HOUSE BILL NO. 26 "An Act renaming the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council as the Council for Alaska Native Languages; and relating to the Council for Alaska Native Languages." 2:30:16 PM REPRESENTATIVE ANDI STORY, SPONSOR, introduced herself and the legislation. She related that the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council (ANLPAC) was th created by the 27 legislature and the governor appointed 5 voting members that were professional language experts from diverse regions of the state. Additionally, there were two non-voting members; one from the House and one from the Senate. Representative Story shared that she was one of the non-voting members. She shared that the bill had been before the committee in the past. She relayed the council's purpose and mission: • The Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council provides recommendations and advice to both the Governor and Legislature on programs, policies, and projects; and to network and advocate in support of the Council's mission. • The mission of ANLPAC is to advocate for the survival and revitalization of Alaska Native languages through collaboration and sharing for all. Representative Story explained that HB 26 changed three things that had to be accomplished via statute. The first provision was to shorten the council's name, the second was to expand the membership, and expand the list of languages to include Native languages that had inadvertently been left out of the prior bill. She emphasized that the provisions were significant to the council. The name change to the "Council for Alaska Native Languages emphasized its broader focus, which included more than just language preservation but also embraced restoration, and revitalization of Alaska Native languages. The Council also requested an increase in membership from five to seven members in recognition that there were 23 Native languages in Alaska. The additional members would capture a greater perspective, allow for greater language representation, and expanded the involvement for various regions. Finally, the bill revised the official list of Alaska Native languages that were the co-official languages of Alaska established in 2015. The current list of 20 languages was based on a 1974 map by Dr. Michael Krauss, but it was discovered that 23 languages exist. She urged the committee to pass the legislation. She informed the committee that the bill packets included one fiscal note and a summary by the Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council (copy on file). 2:34:49 PM MIRANDA WORL, STAFF, REPRESENTATIVE ANDI STORY, reviewed the sectional analysis (copy on file): Section 1: Amends AS 44.12.310(a) to add Cup'ig and Weta (Ts'etsa'ut) as official languages of Alaska and divide Tanana into the Benhti Kokhwt'ana Kenaga' (Lower Tanana) and Sahcheeg xut'een xneege' (Middle Tanana) languages. Section 2: Amends AS 44.33.520(a) to simplify the name of the Council from "Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council" to "Council for Alaska Native Languages." Section 3: Amends AS 44.33.520(c) by changing voting members from "five" to "seven. Co-Chair Foster asked for a review of the fiscal note. Ms. Worl reviewed the fiscal impact note from Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development (CED) FN1. She relayed that the fiscal note appropriated $10 thousand in travel costs to allow the two additional members to travel to two meetings per year as per statute. 2:36:53 PM YAAYUK ALVANNA-STIMPFLE, CO-CHAIR, ANLPAC, NOME (via teleconference), provided testimony in support of the legislation. She addressed each section of the bill. She referred to Section 1 and informed the committee that the section added native languages to the list of official languages in the state as follows: Cipig, Upper Tanana, Middle Tanana, and Lower Tanana. She read from a prepared statement.: Council for Alaska Native Languages: What does it mean. Section 2: 1) Preservation A. Archives: this means working in archives where Native languages were recorded from years past. There are large and small archival repositories where new generations can be supported to acquire and learn their respective languages. B. Media: There are resources online on the internet for learners and researchers to find information to develop learning materials. Indigenous people share what they have learned what works for their communities and learning institutions. Ms. Alvanna-Stimpfle provided an example of her daughter who taught Inupiaq to her students all day without speaking English and other Inupiaq speaking school districts were interested in visiting her class to observe how she teaches her students. C. Community Wellness: Indigenous people work towards wellness for adults to learn what was lost from their past treatments of knowing how to speak to home language at schools and churches. This caused Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder for the next generations. To break this trauma, Indigenous have worked hard on cultural wellness in arts and ceremonies to revitalize what was lost. 2) Restoration A. Reclaim in restoring our Native languages, we are reclaiming who we are and where we come from. We have come from thousands of years of not only surviving harsh environments but also, thriving in that very environment. Our languages comes from our land, sea, and resources in the air. B. Rebirth and Renaissance: This is the time (today, now) for revival of all of our Alaska Native languages. The language council works towards to this, where our languages are normalized in the whole State. Ms. Alvanna-Stimpfle interjected that she had travelled with her daughter to a town north of Quebec, Canada where every person spoke their native language. 3) Revitalization A. Build on Native Identity: When a young person learns in the language, they are forming an Indigenous identity. (Note, not learning the language). B. Moving Forward: The ultimate result is for cultural wellness and being able to speak from the Native perspective. Ms. Alvanna-Stimpfle related that the native perspective was very different than how its expressed in English and the train of thought was different. She emphasized that the young people needed to learn their languages because they would be responsible for teaching them in the future. Section 3: 4) Seven Voting Members Alaska needs to hear from a wider community of Alaska Native language experts and the advocates of language warriors. This makes for a stronger network of language work with the same perspective of revitalizing Indigenous languages in Alaska. She concluded that the council highly supported the bill. She thanked the committee. 2:42:16 PM Representative Josephson asked if there were languages that had not survived since the first contact with non-native people in 1741. Representative Story replied that if a language was not being spoken currently it was considered dormant. She deferred to Ms. Alvanna-Stimpfle for further answer. Ms. Alvanna-Stimpfle replied that Eyak was disappearing in the 1980s and linguists like Dr. Michael Krauss worked diligently with the last remaining speakers to document the language. Amazingly, a young French linguist learned the language with the help of Dr. Krauss and had been working with families to revitalize the language. She was unaware of any other languages lost but was sure there were others. Co-Chair Foster noted the bill would be heard again. Representative Story reiterated that the council published an annual Summary of Recommendations for the legislature and governor. She highlighted the recommendation to restore full funding to the council. She indicated that the council had lost its funding for administrative support. The council was currently operating with only one full time research analyst. She would welcome an amendment to restore the administrative position. She urged the committee to read the entire document. HB 26 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration. Co-Chair Foster reviewed the schedule for the following meeting.