Legislature(2011 - 2012)SENATE FINANCE 532
02/15/2012 09:00 AM Senate FINANCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB104 | |
| SB130 | |
| SB144 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 104 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 130 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 144 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SENATE BILL NO. 130
"An Act establishing in the Office of the Governor an
advisory council for the preservation, restoration,
and revitalization of Alaska Native languages."
10:15:36 AM
DAVID SCOTT, STAFF, SENATOR DONNY OLSEN, gave a brief
sponsor statement. He conveyed that the bill sponsor was
unable to be present; however, the sponsor wanted the
committee to know that Alaska Native languages were dying.
He furthered that Alaskans were aware that their Native
languages were dying and that they feared this occurring.
LOREN PETERSON, STAFF, SENATOR DONNY OLSEN, introduced SB
130.
Good Morning members of the Senate Finance Committee.
For the record, I'm Loren Peterson, staff to Senator
Donald Olson. Last year, Senator Olson's office
received a resolution from the NWAB supporting the
formation of an Alaska Native Languages Commission at
the state level. The original resolution is part of
the packets in front of you. It is felt throughout the
indigenous tribes statewide that Alaska Native
Languages (ANL's) are threatened by extinction. The
intent of SB 130 is to preserve, maintain, and restore
ANL's. Indigenous languages are the most critical
components in terms of preservation of cultural
identity. The most recent case regarding the
disappearing of native languages is the the Eyak tribe
that lost its last native fluent speaker, Chief Marie
Smith Jones, who passed away in January of 2008. An
article on this unfortunate loss is also provided for
you in your packets. Now, more than ever, is it
imperative that steps be initiated at the state level
to support ongoing effective language restoration
efforts statewide. SB 130 supports efforts to preserve
ANL's and would establish an Alaska Native Language &
Advisory Council. This council will then assess
statewide language policy and programs, with a mission
to seek the most cost effective programs in
communities where preservation is most critical. Mr.
Chairman, We have 3 language and cultural experts
either here or online to testify.
Dr. Rosita Worl: Sea Alaska (in person)
Julie Kitka: President of AFN
Bernadette Alvanna-Stimpfle: Kawerak Eskimo Heritage
Program Director
Also Available for Question & Answer:
Dr. Rosita Worl: Vice Chair of Sea Alaska Corp & Pres.
of Sea Alaska Heritage
Scott Ruby: Director of Division of CRA
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, this
concludes my presentation. Thank you and more
appropriately, Quayana, for your time and
consideration for the passage of this very important
piece of legislation.
10:19:40 AM
JULIE KITKA, ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES, ANCHORAGE (via
teleconference), expressed the Alaska Federation of
Natives' (AFN) support of SB 130. She stated that the AFN
felt that the legislation was something that was long
overdue in Alaska and that it was important for cultural
survival. She furthered that the revitalization of Native
languages would benefit young Alaskan Natives. She noted
that the AFN wanted the committee to be aware that SB 130
was in line with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, which the United States announced
support for in December of 2010. She furthered that the
U.N. declaration contained a number of articles that
supported language restoration and revitalization. She
stated that the AFN would like the legislation to include a
provision to allow pilot demonstration projects in the
different cultural areas in order to advance revitalization
efforts in a quicker fashion.
10:23:01 AM
ROSITA WORL, PRESIDENT, SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE, spoke
in support of SB 130. She gave a brief statement in Tlingit
and shared her Tlingit names, as well as her personal clan,
moiety, and house heritage with the committee. She stated
that Tlingit names embodied social identities, cultural
values, established a bond with ancestors and a
responsibility for future generations; furthermore, these
things were not taught in school. She offered that it had
taken her years to try and reconcile the conflicts that
Native children had growing up in a non-Native world. She
opined that the legislation would go a long ways towards
reducing the kinds of conflicts that Alaskan Native
children endure. She stated that the bill was a significant
step by the state towards acknowledging cultural and
linguistic diversity and that it sent a strong message to
the world that Alaska valued linguistics diversity. She
furthered that the bill also sent a message to Native
peoples that Native languages were not inferior or evil.
She pointed out that the bill had been originally brought
to the AFN as a resolution by a young man named Tim
Argetsinger and related that she wanted to recognize his
efforts. She stated that linguistic diversity was a rich
resource of this state that was often undervalued. She
offered that integrating Native language and culture into
schools improved academic achievement. She discussed
studies that were conducted by Bill Demmert, which showed
that integrating Native language and culture in education
systems improved academic achievement. She shared that
there was a study being conducted in the Juneau schools, in
which the Tlingit language had been integrated in the
Harborview School. She related that the heritage institute
was conducting a longitudinal study of the Harborview
students who were about to graduate, but that the institute
was confident that the studies would show that integrating
Native language into the school had improved academic
achievement. She shared that poor academic achievement
resulted in social and fiscal costs and stated that
language integration gave people positive self-identity,
which could lead to improved academic achievement. She
pointed out that there was a difference between language
studies and language restoration and stated that there were
questions regarding if the council would replicate the work
of the Alaska Native Language Center. She related that the
Alaska Native Language Center had been in existence for 40
years and that it had done a great job in terms of
documentation; however, the center's efforts in language
restoration had not been as successful as its documentation
efforts. She noted that the heritage institute's linguists
had indicated that learning different languages stimulated
brain activity. She continued that another benefit of
integrating languages into schools was place-based
education and offered that learning was enhanced for
students who were able to learn about their own
environment. She stressed that although Sealaska supported
the restoration of Native languages, its programs were also
designed to stimulate critical thinking, as well as to
advance knowledge and science.
10:33:32 AM
BERNADETTE ALVANA-STIMPSLE, KAWERAK INCORPORATED, NOME (via
teleconference), expressed support of SB 130. She gave a
brief statement in her Native language and shared that she
had not learned English until she had attended school at
age five. She offered that SB 130 would encourage Native
peoples to continue to think in their own, first language.
She mentioned that she was the Co-Chair of the Alaska
Native Education Association, which was a statewide
organization of Native educators and stated that the
association fully supported the bill. She stated that the
Native language council was needed at the statewide level
for assessing the state's native languages and admitted
that although she had heard a number of fluent Native
speakers, she had not seen a formal survey for five years
or more. She related that formal surveys were needed in
order to determine which of the Alaska Native languages
were still spoken fluently and which ones were in the most
critical state as a dying language. She pointed out that
one of the projects she had undertaken as the Eskimo
Heritage Program Director was the revitalization of the
Fish River Inupiat dialect; there were only about four
fluent speakers of the Fish River dialect within four
communities in the region. She shared that forming the
advisory council would enable the communities to establish
new programs and projects for a Native language
revitalization movement. According to the 2007 Alaska
Native Language Population and Speaker Statistics, only 22
percent spoke a Native language fluently.[The comment was
made in respect to the percentage of Alaskan Natives that
were fluent in a Native language.] She shared that Alaska
Natives were losing their cultural foundation and identity,
but that through the legislation, the state was
acknowledging that Alaska Native languages were needed in
the communities and villages. She concluded that Kawerak
Incorporated and the Alaska Native Language Education
Association fully supported the passage of SB 130.
10:37:13 AM
CARL ROSE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION OF ALASKA SCHOOL
BOARDS, expressed the association's support of the
committee substitute for SB 130. He related that the
association was resolved in support of Alaska's Native
languages and culture being addressed in the schools. He
stated that the indigenous languages in Alaska were the
cultural base for Alaska's first peoples. He shared a quote
from John Atchak, who was from the Kashunamiut school
district in Chevak, Alaska; the quote stated, "Our Language
tells you who we are and where we are from."
10:38:13 AM
SB 130 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further
consideration.