A home for Alaska Native students

Waqaa!

Yupik elders will tell you this means “hello,” but students tell me it means “what’s up?” With Native Youth Olympics in full swing, a new grant supporting Alaska Native students starting up, and students from rural Alaska applying to come to school at Burchell each week, this is on my mind a lot lately.

As fuel prices and the cost of living climbs, people are moving from their traditional rural Alaska homes in droves, coming to urban centers such as Anchorage, Kenai, Fairbanks and the Mat-Su Valley. What does it mean to be an Alaska Native in our current educational system? Many issues face Alaska Native students and their families. This is a major issue for our state in and of itself, but one to be explored another time. What does this mean for Alaska Native kids moving out of the village?

It is, to say the least, a culture shock in the literal and figurative senses. Literally, students leave a mostly homogenous, traditional culture, a home and way of life they have always known. Rural schools often offer Alaska Native language programs, focus on place-based education, incorporate elders and listen to the wisdom of local school boards. Families forced to move to “town” move from small schools where everyone knows your name to high schools with enrollment in the thousands. This transition would be difficult for anyone.

Large districts and schools have done much to accommodate Alaska Native students and to be culturally responsive, from in-school support programs, hiring Alaska Native teachers and implementing cultural standards. Anchorage School District has even started the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School to accommodate Alaska Native children (asdk12.org/schools/anccs/pages/). Has it been enough?

Statistics from large districts show Alaska Native children lagging behind on standardized test scores. I believe if you devised a test on surviving and flourishing in our state (setting a net and running a trap line, starting a fire, sewing and beading clothing, hunting, reading the weather, fixing a furnace and a small engine, etc.) our rural kids would do just fine. But that is a topic for another time.

My immediate concern is what does my new school district do to support Alaska Native and rural students and their families as they move to the Valley? There are many support systems in place at the district level, and I have found our outstanding and dynamic superintendent to be focused on diversity and meeting the needs of different populations of students.

Burchell High School is one of the most diverse places I have ever been, so it is no surprise that 30 percent of the student population is Alaska Native (compared to 15 percent district-wide). As a new principal, one of my initial concerns is what are we doing to support each group and population at the school?

I sat down with Chelsea Morrow, a three-year Burchell student and descendent of Alaska legend George Atla to ask what it means to be Alaska Native at Burchell. Chelsea spoke of our strong NYO team, smaller classes and family atmosphere. She talked about how everyone knows your name at Burchell, how there seems to be more Alaska Native students to connect with than at the large schools, and mostly how accepting students are of one another.

Burchell was recently awarded the Enanuaq grant, along with Wasilla High, granting the school a high school teacher and preschool program to support Alaska Native students. Burchell employs several Alaska Native teachers, providing successful, educated role models for students. Alaska Native students have support systems in place and feel comfortable, accepted and safe at Burchell. This is something I am proud of, and I will work to grow. However, my biggest question is what can we do better?

Junior Stephanie Lie is an Inupiaq from Noorvik. Stephanie and her life-long friend Jessica, from Kotzebue, didn’t hesitate to tell me how we could improve. “Native foods … that would be cool,” she said with a bright smile, and both girls broke into laughter. Then, more seriously, she added, “In our villages they offer Inupiaq language classes, … skin sewing classes, classes with our elders. We don’t have that here.”

Enanuaq grant science teacher Barbara Bodnar is trying to change that, using the grant to implement family nights for Alaska Native students and their families. Still, Stephanie is right.

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network uses the analogy of culture as an iceberg (ankn.uaf.edu/IKS/iceberg.html). We see the tip of the iceberg or surface culture including food, dance, storytelling and art, and tend to address those first. This is a good start, but like the iceberg, the bulk of a culture is below the surface and harder to see or get at. Schools are beginning to address the part of the cultural iceberg that is above water, but to get to a deep, meaningful level we need to get at Alaska Native ways of teaching, learning and knowing.

How can Burchell continue to be a safe, comfortable place for Alaska Native students while challenging them academically and giving them the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century? Can we be an institution that prepares future Alaska Native leaders, doctors, lawyers, corporation presidents, lawmakers, teachers, engineers and more? I believe so, and I feel a deep commitment to making this a reality. We have a solid base in place to build from, and through community and family partnerships, and continual improvement, we can be a model culturally responsive urban school.

Quyana!

Adam Mokelke is principal at Burchell High School.