Brief Introduction to the History of Alaska Native Education

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The 'Molly Hootch' case changed the course of Alaska education, finally ending the physical consequences of the prior era of segregated schooling and different opportunities for Alaska. Typically the territory, and later the state of Alaska, provided local high schools for predominately white communities. Alaska Native communities schools were operated by the Federal government and a variety of church mission schools. Alaska Natives were allowed to attend territorial school only if they were at least "mixed- breed" and "lived a civilized life."

The coming of citizenship for Alaska Natives, in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, Alaska Native participation in World War II, and the eventual coming of statehood did not bring any sense of responsibility by the state for the education of all the children of the state. It was not conscience or a sense of responsiblity that finally allowed Alaska communities with Alaska Native populations to enjoy the same right of sending children to high schools located in their communities - it was the result of a class action lawsuit filed nearly twenty years after Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka. [link to Timeline]

The following documents include the amended class action lawsuit of Molly Hootch, a description of the case by one of the attornies who represented Alaska Natives in the suit, the original "Nelson Act of 1905" that reaffirmed and carried forward this shameful chapter in Alaska education, and the settlement of the Molly Hootch case in Tobeluk vs. Lind. It should be noted that although the case was settled out of court, the state of Alaska did agree with the facts of the case concerning the racially discriminatory history of their educational practices.

• A History of the Nome, Alaska Public Schools: 1899 to 1958 From the Gold Rush to Statehood, A Thesis, By John Marion Poling, B.A., College, Alaska, May 1970
  
• Historical Status of Elementary Schools in Rural Alaskan Communities, 1867-1980, Carol Barnhardt. [This one of the more recent histories of Alaska Native education written by a long time student and teacher of the topic. Recommended reading. ...Paul Ongtooguk]
• Alaska Native Education Study: A Statewide Survey of Alaska Native Values and Opinions Regarding Education in Alaska - This 150 page report was prepared for the First Alaskans Foundation by the McDowell Group and was presented at the Alaska Native Education Summit in late 2001. Download is an Adobe Acrobat pdf.
• 'The Problem of Indian Administration" The Meriam report from 1928, submitted to the Secretary of the Interior, regarding the status of Natives in Alaska at that time.
• Statistics
• Culture and Change for Iñupiat and Yupiks of Alaska by Edna Ahgeak MacLean - also available as PDF
• Field-Based Education for Alaskan Native Teachers and Domestication of the Ivory Tower -- Two articles by Ray Barnhardt, who introduces these articles by stating "With the need for more "home-grown" teachers and administrators continuing as an on-going issue throughout Alaska, the following articles are made available so we can learn from and build upon the lessons learned from past efforts to prepare teachers to meet the unique educational needs in the State. These articles describe some of the issues encountered by the field-based Cross-Cultural Education Development (X-CED) Program over a 25 year period in which it prepared approximately 250 teachers (mostly Alaska Native) on-site in rural Alaska."
• "Races of a Questionable Ethnical Type": Origins of the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Bureau of Education in Alaska, 1867-1885, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 75 (October 1984), pp. 156-163

• The Nelson Act of 1905—legislation creating racially segregated schools in Alaska.

• School Republics of the Arctic! Chapter XXVIII, Alaska: Our Northern Wonderland, copyright 1928 by Frank G. Carpenter

• Desegregation In Alaska’s Schools: Alaska Yesterday, Stephen Haycox, "The Anchorage Times," Anchorage, Alaska, January 26, 1986

• The Education Program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska, 1971-72

• Alaska's Urban Boarding Home Program, Interpersonal Relationships Between Indian and Eskimo Secondary Students and Their Boarding Home Parents, Judith Kleinfeld, 1972

• Molly Hootch, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. Alaska State Operated School System, et al., Defendants, the lawsuit challenging the separate and unequal system of education in Alaska.

• Anna Tobeluk, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. Marshall Lind, et al., Defendants, the settlement of the Molly Hootch lawsuit.

• Alaska's "Molly Hootch" Case: High Schools and the Village Voice, Stephen E. Cotton, Attorney, Andover, Massachusetts

• Law and Alaska Native Education, The Influence of Federal and State Legislation upon Education of Rural Alaska Natives, David H. Getches, 1977

• Inupiaq Education, Eben Hopson, Mayor, North Slope Borough, Barrow, Alaska, 1977

• Native Education Speech by Willie Hensley at Bilingual Conference, Anchorage, Alaska (February, 1981)

• "ANCSA-Related Side Effects," Kornelia Grabinska, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc., March 1983, From Tanana Chiefs Conference, Inc., Interior Region Post ANCSA, Impact Analysis.

• Alaska's Small Rural High Schools, Are They Working? Judith S. Kleinfeld, G. Williamson McDiarmid, and Davig Hagstrom, October 1985

• The Education Section of the 1989 AFN Report: A Call for Action, Alaska Federation of Natives, January 1989

• Audience Socialization of the Inupiat Eskimo: An Ethnographic Study in Cultural Continuity, "Chapter IV, The Professionals: Portraits with Divergent Voices," MAK Mitchell, 1989

• The Dual Political Status of Alaska Natives Under U.S. Policy, Thomas A. Morehouse, UAA, ISER, March 1992 (.pdf file, 78 KB)

• Alaska Native Education: Issues in the Nineties (pdf format), Judith Kleinfeld, Professor of Psychology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, April, 1992

• The Iñupiat and the Christianization of Arctic Alaska, Ernest S. Burch, Jr., Études/Inuit/Studies, 1994, 18(1-2):81-108.

• Taken to Extremes: Education in the Far North, Frank Darnell and Anton Hoëm, Chapter 4: Historical Development of Schooling, 1996

• By One Spirit, Karl A. Olsson

• "Lack of True American History in Textbooks," Georgianna Lincoln in Authentic Alaska: Voices of Its Native Writers by Susan B. Andrews and John Creed.