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 TOWARAK: Thank you. We have two more students that will be testifying; then what we'll do is take a -- about a ten -- I'll say a five-minute break and, hopefully, get back in ten minutes. We will hear from Debbie -- and your last: name?
MS. BARRIS (ph.): Barris (ph.).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Harris?
MS. BARRIS (ph.): Barris (ph.).
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Barris (ph.) ? Oh, okay, and then Vicky.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: And Susan.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Susan? Okay, we've got three. Then we'll take a little five-minute break after the -- we hear from the students.
MS. BARRIS (ph.): It seems like everybody's addressed pretty much everything, in terms of --
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Can you state your name and --
MS. BARRIS (ph.): Okay.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: -- who you are --
MS. BARRIS (ph.): Sorry.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: -- for the record, and then we can get started.
MS. BARRIS (ph.): My name is Debbie Barris (ph.). I'm from -- I've been living in Alaska for 12 years, although I'm Navaho Indian from Window Rock, Arizona -- from Arizona. And I've been studying at UAA in the bachelor of social work for a long time (laughing). Like Marge said, it takes us a lot longer to get through than some other folks, so -- but I -- what I haven't heard mentioned here is the -- lately in the newspaper, we've been hearing and reading a lot about racism in our state and in our city; and I'd like to address that just a little bit, because I've sat in so many classes for so many years and watched a Native student sit in the back row and never get spoken to for most of the semester. And that really is bad on a person's self-esteem, you know; and being able to go to NSS, and sit in there; and laugh, and have somebody to talk to, and cry to, and feel to, and be accepted by is really, really important to all of us. And I just wanted to make sure that that was heard.
Also, I just -- what -- like Marge was saying is the role modeling and all of the positive things that we do there is really important.
Free tutoring, you know. We -- I'm a tutor now, and I can also get a tutor; and we don't have to pay for it. We don't have to pay for it; we don't have to look for it.
There's somebody right there for us almost all the time. Frank Barry (ph.) I went in -- Barry -- I went into the office the other day and said:
"I need help with logic."
And
Glo (ph.) walked right up there, and she asked, you know, the Director of
Minority Students things to just -- to help me, and he said: "Okay." So it's
very closeknit there; we're very happy there; and we like to be there.
And there's no place else on campus we can get fry bread. (Laughter.) So it's really important.
So, I guess that part of it is just -- is what we need, and like everybody said, the cultural part of it, the support, and the acceptance that we get by going in there And it's really hard to have to sign in every day; and, you know, you walk in there, and everybody says, like they said:
"Sign in. Did you forget to sign in? Did you sign
in?"
Well, shoot, I'm tired of signing in as well.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It's institutional racism.
MS. BARRIS (ph.): It is. It's institutional racism; and it's been going on -- I've been signing in for six years, and why? And it's not -- it's just not fair. I don't need to justify my existence, like Marge said. I am there, and I'm a person, and I belong there; and I worked hard to be there; and we worked hard to have these services available to us.
So I hope that -- I think that also that a forum -- by having an Indigenous Center like that gives us a forum in the University, gives us strength. As we -- as a center like that would grow, the strength that we would have will get only stronger, to be able to look at all the other issues.
You know, we're in a little cramped space. The Study Center for quiet studying is set up in little cubicles, and right behind that is couches for visiting; so there is really no quiet place for us to study. We still have to go someplace else to study in order to do that. So a Center like that really needs to be fought for; and I'm willing to fight for that. So I just appreciate being able to be here today to talk about it.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you.
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