TASK FORCE MAKES MANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON WELFARE, EDUCATION
Welfare
“As a result of its observations. !
the Task Force calls attention to i
the following problem areas in the
provisions of welfare and employ
ment assistance to Alaska natives:
1. The need for a coordinated ef
fort in administering there pro
grams.
Comment: With welfare, as with
education, the Task Force feels
that the program might more effi
ciently be administered by the State
than by a combination of the State
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The B.I.A. and the State should
continue exploring the possibilities
of an early consolidation of the na
tive welfare program under a single
administrative head. During the
time that such negotiations are tak
ing place, a policy committee in
volving high-level representatives
of the Department of Health, Edu- I
cation and Welfare, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs, the Alaska Depart
ment of Health and Welfare, and
the Alaska Rural Development
Agency should be established.
Through such a committee a much
more coordinated attack on Indian
welfare problems would be possible.
2. The need for the Bureau to aid
the State in its rural development
program, or to establish a similar
program of its own, as an alterna
tive to welfare payments.
Comment: While a high percent
age of the Bureau's general assist
ance funds go to help Indians, Es
kimos, and Aleuts in the urban
areas, some of the portion allocated
to the native villages should be di
verted into work projects such as
those now being subsidized by the I
State program. If the Bureau were
to contribute funds directly to the
State Rural Development Agency,
it should try to provide more tech
nical assistance than is presently
being offered by the State. Some
of this aid might be supplied as part
of an adult education program. The
Branch of Plant Management
(B.I.A.) might also make a contri
bution. Furthermore, there is the
possibility of help from the Depart
ment of Commerce through the new
Public Works Acceleration Act, and
from a national service corps, should
one be established. The Public
Health Service and the Housing !
and Home Finance Agency should
also be involved in connection with
improving health ar'1 sanitation fa
cilities and housing
The possibility o aid from so
many different agencies emphasizes
the need stressed in Recommenda
tion No. 1 for a coordinated pro
gram.
3. The continuing need for an
adequate program of relocation ser
vices. plus the need for a greatly
increased program of training for
local employment.
Comment: It is quite clear that
the people of many of the Eskimo
and Athabascan villages have limit
ed opportunities for local employ
ment and, to the extent they are
willing, should be provided oppor
tunities for training and placement
in areas where job opportunities
are available. Consequently, the
Task Force, in suggesting greater
channeling of Alaskan natives into
local employment, is not calling
for abolishment of the relocation
program. However, it feels that
much more effort and a much great
er share of the general Bureau ap
propriation for employment assist
ance should be devoted to search
ing out employment within Alaska
which would be available to Es
kimos, Indians, and Aleuts if they
were properly trained, and to mak
ing sure that such training is pro
vided them. The RCA program is
a good start, but should be con
sidered only as a beginning.
4. The urgency of establishing a
much more elaborate program of
adult education leading to general
community development.
Comment: This subject has been
covered under Recommendation No.
6 in the preceding chapter dealing
with education.
5. The continuing need for the
Bureau and the State to work to
gether in providing welfare ser
vices to native children.
Comment: Until such time as Al
aska is financially able to provide
a much more comprehensive pro
gram of child welfare services than
that which it offers at present or
until the state, with a heavy Fed
eral subsidy, takes over the entire
program, the Bureau must expect
to continue its present assistance.
The spirit of cooperation which pre
vails between B.I.A. and State wel
fare administrators must be main
tained if the available funds are
to be put to their best use.
Education
“In working out their education
plans, the Task Force would like to
suggest to the State of Alaska, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the
Office of Education that the follow
ing point* i given careful consid
eration:
1. “The urgent need for making
available to all native children a
complete elementary education.
“Comment: Twenty-two of the
village schools presently financed
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Alaska. They are assigned to the FHS Alaska Native Hospital,
L Kotzebue, Alaska.
and operated by the Bureau of In
dian Affairs do not offer a full 8
years of primary work. Arrange
ments should be made for adding
the necessary grades to make these
complete 8-year schools.
2. The immediate need for the
Bureau and the State of Alas
ka to undertake a program
for the establishment of a
system of regional high
schools to serve the natives of.,
the villages which are too
small to merit their own
school.
“Comment: The Task Force rec
ognizes that serious problems of
teacher housing exist in the major
communities of north and western
Alaska, which would be the logical
locations for regional high schools.
“However, it will rot concede that
these problems are insurmountable,
and maintains that building regional
high schools would be preferable to
sending all high school youngsters
to Mt. F,dgecumbe. or to other Bur
eau boarding schools in the lower
48 States.
“Present plans for the expansion
of Mt. Edgecumbe will provide for
only a small portion of those young
sters from native villages, who in
the near future will be ready for
high school.
“Furthermore, Mt. Edgecumbe
| cannot be expanded indefinitely to
meet the accelerating need for ad
ditional facilities.
“Locations which should be given
serious consideration for the estab
lishment of high schools are such
natural centers of population con
centration as Bethel, Unalakleet,
Nome, Kotzebue, and Barrow.
“The B.I.A. should also give con
tinuing consideration to adding high
school work to the elementary
school programs in villages where
there is a demand which cannot
otherwise be met.
3. The need for transferring the
administrative responsibility
for educating native children
to the State of Alaska.
4. The importance of continuing
to provide aids to native high
school graduates desiring to
avail themselves of higher
education.
Comment: Both the Bureau of In
dian Affairs and the State, at the
present time, have programs which
appear to be meeting most of the
needs of Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut
youngsters for loans and grants to
attend college.
However, as the general level of
nati>. e education improves, it may
be expected that this need will like
I wise increase. Both the State and
I the Bureau should be prepared to
' meet it.
5. The need for a continuing
program of vocational train
ing which will realistically
take into account the availa
bility of job opportunities in
Alaska and elsewhere.
6. The need for a greatly ex
panded program of adult edu
cation in the villages.
Comment: This program is a joint
responsibility of the State and the
Bureau and should be directed
toward far more than simply re
ducing the rate of illiteracy among
the older natives.
It should include instruction in
community organization, the prep
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7. The need for integrating the
schools more completely into
the life of the native villages.
Comment: In many native com
munities the school has long been
the principal contact between the
natives and the outside world, and,
except in those villages where
non-natives have established busi
nesses, the school teacher is often
the only outsider with whom the
natives have regular contact.
For the teacher to abstain from
participation in community life and
to withhold the use of school facili
ties from the natives is to reduce the
effectiveness of the whole school
program.
Both the Bureau and the State
should do everything possible to
involve the adults of the villages
in planning the school program and
in making the school the center of
community life.
The Task Force heard many com
plaints that this is not being done
in the 22 Johnson-O'Malley schools
being operated by the State, and is
not being done consistently in all
of the B.I.A.-operated schools.
While the Task Force recognizes
the importance of the schoolteacher
refraining from involvement with
the various political factions which
exist in all native communities, it
refuses to concede that there is no
role for the schoolteacher in the
community except that which he
plays in the classroom itself.
The members of the Task Force
would like to suggest that at the
completion of each school year both
B.I.A. teachers and those hired by
the State be required to prepare
brief reports summarizing their im
pressions of life in these communi
ties, including such factors as the
economic roles of the people, leader
ship patterns, estimated income
levels, and other items vital to plan
ning for the welfare of the commun
ity and its inhabitants.
In this regard, the Task Force
also recommends that before under
taking to transfer the administra
tive responsibility for all B.I.A.
operated schools to the State, the
Bureau should insist upon a provis
ion which would insure that teach
ers hired by the State take the same
interest in community affairs as the
Bureau asks its teachers to take.
/
In those communities where the
schoolteachers maintain radio
equipment which provides the prin
cipal means of communication be
tween the villagers and the outside
world, unreasonable demands are
often made on the teachers’ time.
Since one of the most important
uses of this radio equipment is to
provide a link between Public Serv
ice hospitals and nurses aides in
the communities, it is recommended
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that the B.I.A. and the Indian Health
Service work out a joint program
for financing the purchase and op
eration of this radio equipment.
The Task Force suggests that
whereever possible, the equipment
be located in a place which is al
ways accessible to a native radio
operator and that the natives be
trained to use it.
In these cases where Bureau
school radio equipment may not be
available to P.H.S. nurses aides, the
Public Health Service should make
arrangements of its own for assur
ing that contact between the vil
lages and the hospital is maintained.
8. The importance of a well-con
ceived orientation program
for teacher going to assign
ments in remote native com
munities.
Comment: Many teachers each
year take up assignments in isolated
villages without being properly pre
pared. i
On the the major inhibitors to
the development of an adequate
orientation program is the difficulty
of finding temporary housing for
teachers and their families in Jun
eau, pending their transfer to the
field.
The Task Force would like to sug
gest that this problem be overcome
by conducting these orientation
courses at some other location, as
for example, at Fairbanks.
If the annual reports re*<,,n*
mended by the Task Force in Itern
6. above, were submitted by village
teachers, they would be extremely
useful as orientation material.
The Bureau also might seek the
assistance of the Anthropology De
partment of the State University in
the development of orientation ma
terial of an ethnological nature and
might call upon members of the an
thropology faculty to lecture to the
teachers before the latter under
take their field assignments.
If it does prove impractical to
schedule an orientation course of
two weeks or longer duration In
Juneau or elsewhere late in the
summer, the Tack Force suggest9
that in cooperation with the Uni
versity of Alaska a series of “post
reports,” similar to those maintained
by the Department of State, be de
veloped for the areas in which Bur
eau schools are located.
These orientation materials, of
course, could serve Bureau em
ployees generally as well as thosa
going out to school assignments.
Man is not alone ... I could feel
no doubt of man’s oneness with the
universe . . . For those who seek
it there is inexhaustible evidence
of an all-pervading intelligence. —
RICHARD E. BYRD (American ex
plorer in Alone)
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