Volume 2 Number 1
January 1962

Tom R. Hopkins

Alaskan native education has an interesting history, and one that is very closely related to the history of the State of Alaska. One of the issues which grasped the emotions and attention of the early settlers of Alaska concerned a dispute with regard to the equality of educational opportunities for white and native children. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, being the first educational administrator in Alaska, was the first to realize the many and varied challenges which Alaskan native education offers. Since 1867, leaders in Alaskan native education have had to meet the usual challenges of American education as well as other challenges indigenous to the mixture of cultures, the extreme climates, and the territorial vastness of the forty-ninth state.

Historically, the education of the Alaskan native can be roughly divided into four periods. The four periods are: (1) 1867-1884, which represents a time when the Territory of Alaska was without civil authorities and was administered by the highest military officer of the military forces detailed to Alaska. Education during this period was predominantly controlled by the missionaries; (2) 1884-1907, a period that finds Alaskan native education again controlled by Christian missionaries with a beginning strong trend toward nonsectarian education. Sheldon Jackson was General Agent for Education during this period and, though he was a government employee, the influence of missionaries was still strongly felt during his term of office. Dr. Jackson was apparently always a missionary first, and only secondly an educational administrator when the two seemed to conflict; (3) 1907-1931, a period that finds educational opportunities for Alaskan natives expanding and improving. During this time (from 1884) the administration of education in Alaska was under the Office of Education of the Federal Government; and (4) 1931 to the present, representing a period when Alaskan native education has been the responsibility of the U. S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It is interesting to note the changes in goals that have accompanied these different periods in the education of the Alaskan native. The first period found the missionaries wanting to make Christians out of the Indian and Eskimo population of Alaska with academic training taking a back seat and great emphasis being placed on living like the white man. The second period found a shift away from strictly Christian conversion toward a nonsectarian "pastoral" life in which the Indians would fish and the Eskimos would herd reindeer. During the third period, still under the U. S. Office of Education, communications and organizational aspects of curriculum and administration were improved, the reindeer program was expanded, and more emphasis was placed on academic education. The last period finds Alaskan native education again changing under the impact of the Merian Report, which influenced all schools under the responsibility of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

It would appear that Alaskan native education is now entering a new era which will require of its leaders increased intellectual training and sensitivity to the trends in education in Alaska and in the United States at large. The position of the Alaskan native in relation to the state of Alaska has been stated as:

Statehood has increased awareness among native people of the political importance of their participation in all levels of government. State schools are being influenced greatly by the ferment in education which is being felt throughout the United States. Alaskan native education is being brought out of the "bush" and is being placed on a par with schools in the urban areas of the United States, which reflect a need for stronger intellectual (academic) training of all students.

This, quite naturally, presents some unique challenges to leaders of Alaskan native education and likewise means that, as with other schools throughout the United States, some changes are in order. Mrs. Hildegard Thompson, Chief of the Branch of Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has mentioned educational change frequently in the recent issues of Indian Education. One such reference to educational change reads:

Educational change seems inevitable at this time and suggested guide-lines for educational change are: (1) that it requires a comprehensive image of the dynamics of teaching and learning; (2) that it involves sensitivity for the dynamics of change; (3) and that there is a design for continuing evaluation of the outcomes of change. (2:187)

The responsibility for directing change in education in schools of the Bureau of Indian Affairs rests on the shoulders of the educational administrators. With respect to education within the Bureau, each employee in the Education Branch is considered a teacher. (7: 1) Recent studies over the past ten years have provided much fruitful information directly concerned with the job of administering schools. Eight areas of competency in educational administration have been outlined and are: (1) instruction and curriculum development; (2) pupil personnel; (3) community school leadership; (4) staff personnel; (5) school plant; (6) school transportation; (7) organization and structure; and (8) school finance and business management. The challenge in part is to achieve a degree of competence and balance in all of these eight critical areas. (3:47)

Thus far a brief history of change in Alaskan native education has been presented plus an equally brief treatise on a few recent thoughts on educational administration in general. If change is inevitable, what is the premise for change in Alaskan native education? What are the problems? J. Lloyd Trump in his "Focus on Change" has summarized the problems our schools face as:

What are some of the challenges which confront present day leaders in Alaskan native education? A few are suggested: (1) How can Bureau of Indian Affairs administrators help reduce the dropout rate in Alaskan schools? (2) Overageness is a problem in schools for Alaskan natives. How can overageness be reduced? What is one approach that all Bureau of Indian Affairs administrators can use to help reduce overageness? (3) There is a decided lack of school facilities in Alaska for the Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts, particularly on a secondary level. What are some techniques that can be utilized to help alleviate the problem until adequate facilities are available? (4) Being educators in the true sense of the word, how can Bureau of Indian Affairs educational administrators best maintain the balance between "administration" and "education" without losing sight of either one or the other? Do the administrators consider themselves "administrators" or "educators" or do they consider themselves "administrators" and "educators"? (5) Various studies of Alaskan native education have revealed that the educational aspirations of these peoples are low. How can this problem be approached so that Alaskan natives will see the obvious advantages to be gained through education? (6) If Bureau of Indian Affairs teachers seem to doubt the educability beyond the eighth grade of Alaskan natives (according to Dr. Ray's report, some do) what can be done to help change this attitude? (7) Current emphasis in educational thought reflects an increasing interest in creating an "intellectual" environment in the schools of the United States. It is assumed that this also includes schools within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Therefore, what is an intellectual environment, and how can educational leaders help to inspire the teachers and students under their supervision to develop their natural intellectual curiosity? (8) Life in the modern world is becoming more and more complex. This complexity is slowly spreading out into even the most remote villages in Alaska. And, with this complexity, comes a technology which makes menial daily tasks easier and less time-consuming than the proverbial "old ways". This is good from one point of view, but it can also be bad if the culture affected does nothing to fill the resultant void of time-on-our-hands. This problem seems to be world-wide and offers a basic challenge to educators in all lands. This challenge is best described as follows:

This cult of easiness is a wholly inadequate guide to understand the springs of human action. What most people, young or old, want is not merely security or comfort or luxury—although they are glad enough to have these. They want meaning in their lives. If their era and their culture and their leaders do not or cannot offer them great meanings, great objectives, great convictions, then they will settle for shallow and trivial meanings. "Our chief want in life," said Emerson

The above has been an attempt to organize and use some of the recent ideas now current on the educational front in the United States. The application of current ideas in education to Alaskan native education would seem to be a necessity if one believes in the educability of these people. Reconciliation of current educational thought with native village conditions in Alaska presents a challenge of the first order. The practical application of these ideas in education in the United States has not been accomplished; but Bureau of Indian Affairs educators in Alaska should be aware of their impact on our society, for the present generation of Alaskan natives will be judged and admitted to the dominant society on a basis commensurate with their understanding of the modern world, a world which is greatly influenced by the schools.