NOTE: Issues range from 1996–2006. Contact information in earlier issues could be outdated. For current information, please contact the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 907-474-1902.
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Newhalen Cultural Heritage and Video-editing Class by Michael Roberts:On September 14, a group of U.S. Park Service archaeologists Dale Vinson, Becky Saleeby and Martha Olympic Crow and an archaeologist and a former LPSD student of mine at Igiugig, arrived to carry out four weeks of archaeological fieldwork. It was not an excavation but an examination of an existing disturbance caused in an ancient site by road building. Mapping, radio carbon dating, soil samples, stratigraphy and surveying for other local sites were among some of the activities. The senior class of Newhalen School provided the work force and were taught techniques that lead to the designation of the site on a listed state registry. In the application process, the students were able to officially name and number the site. A concerted effort by the village and the students is leading to preservation of this site. As the students did the work, they also video-recorded the process using a digital camcorder provided by the grant money. When the weather no longer permitted fieldwork, we turned to video editing. The archaeological portion of the video was constructed first. Students learned how to capture digital video to computers and edit using a digital camcorder and Firewire (IEEE 1394). All of the special effects in the video were created using computers. The narrative for this portion was almost completely written by the students. It describes the process they took part in. The narration matches video clips which they chose as appropriate from hours upon hours of videotape. The completed video was then returned to videotape (VHS, SVHS, 8mm and DV) from the computer. They also learned how to burn CDs of the movie for use on Macintosh and Wintel PCs. In the second portion of the video, there was significant emphasis from the Newhalen Tribal Council on oral histories provided by village Elders. In the late fall, Elders from surrounding villages were flown in for a potlatch and roundtable story-telling. This was all recorded on video. On many of the oral histories, the students acted out or added portions of the stories which were superimposed again using various computer editing techniques to enhance the story. In stories told in Yup'ik, translation was provided by Father David and Gladys Askoak. "The third part of the video was a collection of stills from the Iliamna Lake area." The third part of the video was a collection of stills from the Iliamna Lake area. The village of Igiugig was of great help in allowing the use of a fine collection. John Branson of the U.S. Park Service was also of great help. Part of the video was actually a captured slideshow presentation by John. After the credits on this movie, the students inserted a bloopers section that is revealing. It shows amongst other things, the recording of some of the narratives on the movie. It also shows the amount of fun we had completing the project. Finally, the video was duplicated for sale. The Newhalen Cultural Heritage Project, A Culture In Motion, can be purchased through the Newhalen Tribal Council for $15.00 per copy. Contact Joanne Wassillie, Village Administrator, Newhalen Tribal Council, P.O. Box 207, Newhalen, AK 99606. Phone: (907) 571-1410, fax: (907) 571-1537. The proceeds will go into a fund to continue the partnerships, school curriculum and most importantly, collection, documentation and preservation of cultural materials and archaeological sites. I don't think you can watch the video without realizing the educational cross-curricular value the project contained. The elements of relevance, choice and creativity made it more meaningful than the traditional classroom. The school/community partnership involved in this project greatly enhanced the existing relations with the village and the classroom, school and Lake and Peninsula School District. It has provided cooperation and a better channel of communication. I have never been involved in a project that has been more fulfilling. | |
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News From ARSI Co-Directors by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley:ARSI co-director, Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, has been very busy this fall and spring doing many speaking engagements having to do with the Native world views, Native languages, and changes needed to make mathematics and science relevant to Native students. This systemic change knows no color line and, thus, is inclusive of all students from all walks of life. He gave a talk to the Northwest Health Corporation at Nome, Alaska on "Decolonizing the Mind; Learning from the Past." December 15, 1995 saw the conclusion of an interactive television course of "Native Ways of Knowing" which was aired statewide. There were many positive statements made on its timeliness and content. He is teaching the course by teleconference this spring semester. He and his wife, Dr. Claudette Bradley-Kawagley, made a presentation on teaching mathematics and science using the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and spirit during the annual Bilingual/Multicultural Education Equity Conference in Anchorage, Alaska. A spruce branch was used in the object lesson. He and Dr. Ray Barnhardt made a presentation on the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative at the same conference. Both sessions were well attended. Angayuqaq gave a lecture recently to the UAF Department of Philosophy and Humanities on the Yupiaq world view. It was well received and many questions were asked regarding the different way of knowing. It was also his privilege to be a keynote speaker during the annual Lower Kuskokwim School District's bilingual teachers' conference in Bethel, Alaska. He was the evening storyteller during the awards potluck sponsored by the conference. Both of these sessions were done in Yupiaq. Dorothy Larson The past few months have been extremely busy. We have a full compliment of staff, our regional coordinators positions have all been filled. Joining Barbara Liu, Andy Hope, Amy Van Hatten and Elmer Jackson is Moses Dirks as the Aleut Regional Coordinator. Recently Dr. Oscar Kawagley and I met with the board of directors for the Annenberg Rural Challenge Foundation to provide background on the ARSI project. We presented concepts and ideas of how we could mesh the ARSI and the Annenberg Rural Challenge (ARC) work to bring about systemic reform in a more holistic fashion in rural schools. Nationally, fourteen projects and organizations were invited to participate in the meeting with the ARC Board in Olive Branch, Mississippi. It was held in a very rural setting. While we were there an ice storm kept us captive for several days! It was more isolated than being in one of the villages where we are prepared for the elements. Otherwise, it was a positive experience to meet with others who are working in rural schools across the nation on many different projects. We look forward to the development and presentation of a proposal to the Annenberg Rural Challenge, which will not only provide a holistic approach in rural education, it will involve more of our village community members in schools. The Annenberg Rural Challenge can facilitate and round out the ARSI efforts beyond the math/science/technology focus in the integration and blending of indigenous knowledge and life ways to make education more relevant. We will keep you posted on this development. Our staff is busy in planning for the upcoming ARSI Alaska Native/Rural Education Consortium meeting in April. It will be exciting to return to Chena Hot Springs where this project was brought from the idea stage to recommendations for the basis of what we are now involved in-the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative. The National Science Foundation provided the funding for the earlier colloquia and continues to be involved with our efforts in making positive changes in the education arena. On April 15, the National Native Science Advisory Council, a newly formed group under the auspices of the ARSI, will meet. This council will serve as a vehicle for facilitating the exchange of ideas on Native science education issues between the ARSI and other Native American people and NSF. In this effort, we will be focusing attention on indigenous perspectives in the generation and utilization of scientific knowledge and to initiate a national Native science education agenda that shifts the cultural focus in schools from teaching about culture to teaching in the culture. Our aim is to reorient schools to use the local cultural base as the foundation for teaching all subject matter (including the Western-derived curriculum) moving from the local to a global perspective. Since this has implications for many other areas of life in Native communities, we see this group as an important link between and across the local, state and national arenas. The council is made up of members from different parts of the United States and half from the Alaska Native community. We will have an opportunity to meet members of the council in Chena Hot Springs. The memorandums of agreement are in place and we are fully into the work of implementing the initiatives of our ARSI project in each region. A number of regional meetings, elders' council meetings and meetings with various staff and partners have been taking place in the last several months. You will be hearing from the regional coordinators and other project staff in their reports. Co-directors have been making site visits during the regional events which have demonstrated that there are many things going on in rural Alaska schools. We received expressions of interest from school districts, Native leaders and community members about the project. Through the good work of our staff and their availability, outreach work and the Sharing Our Pathways newsletter, we hope that we can provide meaningful information that will ultimately result in improving rural and Native education. Please use the Alaska Native Knowledge Network World Wide Web data. It is updated on an ongoing basis. This kind of information will be very helpful to teachers, community resource people, administrators, parents and, most importantly, to students. The data gathering and documentation is a key component of the ARSI. Technology can be one of the important tools for rural schools. In conclusion, I would like to ask you all to contact anyone of the co-directors for more information or if you have questions or comments. | |
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Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat: An Iñupiaq Immersion School by Igxubuq Dianne Schaeffer:Tarruq Pete Schaeffer served on the regional school board for about four years and found out that it would be very difficult to have the school he and his wife envisioned installed in the current school system. Abnik Polly Schaeffer worked for eight years at the elementary school as an Iñupiaq teacher; she taught seven classes a day with 25 minutes for each class. The students had fun, but they never retained anything because of the short amount of time given to each class. Tarruq and Abnik had a vision of a school-of students being taught in Iñupiaq and learning the cycles of the Iñupiaq year. In the spring of 1998, Tarruq and Abnik Schaeffer sat down with interested community members and said that they were opening up a school in the fall. We didn't have a building, curriculum or staff. We formed committees and each committee had a chairperson. I was on the enrollment committee and we came up with the enrollment process for Nikaitchuat. There was also the finance committee and a couple others. Sandra Erlich Kowalski was hired for the summer to find out what we needed in order to open up as a school. On September 10, 1998, Nikaitchuat opened with 20 students, three teachers and one director. We had very little furniture and the school supplies hadn't arrived yet. Tarruq Schaeffer gave $100 to Abnik and Aana Taiyaaq to buy school supplies like pencils and paper. We had the determination and will to teach our children what we feel is important: the Iñupiaq language. Nikaitchuat Ixisabviat is formed under the umbrella of the tribal government, the Native Village of Kotzebue also known as Kotzebue IRA. We have an agreement with NANA to give us some money and lease the building to us for one dollar a month. We get a grant from Maniilaq and from the Department of Education (we are in the second year of a three-year curriculum development grant) and we also get the Johnson O'Malley money from Kotzebue IRA and parents pay a monthly tuition for their child to attend our school. Ivik Kunuyaq Henry along with Igluguq and Agnik Schaeffer pour uqsruq (seal oil) into containers for their parents. Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat 2001-2002 visit the NANA Museum of the Arctic. Parent involvement and education are a vital part of school functioning. Parents help out by volunteering during and after school hours in tasks as varied as reading to children, serving snacks, cleaning, curriculum development and support, providing transportation to the Senior Center, learning and teaching cultural activities and the list goes on. It is not uncommon to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings enter the school to volunteer as well. We ask parents to put in at least four hours of volunteer time a month. There are a few parents that put in eight hours or more a week. We have a bimonthly parent meeting where the parents catch up on what their child is learning. We have a potluck once a month where all parents and relatives are invited to attend. Nikaitchuat Ixisabviat is in its fourth school year. We have five older students (two are in second grade, two in first grade, four kindergartners and ten pre-kindergartners for a total of 19 students. We have four teachers, one director and one curriculum development specialist. This year, the first graders have been working on their writing skills along with learning more math. Instead of taking a nap, they do school work, like writing and reading in Iñupiaq. Abnik Polly Schaeffer has been busy teaching them the different subjects. Aana Taiyaaq Ida Biesemeier has been helping Abnik with the first graders, along with teaching the younger students the basics. Isan Diana Sours and Suuyuk Lena Hanna are kept busy with the younger students (the three and four year olds), teaching them the basics of how to get along and to respect other students. The two biggest things that are reinforced daily is Kamaksrixutin and Naalabnixutin-to be respectful and to listen! They also learn the colors in Iñupiaq, numbers and their Iñupiaq names. Each student is called by their Iñupiaq name; some teachers don't know the children's English name. The students are learning how to write their name. We have staff to develop the curriculum for the first graders. Kavlaq Andrea Gregg is the curriculum development specialist. She has been working on developing a curriculum based on the seasons of the year, building upon what Nikaitchuat has done the past three years. We are still looking for an assistant for Kavlaq, who will help in coming up with new and exciting curriculum for our older students. We make lessons planned by the week and this week's topic is niksiksuq (fishing); this week's color is tufuaqtaaq (purple); the Iñupiaq value being reinforced this week is respect for nature and the shape of the week is aqvaluqtaaq (circle). My name is Igxubuq Dianne Schaeffer and my title is Director. This is my second year as director-before that, I was on the Parent Governance Committee and a parent of one of the students. I've been working along with the Parent Governance Committee on how Nikaitchuat can expand next year. We would like to continue to grow with the oldest students, hopefully into the fifth grade. We are looking for a new building as we are at full capacity in the building we are in now. There is a possibility of obtaining a building with our tribal government, the Kotzebue IRA. We continue to grow and hope to share what we have learned with other communities. If you are here during the school year, we invite you to our school; we are located behind the Pizza House in Kotzebue. Come on over and check us out! Qikiqtaq Walker, Aana Taiyaaq Biesemeier, Qignak Atoruk and Urralik Gregg pick asriaviich (blueberries) this last fall on one of our many field trips. | |
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Noatak Science by Deborah Webber-Werle:Junior and senior high school students were awed by aurora photographs taken from the space shuttle Challenger. "Many high school students don't know about the research being done at the Geophysical Institute," said Ms. Bertram. "This information is so new that it isn't even in their textbooks yet." "I think the students learned that science is happening today," said Stan Van Amberg, junior high and senior high school science teacher. "It was great that the science was from their own element. These kids see Northern Lights all the time." Mr. Van Amberg also thought the students were impressed by the information about the Sprites and Jets, a new form of colored lightning that shoots upward from some thunderstorms. This phenomena was recently discovered by researchers at the Geophysical Institute. The Scientist-in-Residence program promotes student interest in science by bringing working scientists into the classroom. | |
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North Slope Iñupiat : | |
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North Slope Regional Activities:Alaska RSI/Annenberg Coordinator The Ilisagvik College is coordinating closely with the North Slope Borough School District (NSBSD) in the implementation of the 1996 activities centering on "village science". The college stresses the need to incorporate science concepts which are meaningful to the region, especially those that are related to the environmental sciences. This fall, the Ilisagvik College staff and the NSBSD staff plan on traveling to several sites to help organize the North Slope Science and Engineering Clubs. The Ipalook Elementary School is excited about the development of their K-5 science and engineering club and we look forward to assisting them in their efforts. In the discussion of the American Indian Science and Engineering chapters (AISES), the North Slope region expressed concern about the term "American Indian" since the Inupiat do not consider themselves to be "American Indian" and felt that the term is exclusive of Inupiat and other ethnic groups. At the meeting held on the sixth of September, it was decided that the Inupiat region AISES clubs would choose their own local names but will be affiliated with the national AISES organization. On the North Slope, we are looking for volunteers in the science and engineering community to "adopt a school" and be willing to be a role model, to encourage science and engineering careers, and to assist teachers in their science programs. We also look forward to the development of an Inupiat Science Exploritorium to celebrate our students' science projects in the region. One of the plans is to showcase science projects in the 50th Anniversary of the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory, an event being sponsored by the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium and scheduled for August 1997. Arva Carlson and Tim Buckley are co-teaching a high school course on Arctic Science and the college has been assisting their efforts through membership in the Arctic Science Consortium of the United States. We encourage North Slope high school science teachers to incorporate the Inupiaq perspective in the sciences and draw attention to the Inuit Circumpolar Science Initiatives and local science research policies that call for indigenous participation in research projects. As the Ilisagvik College expands its science education program, we look forward to offering additional courses in the sciences designed to reflect the blending of knowledge systems. For example, a course is being developed and proposed for the spring of 1997 on the topic of Bowhead whales through a cooperative partnership with the North Slope Borough (NSB) Wildlife Department. The Ilisagvik College also anticipates an Inupiaq research focus in the development of educational programs in the North Slope Cultural Center scheduled to open in 1998. We are assisting Alan Dick in the development of the publication North Slope Village Science and Chip McMillan in the development of a "northernized" Science Nuggets book. Also under production is the NSB Wildlife Department's curriculum project on Fishes of the North Slope. We support curriculum development projects that are focused on conceptual Inupiaq knowledge, in other words, projects that delve into Inupiaq perspectives and not just "at the tip of the iceberg." PHOTO BY LOLLY CARPLUK | |
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Now Available! : | |
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Now Available!:Iñuksuk: Northern Koyukon, Gwich'in and Lower Tanana 1800-1901 by Adeline Peter Raboff The history of the Northern Koyukon, Western Gwich'in and Lower Tanana people. 196 pages, $10.00 Guidelines for Strengthening Indigenous Languages This booklet offers suggestions for Elders, parents, children and educators to use in strengthing their heritage language with support from the Native community, schools, linguists and education agencies. 28 pages, free. For more information on obtaining copies of these publications, call Dixie Dayo at 907-474-5086 or e-mail dixie.dayo@uaf.edu. | |
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Nurturing Native Languages by Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley:Griffin's observations ring true to me because my Yupiaq language is nature-mediated, and thus it is wholesome and healing. It contains the creatures, plants and elements of nature that have named and defined themselves to my ancestors and are naming and defining themselves to me. My ancestors made my language from nature. When I speak Yupiaq, I am thrust into the thought world of my ancestors. We know ourselves to be made from this earth. We know this earth is made from our bodies. For we see ourselves. And we are nature. We are nature seeing nature. We are nature with a concept of nature. Nature weeping. Nature speaking of nature to nature. -Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature Let me cite two examples of the elements of nature naming and defining themselves. The first is anuqa-the wind. It is telling its name and telling me what it is. It is the moving air which is needed for life. The other is lagiq-the Canadian goose. It's call is "lak, lak, lak" giving its name to us and by its behavior telling us its habitat and its niche in the ecological system. "We are nature with a concept of nature." Truly! We, as Native people, have seen our languages become impoverished in the last several centuries. Many of us now speak our Native languages at the fourth and fifth grade levels (if such a grading system existed for us). We look at the wounds in our minds and we see that the wounds also exist in nature itself. "We know ourselves to be made from this earth" and it makes us weep when we see the destruction and pollution around us. We realize that the relationship between ourselves and our places is a "unity of process" (Joan Halifax). We know that there cannot be a separation between the two. As we lose our Native languages, more and more of us begin to take part in the misuse and abuse of nature. We use English predominately in our everyday lives today. We don't realize that English is a language contrived by the clever rational mind of the human being. The letters were derived by the human mind. The words are a product of a mindset that is given to individualism and materialism in a techno-mechanistic world. For us to think that we can reconstruct a new world by using English and its ways will not work. We need to return to a language that is given to health and healing. To try to make a paradigmatic shift by using the consciousness that constructed this modern world is bound for failure. Albert Einstein stated something to the effect that "you cannot make change in a system using the same consciousness used to construct it." This should be very clear to us as a Native people. In my Yupiaq ancestral world egalitarianism was practiced. In this form of governance no creature, plant or element becomes more important than another. All are equal. In the great state of Alaska, I can incontrovertibly state that racism is alive and seems to be gaining strength. This is a circumstance which is unconscionable and reflects a very destructive and alienated stance in the larger society. How is it that we "stabilize indigenous languages"? I think that we must once again speak the Native languages in the home a majority of the time. If we expect only the school to do it, it will surely fail. The school must become a reflection of a Native speaking family, home and community. During the waking hours of the day, the children must hear the Native language being spoken-in the home and in school. The one-to-one and family conversation in the local language must be the standard of the day. The community, family, parents and especially the children must begin to know place. How is this to be done? By the Elders, parents and community members speaking to one another in their own language and from the Yupiaq perspective. To know self, one must learn of place. How does one learn of place? You begin by telling quliraat, the mythology, stories of distant time, which are powerful teaching tools still applicable to the present. You learn of the times when our ancestors were truly shape-shifters. It was easy to change from one form to another, and one was in control of self. Values and traditions are taught by these stories which are so ancient that we call them myths. From these you can tease out problem-solving tools and discern characteristics that make for a healthy and stable person living in a healthy and sustainable place. Told by an Elder whose inflections, facial and body language add to the words, these myths teach not only discipline for the members but more importantly self-discipline. We must re-inculcate self-discipline in our people as a matter of survival. The qalumcit must be told, as they are the stories of us as a Native peoples. They tell us how we got to be at this place, our movements, problems encountered and resolved, years of plenty and scarcity and how to read the signs foretelling events, how we made sense of time and space, how trade and exchange of goods and services was accomplished and how genetic diversity in the community was maintained. The rituals and ceremonies must be relearned and practiced. The loss of these have developed schisms in our lives. We have become fractured people. These rituals represent revival, regeneration and revitalization of our Native people. The yuyaryarat-the art and skills of singing, dancing and drumming-brings one to a spiritual level. Our word, yuyaq, means to emerge into a higher plain, a higher consciousness through concentration on the movements when singing and drumming. We must also seek to relearn the Native names of places. It is incomplete knowledge for us to know the distance between two places in miles. It is also important to be able to "guesstimate" the time it will take to go from point A to point B and to know the history and place names between the two points. Then it becomes whole and useful knowledge. I just recently returned from Hilo, Hawaii where I was a participant in a planning meeting for revitalizing the Hawaiian language and culture. One interesting side trip was a visit to a Native Hawaiian charter school a few minutes from Hilo. I learned that the local Native people had begun landscaping unkempt property and refurbishing dilapidated buildings. This was initiated even before grant funds were made available for the project. This is true determination and motivation to reconstruct education which is meaningful and effective for the Native people. When my hosts and I arrived, we were met by the students at the entrance to their school. They sang in their own language and several students made welcoming remarks again in their own language. When protocol called for my response, I responded in my Yupiaq language. To see and hear the protocol that had been practiced for millennia by their people made my heart feel good. This happening after hundreds of years of barrage to change their language and culture gave me hope that we, too, can save our Alaska Native languages. It was refreshing and energizing of spirit to look at the landscape and see the work that had been done. The best part was a plot of land where only the original flora of Hawaii had been planted-a very ambitious endeavor which required research and feedback from the few Elders still with them to determine which plants are native to the land. One building had photovoltaic panels on its roof to power some of their computers and filter pumps for their fish hatchery tanks. At another location, young men were preparing food in the traditional manner of heating rocks with the ingredients placed in baskets on top and covered over with banana leaves and canvas. The food was eaten prior to the graduation exercises. If you find yourself in a situation where there is a minimal number of myths, stories, rituals and ceremonies available, then I would suggest that you find sources that are well written and your Elders deem to be true. Translate these into your own language with the help of Elders and knowledgeable community members that may be familiar with the technical language contained in that treatise. When satisfied with the final translation, read it to the group for approval. Then it would behoove us to read it to the youngsters who will become the historians of the community-the future keepers and practitioners of sacred knowledge. To bring the above back into practice is to know who you are and where you are. This would contribute broadly to the important notion that it is alright to be Native, to speak the Native language and to use Native tools and implements in play and work. After all, our technology was made by our ancestors to edify our Native worldviews. Please, what ever you do, do NOT give to the youngsters the idea that modern technology has an answer for everything. It does not. Use it merely as a tool and use it minimally and judiciously. Remind the students that technological tools are intensive in the use of natural resources and energy. To accept technology blindly is to negate the painful works to revitalize our Native languages and cultures. I wish you all the wisdom of the Ellam Yua, the Great Mystery in your continuing efforts. "We are nature." Quyana References Russell, Peter. The White Hole In Time: Our future evolution and the meaning of the now. Harper: San Francisco. 1992. Halifax, Joan. The Fruitful Darkness: Reconnecting with the body of the earth. Harper: San Francisco. 1993. Griffin, Susan. Woman and Nature. Harper Collins Publishers. San Francisco. 1978. Richard Littlebear speech delivered to the Fourth Annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium. Flagstaff, Arizona, May 1997. The rituals and ceremonies must be relearned and practiced. The loss of these have developed schisms in our lives. | |
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