I grew up in the small village of Shaktoolik on the shores of Norton Sound. That was a safe place for the first 10-years of my life. My dignity remained strong and intact. Until the BIA school teacher beat me for speaking Inupiaq. Then it was shattered.

The next safest place I ever found was having a picnic lunch with my sister Darlene in the center park of the Pentagon in Virginia. That was even after 9-11. She recently retired from the place.

Anchorage is not a safe place. Personal dignity is hard to find here. Racism is and remains its core issue.