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 | Exhibit
List
| PDF Version
ALASKA NATIVES COMMISSION
HEARING
Nome, ALASKA
SEPTEMBER 21, 1992
Jacob Ahwinona
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Jacob Ahwinona?
(Pause.)
MR. AHWINONA: I'm Jacob Ahwinona here in Nome.
I retired from the workforce.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: That's right.
Last year, huh?
MR. AHWINONA: And I know ru -- educational department.
That's my first priority, the education. You know, I didn’t
have the privilege of going to high school like you did. The
only
schools I went to was up to 8th grade, see, and then I graduated
from there. And then we lived a subsistence style of living,
and the educ -- when I went to school, my parents took me away
from school before the school is out in the spring, whole month
before the school is out, sometimes two months. And I missed
out on that. But I kept up my grades, and I wanted to go to school
and get an education, but subsistence style of living at that
time we lived, so had to go with my parents.
But now, education
went a long ways since I went to school; and -- which is good.
I'm all for education. But one thing, though,
I'm against is they leave God out of the picture. That's one
thing they should do is when I went to school, first thing in
the morning what the teacher did was grab the Bible, and then
he read couple of verses and then said a prayer. You know, he
taught me before he even went to his lessons for the day on respect.
He taught me respect. Now respect is out of education everywhere.
Children got not respect for elders. Anywhere you look it's like
that. Now it's a shame. It hurts. You see that all over. Not
only here, but all over. Look at Anchorage. Look at the school
board, fighting over it -- fighting over everything there. They're
not going to the kid -- they're fighting among themselves. That's
crazy. They should be teaching the kids now and not fighting
over themselves. That's where the problem is.
But now, I'm not
only interested in education, but all the topics of this task
force here. You know, we generally get a task force
here once in a while, but not all the time; but it's -- when
we do get a task force here, we give a few testimonies, and then
they go. Do we hear from them? No. They don't feedback. That's
one thing I'm not -- I don't like either. You never get a feedback
from nobody, either from the government or from the state, see?
I haven't gotten written testimony, but just got
it up here just a few topics that I want to get out, 'cause there's
somebody
else waiting on the line here, so. . .
In subsistence, I've lived
a subsistence style of living since I was knee high, and I was
taught. Now, subsistence life is not
like it used to be. When I went fishing, there was fish everywhere.
You could walk on top of the fish. Now when I go to my summer
camp, I see fish here and there. They're gone. Why? 'Cause the
commercial fisherman got it down there before it gets up here.
And the Fish and Game got so many regulations on us, we can't
even go out and fish when we want to. They put dates, the time,
and that's -- they don't agree with us up here. They don't know
how we live up here, see? The Fish and Game -- you can talk to
Fish and Game 'till you're blue in the face. They never do anything.
Only place we can get results is down in Juneau. Our legislators
or the Governor. They're the ones you want to get after. You
talk to Fish and Game, you might as well talk to a telephone
pole out there. That's the results you get for complaining, see?
That's right.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: I wrote it down. Talking
to Fish and Game is like talking to a telephone pole.
MR. AHWINONA:
You're darn right. It's like talking to a telephone pole out
there, cause even if you complain, he won’t do
anything anyhow, 'cause he’s got higher-ups up there telling
him what to do, see? And up here, we got to put up with him.
And you know as well as I do what they do up here, see? So, I
think they should get someone that lives up here and put on the
Fish and Game board or take those guys out and put all the Natives
down there, see?
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: I think a lot of people
are realizing that we're having less and less say on the State
matters. It's one
of those things that because of numbers, because of the one-man,
one-vote, their thinking is taking over; but I think it’s
the tribal authority, tribal rights, Fish and Game matters fall
within that realm. I think that the federal role in that, there
has to recognize that as well.
MR. AHWINONA: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: We hear you loud and clear on subsistence.
MR. AHWINONA:
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Jacob.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: May I ask a question, please?
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK:
Sure.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Excuse me. At the hearing
in Fairbanks, it was brought up about no respect for elders and
not knowing
the Native language, and that this was the fault of the schools.
But many of the Natives who testified at the hearing said:
"No, it was not the business of the school,
but rather the family."
MR. AHWINONA: Well --
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: I'd
appreciate your comments, since I do recognize in many villages,
and Anchorage is -- you're correct,
it’s not villages where there is a lot of -- no longer
a respect for elders.
MR. AHWINONA: That's right.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT:
So I'd appreciate your views on that.
MR. AHWINONA: And on
that education. When I went to school, we were told not to
speak our dialect. In your classroom,
you get
caught speaking your own dialect among yourselves, we get
punished. You go over there and stand in the corner. Now
White man got
so smart now he want to teach my own dialect. He's going
crazy somewhere. Somebody's going cuckoo. That's right. They
want
to teach me my own dialect now. Look at the kids nowadays
in school.
They got bilingual program. -They never learn anything
from there. The only way you're going to get that culture back
which we lost
is little babies growing up. You talk to them in their
own
dialect while they're in there, and when they come out,
you talk to them
with your own dialect. That's the only way you're going
to get your culture back. Now it's gone. We lost it. It's already
lost.
I don't know if we'll ever get it back. I don't think so.
Not only our culture, we sold out to the State on Land Claims
Act.
That's when we lost out. We -- just you wait. Down the
line,
we'll lose our land, too. I may not be living, but I believe
my grandchildren, when they get to that point, say, and
nothing we can do about it. We already sold out, see? Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Jacob.
MR. AHWINONA:
There's someone waiting --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Right.
MR. AHWINONA: -- to
speak to you.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: His comment about leaving
God out of the schools, we certainly didn't leave God out
of the Commission,
'cause we've got three ministers on our group,
the -- (laughter) -- Dr. Soboleff, Norman Elliott, and then
Father
Sebesta,
who's also a -- so we -- we're pretty much --
we're pretty
well taken,
and then -- they hear you. They hear you. They'll
talk about it when we get the Commission going. I think
it's a national
thing, too.
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