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: Next to testify is Chuck Degnan.
(Pause.)
MR. DEGNAN: Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Chuck Degnan, from Unalakleet, Alaska. My father's Frank Degnan; and our family's been very active at all levels of government all of my life. I served in the Alaska Legislature for two terms, and we addressed many of the same educational issues that are being discussed today.
There had been some progress in the attempts to involve Natives and hire Natives to do jobs that are in the villages. One of the most insulting things to an Alaska Native is to be told that they are not qualified when they actually are. The -- there are very many Natives that are fully qualified to teach and do other jobs that are -- they are not hired to do. And it's because somebody knows them. That means even though they are qualified, they're not qualified good enough to satisfy the door keepers that are in the organization; and they know who they are; they know how to satisfy affirmative action requirements; they know how to avoid discrimination charges; and they sanction discrimination against Alaska Natives so badly that discrimination has become institutionalized, and it's accepted by the senior public officials in the state of Alaska.
The power is taken away from the people, by what I call the administrative procedure in the state of Alaska. And we are an administrative procedures state. You are given an opportunity to compete for positions on a worldwide basis. That means, for a school district, they'll advertise nationwide and worldwide to get you the very best teacher in your local community that money can buy. And they're always finding somebody who is marginally better qualified than the person living in that community.
The other thing that they use against Alaska Natives in the villages is a law called nepotism. It was used on me. Apparently, I've got too many relatives in my own hometown; so, therefore, I can't be a teacher in my own hometown. And it's done deliberately, and it's done with malice, and with enthusiasm. Now, I can say that because I've experienced it. I'm telling you about it so you can do something about it.
We all have the opportunity to do something about it at every level. But the end result is Alaska Natives that are very well educated aren't hired; they're deprived of an opportunity to be role models in their own community. The children seen that, and they wonder why should they go to college.
I've listened to what the University of Alaska students have been saying. I did not send my children back to the University of Alaska where I graduated from. I graduated from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks in 1966. I've known about discrimination all my life. It makes you feel bad; it -- but the way I approach it is that we have to do something about it positively; we need to correct people that are hateful and vicious and to change their behavior.
I'm not telling you anything new. We live in the human race. I'm proud of my family; I'm proud of my accomplishments; I have high self-esteem of my family, my community, and I've done my public service duties as a citizen. I've done -- I'm a veteran; I've served in the United States Army as a Military Police supervisor.
So I'm telling you these things, because it's really bad to be doing this to adults, children, students, mothers, fathers, uncles, and for it to be ignored by the United States government, the state of Alaska, I think is such a tough thing that we need to do a new approach for hiring Alaska Natives to teach in school, to do -- the normal affirmative action is not working, so I: would suggest that whenever a school district, or a state agency, or a federal agency hires an Alaska Native from the state of Alaska -- I'm just talk -- talking only about Alaska Natives; I'm not talking about any other human race category.
If you look at our history, everybody has in-migrated to Alaska and have taken advantage of people that have historically lived here, under the guise of freedom, under the guise of religion. And both the federal and state government are always talking about local freedoms. We value freedoms; but if you prohibit your original owner group from being gainfully employed in the system that the United States government has designed, and the state of Alaska has designed, then there must be a special category to address that particular problem.
Now, we take the issue of subsistence. It's just an indicator of trouble; and it's an indicator that when you're messing with somebody's bread basket and food on the table, you're messing with their life. You take subsistence away from cultures that have traditionally and customarily practiced their lifestyles, you're getting to be worse than -- oh, what's that group of people that we were fighting for so long -- to Soviet Union that we heard all through our life that they were no good, because they did something differently than we did.
Now -- so, what I would recommend is that -- give your state agencies -- challenge all the state agencies. If a federal government does a good job for hiring an Alaska Native in Alaska, have the state pay the federal government an extra 10,000 bucks for doing a good deed. I think everybody understands that nowadays -- what's the expression? - - money talks and the other thing walks.
(Laughter.)
I know I've left some things out that are important and related to education. You must understand that there are very many well-educated Alaska Natives, and there are very many of 'em that are maybe technically disqualified by not renewing their original teaching certificate, because they would never be hired anyway. That can be corrected from the University of Alaska very easily, and there are many other Alaska Natives that have higher-education degrees that would tutor the lapsed certificate per -- the person that owns the lapsed certificate to get them qualified. And it's -- and it should be easy to do for the -- our university within our own state of Alaska. Thank you for the opportunity of talking to you. (Applause.)
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