About the www.Alaskool.org project and its developers

History of Alaska Native Education

Photo of Native school teachers

From the collection of Arthur Nagazruk The man on the right is Arthur Nagazruk. Arthur was one of the first Alaska Natives to serve as a BIA teacher. He taught in several rural communities in Alaska and had a long and distinguished career.

Welcome. The links below lead to a variety of materials collected and posted to help provide background on how education for Native people has changed and stayed the same over the last century or so.

Thirty years later: A study of the long-term effect of Alaska's boarding schools on Alaska Natives and their communities

»Important reports, legislation, speeches, studies, legal texts, and articles about Alaska Native education - with introduction by Paul Ongtooguk

»Historical correspondence and photographs depicting the history of Alaska Native education

»Molly Hootch Court Case: Historical Documents

»Speeches, essays, and classrom materials written or co-authored by Alaskool Director Paul Ongtooguk

»Materials by Bill McDiarmid, Alaskool co-founder

Also:

Links to Other Internet Sites - Other online resources about the history of Alaska Native and American Indian education

List of curricula available on Alaskool

First-Hand and Family Accounts

A rural community perspective on teachers in rural Alaska...When teachers come north and sanity goes south, ELISE PATKOTAK, Heartland Magazine, September 1, 1996.

FUNDING ELUDES NEEDIEST SCHOOLS, Anchorage Daily News, Sunday, October 03, 1999. At Chevak School in Western Alaska, student desks sit so close together that if one child gets up to go to the bathroom, an entire row must stand and move. Three hundred students are crammed inside an old wood-frame building that was designed for half as many kids....[read article]

An Alaska Solution for Schools, Essay Covering School Funding Issues by Paul Ongtooguk.

Lessons in Coping: School District Struggles Against Bush Realities to Keep Education in Focus, Anchorage Daily News, Thursday, November 16, 2000. Students file out of aging Akiachak Elementary School at the end of a school day in late October. Building maintenance is just one of several daunting challenges faced by the Yupiit School District.

HUMANITIES COURSE FINDS ITS WAY TO BUSH ALASKA, Anchorage Daily News, Thursday, December 31, 1998, By Mike Dunham, Daily News Reporter. In May, essayist Earl Shorris came to town to promote his ideas for teaching the humanities to disadvantaged people. Arguing that what keeps the poor poor is their lack of access to the tools of analysis and negotiation provided to the wealthy who receive exposure to the liberal arts in upscale universities.