tEunUra €ums
Owned, controlled and edited by rundra Times, Inc., n corporation of Alaska
native'. Published at Fairbanks, Alaska, twice monthly, on the first and third
Mondays.
Address all mail to Bok 1287, Fairbanks, Alaska. Telephone GL 2-2244.
Entered at the Post Office at Fairbanks, Alaska, as second class matter under
the Act of March 3, 1879.
Tundra Times, Inc., publisher (Howard Rock, Martha Teeluk, and Alfred Ketzler);
HOWARD ROCK, editor; Thomas Snapp, assistant editor; Vivian P. Spurgin, office
manager; contributing editors, Guy Okakok, Martha Teeluk, and Alfred Ketzler.
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Native Land Problem
On January 7, this year, The Tundra Times printed
a letter to the President of the United States, John F. Ken
endy, from William Brandon, famous author of The Amer
ican Heritage Book of Indians, for which President wrote
a Forward.
This paper feels that some of the contents of this
letter are of great importance and feel that many of us
should grasp them more fully than we have. Some of the
passages in this letter seem to apply well in the present
land siituation in the Minto area.
Mr. Brandon wrote:
"The Alaska Eskimos and Indians were assured of cer
tain "aboriginal rights' by Congressional Act of 1884, al
though these rights have never yet been defined by Cong
ress. In common usage, such rights are assumed to be basic
ally land rights. But—until the matter receives Congress
ional definition— how much land and hwere remains un
determined.
"The Alaska Statehood Act of 1958 re-asserted these
still-undetermined rights. But this same Act granted to the
new State of Alaska generous portions of Alaska "public
lands," to be selected by the State within twenty-five years.
"Lands considered their own by Alaskan native people
fall, more often than not, within these "public lands." There
are reports from Alaska that the State is moving to possess
itself of the homelands and hunting areas of some of these
native peoples, particularly where such lands are of spec
ial value.
"Such acts of technically legal but morally question
able dispossession seem almost unbelievable in the pres
ent day. They recall the dark ages of the mid-Nineteenth
century, in Indian Affairs.
"As I understand it, the Interior Department is em-1
powered to withdraw from the "public lands" in Alaska
tracts of territory around all native viillages. This would
afford protection to the natives against any encroachment
by the State while all parties await the eventual definitiion
by Congress of aboriginal land and hunting rights.
"Alaskan Eskimos and Indians have urgently re
quested such action. I wish to join my most earnest plea to
theirs.
"Alaska is a new frontier literally, and the spiritual
climate created there will be a factor in its development.
The treatment of the native people in Alaska will have its
effect on all the people there, not just the natives. And it
is the people there, in the words of Thucydides, who will
make the State—not the possession of some Eskimo village's
oil and gas deposits.
"In my work in the history of American Indians I have
gotten the impression that the record of the United States
in Alaska, from the time of Sheldon Jackson in the 1880s
until statehood, was rather good. I was proud to say so in
the American Heritage text, with praise that, as remarked
therein, was rarer than rubies, examples for it being scarce.'
"I feel confident that your administration will, in your
own words in that book, continue to "do what must be
done if our treatment of the American Indian is not to be
marked down for all time as a national disgrace."
NORTH STAR
AWARD
(In each issue, tlie Tundra
Times will single out for a North
Star award one who has made an
outstanding aerninplishment or
done a meritorious act.)
“I'm concerned about the future
of the Indians and Eskimos,” said
Richard Frank, chief of the Indian
community of Minto, at the hearing
of the proposed road to Minto flats
in the basement of the Chamber
of Commerce building in Fairbanks.
Mr. Frank, representing his peo
ple, spoke his side of the argument
in a quiet and staedy manner but
his words carried the wisdom de
serving that of a chief, as Richard
Frank is, of his people of Minto.
He, though having had only 6th
grade education, related the Minto
situation in a lucid manner although
saying, “I have just had sixth grade
education and am not able to use
well chosen words.”
Richard Frank did not need to
worry. It was apparent that his
words had profound effect on his
rapt audience.
When discussion was dwelling on
the area of land needed by Indians
to hunt on. one of the people in the
audience asked the chief why he had
never seen any Indians around his
claim in 17 years, that he thought
all of the land was not being used,
Richard Frank replied, “There was
a complaint brought into the Minto
Board of Directors about these cab
ins. and we gave strict orders to
stay away from those cabins—don’t
go near them, because we don’t
want to get our natives in trouble.”
Obviously feeding grateful for
having been invited for the first
and only time and given a chance
to talk on behalf of his people,
Richard Frank concluded:
“I feel I got a load off my chest
and feel better, and I still fee 1 Minto
people want to hear your side and
your say-so.
“I want to thank everyone for in
viting me to this meeting and want
to say I was proud to get that in
vitation.”
And so to Richard Frank. Chief
of Minto. for forcefully presenting
his people’s views and problems,
goes the Tundra Times eleventh
North Star award along with our
congratulations.
ESKIMO POEM
Flight
By Howard Weyahok
It was night—deep night,
That held a cloudless sky
With effervescent atmosphere.
Stillness hung on a downy
String of silence.
In the remote and turgid
Chamber of my mortal brain
There stirred a tiniest of ripples,
As that of a grain of sand
On the calmest pond.
My mind had awakened
From its deadened sleeping mass
And timorously reached for
thought—
And reached again.
But thought, blithely eluding,
Glided a league beyond.
It floated there, a winsome spirit.
The mind strived harder than be
fore
To unfold the pliant elusive thing.
Thought bounded—ten leagues
more.
The mind strained to reach again
And streaked into boundless space
In great pursuit in light-fast speed.
a hi
The thought pirouted,
Touching a distant star.
The sound of the touch
Was a strident strum
On a taut string in endless space.
Educator Finds Teaching
In Two Languages Is Best
By JOAN RYAN <
Assistant Professor of Education
University of Alaska
When people from two different
cultures speak the same language,
there is often room for misunder
standing due to cultural connota
tions of given symbols.
But when two people from dis
similar cultures speak different
languages and are forced to com
municate through an interpreter,
the problems are even more com
plex. Perhaps the most complex of
communication problems arise
when one person has learned suffi
cient of the second’s symbols to
“communicate" but not necessarily
to understand the bases of the
symbols.
Such is often the case in the
north when an Eskimo or Indian
has learned English but speaks it
from his own cultural standpoint.
The words simply do not mean the
same thing to the native and the
non-native speakers who are at
toTnr.t;-n* to “communicate" due to
the cultural contexts each gives the
terms used.
Second Language
Thus much misunderstanding is
engendered. The additional prob
lem which is inherent in such con
tacts too is the “feeling” that under
lies the need to learn a second
language in order to meet one's
basic needs. Often there is resent
ment due not to the learning of the
second language but to the neces
sity of obliterating the first.
Why does such a situation exist?
In an era when people are spending
many leisure hours attempting to
learn a second language, when uni
versity students at the graduate
level are being asked to show pro
ficiency in three, if not four lan
guages, why is a group who could
easily be bilingual being urged to
forget their language and learn a
new one?
The genesis of the situation dates
back many years when the concept
of assimilation, then meaning the
superimposing of one culture (West
ern! over another (Eskimo and In
dian!. had as its first goal the re
moval of native languages.
Link of Culture
After all, people without a lan
guage of their own have no vehicle
for the transmission of their cul
ture. Therefore if you want to de
stroy a major part of the culture,
you simply have to remove the
means by which it is transmitted
from the old to the young.
If the coming generation cannot
understand the elders and there is
no written language, the latter are
left to reminisce among themselves
and the young must find new di
rections from the superimposed cul
ture.
Indeed the method worked ir
Alaska with the exception of a few
villages and without the realization
of many genuine people who helped
the process along.
The recognition that a culture
and a language (indeed several) as
well as a spirit of identification
and ethnic pride have been de
stroyed has come too late to be
useful. In the few remaining villages
with native speakers, the linguists
will make their recordings and be
moan the passing of another genera
tion.
However, in a few places in Alas
ka and in many villages in the north
of Canada there is still a nucleus
of native speakers. It is as a plea
for the preservation of these re
maining traces that I recount the
following positive and enlightening
experience I had when I taught for
the Department of Northern Af
fairs in the Northwest Territories
of Canada.
Difficult Communication
When I first joined the Depart
ment in 1957 I was assigned as com
munity teacher to a small isolated
village of Athabascan Indians just
northwest of Yellowknife. My job
at Lac La Martre was to teach
basic English, a basic primary pro
gram. and to help raise the stand
ard of living through village pro
jects.
I was instructed that I was never
to speak a word of Indian in the
classroom or in the village as this
would decrease the motivation of
the people to learn English. And so
I went through the difficult process
of attempting to teach children to
count in English when they had not
yet learned to count in Indian!
Among the adults, I used an in
terpreter and the results were
more fruitful; several village pro
jects were completed and yet there
was little sense of communication.
It is difficult to know what people
think and feel, what makes them
laugh or cry when one has to use
an interpreter who in this case was
barely understandable. And so the
months went on with much lack of
understanding between us for we
had no real way to communicate.
Less Arduous
By the second summer, I decided
that I would adhere to Depart
mental policy as far as the class
room went but that I would learn,
to communicate in Indian outside
the school. So, I began to carry
copious notes with my written ap
proximations of Dogrib on them.
My ear was never quite accurate
and the process was a slow one.
However, at the end of four months
I could manage without on interpre
ter for day to day matters.
I reverted to a translator when
a crisis arose, someone was ill with
internal complications etc. But. I
did sense in those few months a
new respect among the people
which reflected itself in their will
ingness to cooperate even when they
did not fully understand the project
or the method.
Evening hours became filled with
stories and pleasant conversations
with much effort on the part of the
people to help me understand words
I had not yet learned. For exam
ple. upon several occasions one of
the Council members would do a
pantomime of an animal until it
registered with me and I could
identify it.
And the process became a recipro
cal one: many of the adults found
themselves greeting me in English
or asking to borrow an item which
they named in English. All of us
felt pleased with ourselves and
with each other. The tasks became
'ess arduous, the days brighter and
the pattern of human relationships
warmer and more trusting.
New Difficulty
^ I was assigned to the Arctic Edu
cation Section when I returned to
head office in the fall of 1958. In
May. 1959, I went to Ungava Bay
to teach in the Eskimo fish camps.
This time communication was
even more difficult as I had no in
terpreter and no one spoke any
English. I taught Basic English and
learned a few words of Eskimo but
not many due to the lack of some
one to explain what the words
meant.
It w»as a good way to learn how
difficult it is to learn a new lan
guage if the person is not familiar
with the underlying concepts. Yet
this was what we were asking the
children to do.
Effective Way
In September I returned to Otta
wa, convinced that the most ef
fective way of teaching would be
to use both languages. In this way,
the children (and adults) would
have only to learn a new symbol
for a concept they already knew.
(Continuea on Page Five)