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
Version
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: The next three people who are on the list for their testimony is Caroline Atuk, if she's here; Je -- oh, excuse me, Rachel Craig; and Jim Christensen.
THE REPORTER: Excuse me, Father Sebesta?
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yes?
THE REPORTER: While those testimonies were going on, someone delivered a testimony of Dr. David B. Jones, a dentist. It's an Oral Health Survey that will be entered into the record.
(ORAL HEALTH SURVEY OF HEAD START CHILDREN ATTACHED AS EXHIBIT #2)
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: All right. Thank you very much, Rachel Craig has been waiting for -- to give her testimony, so I would invite you, Rachel, to give your testimony now.
MS. CRAIG: Thank you very much. My name is Rachel Craig. I'm from Kotzebue, Alaska. I'm the Chairman of the Kotzebue Elders Council and also Secretary in the Regional Council of Elders in our NANA Region. And because of my language skills, I work with the elders, listening to their concerns and trying to pass them on to those who should know what they are.
We've had many concerns in our area, and one of the really devastating ones has been suicide among our young men. We have had some young women, but very few; but mostly they are the young men of our community. And when this first started, it was really devastating to us, because committing suicide is not part of our culture. It never was, and we didn't really know how to deal with it, and -- but after awhile, it began to become prevalent, and we had to do something. So our communities began to talk about it, wondering what we should do -- we as a community should do.
You see, our -- the young men in our Eskimo community were the providers. They have traditionally been the providers; and, because they were, they were given deference by the society. There was no such thing as ladies first in our society (laughing). That was taught to us and imposed on our society. It was always the hunters first, the men first, and the children; and then the women looked after themselves. But because the provider was so important in the society, that was our attitude toward men.
And somehow, since education and religion and all these other influences were introduced to our society, things began to change so much that everything seems to be just opposite of what the Native culture teaches us.
(Tape Change to Tape #2.)
You use your brain, you learn, you learn. It's all learning in the head, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with knowing, because one of the things that the elders said to determine the maturity of the person is that he can use his mind, or he uses his mind well. He can think. So there's nothing wrong with cognitive learning. But I think the overemphasis on that, exclusive of the other areas of our life, somehow need to be addressed.
And the way things are going, there are not enough jobs in the community. Most of them are clerical jobs that the women fill, or bilingual education, and the women fill these. Sometimes there's a man, but most of the time -- and in the health area, it's the women that fill these positions. It's a woman that's bringing in the money; and, according to the larger society, that makes her the important person in the family, because she's bringing in money. Certainly, her contribution is important; but without that money, her husband also needs ammunition, needs gas and oil for the snow machine or for the boat, and the man, as a provider; as a hunter, is not one of the things that you look up to, according to the larger society. Somehow his position is lessened just because he -- like they say, just hunts and just fishes, or whatever, because it's not -- he's not going out to a job -- to a wage-earning job.
And so this also creates a social situation in the home, when you' re a traditional person, that you sort of have to walk on eggshells, you might say, so that you don't take away the manhood of the man in the home. And you put up with lots of things, because the mental health, the emotional health, of the spouse, of the man of the house, is important to us.
But somehow, as society is being lived, as things are being taught, as things as priorities are set and the value systems are deteriorating, the opposite is becoming true. Now, even those of us we send our children to college. Many, many of our young people don't make it, because the structure of the village schools is such they get good grades in the village schools, but once they hit college, they have to take remedial classes or they don't make it. And the ones who are making it are usually the girls.
Now, if this keeps up, and we don't address problems like that, then because of the way society is structured, the women become the visible leaders. In some of our villages, that's really hard to take. In our coastal villages, it's not so, because in the kind of society we live, and from what I've questioned the elders, it didn't really matter who the leader was, male or female, as long as that person knew how to use his mind and was wise, the voice of that person was listened to. But we didn't have the chief system. But the way society is structured and the requirements for certain positions require a degree or equivalent, etcetera, it just knocks off those people that we think are smart anyway, and the ones who seem to be able to go through the system are the ones left to take the job.
We haven't really understood why there's so much alcohol or why there's so much suicide. But those two seem to be related. I've talked to some of the younger men, married men with families, and sometimes they say that, you know, you can only take so much. The pressures are just so much. Sometimes you have to sort of anesthetize your feeling. But somehow we seem to become addicted to that anesthetic. I know it's not used that -- for that in every instance, but somehow like one of our elders said, ever since he was a young man, his father told him, you have to learn to do this; you have to learn to do that, because you will become the provider for your family; you will become the provider for your family. And so, when he married, that's what he tried to do. But somehow along the line, he started experimenting with alcohol, too; and then after awhile, he found out it became addictive, and he didn't know how to get rid of -- he didn't have it within himself to get rid of it, so he said the only thing he knew to do, because he could hear his father's words:
"You are to provide and to protect your
family,"
and he knew taking alcohol, he couldn't do that; he couldn't do both. So the only thing he knew to do was to get on his knees, and from the depths of his heart, pray to God that he would be given strength to fulfill his obligations to the family.
Now, there's also this other thing that is imposed on us as Native people, and
that's separation of church and state. And a lot of times the -- we Native
people are spiritual people. The earth has a spirit; the animals have spirit;
all growing things have spirit, We live in a spirit way. But when those things
are taught that you can't talk about them in school, then there's no forum
for the teacher to use to explain things to the teacher -- to the students
that these things are so, why, the history of these things that have developed
in America are the way they are,
because they're not included in social science
textbooks anymore the history of the United States
has been rewritten.
It's a complex thing. It's a complex world.
Everything is interwoven, but I think we really need to take
a look at education, because when we start teaching
kids while they're young, they don't forget. The things that I learned
in school when I was young, I haven't forgotten, including
getting punished
for speaking my language. But I was fortunate that I was raised by my grandparents
whose only language was Native; and so in spite of the punishment in school,
I learned the language well enough that I could communicate with them even
today.
So, we have to -- we are working on several things
on our own. We have developed an Inupiaq Ilitquasait
Program. Inupiaq Ilitquasait to us is roughly translated
as the way the Inupiat are; the
philosophy to which they think, they adhere,
they live. And it takes -- it includes the total culture: government,
religion, social, everything, education; and so what -- in
trying to address these problems, we're teaching our young
people our value system; and the more I’m exposed to other
societies and other places, the more I
begin to think how important it is for our families, our young
children to learn the value system, and the parents to teach
it at home in the community. And this is what our elders are
trying to do.
And the other thing, because of our economic situation, we're trying to provide summer camps, so the kids will learn how to fish with a net. We're in the process of starting coastal camps, so our young people, even those who are married now, can begin to learn how to hunt seal and make dried meat and seal oil; and some of our young people are excited, because their parents didn't give them an opportunity to learn because they were busy working, trying to support their family. Now, these young married men and our teenagers will have an opportunity to learn something that their forefathers did to survive.
But there are other things that we also found out that we need to think about, even while we're doing that. We have just discovered a radioactive waste dump in our area. And we wondered for a long time why our people were getting so much cancer, and the state was telling us:
"Well, you smoke too much, and your lifestyle
has changed. You're eating too much of the White Man's food."
Then how come the White Man doesn't have as much cancer as we did in that locale?
Well, I suspected ail along that there had to be something, some kind of
research done to see how much of this radioactive waste that -- how much
we're taking into ourselves through the food chain. Because what we've discovered
is that there's no container for that radioactive material that they put
on our land; and when their -- when it rains, where does it go? When it snows
and that snow melts and goes through the land, where is it flowing? And how
much of our fish is taking it? How much of our seal? How much of the walrus
and the whale?
Some of these -- that particular thing, as you know, in 1962, the people opposed
that. They opposed it and didn't want an experiment there to blow up our
land, because that was our prime hunting ground. It was so deep that that's
where the whales beach; that's where the walrus beach; that's where the fish
went, and the seals before they went their way. But we didn't know, and we
were not told for 30 years that all that poison was there on our land, and
people were dying -- families losing many members in the family.
So it's a complex of many different things. I think one of the things that needs to be done is to begin to treat the Native people as you would like to be treated. We are people, too. We have children. We have raise children. We pay our taxes. We're no different from other people; except we were here a lot longer before your forefathers came here. But we have feelings; we have a mind; we can think; we are people, too.
I know we can't solve all of our problems in a half hour, or even in an hour,
in a week, in a month; but we can begin to take these things that the Native
people are saying -- take them into consideration; and I hope that the government
people will begin to use their positions of authority and responsibility
and begin to address some of these things and
work with us not always at odds with us, but
with us. Thank you for listening.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Rachel,
thank you very much for your testimony. I think that what you
just said is very important that -- I think
that many times in the history of the government dealing with Native people
that it has been kind of from the standpoint of caretaker and have not
given the people the credit of being able to manage their own
lives and to come
up with the type of solutions and directions that maybe are appropriate
to them. And I think that that's a point that's well taken.
I want you to know
that I'm hearing it.
MS. CRAIG: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: And I have another question for you though. In -- you did mention at the very beginning that suicide, especially among men -- and I realize that, you know, a lot of the things that you have mentioned, the change in lifestyle that is imposed because of Western culture and so on, and the role changing from provider, or let's -- that being forced upon people has caused a lot of these difficulties. But I know that there -- you mentioned a suicide prevention program that comes. Is that effective? And if it isn't, what do you see as the type of thing that would be appropriate to deal with this very serious problem?
MS. CRAIG: You know, in the beginning, when our young people were killing themselves, and the funny thing about it is -- the insidious thing about it is you kind of get used to it after awhile, and you shouldn't, you know, and you -- but in the back of your mind, it nags you; and then when we focused our attention on suicides and trying to pass on our culture, the ancient wisdom of our forefathers to the young people, when we put our attention to that over a period of over a year, there was no -- there were no suicides. And I guess we became complacent again and started business as usual, because we have all kinds of things that demand our attention. Our governments are new; our corporations are new; our health services are new; we're trying to educate our children, so they could take some of these positions; and so our focus is divided and it's all over the place. We're what you might say a developing people in the Western sense, because nobody listens to what we really know in the Native sense. So when we did that, we realized that there has to be attention, and especially the leaders that are chosen in the region, must care what's going on in the villages and be role models of the things that the elders are teaching. That is requisite, because when they don't -- and the young people are smart, and they can see through a lot of things. If that leader is not following what the elders say should be happening, they say:
"Well, if I want to get to that kind of
position, maybe I don't have to listen co the elders."
You know, it weakens the fabric of the society. So, in some ways, see we're trying to teach language in school, and some of our kids are learning it; but their parents don't know the language. So there's no reinforcement at all, and we're trying to build something in the community so the kids can hear the language and keep it, because from where we're sitting, if they don't learn it, that language dies. And they are our hope.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: And a lot dies with --
MS. CRAIG: Yeah, so --
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: -- the language and understanding the culture. This --
MS. CRAIG: -- so, I really don' t know what the solution is; but we really need to work together, the Native people. And those of you who have your degrees, and the money, and the law behind you need to work with the Native people who have the children, who have the heart, who are willing to work.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Tell me, this Inupiaq Program. What did you call --
MS. CRAIG: Inupiaq Ilitqusait.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: (Laughing.) I don't know if I can say that.
MS. CRAIG: (Laughing.) I should have taken a poster. We have posters.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: And I'd be hap -- if you gave me your address, I'd be happy to send you posters of our Inupiaq values -- that's our value system.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Okay.
MS. CRAIG: We really worked on that and then went to all of our villages to ask all of the elders if there was anything else that we needed to add to that list.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Uh-huh (affirmative), yeah.
MS. CRAIG: But it's sort of a philosophy of how the Native people think and what their focus is in life.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Now is this part of your addressing the suicide problem? In other words, you're looking at the reasons that -- you know, as you have outlined why these suicide -- this suicide problem --
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: -- is so serious. And then this is the local response to trying --
MS. CRAIG: Our local --
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: -- to address it?
MS. CRAIG: -- response.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Is this independent of the suicide prevention programs that are coming from the State?
MS. CRAIG: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: It is?
MS. CRAIG: Yes, because we can't always say:
"Hey, you guys, come over and solve our
problems."
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: 'Cause we can't always say that.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: They're our children,
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: We had to do something.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: And the only thing we could think of was the philosophy of our forefathers that was so sensible, that made them happy to live with each other, and independent, and providing for each other. We're too dependent on outside things right now.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Yeah, okay. I think that's really significant. Are there other members of the Commission that would like to question Rachel?
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Yes. Well, thank you very much for your testimony. In fact, your remarks about the role of men in the village and how it's declining, backs up what I've been reading in cultural studies --
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative].
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: -- of the Native people of Alaska, and has it one of the prime causes of alcoholism.
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: And I held the hearing in Nome. Maybe it sounds like I wanted to hear it, 'cause I'm a minister; but I did hear from those who testified:
"Put God back in school."
Now you used spiritual values, and I can accept that very much so.
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: I don’t know what
the solution is to that, but I'm happy that you've spoken those
words.
MS. CRAIG: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: And also in Fairbanks we heard again and again the responsibility of teaching the Native languages at home. There were those who said it should be taught in school, and perhaps that's because, as you have said, the parents can't teach it. But I know at Point Hope they're teaching it in school.
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: And I presume in Hope. Many other -- Anvik, too, I know.
MS. CRAIG: Uh-huh (affirmative).
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: I don't know of others,
but I’m sure there are; and I'm delighted. But I’m going to
ask you something that you haven't commented on, and that is
what have the elders thought of the effect of television, especially
cable television, on the youth, and perhaps even of the adults
in the Native villages? It goes to Point Hope. They have cable
television, in Kivalina, and so forth, and they were on 24
hours a day.
MS. CRAIG: There are different thoughts on television. In one way, it's sort of good, because in the classroom the things that now the teacher talks about in these books, developed by Western people, are things that she can take it -- say:
"In that radio program or in
that television program, remember
when they did thus and thus."
And
the kids:
"Yeah."
And they understand that, you know; but -- which is not say that the content of the programs is desirable. That's a personal thing. But we know that it takes a lot of our time, and I think the parents need to be more assertive in allowing their school children what they can or cannot watch. I know there are some families who do that; but there are others who do not, you know. We -- it's overwhelming. We want to teach the language; but all they get a lot of is English language. We need a lot of Native language in TV, you know, to counteract what we're getting. And so that's really a mixed bag.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: I was wondering about
the -- you know, the creating of the desire for a different
way of life than the village, when they see pictures of what
it’s like in the city, or you have to buy this in order to
be someone, and so on, you see the contrast?
MS. CRAIG: I don't know so much about that.
When they work, they will buy the different things that make
life easier; but once they take a trip, like to Seattle, where
they don't know anybody, it's nice to go shopping; it's nice
to see what they’re doing and have fun; but a big city is very impersonal. It's not like our village life, where everybody says hello to you, and they've known you even before you were born. They know your parents, your grandparents, and somehow we' re all inter-related, and we know each other. But once you go to a big city, you don't know anybody, and they don't care. They don’t care about you, you know, even your next-door neighbors when you live in an apartment; so it becomes an impersonal thing, and it’s very lonely for those of us who have grown up in a village and always had the support of the village people. So, like I say, it’s a mixed bag. I think the parents really need to plck and choose what they will allow or not allow their children, especially in the school ages. Once they get big enough, they get stronger than you (laughing). And so they’re -- when they're teenagers, you know, that’s
something else; but once they're little and you're teaching
them value systems, you can -- you really have a chance there.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Thank you very much.
MS. CRAIG: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Are
there any other questions from the
Commission?
COMMISSIONER MOORE: I just
have one comment,
and I do really appreciate your -- what you're doing, I think that the -- I hope that the federal government, the state government listen -- listens to your plea. We have so much to offer. I'm very happy to hear that it come from you -- from a Native person telling the government to at least give us a chance. Let us be ourselves. And I hear that clearly from you. Appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Rachel, thank you very much for your testimony. I appreciate the -- especially the fact that, you know, you've expressed that people are raking serious consideration of what needs to be done and taking the initiative to do it; and I really support you in those things.
MS. CRAIG: Well, thank you. I appreciate your being here to give us an opportunity to speak those things that are important to us. Thank you very much. Now if you'll excuse me.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: If you’d send that to me, that’s
my address written on there --
MS. CRAIG: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: -- for your values chart.
MS. CRAIG: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER ELLIOTT: Yeah.
MS. CRAIG: Excuse me?
COMMISSIONER SEBESTA: Okay, thank you, Rachel.
MS. CRAIG: You're welcome.
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