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
(On record.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you. Charles, you may begin.
MR. HUBBARD: Okay, I'm Charles Hubbard. I'm president of the AHTNA Heritage Foundation. I'm with the AHTNA Region. I apologize for not having anything written. What I'm doing is on the spur of the moment.
One of the things I would like to address
is the Anchorage School District. Maybe before I dire -- address
that, it's -- I'd like to say it's really hard for me to visualize
someone where -- who has never been to their village, can't
speak their language, wearing Jordache pants, going through
culture shock. When you're educated by a blue-lipped BIA nun,
beating on the back of your hand, telling you not speak your
language with parents that can’t speak English, then you're
going through culture shock.
On the language immersion program, I believe that the Anchorage School District is starting another Spanish-language immersion program. I think the address -- the Native languages of the state should be addressed in the Anchorage area. There are approximately 6,000 Native students in the Anchorage area.
The -- I think an educational committee should not just deal with students and education, but it should also deal with employment in education. The Anchorage School District's EEO Ninth Revision came out yesterday at 3 p.m. Under the definitions of ethnic groups, you have: Black Hispanics -- they can just be Black Hispanics; Western Hispanics -- they can be just Western Hispanics; Blacks can be just Black; but under American Indian and Alaska Native, there's an addendum that says:
"Must be involved in cultural and traditions in
tribal -- and tribal traditions."
What that says to me that before the Anchorage School District can recognize you under its hiring policies, you can't be just an American Native -- Indian or Alaska Native. You have to be involved. You can't be just a person. And I think that is wrong. We should be recognized just as a people, as a person being a Native.
Another thing bothers me in the Anchorage area is the tutoring. I know that many of our Native students need tutoring; however, they refuse it, because of the stigma that is placed on them because they are being tutored. Any time you're in any group, whether it be Native, Black, White, if you are pulled out of a group and taken over here and tutored, and then brought back into that group, the stigma of ignorance is yours; and it's your peers that will give it to you. And I think that policy should be looked at.
My wife, who's quite involved with the Anchorage Council of PTAs, wanted me to pass along a resolution, which deals with the safety of students. And this is something she believes can be addressed statewide. Right now, student accountability is mainly addressed on the day that the Foundation Formula which deals with funding of schools. Only two times per school year is the administration really concerned with any student's attendance; because on those two days, the more students you have, the more money you get.
And this is just a draft resolution; and maybe I could give that to you. I apologize for that also, but -- and those are the only two issues -- two or three issues that I wanted to talk about.
(DRAFT RESOLUTION FROM DEE HUBBARD ATTACHED AS EXHIBIT #7.)
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Charles, and we'll include that resolution in the record.
MR. HUBBARD: That resolution is just a draft. My wife’s
name is at the top, and I have your fax and addresses.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Okay, thanks. Now, Michael Jennings.
MS. PERATROVICH: May I ask him a question?
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Sure, I'm sorry. Charles, if you don't mind being asked a question by Nettie, I'm sorry.
MS. PERATROVICH: I'm very concerned about what you said regarding the tutorial services for Native students, and the stigma because they are pulled out of the classroom. Do Native students' parents know that they are eligible for 37% hours of certified teaching per week; and that if those tutors are not: certified, that they are being deprived of an equal education?
MR. HUBBARD: I don't think they do. One of the things that -- one of the vehicles that probably could be used is the Anchorage PTA Council; and I believe that if you as an organization would be involved in the Anchorage PTA Council, maybe you could request a seat on the Council. But it seems like I come to AFN year after year, and I hear testimony; but I never hear the results. This Commission is working on education -- this Commission. I never hear results say:
"Okay, last year this problem, this problem, this
problem was addressed by the Commission."
You know, but involvement on the seats of those organizations that are in place now, Minority Education Concerns Committee of the Anchorage School Board, I think if we became more involved in those areas, then it would also give a voice.
MS. PERATROVICH: What do you think about starting a Native school for Native students?
MR. HUBBARD: If you start a Native school for Native students, one of its top priority must be assimilate those Natives that attend that school into the Western civilization. And I say assimilate. I don't say segregate 'em out and say:
"You are Native, and blah, blah, blah."
I believe that is what's wrong with our young people now. You must achieve your distinction as a person. I went through this, and I did it -- I kind of did it the hard way. I got up every morning, and when I looked in the mirror, I told myself:
"You're an Indian; you're the best."
And so I went out and got aggressive. I was not raised to be aggressive, but I learned to be; and I think I can successfully flop back and forth from the Western society back into the Indian society and vice versa.
MS. PERATROVICH: Do you know the name of the accountability? The twice a year when they want to make sure that they count all of the Native students? Do you know what that's called?
MR. HUBBARD: It's funding of the schools, and it's --
MS. PERATROVICH: It's Public Law --
MR. HUBBARD: It's the Foundation Formula.
MS. PERATROVICH: -- 874. The --
MR. HUBBARD: It has to deal with the Foundation Formula.
MS. PERATROVICH: The Foundation formula that gives the school district several thousand dollars for each Native student that they count on those days, the beginning of the school year; and I don't know whether it's the middle or toward the end now. And they determine what their percentage of P.L. 874 monies --
MR. HUBBARD: Uh-huh (affirmative).
MS. PERATROVICH: -- are, because Alaska Natives are non-taxed. And it also applies for military students as well. But Alaska Natives have always brought in the most bucks to the school district.
MR. HUBBARD: But accountability in schools, I think, should be for all children. If your child is not going to school, and -- then you should know about it. You shouldn't read about it on a report card, or you shouldn't find out about it two days later. You should know immediately, so -- and it's not just for Native kids, it's for anybody's kids. If your child is not where it's supposed to be -- where they're supposed to be, then the organization should take some kind of steps -- the educational organization should take some kind of steps to notify the parents that that child is not there.
COMMISSIONER TOWARAK: Thank you, Charles.
MS. PERATROVICH: Thank you.
MR. HUBBARD: Thank you.
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