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
Margaret Seeganna
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Next is Frieda Larsen. Frieda,
is she here? (Pause.) Okay. Margaret Seeganna? (Pause.) Okay.
(Pause.) Go ahead.
MS. SEEGANNA: My name is Margaret Seeganna.
I once was a bilingual teacher, and I didn't get anywhere with
the kids. I tried, but
it didn't work. The dominant culture taking away our dialects,
which was the biggest mistake they ever made. Now they are taking
away the subsistence lifestyle of our people -- of the Natives.
Fish and Game forbid fishing, and what do they give it as supplement?
Nothing. Nothing.
The culture of the Native people has been ruined
by people who thought they knew better than the Natives. And
what do the people
get in return? First of all, it's alcoholism. When you deal with
an alcoholic, you don’t scream at that person no matter
how drunk he is. You don't nag him. Nagging is the worst thing
you can do to a drunk person. What I did with my children --
I don't drink. What I did with my children when they came home
drunk, no matter how abusive they were, they never struck out
at anyone, but they lashed out with their talk. I never said
anything. Never, never said -- anything to them until they were
sober enough to realize what I had to say. The worst thing you
can do with an alcoholic is nag him, scream at him, or else you
can talk gently with him. No matter what he says, agree, agree
with him: “Okay, it's okay. It'll be okay." But screaming
and hollering are the worst things you can do with an alcoholic.
That's in our Native way. That's the only way you can get along
with that -- with those people -- that kind of people, and I
ha -- I've had a house full of them. Now some of them are sober,
thought they had to be -- sober up on account of their alcoholism.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Could I ask a question?
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Sure. He's going to ask you a question.
COMMISSIONER
ELLIOTT: What -- why do you think people become alcoholics,
or why do you think they're -- they drink? What
-- there are many people that have come up with all kinds
of different
reasons. I would like to know what you believe is the reason
for people getting drunk.
MS. SEEGANNA: What I believe
is with our generation, we were told not to speak our dialect
within the school. And
I had
- - that made me revolt. I revolted about many things
that -- different
-- even though I was brought up in a Catholic school,
there were many, many things that I revolted against; and when
the younger
generations got into school and were deprived of their
dialect, they revolted. Revolt, confusion, they thought
liquor would
help them --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: I think you gave --
MS. SEEGANNA: -- solve that problem.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: You gave a real
good definition of why alcoholism is there, and I think it's
a --
it's something
that
is shared by a lot of people when you say the (indiscernible)
of culture took away the dialects; they also took
away the subsistence lifestyle. What did they leave them
with? More
rules and regulations
and nothing to, you know, work towards. And I think
if I could extend her argument on maybe why alcoholism
will --
would increase
is because a subsistence lifestyle is being taken
away from Alaska Natives, and it'll just compound the social
problems
that we
have; and I think that's what you're trying to
tell us,
Margaret.
MS. SEEGANNA: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you.
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