HCR 19-GOVERNOR: AK NATIVE LANGUAGES EMERGENCY  3:40:24 PM CHAIR BISHOP called the meeting back to order and announced consideration of HCR 19 [CSHCR 19(CRA)am, version 30-LS1402\R.A, was before the committee]. 3:40:42 PM REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, thanked the committee for hearing HCR 19. JODIE GATTI, staff to Representative Ortiz, Alaska State Legislature Juneau, Alaska, introduced herself. REPRESENTATIVE ORTIZ said human occupation of Alaska started over 10,000 years ago. When the migration occurred, the people brought their culture and their language with them, which help to determine a lot about what Alaska culture is today. This resolution deals with a serious problem, the loss of Native American languages, that threatens the Alaskan culture today. He said the state has moved in the right direction by acknowledging and recognizing the 20 Alaska Native languages as official languages of the state. However, recognition is just the first step. The intent of this resolution is to heed the suggestions put forth by the Alaska Native Language Preservation Advisory Council (ANLPAC). It strongly urges that the governor issue an administrative order recognizing that a linguistic emergency exists in the state and that it is the policy of the State of Alaska to actively promote the survival and continued use of all Alaska's 20 Native languages. In their 2018 biennial report to the Governor and Legislature, ANLPAC warned that all 20 Alaska Native languages are in crisis; most are predicted to become extinct or dormant by the end of the 21st century. The State of Alaska can no longer sustain these rates of language loss unless policy changes are enacted that support people who are learning and speaking Alaska Native languages throughout the state. He said the loss of language represents the loss of a critical piece of Alaska's history, culture, and traditional way of life. The Eyak language lost its last fluent speaker in the year 2008 and the Tanana language has only one fluent speaker left, and that person is 96 years old. 3:44:01 PM CHAIR BISHOP, finding no questions from the committee, opened public testimony. 3:44:36 PM ALBERT MINGEULOK, representing himself, elders, and those who have passed on, Shishmaref, Alaska, spoke Inupiaq in support of HCR 19. 3:45:44 PM SENATOR HOFFMAN joined the committee. 3:47:31 PM SENATOR MACKINNON joined the committee. 3:48:25 PM DON BREMNER, representing himself, Yakutat, Alaska, supported HCR 19. To help keep endangered languages from vanishing, bold statements are needed. He made some comments in the Tlingit language. He said the Aramaic language was once common throughout the Middle East and was used for trade, government, and divine worship. This is their time to join together with the state in this room, the Beltz Room, on April 3, 2018, to preserve Alaska Native languages before the last speakers vanish. 3:52:49 PM ALICE TAFF, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, supported HCR 19. She is a linguist, which is a person who is engaged in the scientific study of language. She is an affiliate professor for Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast and at the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. There is no question that this is an emergency. Knowing that languages are fading from use causes pain and suffering, she said. National Public Radio (NPR) had a story about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people who had been to war and for a variety of other reasons. They talked about the Civil War veterans moving West and how violent they were. She thought it was going to mention Native Americans and former slaves, but it didn't. MS. TAFF talked about the transgenerational transmission of PTSD. They now know that trauma causes stress, and stress causes chemicals to adhere to the genes that can turning them on or off. It makes people more prone to diabetes, for instance. These epi-genetic effects (outside the gene) are inheritable. So, the trauma of language loss, boarding school, loss of land and the ability to get your food is transmitted from generation to generation. The Alaska Native Community is in an unbalanced conditioned and susceptibility to these. Studies from Canada have shown that in communities where the aboriginal and First Nations languages are in use by half the people, the suicide rate is zero. A study in Alberta found a similar result for diabetes. CHAIR BISHOP thanked her for her testimony and finding no further comments, closed public testimony, and said HCR 19 would be held in committee.