Legislature(2023 - 2024)DAVIS 106
04/24/2023 03:30 PM House TRIBAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation(s): Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON TRIBAL AFFAIRS
April 24, 2023
3:34 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative CJ McCormick, Chair
Representative Ben Carpenter
Representative Jamie Allard
Representative Maxine Dibert
Representative Jennie Armstrong
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Sarah Vance
Representative Josiah Patkotak
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION(S): ALASKA NATIVE LANGUAGE PRESERVATION & ADVISORY
COUNCIL
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
_
X'UNEI LANCE TWITCHELL, PhD, Professor
Alaska Native Languages
University of Alaska Southeast
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in the Alaska Native Language
Preservation & Advisory Council presentation.
YAAYUK BERNADETTE ALVANNA-STIMPFLE, Director
Kawerak Eskimo Heritage Program
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in the Alaska Native Language
Preservation & Advisory Council presentation.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:34:19 PM
CHAIR CJ MCCORMICK called the House Special Committee on Tribal
Affairs meeting to order at 3:34 p.m. Representatives
Carpenter, Dibert, and McCormick were present at the call to
order. Representatives Allard and Armstrong arrived as the
meeting was in progress.
^PRESENTATION(S): Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory
Council
PRESENTATION(S): Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory
Council
3:35:08 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK announced that the only order of business would
be the Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council
presentation.
3:36:19 PM
_
X'UNEI LANCE TWITCHELL, PhD, Professor, Alaska Native Languages,
University of Alaska Southeast, introduced himself and his
affiliation with the presenting group to the committee.
3:38:15 PM
YAAYUK BERNADETTE ALVANNA-STIMPFLE, Director, Kawerak Eskimo
Heritage Program, introduced herself and her affiliation with
the presenting group to the committee.
3:40:40 PM
DR. TWITCHELL began the presentation via PowerPoint [hardcopy
included in the committee packet], on slide 2, which gave a
brief description of the history of the Alaska Native Language
Preservation & Advisory Council (ANLPAC) and its official duties
as outlined in Alaska Statute (AS) 44.33.520.
3:44:14 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE brought attention to slide 3, which listed
ANLPAC's achievements since it's founding in 2012. She
explained that the council has led to a revitalization of all
Alaska Native languages, created immersion schools, restored
traditional place names, and normalized the speaking and
understanding of Alaska Native languages.
3:51:39 PM
DR. TWITCHELL moved to slide 4, which displayed an image of an
Alaska Native speaker teaching children an Alaska Native
language in a classroom with the text "2022 biennial report to
the Governor and Legislature" atop the image. He briefly
explained what ANLPAC's biennial report entails and what it is
meant to achieve.
3:55:32 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE brought attention to slide 5, which gave a
broad overview of acts of the Alaska Legislature and subsequent
Alaska statutes that have had an effect on policies regarding
Alaska Native languages.
3:57:39 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE said that after 2012, ANLPAC had monthly
meetings and work sessions to work to revitalize and restore
Alaska Native languages. She said that she didn't realize how
endangered the Inupiaq language was and used Alaska Airlines
unwillingness to use the name of the town Utqiagvik in place of
the previous name Barrow as an example of the stigma often
surrounding Alaska Native languages.
3:59:59 PM
DR. TWITCHELL spoke to the 1995 Native Language Act, which said
that schoolboards in Alaska shall establish a curriculum for
Native language education.
4:02:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD commented that she doesn't know how
recommendations are going to work out and said that languages
are dying worldwide because elders and seniors are dying.
4:03:06 PM
DR. TWITCHELL moved to slide 6, which gave a detailed
description of ANLPAC's recommendations of action for the
executive branch of Alaska to take in regard to the flourishing
of Alaska Native languages.
4:05:35 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE continued to slide 7, which gave a detailed
description of ANLPAC's recommendations of action for the
legislative branch of Alaska to take in regard to the
flourishing of Alaska Native languages.
4:08:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD referenced the recommendations brought
forward by ANLPAC and the presenters to elaborate on the
recommendation to establish Alaska Native language standing
committees in the Alaska House and the Alaska Senate.
4:09:52 PM
DR. TWITCHELL emphasized that the only position of ANLPAC is to
forward and benefit Alaska Native Languages. He said that the
House Special Committee on Tribal Affairs wasn't established at
the time of the biennial report being published and it is the
council's wish for the House Special Committee on Tribal Affairs
to be established as a standing committee, not just a special
committee.
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD said she was unsure if it would be enough
to have a committee solely dedicated to Alaska Native language
and said that the House Special Committee on Tribal Affairs
should continue its work on Alaska Native languages.
4:13:29 PM
DR. TWITCHELL continued to slide 8, which summarized a second
recommendation that ANLPAC made to both the executive and
legislative branches of the State of Alaska.
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD asked for examples of the principle of
decolonization being integrated into Alaska's education system.
DR. TWITCHELL said that education in Alaska is and has been a
largely colonial endeavor. He referenced an instance at a
student government summit where no one in a room knew who the
man William Paul was - someone who had contributed greatly to
Alaska Native issues - but everyone knew who Martin Luther King,
Jr. was. He said that the Alaska education system wasn't
colonial by violence, rather it was colonial by its exclusion of
the Alaska Native perspective.
4:20:30 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD said that the Alaska Studies classes are
rigorous and suggested that students not paying attention is
largely to blame for a person's gap in their knowledge and
recognition of Alaska Native people. She referenced her own
experience as a light-skinned person of Latina descent and said
that it can be difficult when it feels like people don't
recognize your ethnicity.
4:22:28 PM
DR. TWITCHELL mentioned "place-based education by place-based
teachers" and the need to support them with systemic shifts in
education.
4:22:57 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE continued to slide 9, which elaborated on
ANLPAC's second recommendation to the executive and legislative
branches of Alaska.
4:23:10 PM
The committee took an at-ease from 4:23 p.m. to 4:28 p.m.
4:28:07 PM
DR. TWITCHELL continued the presentation on slide 9, where he
continued to elaborate on ANLPAC's second recommendation of
action to the executive and legislative branches.
4:29:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD referenced the Anchorage School District's
language immersion programs and asked whether those were
effective in language revitalization.
DR. TWITCHELL said that he has a graphic that outlines the
benefits of language immersion programs and said that they are
"the most solid way to secure a future" for Alaska Native
languages. He said that often language immersion programs are
for those who don't actually speak the language and emphasized
that a cultural immersion program would better achieve the goals
of the council.
4:32:05 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD asked whether there was adequate
participation in schools to have an Alaska Native language
immersion program.
DR. TWITCHELL answered that there is adequate participation in
certain parts of Alaska and used Bethel, Alaska, as an example
of a place that has developed Alaska Native language immersion
programs and shared specific recommendations as to how to
successfully establish more programs similar to it across the
state.
4:35:05 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ALLARD commented that an Alaska Native language
immersion program would be best suited for a charter school and
shared her belief that public education in Alaska is overfunded.
4:35:37 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE moved to slide 10, which listed a series of
ANLPAC's policy recommendations to forward and nurture Alaska
Native languages in Alaska. She detailed specific points on the
list and explained how each one could come to fruition.
4:41:47 PM
DR. TWITCHELL added that current statute states that if a
majority of students in a school are Alaska Native, a Native
language curriculum must be formed.
4:43:27 PM
DR. TWITCHELL continued to slide 11, which explained how Alaska
Native languages in physical and social places must be
normalized as a means to forward and nurture Alaska Native
languages. He moved to slide 12, which explained that conscious
governmental, community, and personal actions must be made to
restore the regular use of Alaska Native languages in as many
places as possible.
4:46:53 PM
DR. TWITCHELL reassured the committee that although the first
recommendation seems daunting, it is possible to achieve, and he
elaborated on certain actions that must be taken to do so.
4:50:23 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ARMSTRONG asked whether ANLPAC had a priority
list for Alaska Native place name restoration.
DR. TWITCHELL, in response, advised that a pilot project would
be the best method to achieve the goal of Alaska Native place
name restoration.
4:51:04 PM
REPRESENTATIVE ARMSTRONG commented that she would like to move a
bill to re-establish Alaska Native place names in Alaska.
4:51:20 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DIBERT said there are a lot of creeks near her
mother's home simply named "Squaw Creek" and explained how it is
her goal to restore Alaska Native place names in place of racist
place names.
DR. TWITCHELL explained how each phase of the first
recommendation could be achieved and emphasized that Alaska
Native place names would not pose a threat to public safety.
4:53:30 PM
DR. TWITCHELL moved to slide 13, which emphasized the need to
address historical Alaska Native language suppression and trauma
as ANLPAC's fourth recommendation of actions to be taken by the
executive and legislative branches in Alaska.
4:54:20 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE continued to slide 14, which explained how
the historical suppression of Alaska Native languages and the
associated trauma of that suppression has negatively affected
Alaska Native people and shared recommended policy actions to be
taken to heal the trauma that Alaska Native people have
experienced.
4:56:08 PM
DR. TWITCHELL moved to slide 15, which listed the members of
ANLPAC and acknowledged its members who were not present at the
committee meeting.
4:56:57 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DIBERT commented that there are many Spanish
language immersion programs in Alaska public schools but not
nearly as many Alaska Native language immersion programs.
4:58:04 PM
DR. TWITCHELL cited Alaska Native corporations as potential
funding sources for Alaska Native language immersion programs
and emphasized that it is not only up to Alaska Natives to
ensure the survival of their languages; a revision of the Alaska
language curriculum and a recertification of teachers in Alaska
are paramount in the effort to restore and revitalize Alaska
Native languages.
5:01:16 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK shared his experience growing up in Bethel with
Yupik classes, media, and public signage and said that it is
possible and plausible to have proper Alaska Native language
immersion.
5:03:23 PM
DR. TWITCHELL commented that Bethel and Saint Lawrence Island
are successes stories of Alaska Native language preservation and
vitalization. He said that 20 of the 23 Alaska Native languages
are endangered and emphasized that the state should start to
check off each language from the endangered language list.
5:09:00 PM
MS. ALVANNA-STIMPFLE shared her experience working with her
daughter when she was 28 years old and explained how involving
elders and community members in her teaching experience made a
difference in learning the language. She said that some
children are translators for adults who are learning, which she
described as an exciting mark of a positive change for the
future of Alaska Native languages.
5:11:56 PM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked the invited testifiers from ANLPAC and
delivered committee announcements.
5:12:29 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Tribal Affairs meeting was adjourned at
5:12 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HTRB ANLPAC 2023 Presentation 04.24.23.pptx |
HTRB 4/24/2023 3:30:00 PM |