Education is key to the future for all peoples

To the editor:

Native Alaskans and “First Peoples” (of Canada and Russia) must graduate from a university to capture their full potential to make their greatest possible contributions to mankind.

I taught about 15 courses of physics and mathematics labs and classes at the University of Alaska Anchorage for three years and I had only three Native Alaskan students during that entire time who completed their studies. So it seems to me that sufficient emphasis is not placed in Native families on completing a university education.

At the rate we are destroying our environment, within 20 years there may not be enough salmon, moose,and other game to support a subsistence lifestyle. As more and more people move up to Alaska, no matter how much we try to maintain sustainable numbers of wildlife, the numbers will continue to dwindle. If Native Alaskans continue to depend upon hunting, fishing and gathering, then their numbers and their culture will dwindle away, too.

What sort of future is that?

It is time for Native Alaskans and “First Peoples” — and all people, in fact — to encourage their children to hunt full time for books and knowledge and to leave a subsistence lifestyle in the past for the history books. It is possible to honor our elders, while at the same time capturing and engaging our full potential to make our greatest possible contribution to mankind.

Daniel N. Russell

Willow