purpose of theAFN Youth and Elders Convention.

We have too many young AlaskaNatives who do not feel nor do theylearn any sense of connection to ourAlaska Native communities. We mustensure that our young people learnkey ideas about being Alaska Native,

about our communities, about our is-sues, about our challenges, about ourleaders, about heroes, about the tragicparts of our histories and about thingsfor which we can all be rightfullyproud. This is not happening. Thismust change.

Our Alaska Native young peoplemust know that we want them tolearn about our rightful place in thisworld, about the challenges we havefaced as peoples and the opportuni-ties they will share. Most of all, ouryoung people must know we careabout who they are as well as whatthey know. We must love and respectour young people enough to share ourgreatest riches with each one of them.We must share our heritage so theycan contribute to it, as well as to eachother’s and the world beyond. Educa-tion and cultural self-determinationare one and the same.

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The Williwaw Wayby Matthew Dunckel, UAA PTEP Student

Every fall, just before school begins, the teachers at WilliwawElementary School spend an afternoon visiting each of their

new students at home. It is amazing what a home visit by ateacher can do for the life of a student and their parents.Welcoming a student and their family into the educationalcommunity allows for a sense of belonging. A stronger bondexists between children, their parents and a school communitywhen all feel involved and committed to the students’ education.

Some parents view school as a placethat people go to loose their cultureand language, but these home visitsallow the Williwaw staff to show par-ents that their childrens’ culture andfirst language will be embraced whileat school.

Home visits have become a stan-dard practice at Williwaw Elemen-

tary for the last four years. BonnieGoen, the principal at Williwaw, be-lieves these visits are becoming a tra-dition for the staff and the students.“The more we know about our stu-dents and where they come from, thebetter educators we become.” Ms.Goen feels so strongly about the home


Classrooms don’t have to be bor-ing. Literature classes especially canbe enhanced through the medium ofsong. In David Leedom Shaul’s article“A Hopi Song-Poem in Context”, heclaims that the listener is similar to anaudience during storytelling, in thatthe listener is also interacting with themusic. The listener, as a participant, isnot passive; the listener is hearingrhythms, words, patterns and muchmore. The listener does not have tounderstand the Native language inorder to appreciate the song. Shaulcalls attention to the genre called “songpoems.” These songs are in a categoryby themselves, separate from poetryand prose. “The text of song-poems inHopi culture, like much poetry, seem-ingly create their own context byvirtue of minimalist language” (Shaul1992:230–31). Therefore it would beinteresting to include the concept of

song poems or poetry as music into acurriculum.

Poet, songwriter and saxophonist,Joy Harjo, is one such example of anartist/poet whose work could beshared in a class on Native Americanliterature. Other than being a poet,Harjo is in her own band called PoeticJustice. Harjo is from Oklahoma andis an enrolled member of the CreekTribe. Her work combines music withpoetry. According to Harjo, “The termpoetic justice is a term of grace, ex-pressing how justice can appear in theworld despite forces of confusion anddestruction. The band takes its namefrom this term because all of us haveworked for justice in our lives, throughany means possible and through mu-sic.” Harjo’s lyrics to her songs are areflection of her poetry, “a blendingof rock, blues and prophecy”(Princeton 2003).

(continued from previous page)visits that she requires them duringthe in-service days, prior to the firstday of school. She hopes that teacherswill get a sense of their students out-side of the classroom and that thestudents will see their teachers out-side of the school setting. A teacherneeds to be understood as an educa-tor and as a person, just as studentsneed to be seen as both students andindividuals. “We gain empowermentthrough cultural bonds.” Ms. Goenadds, “ . . . getting out there and see-ing where these students come fromallows us to see where we need to goas a class.” To further the sense ofcommunity, Williwaw plans a barbe-cue later the following day for allstudents and their families. By em-bracing all languages and cultures, atone is set for positive educationalinteraction.

Williwaw notifies the parents theafternoon the teachers will be visit-ing, and the day takes on a festivequality with children running up anddown sidewalks eager to see theirnew teacher arrive. Students stopformer teachers and talk openly aboutwhat they are doing now and howthey are enjoying their summer.Bonnie and her staff understand thatbecause of the varied cultural back-grounds of the student body, a per-sonal bond needs to emerge earlywith the children and their parents.Due to the cultural make up of theschool community there are a largenumber of parents who do not speakEnglish, so their children are in theunique position to act as translators.Even with this language barrier thehome visits have created a sense ofunity. These interactions betweenparents and educators foster an aware-ness that their childrens’ culturalidentity will be accepted and not be-come an obstacle. After the visits endthe students of Williwaw are lessapprehensive about the first day ofschool. They come to school ready tolearn.

Although home visits aren’t stan-dard in the Anchorage School Dis-trict, they are valuable. Withexpanding class size and multiple eth-nic groups represented, classrooms

with the advantage of home visitsbenefit substantially. Trust isn’t givenfreely—it must be earned—and homevisits start that process before thestudents ever leave for school.

Native AmericanSongs as Literature

by Vivian Martindale

Utilizing the richness and variety of Native American songsis one way to open up the world of Native American

literature in the classroom. After all, Native American cultureshave a rich oral tradition and many stories are told through themedium of songs. Rhyme, rhythm, drums and dancing have theability to enhance the memory while simultaneously healing thespirit, mind and body, providing for an enriching classroomexperience.


saw as a participant. Also ask thestudents if they felt as if they wereparticipants on some other level orwere simply an observer or listener.In many of the contexts, songs maynot have to be translated if they areperformed in their Native languages.One can simply enjoy the language,how it sounds, how it feels to the soul.

For further studies on NativeAmerican song poems a good sourceis by author and editor BrianSwann called Song of the Sky: NativeAmerican Songpoems. Although add-ing music and song in a literary con-text may seem like a revolutionaryidea, Native Americans have beenusing songs to educate since time im-memorial. According to an article onthe Alaska Native Knowledge Net-work, “Singing and dancing were veryimportant to the Athabascan people.People often made up songs aboutevents, love songs, war songs or aboutrelatives who had died for the deathpotlatch. The children at potlatchesand community events observed theadults as a means to learn how todance and sing. Children learned tosing very early as it was very impor-tant to the Athabascan way to carryon their teachings through oral lan-guages” (ANKN 2003). And yes, evencollege students enjoy learningthrough the medium of music andsong, especially when it opens upthe world of literature from othercultures.

Another resource for educatorscomes from Canyon Records calledTraditional Voices, which includesrecordings made in the 1950s and 60s.These rare songs were recorded by“historically important singers fromall over United States and Canada.”This collection offers a glimpse intothe rich and varied tribal cultures oftwenty different Native Americantribes. Samples from the works in-clude songs such as the Navajo “Yei-Be-Chai Chant,” Northern Chey-enne “Sun Dance Song,” and the

I include here an excerpt fromPoetic Justices’ song “My House isthe Red Earth,” words and music byJoy Harjo and John L. Williams:

My house is the red earth. It couldbe the center of the world. I’veheard New York, Tokyo or Pariscalled the center of the world, butI say it is magnificently humble.You could drive by and miss it.Radio waves can obscure it. Wordscannot construct it for there aresome sounds left to sacred word-less form. For instance, that foolcrow picking through trash nearthe corral, understands the centerof the world as greasy scraps of fat.Just ask him. He doesn’t have tosay that the earth has turned scar-let through fierce belief, after cen-turies of heartbreak and laughter(Poetic Justice 2003).

Poetic Justice is just one exampleof how contemporary musicians usepoetry to express issues facing NativeAmericans today. Song poems, inthemselves, hold a unique element oflanguage and culture.

In a more traditional manner, songsfrom around Native America could beincluded, not just for listening enjoy-ment, but also could include students’input on the lyrics; afterward askinghow the students thought the poet/artist expressed themselves and howthey felt when listening to the songs.Traditional singers could be invitedinto the classroom to perform. But ofcourse permission to perform the songsand dances must be given by theowners of the song so educators needto be aware that there is an aspect ofownership as well as some songs anddances are only to be performed atcertain times of the year and by spe-cific persons. Usually dancing andother forms of expression accompanysongs. Students could be encouragedto close their eyes briefly and after-ward record what they heard as aparticipant compared to what they

Tohono O’odham, “Song Of The GreenRainbow.” Through traditional songsand dances this recording would bean excellent tool to introduce stu-dents to Native American literaryforms.

Songs or song poems, whether tra-ditional or contemporary, can be oneinstrument for educators to utilize inorder to explore various Native cul-tures. Involving local singers anddancers is also important as well asany students who are willing to sharetheir songs and dances with their class-mates. Dance and songs are a means tounderstanding Native American cul-tures. To appreciate other cultures, itis good to immerse ourselves in eachother’s songs.

ReferencesAlaska Native Knowledge Network.

2003. Athabascan Winter Studies:The Dene’ Indigenous Peoples ofInterior Alaska. Electronic docu-ment, http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ANEunit/aneindex.html, accessedJuly 14, 2003.

Harjo, Joy. 2003. Joy Harjo.Electronic document http://www.princeton.edu/~naap/harjo.html, accessed July 14, 2003.

Harjo, Joy. 2003. KACTV Publishing/Muskogee. Mekko Productions,Electronic document, http://www.joyharjo.com/index.html,accessed July 14.

Shaul, David Leedom. 1992. “A HopiSong Poem in Context” In On theTranslation of Native AmericanLiteratures. Brian Swann ed.Washington: Smithsonian Insti-tution. Traditional Voices.Electronic document, http://w w w . c a n y o n r e c o r d s . c o m /cr7053.htm, accessed July 14,2003. Phoenix: Canyon Records.


Brian Swann’s On the Translationof Native American Literatures is onesuch resource for educators. Publishedin 1992 by the Smithsonian Institu-tion, this book is divided into foursections. The book opens with a briefintroduction by Swann, followed bya second section providing an over-view of the translation of NativeAmerican literature. In section three,Swann organizes the contributing es-says by language and geography. Fi-nally, section four concerns itself withthe translations of Central and SouthAmerican Indian literature.

When offering translated texts inthe classroom an educator must con-sider a very important point: “Thevery problematic relationship be-tween the academics who study thismaterial and become its interpretersto American society at large, and thepeople who live in it” (Swann 1992).One should realize that the Western

worldview provides a different con-text for interpreting material that isoriginally performed in a NativeAmerican context. The translator,considered the author (especially inolder published texts), is often Euro-American. So therefore when readingpoetry or songs from as far back as theearly seventeenth century throughthe 1800s and early 1900s, no valuewas placed upon accurate translationof Native literature. In the essay “To-kens of Literary Faculty” by WilliamM. Clements, he claims translating thesongs, poems and oratory of NativeAmericans was done simply to con-trol them and ultimately eliminatetheir culture.

Clements strongly stresses theopinions of the times: “The songs,stories and orations of the Indians hadso little literary merit that they de-served the same fate as the cultures ingeneral. Since they could be consigned

to oblivion with no esthetic loss, trans-lating them served at most the pur-poses of those who sought tounderstand Native Americans for thesake of efficiently subjugating them.”

When translated, oral traditionswere written to fit the popular formsof poetry and songs of the times. Euro-American translators thought therewas an infancy in the language thatwould eventually mature with theNatives becoming civilized (Clements1992:35–37). Therefore, offering stu-dents who study and appreciate Na-tive American literature thesethoughts could profoundly changehow they interpret the material.

These reasons could account forthe stereotypes and prejudices aboutNative Americans that evolved intoour American culture. For example,from books and other literature weread about the stoic Indian, the sav-age, the vanishing Indian, the child-like Indian and the drunken Indian.All are images that began with trans-lators who came from a differentworldview than the Native peoplesthemselves. This insight, however,should not dissuade the educator fromoffering older texts in the classroomor other valuable interpretations ofNative literature by non-Natives, butthe educator should definitely dis-cuss with students the background ofthe translator and the views of thetimes. Also discussed should be howmuch time the translator spent in thecommunity and what, if any, knowl-edge the translator had about the com-munity or people. The question shouldalso be asked “Does the translatorhave a reliable person from the Nativecommunity who they consulted onthe translated material?”

For many Euro-American transla-tors the goal is to be aestheticallypleasing to the market for which thetranslator is working. In regions wherethe languages are non-existent andthe translator only has anthro-pologist’s and ethnologist’s docu-ments to work from, with no local

Translations of NativeAmerican Literature

by Vivian Martindale

“The fact that Indians were human took some time to sinkin. The fact that their languages had value took longer”

From On the Translations of Native American Literature, ed. by Brian Swann).

When offering translations of Native American texts in theclassroom, an educator ought to be aware of the back-

ground of the translated material that is offered. The written textis simply not enough as discussions must include informationabout the author if available, background information about theculture and demographics, information about the translator and,most importantly, the implications of translation from oral tradi-tions to the written form. Only then can an educator offer anhonest examination of the Native American text.


speakers available, the translator is indanger of taking excessive creativelicense. Fortunately in Alaska thereare Native language speakers stillavailable for consultation.

The culture and demographics ofthe material being examined is alsoimportant. Since reading literaturefrom a particular culture is an excel-lent way to learn about that culture, itwould be valuable if students lookedup terms they didn’t understand andwere presented with an overview ofthe culture. Items to consider are thelocation of the community and a bit ofhistorical perspective about the re-gion from which the literature comes.For example, if one would be study-ing Velma Wallis’ Two Old Women, itwould enhance the readers experi-ence if they knew where Velma livedand where the story took place. InWallis’ case, she is an Alaska Nativeand she herself is the translator of thestory from the oral tradition to thewritten form. Wallis also used somecreative license to re-tell the story forpublication with editing help fromothers. In this case, Wallis’ book isprobably a more accurate style of theretelling of an oral tradition than manyearlier works in Alaska that were doneby non-Natives (Wallis 1993).

Lastly, the implications of trans-lating an oral tradition into the writ-ten form must be considered whenexploring Native American literaturein the classroom. Many older literaryworks from the 1800s aren’t up tomodern standards of translative crite-ria (Clements 1992). A good techniqueto introduce into the classroom wouldbe to invite a Native American oratorto tell a story using the oral traditionsprior to the students reading a writtenversion and then, at another time,have them read the story first prior tohearing and watching it performed.Knowing the difference and identify-ing the possible places where inter-pretation could differ is a valuablelesson when reading material that isbased upon oral traditions.

An educator must be aware whenoffering material that are translationsfrom oral traditions that not all trans-lators come from the same worldviewas the Native peoples they are writingabout. But despite this, Native Ameri-can literature, whether a translationor by the original author, offers won-derful ways to explore the beauty anduniqueness of America’s numerousNative American cultures.

ReferencesSwann, Brian, ed. 1992 On the Translation

of Native American Literatures Wash-ington: Smithsonian Institution.

Wallis, Velma. 1993 Two Old Women: AnAlaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courageand Survival. New York: Harper Collins.

Clements, William. 1992 “Tokens of Lit-erary Faculty,” In On the Translation ofNative American Literatures. Washing-ton: Smithsonian Institution.

Native Educator’s Conferenceand BMEEC Merge for 2004The annual Native Educator’s Conference (NEC) and

Bilingual-Multicultural Education and Equity Confer-ence (BMEEC) will be held at the Anchorage Sheraton Febru-ary 10–14, 2004. Registration information and a preliminaryevent schedule can be viewed at: www.ankn.uaf.edu/bmeec.

NEC will be held concurrentlywith the BMEEC, with NEC work-shops running as a special strandfocusing on culturally-responsivestrategies for education in Alaska.A strong set of panelists and work-shop presenters from throughoutAlaska will provide a stimulatinglook at what schools and communi-ties are doing to implement theAlaska Standards for Culturally Re-sponsive Schools.

The first day of activities willconsist of pre-conference work ses-sions where all are invited to join in.The morning session will focus onfinalizing plans for the re-establish-ment of a statewide Alaska NativeEducation Association to assist withthe efforts of the regional Nativeeducator associations that have beenformed over the past ten years. Inaddition to adopting a set of by-laws and electing officers, discus-sions will be held regarding potentialprojects for which the new ANEA

can seek funding, including sup-port for sponsoring regional cul-tural orientation programs.

The afternoon session will ad-dress performance criteria for theestablishment of a cross-culturalspecialist endorsement that will bepresented to the State Board of Edu-cation for approval to be imple-mented in a manner similar to thecurrent reading and special educa-tion endorsements associated with astate teaching certificate. We en-courage everyone to attend the worksessions and participate in shapingthese initiatives.

In the evening of February 10,we will host the annual HonoringAlaska’s Indigenous Literatureawards ceremony and reception atJosephine’s on the top floor of theSheraton. Everyone is invited to joinin this event recognizing peoplefrom each region who have contrib-uted to the rich literary traditions ofAlaska Natives.


ANKN Curriculum CornerForests for the Future

by Dawn Wiseman, [email protected]

Forests for the Future is a research project run out of Univer-sity of British Columbia (UBC) that is focused on integrating

local ecological knowledge with natural resource management.Working with members of the Tsimshian people, the Forests ofthe Future team has developed seven curriculum units.

The key focus of these materialshas been inspired by the experiencesof students and community membersliving within the Tsimshian territoryof the province of British Columbia.The extension material in this pack-age include curriculum materialdesigned for use in the Province ofBritish Columbia’s K–12 educationsystem. In addition, the material canbe easily adapted to function as refer-ence resources for community mem-bers and other interested resourcestakeholders.

Unit 1: Two Ways of Knowing,Traditional EcologicalKnowledge Meets WesternScience

Unit 2: Traditional PlantKnowledge of theTsimshian

Unit 3: First Nations Resource Useon the Northwest Coast:Investigations intoGeography, Ecology,Knowledge and ResourceManagement

Unit 4: Tsimshian Involvement inthe Forest Sector

Unit 5: A Sense of Place: RegionalIdentity, Informal Economyand Resource Management

Unit 6: Oona River. The RiverPeople: Living andWorking in Oona River

Unit 7: Traditional EcologicalKnowledge and EcosystemSustainability: Guidelinesfor Natural ResourceManagement.

Units are in PDF format and requireAdobe Acrobat Reader (a free down-load) for viewing and download.

The units can be found at: http://www.ecoknow.ca/activities.html.


Athabascan Region:Youth Environmental GroupVisits Old Minto

by Nicholette Sauro, Alaska Youth For Environmental Action

It was our last night at Old Minto and the last rays of the sunsetwere still reaching out for us with their orange glow. The

whole camp gathered in a circle with Elders and distant relativesteaching us their traditional dances. Beating on plastic bowlswith spoons for a beat, everyone joined in clapping and bringingtheir own style to the circle.

Elders Suzie Charlie and Sarah andBerkman Silas lit up when teachingthree guys the Raven dance, wherethe men stretch out the arms andcircle around an object representingfood. “Now get it, pick it up,” they

said. All three guys at once tried pick-ing it up at the same time with theirmouth while still keeping their bal-ance which is almost impossible. Thesight would make anyone laugh. Thedancing continued late into the nightuntil everyone was exhausted fromdancing and laughing so hard.

This event was part of the fourthannual Alaska Youth for Environmen-tal Action (AYEA) Summer Get To-gether (SGT) held in Fairbanks August

4–10, 2003. AYEA is a non-profit or-ganization run through the NationalWildlife Federation. The SGT is a one-week educational field trip held at adifferent place in Alaska each year.Thirty students from all around

Alaska—urban, rural,Native and non-Na-tive—were invited.This year we had stu-dents from Anchorage,Saint Marys, Healy, Ju-neau, Naknek, Fair-banks, Fort Yukon,Homer, Point Baker,Point Lay, Russian Mis-sion, Kenai and Dilling-ham. With this broadrange of students, youwould think we wouldhave trouble gettingalong but to my sur-

prise, it was much the opposite. Everystudent had unique ideas to bring tothe table which was important whenwe were discussing such issues assubsistence and local issues that af-fected Alaska. Not to mention therewas always something to talk about.

At the SGT we picked a topic thatwe feel is of concern to Alaska that wecan focus our energy on for the up-coming year. This year we chose thetopic of trophy hunting which affects

many people in rural Alaska. Our con-cern is that a lot of meat is beingwasted when hunters simply take thehide or head of an animal and leave allthe meat or body to rot. A smallergroup of AYEA students meet peri-odically throughout the year to dis-cuss the issue and steps we have totake. We hope to have it resolved bythe end of the school year.

Besides singing and dancing at OldMinto we made mini birch-bark ca-noes to take home. Elders Susie andSarah led the ladies into the woodsand showed us how to score birchtrees and slowly peel away the outerbark in big sheets. To sew the barkinto a canoe, we needed the root ofspruce trees which we also learnedhow to identify, dig up, peel andsplit. It doesn’t sound like much, butwas a long delicate process. It took mesix hours to finish mine and about 30minutes for Sarah to finish. I foundmyself out of breath trying to keep upwith 76-year-old Susie as we tried tofind a tree with thick bark. I wasamazed about how healthy and young-looking the Elders were. In theAthabascan culture, Elders are lookedup to and respected for their wisdom.They are taken in by their familiesinstead of being seen as a burden.

Overall, the SGT was an unforget-table, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Ihave a better understanding of AlaskaNative culture and the environmentand learned how to be a leader whilebuilding confidence and hanging outwith an awesome group of people, allat the same time!

A reflective time watching the river.

Minto Elders show campers how to dance.

1 0 S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S

Iñupiaq Region: Discovery, NativeScience After-School Activites

by Katie Bourdon

Kawerak’s Eskimo Heritage Program has recently begun anafter-school activity for fourth through sixth graders in

Nome called “Discovery” or “Native Science”. Our small grouphas six devoted young scientists who come every Thursday forone hour to learn together. Experiments involve using materials,food or animals that are common in our community such astomcods, salmon, homemade bread and coffee.

Paula Herzner and Katie Bourdon,EHP staff, have been using Alan Dick’sVillage Science and the Alaska NativeKnowledge Network website as re-sources for class ideas. BarbaraPungowiyi, Nome Public Schools Na-tive Programs Director, has providedNative science fair exhibits from herjunior high and high school students.These exhibits have served as ex-amples for the young students in theDiscovery class.

Elder Esther Bourdon joined thegroup on the first day to talk about

harvesting salmon and the variousways to preserve it. The students werewilling and eager to begin cutting fishfor hanging, smoking and salting. Anexperiment was done on frozen fish,dry fish and fish left out at roomtemperature for a few days. The youthlearned about bacteria, the importanceof weather and keeping blow fliesaway and about surface area.

Recently, the kids did an experi-ment with coffee. Local Elder FrankOkleasik regularly gets his tea waterfrom Glacier Creek and donated the

creek water for an experiment. Thekids made percolated “campfire” cof-fee using the Glacier Creek water.Filtered coffee was also made usingregular tap water. The students wentaround to 6 different teachers to findout which coffee was preferred. “Old-timers say that campfire coffee is thebest” (Alan Dick’s Village Science).Students hypothesized about the out-come of the experiment; most guessedthat three out of six would know thedifference. Zachary Bourdon’s hy-pothesis was correct: five out of sixpreferred the campfire coffee. Thestudents had fun making the coffee,presenting their experiment to theteachers and documenting their re-sults.

Another fun (and in the kids’words, “cool”) activity was mummi-fying tomcods. Paula Herzner’s fam-ily had fished for the tomcods priorto class so the students were able togut them in class, weigh them and

Elder Esther Bourdon sitting on the right and ZacharyBourdon cutting fish to hang. Watching from left to rightare Maggie Ahkvaluk, Cody Sherman and Rachel Pomrenkein the front.

L to R: Maggie Ahkvaluk, Darla Swann, Emma Outwater;teachers Josie Bourdon, Joel Bachelder, and Jenny Bachelder.Teachers Miss Bourdon and Mrs. Bachelder both picked thecampfire coffee.

S H A R I N G O U R P A T H W A Y S 1 1

Darla Swann packs tomcod with bakingsoda to begin the mummifying process.

document their observations of thefish before the mummifying process.Loads of baking soda filled and en-capsulated the tomcods. The follow-ing week, the students again weighedand documented their findings. Theycleaned out the old baking soda andrepacked the tomcods with enthusi-asm. After two weeks of dehydrating,the results were mummified tomcods!

We want to share our experienceto encourage other communities tohave their own after-school Nativescience class. The resources are avail-able, as long as there are volunteers inyour community who are willing toplan and work with the youth.

Please contact Kawerak EskimoHeritage Program at (907) 443-4386 orat [email protected] for more in-formation about having your ownNative Science after-school activities.Visit the Alaska Native KnowledgeNetwork at www.ankn.uaf.edu forclass ideas and activities and to findAlan Dick’s Village Science. Go NativeScience!

Editors Note: Village Science byAlan Dick, is available online atwww.ankn.uaf.edu/VS. An interac-tive version for the computer is alsoavailable online or on CD free-of-charge from the ANKN offices.

Learning Styles GrantSummary

by Bob Maguire

The Association of Interior Native Educators (AINE)recently received a three-year grant from the U.S. DOE

to fund the establishment of a Learning Styles Center to trainteachers in both the Fairbanks North Star Borough SchoolDistrict and the Yukon-Koyukuk School District.

National research on the effectof learning styles-based teachinghas demonstrated that this style ofteaching can produce a dramaticincrease in student achievement andlearning. The training of classroomteachers in how to assess individualstudents learning styles and, moreimportantly, how to set up class-room learning environments anddevelop teaching strategies basedon learning styles is very excitingfor Interior Alaska school districts.

In the AINE Learning Stylesgrant there will be three “partnerteachers” hired to serve as trainersand mentors for other teacherswithin the two districts. TheFNSBSD will have two partnerteachers and the YKSD will haveone.

During the first year of the grant,AINE will advertise and hire oneposition within YKSD and one po-sition within the FNSBSD. Thetimeline for hire is second semesterof the 2003–04 school year (Janu-ary–May). These partner teacherswill reside in Fairbanks and receiveLearning Styles training as well asobserving and working in a modelLearning Styles classroom in Fair-banks. They will also be exten-

sively involved in the planning ofthe 2004 Summer Institute on Learn-ing Styles for teachers.

Beginning with the second yearof the grant, the partner teacherswill mentor and work with both theYKSD and FNSBSD teaching staffson site in their various classroomlocations.

In addition, the AINE LearningStyles Center grant will contain acurriculum development strand.This will allow for the continuationof culturally-relevant curriculumthrough the Project AIPA modelbased on the concept of an Eldersacademy bringing together certi-fied Native teachers and selectedElders in a camp setting. The certi-fied teachers then develop curricu-lum units based on theirexperiences.

The potential for educationalchange throughout these two Inte-rior school districts through theLearning Styles concept is extremelyexciting.

Anyone wishing further infor-mation regarding this new grantcan contact Sheila Vent, LearningStyles Center project secretary at(907) 459-2141 or by e-mail:[email protected].


Southeast Region:The Southeast AlaskaTribal Resource Atlas

by Andy Hope

The Southeast Alaska Tribal Resource Atlas is an ongoingproject that has many components and has been several

years in the making. Beginning in January 2004, presentations ofthe atlas will be made to tribes, Elders, clan and clan houseleaders, educators and other interested parties. These presenta-tions will continue throughout the winter and spring of 2003–2004. Each of these respective individuals, groups andorganizations will be requested to endorse publication of theatlas for educational purposes. The atlas has been developed inthe noble traditions of reciprocity, sharing of knowledge andgenerosity. Here are some of the components of the atlas:

The Southeast Alaska NativePlace Name Project

In 1994 the Southeast Native Sub-sistence Commission (SENSC) initiateda three-part project to document Na-tive place names in Southeast Alaska.The project has been funded largelythrough the National Park ServiceHeritage Preservation Fund grant pro-gram, with additional support fromNative, state and federal entities andcovers all of Southeast Alaska’s Na-tive communities from Yakutat toHydaburg.

The Southeast Alaska TribalElectronic Mapping Project

This project started in the summerof 2002. The purpose of the project isdevelopment of place-based educa-tion materials for educators.

Objective: Provide GIS maps andtechnical support to facilitate access

to the Southeast Alaska NativePlacenames Database, including inte-gration with existing data on subsis-tence use areas, development ofregional and community-based mapsfor use in classrooms, internet map-ping and other place-based educationactivities.

The Angoon, Kake and SitkaCultural Atlases

The ANKN web site contains theAngoon and Kake cultural atlases.These links require a user nameand password that can be obtainedat www.ankn.uaf.edu/oral.html.The Sitka Atlas is accessible at:www.sitkatribe.org/placenames

Space precludes a completeacknowledgement of those that con-tributed to development of these at-lases in this article. Suchacknowledgements are included inabove-referenced links.

The Traditional Tlingit Countryand Tribes Map

The Traditional Tlingit CountryMap/Poster was the culmination ofmore than 25 years of research. It wasinitially published in draft form in1997. There have been four printingsof 1,000 since 1998. I began compilinga list of Tlingit tribes, clans and clanhouses in 1972. Initially, this list waspart of a manuscript on Tlingit clanand clan house at.óow, or crests.At.óow translates “our belongings orpossessions”. www.ankn.uaf.edu/TlingitMap/index.html

The Herman Kitka TraditionalEcological Knowledge Series

This is a collection of 13 CD-ROMsoriginally recorded in winter 1996at UAS Juneau as part of Anthropol-ogy 354, Culture and Ecology,co-taught by Professor Thomas F.Thornton and Herman Kitka, Sr. TheCD-ROMs were produced and editedby Arlo Midgett, UAS Media Servicesand Thomas F. Thornton under a grantfrom the Alaska Rural SystemicInitiative, with additional supportfrom the Sitka Borough School Dis-trict and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska.The series is cross-indexed category,topic, format, disc number and byclip. www.ankn.uaf.edu/tek.html

The Place-Based EducationResources for Southeast AlaskaEducators Web Site

The goal of this project is to pro-vide Alaska educators with access toonline and print resources to assistthem in creating place-based curricu-lum for Alaska schools. This site in-cludes the I Am Salmon curriculumproject materials. Of particular inter-est are the “Aakwtaatseen/Alive inthe Eddy” materials. These materialswill be added to the Place-BasedEducation Resources web site inJanuary 2004. This material is basedon a story told by Deikeenáak’w ofthe Kookhittaan in Sitka in 1904 and


transcribed by John R. Swanton in1904 and published in Wanton, TlingitMyths and Texts (1909) as Story #99.The story was transliterated into mod-ern orthography by Roby Littlefieldand Ethel Makinen. The material wasedited by Roby Littlefield, EthelMakinen, Lydia George, Nora MarksDauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer.This site can be found at: http://pec.jun.alaska-edu:1680/salmon

The Tlingit Elders TraditionalEducation Checklist

The Tlingit Elders Traditional Edu-cation Checklist was originally pub-lished by Tlingit Readers in 1976 inthe appendix of Beginning Tlingit.Beginning Tlingit. It has been re-printed a number of times, mostrecently in 2003 by Sealaska HeritageInstitute (SHI). The checklist was origi-nally published in the 1991 SHIedition. Among the contributorsto the checklist are the followingTlingit Elders and educators: JessieDalton, Katherine Mills, DavidKadashan and Henry Davis—T’akdeintaan of Xunaa Kwáan; GeorgeDavis—Deisheetaan of XutsnoowúKwáan; Forrest DeWitt—L’eeneidí ofAak’w Kwáan; Walter “Babe”Williams—Chookaneidi of XunaaKwáan; Walter Soboleff—L’eeneidí ofXutsnoowú Kwáan and AustinHammond—Lukaax.ádi of JilkootKwáan. The draft reflects feedbackand input received from TlingitElders. It is difficult or impossible toknow everything on the list. Prob-ably no single Elder knew all of it. Thechecklist was endorsed by the South-east Alaska Tribal College Elders Coun-cil in October 2001 and by the SEATCBoard of Trustees in the spring of2002. The checklist will be publishedin poster form in a joint venture withSEATC Elders and Trustees and theSoutheast Alaska Native EducatorAssociation in January 2004.

Actual poster is 12" x 16", full color.

Unangax RegionValues poster now availablefrom the ANKN offices!


Ayagam Tayaguuby Alberto Oropeza

This mask is named Ayagam Taya}uu,which means, ladies man in Unangax. Themask is made out of basswood. All of thedecorations are painted on with acrylicpaint and have some sort of meaning. Forexample, on the Ayagam Tayu}uu maskthere is an item on the chin called theiqlu{, which determined where an Unanga{came from and what their status was inthe village. Also, the colors used to paintthis mask are very common in other things,like bent wood hats, spears and spearthrowers.

Masks where used by the Unangan forceremonial and feasting purposes, butafter Christianity was introduced by theRussian Orthodox church priests, they didnot want the Unangan to have masksbecause they believed that they attractedevil or bad things. The Unangan decidedthat masks where bad based on the newlyformed religion, and that is when maskswere abolished.

Presently masks are being broughtback by the Unangan people and replicasare being made of what we think they mayhave looked like in the past, but that is along ways to the real intent of the Unangam

Sagimaaqluu.

Maqulaasiguluxby Garrett Pletnikoff

This mask is Maqulaasi}ulux which means “no reason to be anidol.” It is made out of basswood, which isn’t traditional material.If it were a traditional mask it would have different facial expressions,it would have a hat and it would not have such white teeth. Way

back, a long time ago, the Unangan would use driftwood such asyellow cedar. They used this wood because it has less knots so it is a

lot easier to work with. The Unangan used stone adzes and bones tomake the masks, well, a thousand years ago the Unangan did this.

The paint I used was a red ochre and flat white. The red ochre was used in the timeof war so it is basically war-paint, but I just got a can of red paint; do you know how theygot red a thousand years ago? First they would collect ochre rocks and they would grindthe red ochre into fine dust, and then oil was mixed and red paint was made. I used thewhite paint for the teeth. I also have an untraditional “labret,” which means he is a man.The bigger the labret the higher the person’s social-class in the village.

Unangax Language and Cultureby Qagidax Moses L. Dirks, Unangan Language and Culture Teacher, Unalaska City School District.

The Unangan Language and Culture students in Unalaskahave been working on reproducing traditional Unangan

artifacts. As part of the program the students had the opportu-nity to do hands-on type of projects. One of the first projects thestudents worked on was carving of an Aleut mask. All maskcarvings were based on what was found in historical texts andpictures. Once the students started carving they did a good jobin portraying what an Unangan mask might look like. Here aresome of the students’ work and what they had to say:

Chugudaxby Jon Nichols

After I bent my hat I then painted it. I got mostof my designs for my hat from Glory Remembered, abook on the wooden headgear of Alaska sea hunters.The main Aleut traditional design on my hat is adesign created by Andrew Gronholdt. The sea lionwhiskers tied to the top of the visor represented howsuccessful the hunter was, and the longer the whiskers

the better the hunter. To paint the hat, I used acrylic paint so that it would last a longtime. I used only traditional Aleut colors to keep it in line with the culture. The colors areturquoise, black, and red ochre. After all the painting was done I then layered the hatwith a clear varnish to preserve it even longer and make the paintings on it stand outmore. Then I tied duck feathers to the sea lion whiskers with sinew for decoration andalso to show that the person who wore it was a duck hunter.


Yup’ik Region: CulturalAccuracy in Curriculum

by Esther A. Ilutsik

It dawned on me when I was listening to the frustrations ofElder Annie Blue of Togiak as she was reacting to a non-Native

authors’ account of some of the beliefs of the Yup’ik people thatthere is this illusion of a common language. Before writing this“historical fiction,” the non-Native author had done extensiveresearch of ethnographic reports by anthropologists who cameinto the Yup’ik region and documented their observations andfindings in the 1890s. Simply put, it was the ignorance andethnocentric attitudes that intervened as researchers strove“ . . . to get a perspective beyond one’s own nation, to see somesort of whole instead of the defensive little patch offered by one’sown culture, literature and history” (from Changing Traditions in

Northern Ethnography, by Julie Cruikshank, 1994).

Apparently, the complications oflanguage did not enter the minds ofthose academics whose goal it was topublish works that were only under-stood from the Western perspective.

Language in itself is not only forcommunication, but to organize one’sthinking, to direct reason and analyzenature (from Language, Experience andIllusion, by Prof. K.V.K. Nehru). I

have been trying to un-derstand how those eth-nographers in the late1800s were able todocument traditionalYup’ik knowledge andhave it recorded andpublished within sucha short time frame,which seems like suchan unrealistic endeavor,especially if one under-stands how hard it is totranslate humor fromthe Yup’ik context intothe Western context.The humor can easilybe lost in translation be-cause it is retained

within the context of the culture,where “ the fact of the matter is thatthe ‘real world’ is to a large extentunconsciously built up on the lan-guage habits of the group” (from Lan-guage, Experience and Illusion, by Prof.K.V.K. Nehru, who cites Whorf andhis teacher Edward Sapir.) Likewise,we have the same problem with the

historical context of the Western edu-cational system (since the late 1800s)and the on-going efforts at “educat-ing” the indigenous people utilizingthe English language, even thoughthe results have continued to disap-point those who utilize assessmenttools that are generic to the Western-based culture.

So I can begin to understand thefrustrations that Elder Annie Blueshared as we reviewed examples ofchildrens’ literature, much of it writ-ten by non-Natives. The informationpresented was too often an unrealisticand inaccurate portrayal of the Yup’ikpeople. The same problem continuestoday with professional educators whoare asked to write curriculum address-ing the cultural context. It is impor-tant therefore, that Native authorsand educators take a more active rolein documenting traditional knowledgeand helping to prepare curriculummaterials that reflect a strong under-standing of cultural ties and most im-portantly the language and localknowledge base.

It is important therefore, thatNative authors and educatorstake a more active role indocumenting traditionalknowledge and helping toprepare curriculum materials

Nita Reardon and Esther Ilutsik at the the firstmeeting of the Yup’ik Literary Review Board heldDillingham October 24-27, 2003


University of Alaska FairbanksAlaska Native Knowledge Network/Alaska RSIPO Box 756730Fairbanks AK 99775-6730

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage Paid

Fairbanks AKPermit No. 2

Inupiaq Region:Annie Blue,Elicarai—HerTeachingsby Yaayuk Alvanna

Always teachingAlways learningAn Elder speaksWhile listenersobserve intentlyLearning from brain to heart

Lessons givenLessons learnedThrough oral speechKnowledge passedKnowledge gainedThrough listening carefully

Stories toldStories holdSuch treasured wisdomThat can only be passedFrom an Elder to younger onesIn the Native language

Quiet settles as she speaksA world createdIn the mindsOf each individualAlways learningAlways teaching

—yaayuk alvanna

RegionalCoordinators:Andy Hope—Southeast

[email protected]

Teri Schneier, Olga Pestrikoff,Moses Dirks—Alutiiq/[email protected]

John Angaiak—Yup’ik/Cup’[email protected]

Katie Bourdon, Iñupiaq [email protected]

Athabascan Regionpending at TCC

Lead Teachers:Angela Lunda—Southeast

[email protected]

Teri Schneider/Olga Pestrikoff/Moses Dirks—Alutiiq/[email protected]

Esther Ilutsik—Yup'ik/Cup'[email protected]

Bernadette Yaayuk Alvanna-Stimpfle—Iñ[email protected]

Linda Green—Interior/[email protected]

Alaska RSIRegionalContacts

Elder Annie Blue sitting with John Mark, a retired Yup'ikprincipal from the village of Quinhagak.

Education and Cultural Self-Determination - Alaska Native

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