Happy Birthday (State of) Alaska

The 50th anniversary celebration of Alaska statehood - a fitting day to put up a statue of two great civil rights leaders (from the Mayor’s newsletter):

“Civil Rights Activists Honored. A sculpture to honor Alaska Native civil rights activists Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich will be unveiled at 1 p.m. today at Peratrovich Park in downtown Anchorage. The sculpture, named Flight of the Raven, was designed by Roy Peratrovich, Jr. to memorialize his parents and their progress for Alaska Native people. The Peratrovich’s were the driving force behind the passage of the Alaska’s Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in America. ‘Through this statue, we pay tribute to the civil rights struggle Alaska Natives mounted against unjust laws and unjust lawmakers,’ Mayor Begich said.”

For the interested, some more about them:

A little biography of Elizabeth Peratrovich

http://www.newtradewinds.org/voices/leadership_peratrovich.html

A keynote address by Roy Peratrovich

http://www.alaskool.org/projects/native_gov/recollections/peratrovich/RPeratrovich_keynote.htm

A (much!) longer paper on the history behind these leaders

http://www.alaskool.org/projects/native_gov/recollections/peratrovich/Elizabeth_1.htm

Watch out, we're coming to Denver!

Okay, really it's the National Congress of American Indians, and a bunch of other Colorado Native tribes and organizations setting up in Denver. But I will be there too!
After all, it wouldn't be a real party without a pow wow nearby! Or at least some fry bread...

Native patriotism

An interesting article from the Los Angeles Times (reprinted in the Juneau Empire).

On the anniversary of the Battle of Little Big Horn, it is discussion on patriotism and the seeming "strangeness" of the American Indian tendency to both fight for the U.S. and (some tribes) assert the right to be completely free of the U.S.

"...American patriotism is not something that you simply have or do not. What that flag means to you will depend heavily on how you regard the history behind it...
...genuine patriotism can still take place amid divided loyalties... Non-Indians who attend celebrations like the Little Bighorn anniversary are often surprised by the exhibitions of U.S. patriotism. But for more than a century, American Indians on the Plains have understood that their love of country can contain both their struggles to achieve tribal autonomy and their deeply felt attachments to the United States."

The idea that Alaska Natives and American Indians would be unpatriotic actually surprised me a bit. I'm often caught unawares (naively, I think) when a certain way of thinking is put out as "what everyone thinks" or "many people think" about certain aspects of Native culture and issues.

In the Native culture I grew up in, if there is any group that is upheld with as much respect as Elders, it is veterans. Rare is a large ceremony or big event in which veterans are not honored.

I was honored enough to be able to attend an honor ceremony for Diane Benson's son after he was injured in Iraq. Still, when I think about the war, my "emotional brain" remembers both the great honor and great sadness of being able to shake his hand and try to impart the true meaning of the word, "Thank you" in as few words.

I have discussed, in earlier posts, the Native ambiguity of being "both proud and not proud" of the state, the country. Maybe this is not so rare for Americans - I can really only speak from a perspective I am familiar with.

But I don't know that it should be so surprising that the Native people would proudly bear arms across the world in defense of this land. Native ancestors were doing it long before it was called the United States.

A little bit stunned

After hearing the news of the Exxon ruling yesterday, I must say I could summon no real reaction until very early this morning.

I was only just beginning elementary school when the spill happened, and remember feeling so badly for all these birds and seals I saw being taken in on the news. I lived in Kodiak at the time, and was trying to figure out a plan to go help with the cleanup.

What I could not imagine at the time was that justice would not be served. A childish perspective, I guess, to imagine that the people who were responsible for this would be punished for it. I confess that I am someone who, despite much evidence to the contrary, clings to the notion that we can at least have faith in the justice system.

Different from my perspective as a child, I can now see what a long and lasting impact this has had on the people of Alaska, as well as the wildlife. It has taken the majority of my life, in fact, for the people most affected by this get the justice they deserve. As we have seen, it is no justice at all.

I was quite struck by this bit in a Yahoo article on the announcement:

"It also was about the end of Alaska Native traditions and a subsistence lifestyle for several villages in the region. Because of the spill, many Alaska Natives were forced to stop harvesting seal, salmon and herring roe and move to urban areas, never to return, said Lange, who is part Aleut and Tlingit.

'A cultural link was definitely broken,' she said."

I know the high value of these subsistence items, and the difficulty in getting them in the first place. To have something so reckless and harmful happen to traditions lasting millenia bites at the soul.

It has been part of growing up Alaskan, as I know it, to hear about harmed lives and environment "because of the spill."

I think the Kodiak Konfidential blog has it right about dumping Exxon stock:

"I ain't enough of a financial whiz to say for sure, but having that many shares dumped on the market at once might certainly get someone's attention. It'd be poetic justice to reinvest it in renewable energy, and we'd have a clean conscience."

The dip in Exxon stock took yesterday should be only the beginning.

Not waiting for an apology

I love this story from Reznet. Two Native non-profit groups from Colorado are going to cross the country on bicycles, beginning next May, to raise awareness of government abuse in Native boarding schools in the U.S.

The recent Canadian government apology to First Nations people that survived the boarding schools is a good thing, I believe. But what these organizations are doing makes me proud to be Native. They are not waiting for an apology from the U.S., and are taking charge of their own healing.

"We are going to heal and we are going to take our voice back, never to have our voice taken away again," said Don Coyhis, founder and president of White Bison, in a news release. "We are taking our voice back so our children will have a voice and be able to stand tall."

This is one of the stories that rarely makes as big a headline as what you normally see. And this goes on more than people think. Here in Alaska, Native organizations are taking charge of their own healing from horrible situations from the dominant culture, their own culture, and their own families.

I don't diminish the importance of an apology. Survivors of many kinds of abuse know the impact of an apology from their abuser. No, this absolutely does not, "Make everything better." But it's a beginning.

At the same time, most abused people do not get those apologies. But healing must take place, regardless. Whether there is ever an apology, the Native people of this country and state must grow stronger and healthier. I tip my hat to these organizations for taking those steps.

Native language preservation

I got an e-mail today about a petition for preservation of Native languages, or more funding for the preservation. The National Alliance to Save Native Languages is petitioning congress to increase Native language program funding to at least $10 million - and I think it's a bargain.

If you figure about 200 surviving languages today (the estimates I've seen go anywhere from 170 to 225), this only leaves about $50,000 per year on each language. (Not that it would ever be split up in such a way.)

Even here in Alaska, there are at least 20 languages still up and kicking. I would hope that this winter's passing of Chief Marie Smith-Jones (the last fluent Eyak speaker) would serve as a wake-up call to just how fragile the Native languages are. It may be the first of the Alaska Native languages to go, but it certainly isn't the only one in danger.

I have two historical languages to navigate, Dena'ina Athabascan and Tlingit. Both are in great danger of being lost. I've heard many times that the way you can gauge the strength of a language is by how many children speak it, or how many children are being taught it. I'm happy to say that both of these languages are being taught, mostly, pushed by Native organizations and corporations.

But the numbers aren't good.

For this to be a real effort in which a large percentage of each culture could see true results, there must be combined efforts of the government, Native corporations, and individual cultural groups, including the communities. We're talking community programs, immersion programs, documented material, curriculum, etc., etc. There are efforts already going on, but there is much, much more to do before we have a chance here.

Some notable efforts right here in Anchorage include the new Alaska Native Cultural Charter school set to open this fall. They will introduce a Yup'ik immersion program for younger grades and after-school programs for other languages. The Alaska Native Heritage Center is involved in some language programs, including Dena'ina curriculum.

Here's one of many articles supporting just how important Native language preservation is. Take a look, and then sign the petition!

Native perspective on the 50th Anniversary of Statehood

I read an excellent article in Alaska Magazine today, July/August issue (I couldn't find the same article online, though the print copy is worth picking up if you can find it). It was in their series on the 50th Anniversary of Statehood, called "Left Out?". It looks at the Alaska Native perspective on statehood, and was the first I've heard of a similar outlook to my own.


Ever since all the hubub surrounding the 50th anniversary celebration began, I've been of a few minds. I'm proud to be both American and Alaskan, but this is not without having very mixed emotions to both of those institutions.


The article spells it out in the first few paragraphs. In response to Mary Ann Mills of Kenaitze saying that, for Natives, "Statehood has been terrible":

Plenty of Natives disagree, of course - which is why there's no "there" there when it comes to pinpointing a Native perspective on Alaska's
admission to the union... Alaska Natives remain splintered by regional, political and economic interests. "Most of our people are proud to be Americans, but not proud of the way we were treated," said Mills, coming about as close as anyone to passing judgement on the past 50 years.

Both proud and not proud. Something I can certainly relate to. More than just a political stand the state took that citizens could disagree with, statehood itself was another time in which the Native people were forgotten. Despite efforts at the time, there is virtually no representation of Alaska Native people in the documents, seals, etc. This was still the time of constant discrimination and segregation.

But I also wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I am proud of the way that the Alaska Native people handled so much of civil rights, land rights and the overnight (literal) switch to corporate Native-ness. There is much to bemoan, but, in all, the same people who survived and thrived in this great land for millenia still survive and thrive today.

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