ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
JOINT FEDERAL-STATE COMMISSION
ON
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS AFFECTING
ALASKA NATIVES
4000 Old Seward Highway, Suite 100
Anchorage,
Alaska 99503
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Witness List | PDF
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FATHER ELLIOTT: Thank you. Norman Anderson.
TESTIMONY OF NORMAN ANDERSON
I was going to bring some donuts too, but there were....my name is Norman Anderson, I'm from Naknek. I'm the village administrator with the Naknek Native Village, as well as a vice-president of the Bristol Bay Native
Association. On their behalf, I'd like to welcome you, and appreciate your coming.
I hate to start anything off on a negative note, but I'm guilty of not really knowing what the Alaska Native Review Commission is all about. I took the opportunity of reading your pamphlet, and one thing that bounced off the pages was education. And it's one of my pet peeves and is becoming a growing concern throughout the state of Alaska in the self-esteem programs, the Johnson-O'Malley Native education programs; and that there is a administrative academic policy in terms of eligibility as to who may participate.
A little background on these particular programs is that for all intents and purposes, the program's main concern and direction is to provide self-esteem in Alaska Native and American Indian students. The federal programs, as they are directed through the grant process or contracting process, is to justify how the Native students will be served. And I feel that with academic eligibility policies, it is putting the word before the deed. It looks good on paper, but it seems as though the administrative -- it seems to be a growing brotherhood, per se, of administrators in the state that they are allowing an academic eligibility policy, which is an administrative policy, rather than through the parenthood committees or from the public.
So to avoid a great amount of detail, what happens is, the fund -- the funds are put into a general fond in the -- or in the school policy -- within the school system, excuse me -- and from that point, the administration is allowed to dictate as to how the money is spent from that point forward.
It is parallel, the line of thinking that it is within or similar to extracurricular activities, per se, sports, et cetera. And so if a student is below a C level, he is not allowed -- he or she is not allowed to participate in, say if we were to bring in an ivory carver or sled builder or beadworker, storyteller, or whatever. So they are left outside of the door.
So what happens is that the people of the generation next are going to be not only lacking the educational opportunities for whatever purposes, whether it be social or personal, whatever, that they would -- might not be grasping the educational concept. They would also be left out of the heritage and culture programs.
What that leaves us with is, when we become -- my generation becomes the elders, these people will more likely be the ones that will be left home. I don't want to color a picture of people that are going to be totally ignorant, which isn't a bad word; it's just that they're not familiar with the facts. But these are going to be our leaders, because they more than likely will be the ones who will remain in the village, and responsible. It is a cultural genocide in that they will not be familiar with their culture and heritage background and a grasp of the education, and I mentioned a moment ago.
I don't like to bring up a problem without an avenue towards a solution, other than the fact that putting the word before the deed, I feel is something in terms of the right direction. One of the greatest remembrances of my -- and what carries me forward is the stories and the culture and heritage that I learned from the elders as -- learned to respect my elders, my heritage, and my culture. Without having the opportunity of Johnson-O'Malley Indian education programs while I was in school, we took it upon ourselves to learn what we possibly could from the elders.
Now there is that mechanism. In countering this with the administration, they mentioned to me that we did have parallel lines of thinking. Unfortunately, parallel lines don't meet. I'm not a mathematical wizard, but it's a known fact that parallel lines just don't meet.
So I took it upon myself a couple of years ago to travel to a national convention and brought information with me that, on a daily school report, what people would not be allowed to participate in certain programs; that further, I feel is a cold slap in the face to these people. They're aware of the fact that they aren't doing well in their studies, whether it be a home problem or whatever it may be. True, there is tutorial assistance programs available, there's special education available. But some of these are voluntary to participate in. It takes paperwork to allow a child into special education in our district. If a student does not want to because he would be categorized as a special ed student, he would influence or whatever possible to not have the paperwork drawn up, because he would be separate from his classmates and his peer group.
The culture and heritage programs, I feel was one of the greatest mechanisms to provide for the self-esteem. And it was proven, it is a proven fact through ACT and SAT tests in the Lower 48 that self-esteem programs did bring up the grade point average of the Indian students.
It's a beautiful concept. But once it's put into practice on the home front, the administration is allowed to profess in the gray area, where they are allowed to administrate the programs, but again, to be redundant, they are putting the word before the deed.
In the contract and grant application, they say they will be providing for 124, or whatever number of students, culture and heritage programs. That looks very good. I would award one. In actuality, I have witnessed where non-Native students were -- outnumbered Native participating students.
A while back, I was chairman of the Indian
education and Johnson-O'Malley parenthood programs and my wife
was a -- is a teacher at the school. During a very cold winter,
I would go in and pick her up and my children from school.
And we had a -- I believe it was a sled builder from up north.
And I saw a Native student standing outside the room looking
in. And I said, "Oh, there's lots of room. Go ahead, go on in." And the school principal caught me at the door and he says, "No, they're not eligible." And I said, "I know they're eligible. I know their grandparents and their parents. I know that they're eligible." He said, "No, it takes an academic eligibility for him to participate." And I said, "No, that isn't true." And he says, "Yes, it is an academic eligibility policy." And
that was unbeknownst to me.
What followed from that point to me, I thought
was utilizing all avenues I felt best. It was a literal maze
that I was allowed, and without -I feel what I did do wrong,
without notification of many other people, was published a
letter in the newspaper stating that there was discrimination
in the programs. Misinterpretation of the term "discrimination" I felt was not clearly utilized. They felt as though I was using -- utilizing the term of cultural or personal type, ethnic discrimination. What I meant, and I felt many other people that read the letter, was that the term "discrimination" was
the academic discrimination, and was nearly tarred and feathered
and asked to resign because of interpretation of a letter from
the people in Washington, D.C., in that the school administration
is allowed to administrate the programs. We do have parenthood
committees who set the rules.
I will not challenge them now. I haven't had the opportunity to meet with them. I don't know how many meetings they have had this year. I've seen one publicized, it was the only one I've seen this year.
But again, to get back to one of my first statements, I don't know exactly what is going on or what your people's direction is.
THE REPORTER: Excuse me for one moment. Off record.
(Off the record - tape changed - Tape 10)
(On the record)
MR. ANDERSON: I feel probably one of the greatest detriments to the Native people, and it seems to be, as I mentioned, a -- without a lot of thought into it, it I recognize it as a brotherhood of administrators, it seems as though it seems to be a growing thing.
I got a -- received a call from one of the other major cities last week or week before, and asked what response I had in terms of the letter. And I told them basically that I had calls from throughout the state for months following that. letters from people. We have, I believe four or five of our own people who are Alaska Native who have teaching certificates, who've applied for jobs. And so it's not just with the students, but there's a -- that's just for your own knowledge.
It's a big concern. We have graduated students in my village who had trouble in high school, so they definitely aren't going to pursue a college career. Because of their trouble in high school, they weren't allowed to participate in their culture and heritage programs. And they lack the self-esteem to pursue in any direction or the motivation to -- they don't have the self-confidence.
There are avenues. We could take, as village councils in our respective communities, can take the village -- the Johnson-O'Malley programs back over. As was heard in other workshops, it's difficult to get a group together for meetings. Many of us who are concerned -- I sit on the board of directors of five different organizations throughout the state. I've been gone 80-some days this year. I'm almost a permanent resident. I have a hotel room here in Dillingham that I keep steady and a coffeepot and everything right in my room that they keep downstairs for me. And so I'm giving wrong phone numbers wherever I am, thinking trying to remember where I am.
I was in a meeting in Anchorage not too long
ago and mentioned that, "right here in Dillingham," and was
reminded that I was in Anchorage. So anyway, to try to get
a group of people together and have them accept that responsibility
as a council or a parenthood committee within ourselves is
a good conception -- or a good idea, but to keep the people
focused on doing something like that as volunteers would take
a great amount of devotion. And probably drafting up the contract
and so forth, that is probably one of the bonuses of having
the school district, in that they are teamed people, they could
do that.
To combat that idea, the Johnson-0'Malley
programs that do have writing workshops to put the grant together,
there is assistance available to put the grants and the contracts
together.
I just feel very strongly that -- and am getting more concerned -- as a matter of fact, I got a call from AFN not too long ago, as well. It seems to be going on -- there was a letter published by an assistant superintendent who is Alaska Native on some of the direction of Indian education programs. A great program during the Alaska Federation of Natives is a leadership project, but it's directed towards a certain group of students who will have the incentive and the motivation because of their academic, individual pursuit. Their home life may be different, they may have very supportive parents in assisting with education.
On the other hand, other students may have difficulties at home, social problems, or whatever, and might not have that conceptional idea.
But they are -there is the seed there that could allow them to blossom and develop into certain directions. I know this personally because some of the students that I know at home are interested in Native politics and the governmental process and things that we do. And I would hope that they would be allowed to pursue these things, because someday I'm going to look for a replacement for myself and someone who's going to be able to -- that I will be able to hand the torch to who will allow themselves to do better than I am doing. That would be our hope and our desire.
Other Native students who will have a good grasp of the educational concept, unfortunately, as our president, Don Nielsen, mentioned the other day, one of our most valuable resources are our people, and once they become a professional in a particular field, are drawn away from our villages.
And so I don't want to color the picture that we have an unintelligent group of people in our village. But it's just....there isn't any -- there isn't the grasp there for them to allow them to participate. And -- because there just isn't that self-esteem.
The motivational process through the Johnson-O'Malley Indian education programs is a beautiful idea. I wish I would have thought of it. But if there is something that could go on to either change the structural process for allowing students to participate in these programs, then we would no longer be putting the word before the deed, but allowing these students an avenue for their future. We learn from our past; that's what the culture and heritage programs are all about.
I know there's other people who want to speak, so I'll keep it short. If anyone has any comments --
MR. IRWIN: Norman, I have one. But I how you alluded to this, but if I -- you said that in the JOM laws or regulations, that if the money goes to a school district, then they have the -- the administration of that school district has the ability to set the rules about who gets to participate in the --
MR. ANDERSON: What they do --
MR. IRWIN: Regardless of what the local parent committee might think?
MR. ANDERSON: What they do is, they put the money in the general fund. And then once they have a grasp upon the funds, it then becomes a part of the policy of the school district, the particular participating school district. And so then yes, they are allowed to administrate the program as they see fit.
MR. IRWIN: But don't they have a requirement that they have to take suggestions from the parent committee and....
MR. ANDERSON: If you have a forceful parenthood committee. And I feel that in the past, some parenthood committees -- I'm not going to direct this comment towards the participating parenthood committee. But it seems influences are used, whatever they may be. Unfortunately, parenthood committees' members are people who have personal desires or wishes for their particular children. And once those are met, it seems the interest or desire seems to lag. So if we had a forceful, educated, at least familiar with the facts and the main intent and purpose of the program, people, it seems to be not allowed into the parenthood committee. Then I feel the structural process would probably be directed towards a more successful and progressive program.
MR. IRWIN: Thanks, Norm. I don't have anything else.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Thank you very much, Norman.
MR. ANDERSON: Thank, you.
FATHER ELLIOTT: Is Mark here? Oh, Mark, we're going to take a ten-minute -- I wanted to know -you to know that. But we -- we'll pick you up, you'll be the first one.
And we'll have a break until about 20 minutes past ten.
THE REPORTER: Off record.
(Off the record)
This document was ocr scanned. We have made every
attempt to keep the online document the same as the original,
including the recorder's original misspellings or typos.
