Legislature(2023 - 2024)DAVIS 106
03/04/2024 03:30 PM House TRIBAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR17 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HJR 17 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HJR 17-SUPPORT FED TRUTH AND HEALING COMMISSION
3:39:11 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK announced that the only order of business would
be HJR 17, HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 17, Urging the United
States Congress to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on
Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
3:39:32 PM
CALLAN CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF, Staff, Representative CJ McCormick,
Alaska State Legislature, provided a PowerPoint presentation on
behalf of Representative McCormick, prime sponsor, titled "HOUSE
JOINT RESOLUTION 17 "Urging the United States Congress to Pass
the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School
Policies Act" [hard copy included in the committee packet]. She
began on slide 2, titled "HJR17," which read as follows
[original punctuation provided]:
• Support US Senate Bill 1723
• Federal Truth & Healing Commission on Indian
Boarding School Policies Act
• 2022 Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
Investigative Report findings
• Alaska Native Heritage Center Lach'qu Sukdu Research
Program database/research
• Alaska Federation of Natives Resolution 23-14 in
support of S.1723
3:41:16 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF moved to slide 3, titled "HJR17 INDIAN
BOARDING SCHOOLS," which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
o 521 recorded boarding schools (408 federal
government-funded) o History of abuse & trauma
o Living survivors
o Primary source records & documents
o Mission schools & infrastructure existing today
o Modern presence (i.e. Sheldon Jackson)
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF explained that the era of Indian boarding
schools is often not spoken of and has been effectively erased
from state history. She noted the difficulty of adequately
documenting the era due to a significant lack of primary sources
and records. There are structures still in existence today that
represent the era, for example the Sheldon Jackson School.
3:43:07 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF moved to slide 4, titled "Indian Boarding
Schools," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
Systemic Institutional Practices
• Prohibition of indigenous language •
Cultural elimination & forced assimilation
• Pedophilia
• Unmarked graves & undocumented deaths
• Displaced children & families
• Damaging experiences of abuse Trauma
• Beating, torture, humiliation, punishments
• Disruption of self, family, community, identity
• Life-long & multi-generational trauma
• Lack of recognition of experiences
• Loss of people, families, communities, history &
cultures
• Irreversible harms committed
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF mentioned that today's presentation would
also include first-hand accounts of abuse in Indian boarding
schools from her elders. She noted the lack of recognition of
the struggles and abuse faced by Indian children during the
boarding school era. She listed the systemic institutional
practices of Indian boarding schools.
3:46:51 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF moved to slide 5, titled "Truth & Healing
Commission on Indian Boarding Schools Policies Act," which read
as follows [original punctuation provided]:
Acknowledging harm, forced assimilation & elimination
of culture
o Database volume of cases
o Source record collection
o Document experiences of abuse
o Inter-generational impacts
o Investigate & report findings
o First step
3:48:32 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF moved to slide 6, titled "SENATE BILL
1723," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
29 BI-PARTISAN CO-SPONSORS
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
• Co-Chair, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
• Co-sponsor and Senate Champion
• Vocal advocate
Sen. Deb Haalaand
• Secretary of Interior
• 2020 bill first introduced as Senator
• Introduced Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF explained that U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
and U.S. Senator Debra Haaland are vocal advocates of the
necessity of recognizing the Indian boarding school era.
3:49:08 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF moved to slide 7 and showed photographs of
Alaska boarding schools in Southeast Alaska, including Wrangle
Institute, Sheldon Jackson College, Presbyterian Mission School,
and Haines House. She also mentioned the Aleknagik Mission
School is in her hometown, and many of her elder family members
attended. Many of the mission schools are still standing today.
3:50:25 PM
MS. CHYTHLOOK-SIFSOF concluded her presentation and expressed
her gratitude to the upcoming presenters.
3:50:44 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked Ms. Chythlook-Sifsof and invited the
next presenter.
3:51:43 PM
DR. ROSITA/YEIDIKLAS'AKW ?AAHÁNI WORL, President, Sealaska
Heritage Institute, read from prepared remarks [included in the
committee packet], which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
Honorable State of Alaska Representatives and Mr.
Chair,
Thank you for sponsoring this legislation and hearing
on a topic that has and continues to traumatize
generations of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
I wholeheartedly support the passage of Senate Bill
1723the federal Truth and Healing Commission on
Indian Boarding School Policies Act.
If I may, I would like to introduce myself in
accordance with our cultural protocols. However, I
would also like to do so as a means of outlining my
cultural identity that the missionaries at Haines
House, a Presbyterian boarding school, attempted to
eradicate.
Yeidiklas'akw ka Kaa.háni yóo xát duwasáak
Cháak' naa áyá xát
Shungukeidí naax xát sitee
Kaawdliyaayí Hit dáx áyá xát
Jilkaat kwáan áyá xát
Lukaax.ádi dachxán áyá xát
My Tlingit name is Yeidiklas'akw. It is an ancient
name whose meaning has been lost in antiquity.
My ceremonial name is ?aaháni, which refers to the
stature or status of an individual. In the ceremony in
which I received this name, our clan leader said that
my stature was "Woman Who Stands in the Place of a
Man."
I am an Eagle of the Thunderbird Clan and the House
Lowered from the Sun from Klukwan in the Chilkat
region.
I am also a child of the Sockeye Clan.
3:53:41 PM
DR. WORL continued her testimony as follows:
My identity is also intertwined with our clan crests
the Eagle, Thunderbird, and Sun.
We, of our clan, are also spiritually strengthened by
our White Bear, Shark, and Killer Whale spirits.
In addition, our clan is entitled to wear the U.S.
Naval uniform and to use the name Schwatga as payment
for the failure of Lt. Schwatga, of the U.S. Navy, to
pay a debt to my great, great clan grandfather during
the Klondike Gold Rush era.
For the record, in English, I am also known as Rosita
Worl.
Kidnapped
I remember that day as if it were only yesterday. A
woman got out of a car in front of our house in
Petersburg, where I lived with my grandparents, and
asked, "Do you want to see your brother?" My brother
was living in Juneau. At age the age of six, I didn't
think to ask any questions and, in my excitement, I
eagerly got into the taxi with her.
We were driving past Ohmer's Cannery, where my
grandparents were working, when the cab driver asked
Mrs. McGilton, as I remember her name, "Don't you want
to tell her grandparents that you are taking her
away?" She responded immediately and emphatically,
"No, keep driving." It was at that moment that I
realized something was dreadfully wrong.
When we stopped, I jumped out of the car and tried to
run away from the three adults, to no avail. I was
thrown into the back of a small float plane like I was
a piece of luggage.
I started to cry and couldn't stop. Even when we
arrived in Juneau and boarded the Princeton Hall, a
"mission boat," I continued to cry.
3:56:15 PM
DR. WORL continued her testimony as follows:
Several years ago, while attending the Alaska
Federation of Natives Convention in Fairbanks, a
gentleman approached me and asked if I knew him. I
didn't know that he was Del Howard of Metlakatla. He
told me that he saw me when I was brought aboard the
Princeton Hall. He said I was sobbing uncontrollably
and that I was struggling to catch my breath. He said
that a missionary came and told me stop crying, then
slapped me.
When we arrived in Haines, I was taken to Haines
House. You might be aware that the federal government
paid for "contract schools" in Alaska, which were run
by various Christian denominations that had
established mission schools. The Christians and the
federal government shared the same policyto suppress
Native cultures and to civilize and Christianize
Alaska Natives.
My next memories are of being in bed, still crying,
and looking out the window and seeing the moon over a
mountain.
I kept wonderingwhy am I here? I learned that Haines
House was an orphanage, which made no sense since I
had a large extended family who had cared for me after
my mother died. The man who was listed on my birth
certificate was not my father. He had been sentenced
to prison for trying to burn our house down with me
and my mother in it.
The days were horrific, but the nights were also
difficult. I would weep silently so as not to be
punished for crying. It was made worse as I would wet
my bed. Lest I get in trouble, I would lie in my urine
until the sheets dried. On weekends, I would wait
until all the other girls in the dorm had pulled off
their sheets and stacked them in the middle of the
room. I would then pull off my sheets and run and put
them into the middle of the pile.
3:58:39 PM
DR. WORL continued her testimony as follows:
The chores were difficult and would violate today's
child labor laws. As a six or seven year old, I was
required to make toast in large ovens. I would crawl
onto the open oven door and lay the bread on the
shelves which I had pulled out from the heated oven.
After a few moments, I would have to then turn the
bread over to toast the other side.
I also had to iron sheets in the large commercial
mangles. I would have to stand on a chair to put the
sheets on the large rollers and pull the heated mangle
down. Fortunately, my aunt who was living in Haines
later came to work at Haines House and was assigned to
the laundry. After that, I no longer had to iron
sheets but could instead play in the basement laundry
room.
Children at Haines House were also rented out for
various jobs. On some wonderful occasions, my
grandparent would rent me. Instead of working, we
would go blueberry picking.
Another painful memory is the evenings when all the
students would gather in a hall, sitting on the floor
while I stood in the front, facing them. I would say
things to them, and they would all start laughing. I
could never understand why they were laughing at me.
This was one of the methods the Christians had devised
to manipulate students into shaming other students as
a means of suppressing Native language and culture.
One of the missionaries' forms of punishment was
having children run through a gauntlet of two rows of
older students facing each other. Each student held
boards with holes drilled into them. The child who was
to be punished was required to run through the
gauntlet while the older students would hit them with
the boards. To ensure that the older students were
hitting the punished student severely, older students
would be required to run the gauntlet if it appeared
that they weren't hitting hard enough.
4:01:11 PM
DR. WORL continued her testimony as follows:
At night, the older girls would hold me and ask, "Why
don't you listen?" I have to say I don't know why I
didn't always follow the rules despite knowing that I
would be punished for my misdeeds. I used to think
that I must have imagined these sorts of punishments,
but later I heard others confirm the stories of having
to run through these gauntlets.
I would prefer not to discuss the sexual abuse except
to say that it did happen.
Another memory that haunts me is seeing girls who were
almost comatose. They would walk without ever talking
or smiling. They would walk like they were zombies. I
often wondered what happened to them, for one day I
would see them and the next day I wouldn't. I note
that several months ago, a young child's skull was
found on the Haines House grounds. To this date, the
skull has not been identified.
One of the most degrading memories I recall was being
filmed as I was bathing completely in the nude. Even
at that young age, I had a sense of modesty. Another
girl, who looked white and who had been brought to
Haines House, was also required to bathe in the same
tub. After we got out of the tub, I would be given a
plain, cotton dress while she was given a frilly
organza dress.
I understood that these films were used to raise funds
for the mission and, I imagine, to symbolically convey
the cleansing away of Native culture. However, I never
quite understood the rationale for contrasting a
Native girl with a non-Native looking girl except to
point to a difference in status between Natives and
non-Natives, as signified by the plain cotton dress I
got while she received the frilly organza dress.
Decades later, I met the non-Native-looking girl and
we soon discovered that we were the two girls in that
film. It never occurred to me that she had found the
experience as humiliating and traumatic as I did. We
spent the evening crying together over those sad
memories.
4:03:58 PM
DR. WORL continued her testimony as follows:
In Tlingit culture, children of sisters are viewed as
brothers and sisters. The mothers of these brothers
and sisters are viewed as mothers to all the children,
so we called our maternal aunts "mother."
My mother, Bessie Quinto, tried for three years to get
me out of Haines House. Unbeknownst to her, I had been
released into the custody of the man who tried to kill
me and my mother. He had used the excuse that he
needed to care for me and was released from prison on
these grounds. He was an evil man, and it took my mom
time to get me away from him.
Of the ten types of trauma recognized as adverse
childhood experiences (ACEs) studied in 1998, I
experienced all ten. From what is publicly known of my
life, it may appear that I have been resilient. I have
tried to suppress my memories of those three years and
have been fairly successful. However, in reality and
in all truthfulness, I know that those three traumatic
years took their toll on me in ways that have not been
apparent to others.
More recently, I have found that I am becoming
increasingly emotional in remembering those years. At
a recent event in which the Northern Lights
Presbyterian Church in Juneau offered reparations for
their discriminatory acts toward Dr. Walter Soboleff
in closing his popular church, we had a panel
discussion. I wanted to share my Haines House
experience with the Presbyterian leaders in the hopes
of persuading them to acknowledge the wrongs they
committed against generations of Native students who
were held in these boarding schools. I was surprised
at how emotional I became.
Even in preparing for this testimony, I had periods of
emotional stress. I called one of my close friends,
who had also endured the pains of a boarding school.
He told me that he also continues to experience
similar periods of emotional stress.
I am but one of the multitude of survivors of the
boarding schools that have caused generations of
trauma. At Sealaska Heritage Institute, along with
colleagues from the University of Illinois, we have
conducted epigenetic studies that demonstrate that
intergenerational trauma is a reality reflected by
changes in one's DNA.
With the lack of funding for education here in Alaska,
I am fearful that a return to boarding schools will be
proposed. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes
with a return to boarding schools and boarding home
programs. We cannot condemn further generations to
ongoing trauma.
Thank you for listening to my story.
Gunalchéesh.
4:07:58 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked Dr. Worl for sharing her story as a
piece of history.
4:08:38 PM
DR. WALKIE CHARLES, Director of Alaska Native Language Center;
Faculty Fellow, Indigenous Language Revitalization, University
of Alaska Fairbanks, read from prepared remarks [included in the
committee packet], which read as follows:
Quyana, Representative McCormick, Callan-aaq, allat-
llu ikayurteten una resolution-aaq piurtevkangnaqluku
tamaitnun yugnun ellam ilaunelngurnun taringesqumaluku
mikelnguut cakviullrat ayaumallratni allanun nunanun
apqiitnek boarding school-anun.
Arriving on a plane into an unknown island, taken on a
long bus ride along dark, gloomy spruce trees coming
from a space where groves of trees were unknown. Upon
arrival we are queued and received by whom-we-learned-
to-call dorm aides. I'm told to strip down in front of
other boys naked and I place all my belongings on
a table where a dorm aide labels my clothes either
with a magic marker the smell I could still remember
or an engraver for those of us fortunate to have a
watch. My clothes and belongings were branded with the
Number 12. My new identity for the entirety of my
tenure at Wrangell Institute. I was twelve years old,
89 lbs., skinny, with horn-rimmed eyeglasses too big
for my tiny face that kept sliding down my nose. I was
already labeled a skinny kid.
We were led to a communal shower, marched down the
hall into a door that was split in half where we were
issued a towel, a washcloth, a toothbrush, tooth
powder, and Dixie Peach hair gel. Then we were marched
into our dorm rooms four boys to a room which held
to government-issued metal bunk beds. The three
roommates were strangers to me; I was a stranger to
them.
We get clothed and again we are ordered to get ready
to eat at the dining hall. More lines. One side was
the girls' line; the opposite was the boys' line. We
stood with our arms along the side. No touching. No
talking. Mrs. Krepps would make sure that our shirt
tails were tucked. We ate out of trays with metal
utensils. We seemed to walk in lines wherever we went.
4:13:15 PM
DR. CHARLES continued his testimony as follows:
Institutional ivory soap, four-foot by four-foot
square talcum powder box to dip our feet into after
showering, the smell of institutional government-
issued floor wax, government-issued laundry soap, the
smell of government-issued wool blankets, the putrid
smell of starched bed sheets, multiple voices
simultaneously wanting to be heard yet silenced,
myriad of music from the big boys' transistor radios
who can afford to blare American music from the local
radio station, the muffled cries of younger boys while
trying to sleep, one audibly muttering, "Mama, Mama,
Mama," between sobs. These lasted for at least the
first two weeks after arrival.
We were left disconnected not only by our souls, but
by distance without any form of communication some
of our parents, like mine, had not gone to formal
schooling to make sense of where their children had
been taken.
One Saturday, I was issued a white shirt to iron in
the basement. The shirt was to be worn by me the
following day for church. I went down to basement and
began pressing the iron several times onto my new
shirt. When I was done, I brought it two flights up to
present it to the dorm aide. It wasn't good enough; I
was told to redo it. This happened two more times,
then on the third try I realized that I had to plug
the cord onto an outlet to smooth out the wrinkles.
Decades later, after purchasing my new home I got a
washer and dryer. When the clothes were done washing,
I put them in the dryer. When they were done, I pulled
them out. They were wrinkled. I stood staring at them,
and even as an adult, I began sobbing. A trigger from
the time I was told to iron out the wrinkles of my
Sunday shirt.
We were the last bunch of students to experience the
old BIA boarding school era. We lived cloistered,
followed rules, punished, and worked off our
punishments, which in most cases, were minor. The
punishments were scrubbing toilets, dusting ledges off
dorm partitions, picking up trash in the rain, folding
laundry. When boys got into a fight, they were
punished with a week to two weeks of chores and
couldn't participate in afterschool and weekend
activities, movies, dances, etc.
Later in life, my mother, after a moment of
silence, with her head bowed, says to me in her
heart language, "Remember the time you were taken
away to Wrangell when you were a little boy?
NOTE: At that time, a single airplane would
fly into our community to drop off mail and
pick up passengers/patients to be brought to
the nearest medical facility Bethel 200
air miles away, or to other bigger
communities for meetings, workshops, etc.
My mother continues, "When I hear the drone of
the plane in the distance approaching our
village, I would hope you were in the plane to
return home, but you never did."
This is just one comment from one mother whose child
left for one school year. Imagine those mothers whose
children left at ages younger than me and the torture
both the child and mother felt, that with each moment
of separation, the stronger the hurt, harm, and
loneliness that they and the family members endured
4:18:39 PM
DR. CHARLES continued his testimony as follows:
Learning terms like: Nationalism is a frame of mind in
which an individual feels loyalty to his nation, yet
not knowing what it meant. It was one of the many
terms to memorize to receive a socially constructed
passing grade by the system. Everything we learned was
rote, whether we internalized them or not; it was just
the way the system was established.
Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and even news
(weeks later) of deaths in the community added scars
to our separation. I remember Mrs. Bird from my
village died in a house fire. Her son, Duke age 14
couldn't go home to bury his mother. Imagine what Duke
was feeling: no mother, no home to go to when he
returned home in the spring. No one consoled him. It
was just another day at Wrangell Institute.
Weeks and months passed and then there was news that a
traveling physician was on campus to do physical
examinations. I don't know whether there was one
separate for the girls, but we had Dr. X. This was my
first-ever physical with a medical doctor. He was very
kind and gentle. He asked me to strip down and lay on
the examination table in the clinic. I acquiesced, and
then he began to touch different areas of my body with
a metal and rubber object, then set that object down
and began using his whole arm to rub all over my chest
and groin. When he reached my groin area, he began to
fondle my genitals. Assuming that this was a
procedure, I didn't react, but it seemed that he spent
a lot of time in that area until I forced myself not
to get aroused. I don't remember what happened next. I
left. I never told anyone.
The same doctor arrived about three months later, and
we went through the same procedure. When he proceeded
to "examine" my groin area, I think I made some move
or facial expression that made him say, "You don't
want to play?" That is when he stopped, and I think I
left quickly thereafter. I don't remember. I hope that
was an isolated moment, but I doubt it. In hindsight,
imagine what he might have done with boys younger than
me, let alone older boys who didn't know much about
these kinds of things.
I learned decades later that Dr. X still practiced his
field somewhere in southeast Alaska, but I hope to God
we were last of his victims!
My nine months at Wrangell Institute stopped my Yup'ik
clock. In those lonely, dark months I missed learning
about being a Yup'ik boy. In fact, decades later, as a
new professor at the University, one of my students
asked what would happen to the streams in which the
'can'giiq' a type of small winter fish swam, if
the waters were to suddenly freeze. This caught me
offguard, but I mustered a response saying, "I don't
know, because at the time I should have learned about
his, I was taken away to boarding school."
4:23:09 PM
DR. CHARLES continued his testimony as follows:
I consider my time at Wrangell Institute, although
painful, lonely, rigorous, and structured. The
students and relatives before me had a more
challenging experience. I came to Wrangell already
knowing English enough to get by. My cousins, however,
who went to Wrangell 15 years before I was born, left
home when one of them was five years old! The second
year after that he was able to make sense of English
to write my mother the enclosed letter [which read as
follows]:
Wrangell Institute
Wrangell, Alaska
November, 14, 1956
Dear Maggie Charlie
How are you? I am five and you send me some racked and
I am happy and how big is Billy and please send me
some dry fish and I want some gum and Tell billy I
said Hello To him and
Five more day be for we go home and please SENATOR me
some writing tablet and tell her da ddx To send some
candy bar And some big boxes make me cry and I thing
of you and Billy and Thomas Hello to you and I don't
like Wrangell alaska because They always rain and I
like to go home and me and Thomas Kamevof will play
and tell my Daddy I said Hello to you and my brother
said Hello to you and I like Billy and wrangell is not
snow yet and please answer my letter back I
[unreadable] your letter god Bless you All Frm Albert
Waiska Wrangell Institute Wrangell Alask
The tone of the letter from Albert to my mother is, "I
miss food from home and writes 'I want pilot bread,
and please send me some dried fish. I want to go home.
It rains here a lot. I miss snow. I miss my family.
Say hello to Baby Billy who was born a year ago that I
wasn't able to be there for."
Whether my mother had someone assist her in writing to
Albert, I don't know. Whether Albert received any care
packages, I don't know either.
I'm sure there were many, many children with the same
sentiments in their letters home to their loved ones.
I had my share of letters that I wrote home in between
tears. I know a girl who drew a circle around her
dried tears in her letter to her parents at the time I
was at Wrangell.
4:26:04 PM
DR. CHARLES showed a photo from Wrangell and continued with his
testimony as follows:
Ten of these boys have since died. The eldest of these
is 84 today. Their parents didn't speak English, and
if they did it was school English. I'm sure some of
them have left this world without sharing a story of
their own abuse, but I'll leave it to them to tell
what I don't know.
Leaving home and the comforts of hunting, gathering,
collecting wood for the winter, eating familiar food
growing up attempted to break us during our times away
from home. Like the system forcing us not to use our
heart language but using English instead molded our
little minds to think, speak and write in the language
of the dominant culture. It was a struggle for all of
us, and the kids the generation before me were so beat
up that upon their return home to their communities
either couldn't speak their heart language anymore or
refused to, because they were shamed enough to choose
the language of our oppressors.
I was spared from losing my heart language because it
was the only language through which my mother
communicated to us in the home. She never went to
school. I witnessed shaming of using our heart
language, I refused to use my heart language during
incarceration, but I fortunately returned to it albeit
with some initial guilt. Almost 44 years ago I entered
my first year at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as
a freshman, wanting to become a teacher better than
the teachers I had growing up. I wanted to become a
teacher who cared and to show my students that
learning can be positively transforming.
It was that first year that I was exposed to written
Yup'ik, the language of my people, taught by a
Caucasian. A language that I thought I could have lost
was celebrated at a public school. I took it to heart
to learn all that I can about my written language.
Today I am professor of Yup'ik at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks in the process of becoming a full
professor.
This is a story from one person who survived boarding
school. Know that even though I experienced and
survived my one year at Wrangell Institute, I do not
represent everyone who had other experiences. I have
heard of more terrible stories about sexual abuse, but
I reserve the right to have those people share their
own because these experiences are personal, and I want
to only share mine in respect of others who were
brutally abused. I hope they find their voices to be
able share their own stories so that we can all heal.
4:29:58 PM
DR. CHARLES continued his testimony as follows:
Decades have come and gone, but I still have triggers.
Words like: hey, hey you, you need to, I need for you
to . . . and pointing of a finger toward me still
scare me. Crowds with a lot of noise make me confused,
and often, at the end of the day, I still retrieve
into a dark, quiet room to calm myself down. For me,
these words are accusatory. I feel like I've done
something wrong. I want to someday feel okay about
these words, but I feel that I haven't been
apologized. Boarding schools have damaged young souls
in the past, and that damage still lingers into adult
and elder years for so many of us. When and how will
the system recognize the scars that were molded onto
our souls be taken away. I want to forgive, but the
Bureau of Indian Affairs ought to find a venue to
recognize their fault and lead us to spaces for
healing. I'm tired of reacting. I want to live a
normal life. I want my soul to be happy not just on
the outside, but mostly deep inside where the little
boy in me is licking my wounds.
For those who had it worse, I wish I could share their
stories verbatim, but I hope today is the beginning
for more stories to be heard through the proper
channels so that they, too, can begin healing. My
heart goes out to those who suffer more than I do,
those who fell into cracks of depression, despair,
alienation, separation, confusion, alcoholism, drug
abuse, and variations of mental illnesses, accidental
deaths from overdose of alcohol or drugs, and even
suicide. This information is from events witnessed and
heard in my region growing up; I do not have the facts
or numbers to share today.
Again, this is one story, and not even a story of what
the churches might have done and damaged souls. I hope
my attempts to recollect my story on behalf of my
boarding school brothers and sisters reveals even an
ounce of the pain, suffering, anxiety, worthlessness
of each one effected as the system attempted to
dehumanize these resilient souls who deep inside are
stronger than the system attempted to create them to
be in the name of assimilation. This is about my
experience at Wrangell Institute 54 years ago.
4:33:30 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked Dr. Charles for having the strength to
tell his story.
4:33:59 PM
The committee took a brief at-ease.
4:34:48 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK introduced the next presenters.
4:35:15 PM
BENJAMIN A. JACUK, Indigenous Researcher, Alaska Native Heritage
Center, introduced himself and provided his family background
for the record.
4:35:39 PM
EMILY EDINSHAW, President, Alaska Native Heritage Center,
introduced herself and provided her background for the record.
She thanked the Dr. Charles and Dr. Worl for their testimony.
4:36:57 PM
MR. JACUK thanked Dr. Worl and Dr. Charles for their testimony.
He said that assimilative boarding schools in Alaska were
created by federal and territorial governments in partnership
with ecclesial organizations.
4:39:24 PM
MS. EDINSHAW moved to slide 2, titled "Learning Objectives,"
which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
Alaska Boarding School History
•Historical/Source Criticism in conjunction with
Alaska State History
•Structural Violence Model
•Recognizing the Structures of Violence that Impact
Alaska Natives Today
MS. EDINSHAW said that Alaska history includes Alaska Native
history. She noted the lack of primary source documents
regarding the history of Alaska's boarding schools. She
discussed the Structural Violence Model, which impacts Native
Alaskans today, and includes symptoms of a root cause. She made
note of the importance of discussing the trauma, which is within
the DNA of Native peoples. She described her PhD dissertation,
which was heavily focused on healing from the era of
assimilative boarding schools.
4:43:07 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 3, titled "Boarding School Facts,"
which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
Assimilation project meant to "domesticate" Native
children of North America
• ~500 US Alaska Native/American Indian Boarding
schools, day schools, boarding home schools, and
asylums
• Government-funded while being church-run
• Alaska Native/American Indian children were
• forcibly abducted by Indian Agents
• sent hundreds of miles away
• beaten, starved, or abused
• Holy Cross, Alaska
• 10,000s did not return
MR. JACUK said that Holy Cross has the highest number of
incidences of abuse confirmed by the Catholic Church. He
pointed out that there is not one Native person who is alive
today who hasn't been directly or indirectly impacted by
boarding schools.
4:46:21 PM
MS. EDINSHAW moved to slide 4, titled "Alaska History includes
Alaska Native History," which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
Alaska Natives have been on these lands for 10,000
years
• Alaska is not the Last Frontier
• Indigenous knowledge and science is a whole
knowledge system in and of itself, equal to all others
• The first Russian explorers didn't discover anything
• The words Alaska is an Unangax word
• When Alaska was sold from Russia to the US there
ZERO Alaska Natives present
• Church- run Boarding Schools
• Federally-run Boarding Schools
• Boarding-home schools
• State Boarding Schools
• Unjust policies such as voting rights and 10-student
minimum
• Alaska Natives make up 20 percent of our state's
population
• 229 Federally Recognized Tribes in Alaska
• 12 Alaska Native Corporations
• More than 20 distinct Alaska Native Languages
MS. EDINSHAW argued that Indigenous knowledge systems make
Alaska unique and should be acknowledged and celebrated. She
emphasized the legacy of erasure and mistreatment of Native
Alaska's throughout the state.
4:51:08 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 5, titled "Definitions," which read as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
Definitions
-Missions
-Day School
-Boarding Schools
-1. Housing The institution has been described as
providing on-site housing or overnight lodging. This
includes dormitory, orphanage, asylum, residential,
boarding, home, jail, and quarters.
-2. Education The institution has been described as
providing formal academic or vocational training and
instruction. This includes mission school, religious
training,
-3. Federal Support The institution has been
described as receiving Federal Government funds or
other Federal support. This includes agency,
independent, contract, mission, contract with white
schools, government, semi-government, under
superintendency, and land or buildings or funds or
supplies or services provided.
-4. Timeframe The institution was operational before
1969 (prior to modern departmental Indian education
programming including BIE).
MR. JACUK said that the definitions were provided by the U.S.
Department of the Interior.
4:52:44 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 6, titled "Those Who Came from the Sky"
-Our Future," which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
• Age of healing where our peoples can and will thrive
Revitalization Era (1945-Current)
• 1945-Elizabeth Peratrovich Anti-Discrimination Bill
• 1969-Boarding School Policy is Disassembled
• 1973-ANCSA
• 2024-Boarding School Truth and Healing Bill Comes to
the Senate Floor
American Era/Boarding Schools and US Colonization
(1867-Current)
• 1867-Alaska Purchased by the United States
• 1877-Ft. Wrangell school taken over by Sheldon
Jackson (First off reservation boarding school)
• 1880-Comity Plan occurs in NYC
• 1885-Jackson becomes secretary of Education
(language becomes restricted, children forced to
attend, etc.)
• 1932-BIA Takes over education of the Alaska Native
Population
Contact/The Russian Era
• 1732-Mikhail Gvozdev made contact with Alaska and
Alaska Native People/Right to Discovery
• 1741-Right of Occupation Established by Vitas Bering
• Birth of Fur trade-Wrecked havoc on Alaska Native
people, cultures, and traditions
• 1786-First School opened in Kodiak by Grigori
Shelikhov, considered the "founder of the Russian
Colonies" in AK
The Roots (Since Time and Memorial)
•Who we are and our history as Alaska Native
stretching out for over 10,000 years of knowledge and
being
• Deeper than colonization or its effects
• Defined by the land and our Ancestors
MR. JACUK moved to slide 6, titled "Sheldon Jackson," which read
as follows [original punctuation provided]:
1877: Sheldon Jackson's First Trip to Alaska:
•Presbyterian Missionary Sheldon Jackson's
initial visit to Alaska
•Accompanied Amanda McFarland, the first female
teacher at Fort Wrangell
•Jackson considered one of the first "educators"
and "collectors" in Alaska (Carlton, 1999)
•Unauthorized Trip to Alaska:
•Jackson did not have permission from the Board
Home Missions for his first Alaska trip
•Research indicates the lack of approval to
travel or establish a mission (Carlton, 1999)
•Establishment of First Boarding School:
•Despite initial unauthorized journey, Jackson
secured permission in 1877
•First government-funded church-run boarding
school opened in Sitka, run by Presbyterian
Missionaries (Stewart, 1908)
•1884: General Agent of Education in Alaska:
•U.S. Secretary of the Interior appointed Jackson
as the General Agent of Education in Alaska
•During his tenure, Jackson advocated for
government funds and urged Christian colleges to
contribute to Alaska's "civilization" through missions
(Williams, 2009)
•Church and State Connection:
•Jackson's efforts, though violating the modern
concept of "Church and State" separation, were common
during that era (Williams, 2009)
•1874: Missionization Blueprint:
•The American Home Missionary Society published
an article detailing a meeting in 1874
•Resulted in a blueprint for a large-scale
missionization plan for Alaska
4:54:33 PM
MS. EDINSHAW added that 1877 is a significant year and that
tactics carried out in Alaska to assimilate Native children were
spread more broadly across the country to the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School. She noted peer learning between Sheldon
Jackson and Richard Henry Pratt.
4:56:43 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 8, titled "Nationalism and the American
Church," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• Inter Caetera "Alexandrian Bulls"
"Christian Princes" are responsible for education
of Indigenous population
• American Church and Interpretation
God's Chosen Nation (i.e. City on a Hill)
Protestant Theology
Calvin vs. Charles Hodge/Alexander
Individual v. National Election
Correlates to the 1819 Civilization Act
Modern Day New Israel vs. New Canaanites
MR. JACUK said that education and conversion are used
interchangeably in the context of the American Church. He
discussed the doctrine of discovery and the "chosen nation"
ideology. He noted the choice of assimilation or risking death.
5:00:29 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 9, titled "Protestant Missions
Organizations & Oklahoma," which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
• Experimental Area
• Foreign Board of Missions
• Union Boarding School/Osage
• Robert Loughridge
Creation of the Boarding School vs. Day School
• Sheldon Jackson
• Board of Home Missions
• Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana,
Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado
• US Indian Agent
MR. JACUK described Sheldon Jackson's start on the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions, which provided access to many Western
states where he established hundreds of assimilative boarding
schools.
5:05:16 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 11, which showed a map of Alaska
Comity. He described the presence of boarding schools
throughout Alaska and discussed primary source material.
MR. JACUK moved to slides 12-13, titled "Comity Plan," which
read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
1880 Comity Plan vs. Various Comity Plans
• 10PM, January 19, 1880 @805 Broadway, New York,
• First Described in John Field's "Our Western
Archipelago"
• Ecumenicalism and Structure
• Baptist- Morehouse
Mining
• Presbyterian- Henry Kendall
Lumber/Mines
• Episcopal Church- Dr. Twing (absent)
Gold
• Methodist-John Reid
Mining
• Later Inclusions (Moravian/Congregationalist)
• "He is glad that a bishop has been appointed for
Alaska and that if he will take the valley of the
Yukon, a valley two thousand miles long and into which
settlers are pouring attracted by its gold mines, he
will have a vast diocese..They will reach every
heathen in the frozen North"
Special Congressional Committee
• Framework for future work
1883 Board of Home Missions Report-Discussion
of Resource Extraction and Locations to Do So:
(Alaska's) great forests are yet unknown, its mines
are undeveloped, its fisheries are hardly heard of,
and its seal trade has only begun. What population may
yet pour into the islands on its coast where the
climate is mild and the means of subsistence easily
obtained, no one can tell. Already there are here from
thirty thousand to forty thousand Indians wholly
dependent on our church for their education and
religious advantages. (7)
• Extensive plan for Alaska and future boarding
schools: Also, much talk of mining rights, that the
schools will be placed around "meeting places" of
Native peoples and that the Presbyterians lay claim to
the richest areas (26)
• Recommendation and resolution to create a
committee to sway the President of the United States
and the Secretary of the Interior to create a
government within Alaska and for them to support the
creation of Industrial Schools (boarding schools) for
Alaska Natives (133)
• 1888 Board of Home Missions Annual Report-
"Missionary Comity Guidelines"
• 1903 "What Missionaries Have Done For Alaska-
Jackson Takes credit for Mining success in AK
MR. JACUK emphasized that different ecclesial groups met up to
divide Alaska based on resource development opportunities. He
said that meeting was more focused on mines and less on
salvation and education. He said that the different churches
only agreed upon the forced assimilation of children for the
sake of profit.
5:11:26 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 14, titled "Comity Plan Continuation,"
which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• BIA Period
• Still Ecclesial Run
• Resource Extraction Based
• Eklutna Industrial Indian School
• Teaching Trades that correlate to industries
the head of the school ran
• Railroad
• Mining
• Fishing
5:13:28 PM
MS. EDINSHAW emphasized that the goal was never to just
assimilate or educate Alaska's youth, the primary purpose was
for future resource extraction.
MR. JACUK moved to slide 15, titled "Sheldon Jackson Boarding
Schools in AK," which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
Located in Sitka, Alaska
• Founded in 1877 as the oldest institution US of
higher learning in the state of Alaska
• Sheldon Jackson fundraises both public & private
(church) funds to start the school. He was successful
in doing so
• 1885 Sheldon Jackson becomes General Agent of
Education in Alaska
• Education for the missionaries means stripping
Natives of all vestiges of their culture
• Cultural Genocide
MR. JACUK pointed out the military garb children were wearing in
the photo on slide 15 and mentioned that the photo predates the
Carlisle Industrial School by two years. He explained the
"stripping of culture" that took place at the boarding schools
in Alaska.
5:19:15 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 16, titled "Introduction of Women
Protestant Societies," which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
• Methodist's Involvement-1869
• Presbyterian-1877 Through Jackson
• Matrons For Schools
• Connection to Suppression of African American Vote
MR. JACUK moved to slide 17 and described photos of assimilation
including the "Eskimo boy in a savage state" and "David
Skuvinka, Eskimo Boy at School." Slide 18 showed a photo of a
school matron in full regalia. He said that the photo signified
that "the culture was something that was only evil in the hands
of Alaska Native peoples."
5:22:35 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 19, titled "Jackson and Alaska Native
Culture," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• Jackson's Relationship with AN Cultural Objects vs.
Culture
Eradication of Culture
• He and the Presbyterian Church referred to any
indigenous culture as "heathen," or "savage."
Separation within Jackson's mind between the
cultural objects, the culture, and the peoples
Culture/People=Evil
Cultural Objects in his possession= Tools for
future ministry
• Princeton Theological Seminary
• Exhibitions for funders to show what Jackson
was "saving" Alaska Natives from (paganism)
Grave Robber
Made Children create art after he was unable to
grave rob and these objects became less accessible
MR. JACUK moved to slide 20, titled "Domestication of Alaska
Natives," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
Domestication through Farming & Ranching
• Boarding School was never meant to prepare AN
children for their futures, but to pacify the future
generations for the acquisition of resources (i.e.
mining)
• Comity Plan
• Much talk of the resources within Sheldon
Jackson's/ Presbyterian General Assembly reports,
especially within Sitka •
Reindeer
• Food was needed within certain areas of Alaska,
which became the rationalization for this form of
domestication
• Different initiatives to promote farming amongst
Alaska Native Families.
• Attempts to change AN diet and
• Breaking up the family/tribal structure meant
breaking up the resistance/identity
MR. JACUK moved to slide 21, titled "Historical/Source
Criticism"
• Sheldon Jackson's Representation in non-Native
arenas
• Native Representation within these Histories
• Imperialism/Colonialism Romanticized at the Expense
of Indigenous Identities
• Resource Extraction
• Implications for Today
5:23:30 PM
MS. JACUK moved to slide 22, titled "P. & S. Abuse," which read
as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• Designation of Civilization Based upon People groups
• Americanization & Nationalistic Religion
• Connection between levels of Civilization and Both
Physical and Sexual Abuse
• Belief that they would get away with the action
• Dog Collars (Primary Source)
• De-Humanization
• Often Associated with Canada, this is the first
instance seen within the context of the United States
and even the world
• Physical Abuse (Elder Testimonies)
• Connected to the use of language
• Fighting Rings
• Inmates
• Chains
MS. JACUK described that there is testimony from elders of
physical abuse. Alaska has one of the earliest examples of
children being given numbers to replace their Native names. He
moved to slide 23, which showed a child's drawing of a child who
was chained to a bed, titled "a prisoner."
5:25:50 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 24, titled "Historical Amnesia," which
read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
No state-wide Curriculum that teaches about the
atrocities and cultural genocide that took place at
Sheldon Jackson Boarding School, Wrangell Institute,
or any other Boarding School in Alaska.
• Most people do not know about or acknowledge the
Boarding Schools in Alaska (especially the Churches)
• No real education about Sheldon Jackson
• Unable to connect structural violence w/ what has
happened
• Taking Children and cultural genocide is enough
MR. JACUK discussed how violence became normalized. He moved to
slide 25, titled "Structural Violence Model," which read as
follows [original punctuation provided]:
Structural Violence- the cause of the difference
between the potential and the actual, between what
could have been and what is.
• Structural Violence & Historical Trauma
• Community vs. Individual
• Affects all Indigenous Peoples
• Recognizes the structures put into place that
institutionalizes violence for Indigenous peoples
• Lets us know we are never alone
5:27:33 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 26, titled "Structural Violence Model
Applied," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• To be defined as the cause of the difference between
the potential and the actual, between what could have
been and what is..
• Violence that is "Psychological" and/or
"Physical," which turns into a cycle
• Violence that was "positively" or "negatively"
influenced.
• "At least we gave you
• Violence if "there is a hurt object that exists."
• Unseen Pain
Visible "subject that acts"
• Abuse of one vs. Many instances
• Whether this event was unintended or "intended" by
the "subject."
MR. JACUK moved to slide 27, titled "Data Tells a Story," which
read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native
(AI/AN) women (84.3 percent) have experienced violence
in their lifetime.
• One out of every two AI/AN women have experienced
sexual violence in their lifetime
• 40% Native Incarnation Rate - Alaska Native men and
women are more likely to be arrested than any other
race in Alaska. From a national perspective, AI/AN are
more likely to be arrested than any other race.
• 60% Native children in Foster care
• Suicide rate 4 times the national average
• Homicides twice the national average, rape of Native
women at a third higher than the national average, and
underreported and accidental deaths by Natives
disproportionate to their numbers.
MR. JACUK emphasized that the boarding school maps mirror the
data for that Indigenous Justice has regarding missing and
murdered Indigenous people.
5:28:20 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 28, titled "Boarding Schools and
MMIWG," which read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
• Destruction of Identity, inward and outward
• Boarding Schools were meant to destroy the ways
Native peoples not only see ourselves, but how society
sees us as "less than" or "sub-human"
S.A. as Institutional
• Levels of civilization of Alaska Native
children (societal worth) made sexual abuse
permissible, leading to a high percentage of abuse
within these schools
• Boarding Schools also were a means for resource
extraction, which led to a large amount of sexual
abuse of Native Women
• Lasting Effects
• According several studies, the children of a parent
who has been sexually abused are more likely to be the
target for abuse, becoming a cycle that has become
genetically embedded*
• The factors of continued negative societal identity
and resource extraction within Native communities with
the study above, reveals how one of the many continued
legacies of these institutions can be seen in the
MMIWG crisis,
• These factors can also explain why it has continued
to be allowed by governmental entities which do not
see Native peoples on the same level of personhood,
leaving way for abuse to be unchecked
MR. JACUK moved to slide 29, which read as follows [original
punctuation provided]:
Boarding School Initiative
• In June 2021, U.S. Secretary of the Department of
Interior (DOI) Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) issued a
memorandum directing the DOI to coordinate an
investigation into the Federal Indian boarding school
system to examine the scope of the system, with a
focus on the location of the schools, burial sites,
and identification of children who attended these
schools. This memorandum forged the DOI-led Boarding
School Initiative.
• The DOI report was the first of its kind in our
nation's history.
• It illustrated that between 1819 and 1979, the
United States operated or supported more than 408
boarding schools across 37 states, including 25
schools in Alaska.
• DOI hosted 10 listening sessions across the country;
One in Alaska at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in
2023.
Senate Bill 2907
• Purpose of Senate Bill 2907:
• Establish a Truth and Healing Commission on
Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States
• Define powers, duties, and membership of the
Commission
• Commission Duties:
• Investigate impacts and ongoing effects of
Indian Boarding School policies
• Develop recommendations for:
Safeguarding unmarked graves and associated
land protections
Supporting repatriation and identification
of tribal nations from which children were taken
Ending removal of indigenous children from
families and tribal communities by social service
departments and agencies
5:28:32 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 30 and explained that the research
landscape on the topic of boarding schools is sparse. He
emphasized the importance of continued research and data
collection for the purpose of healing.
5:29:02 PM
MR. JACUK moved to slide 31, titled "Historical Healing," which
read as follows [original punctuation provided]:
The more we understand, the easier it is to bring
healing to the next generation
• Recognizing how this has continued and how it has
hurt our families, our people, make us more
understanding and willing to help others who
experience this pain and fight against these
injustices
• Building up and taking back what our ancestors
passed down to us, our identity
• Knowing that we our loved and that colonization is
not what defines us
• Our cultural identity is proof that we are never
alone
• When we know who we are, we begin to realize our
purpose as Native peoples
5:29:54 PM
MR. JACUK concluded the presentation on slide 32, titled "Steps
Taken By ANHC," which read as follows [original punctuation
provided]:
Identified over 40 locations that house religious
primary source material pertaining to the Boarding
Schools in North America, including contacts within
said locations
• Convene a boarding school meeting at the Alaska
Native Heritage Center
• Signed MOU with the National Native American
Boarding School Healing Coalition
• Creation of a "Healing Totem" honoring all former
Alaska Native boarding school students to be
installed at the Alaska Native Heritage Center
(Kawerak, Inc.) Discovered connections between
churches, resource extraction, the structure of the
boarding schools, and the lasting effects of the
Boarding Schools.
• Five (5) Academic Journals concerning the Boarding
Schools to be published over the next year • Passed
AFN Resolution 23-14
• Partnerships with various ecclesial institutions and
Universities
5:30:12 PM
MS. EDINSHAW provided closing remarks and thanked the committee
for its time and Dr. Worl and Dr. Charles for sharing their
testimony. She urged the committee's support for HJR 17.
5:31:08 PM
AARON LEGGETT, President, Native Village of Eklutna; Curator,
Alaska History and Indigenous Cultures, Anchorage Museum,
remarked that in order to heal, it is important to fully
understand the history and the impacts that it has had on Alaska
Natives. He said, "We can't change the past." He said the
committee has the power to impact today and the future. He
emphasized the importance of telling the full history of the
State of Alaska to create a better world that incorporates
Indigenous voices and impacts how the state continues to grow
and develop in the future.
5:32:42 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked the presenters, apologized for time
constraints, and provided closing remarks.
[HJR 17 was held over.]