Alaska Native Government & Policy

President Barack Obama addressed his final White House Tribal Nations Conference today. The most famous Yup’ik singer on Facebook, Byron Nicholai of Toksook Bay, welcomed Obama to the stage.

Obama said it was a privilege over his eight years in the White House to spend time with Native people. He said he visited more tribal communities than any other president. He cited a few Alaska examples.

“My staff still talks about all the wonderful people in Kotzebue, Alaska. … They tried to teach them Iñupiaq, and tried to stuff them full of meat at Cariboufest,” he said, tripping over the unfamiliar words.

The crowd didn’t seem to mind.

The Tribal Nations Conference, now in its eighth year, was something Obama started and it set the tone for his White House. The conference brings hundreds of Native leaders to Washington and gives them a chance to meet top officials in federal government. Another way Obama elevated Native issues was by creating the White House Council of Native American Affairs. He describes it as a permanent institution with cabinet-level focus. No matter who wins the White House next, Obama said the young people he’s met give him confidence there’s more progress ahead.

He mentioned the students at a middle school in Dillingham who taught him a traditional Yup’ik dance.

“Show us!” someone shouted.

“Well, I can only do it when they’re around, because I’m basically just watching them,” Obama said. “They were very patient with me.”

The Obama White House also launched an annual conference for Native youth, which begins Tuesday.

U.S. Native American tribes and Canadian First Nations are banding together to “collectively challenge and resist” proposals to build more pipelines from tar sands in Alberta, Canada. At least 50 First Nations and tribes signed a treaty on Thursday at ceremonies held in Vancouver and Montreal.

The show of unity comes as a separate protest movement against the four-state Dakota Access Pipeline in the U.S. has galvanized tribes. Earlier this month, as we reported, the U.S. government halted construction in one area particularly sensitive to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which led the protests. The Standing Rock Sioux is among the signatories to the treaty.

“We are in a time of unprecedented unity amongst Indigenous people working together for a better future for everyone,” Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Sacred Trust Initiative said in a press release.

“Tar sands expansion is a collective threat to our Nations. It requires a collective response,” the treaty states. Called the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, it opposes projects that will expand the production of the Alberta Tar Sands, “including for the transport of such expanded production, whether by pipeline, rail or tanker.”

That includes “all five current tar sands pipeline and tanker project proposals (Kinder Morgan, Energy East, Line 3, Northern Gateway and Keystone XL) as well as tar sands rail projects such as the Chaleur Terminals Inc. export project at the Port of Belledune in New Brunswick,” according to a statement from the alliance.

In the treaty, the native groups say the proposed projects “threaten many Indigenous Nations’ territories, waterways, shores and communities with the very real risk of toxic and hazardous oil spills.” The alliance vows to work toward a “more equitable and sustainable future.”

“One chief, Serge Simon, of the Kanesatake Mohawks in Quebec, says the goal is to remain peaceful, but all options are on the table,” as reporter Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto told our Newscast unit. “The chiefs plan to meet soon to confirm strategy for the fight. They will also look at international legal action.”

The signatories hope that a unified front will mean work will be truly halted, rather than simply rerouted, as the National Observer explained: “By aligning themselves with other Indigenous nations across Canada and the northern U.S., participants hope to ensure that dangerous projects are not able to ‘escape’ by using alternative routes.”

The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association said that “the industry would listen to aboriginal concerns,” Reuters reported. But it added that “the fact remains there is a critical need for pipelines in Canada.”

As Karpenchuk noted, “The treaty came on the same day that a climate change advocacy group said Canada should stop any new oil and gas developments if it wants to reach its climate change targets.”

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

On the Spokane Indian Reservation, in eastern Washington, a group of about 40 public school teachers gathered last month, in a field of reeds that stretched as high as their heads.

Before harvesting the reeds, or tules, to make mats, they prayed. Later, they left tobacco as a gift. By learning the rituals of the Spokane tribe, the teachers of the Wellpinit School District hope to connect the culture to their lessons to get their students — almost all of whom are indigenous — to be more engaged.

In Washington and across the U.S., Native American students struggle more than any other student group to attend school consistently and graduate on time.

But this year more states — especially those with large Native American populations such as South Dakota and Washington — are trying to help by training teachers, working with tribes to create policies and programs, embedding culture in lessons, and giving more money to schools with many Native American students.

At the same time, a new federal law has incited conversation about how states and school districts should involve tribes in education.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, which last year replaced No Child Left Behind, places new requirements on all states and some school districts. For the first time, they must engage in “timely and meaningful consultation” with tribes when making annual plans. If they don’t, they could lose federal aid through programs such as Title I, for schools that serve mainly low-income families.

The new law also funds programs related to Native American education, such as Native American language immersion programs.

Separate from the federal efforts, Minnesota last year and South Dakota this year passed bills that increased funding for some schools with large Native American populations. The extra money will allow schools to update their curriculum with more references to indigenous culture and history.

Washington last year began requiring school districts to put Native American culture, government and history into lessons when updating their curriculum.

This year, a new University of Washington training program gives teachers certificates in teaching the culture. California created a similar program last year.

Cultural Differences

Native American teens are more likely than teens from any other racial group to not be in school and not be working, according to a 2016 report.

The disparities start when the children are young: More than half of 3- and 4-year-old Native American children are not enrolled in preschool, the report found.

The report also outlines problems at home. Native American students are the most likely to have parents who lack secure employment. Thirty-six percent live in poverty, compared to the national average of 22 percent.

Students attending Wellpinit schools in Washington often don’t have internet at home or a reliable way of getting to school, educators say. They face domestic violence, homelessness and the loss of close family members.

Also, schools on or near reservations are run in many different ways, making it hard for students to get a consistent education, said Ahniwake Rose, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, a nonprofit that advocates for Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students.

The vast majority of indigenous students — about 93 percent — attend public schools, on or off reservations. The rest attend schools either run by the federal Bureau of Indian Education or run by a tribe.

All those schools are run differently, and yet a student could end up going back and forth between them, Rose said.

Some states are giving tribes more control over education and that will help, Rose said.

“We know if we are more engaged in our kids’ education, they are going to do better,” Rose said. “Just give us a seat at that table.”

New Mexico passed a law, in 2009, requiring all state agencies to collaborate with tribes when making policies and programs that affect Native Americans or Alaska Natives. The governor now meets with Indian nation, tribe and pueblo leaders once a year to talk through issues.

But many Native American students’ performance in school has since worsened. Reading, math and science test scores were mostly down from 2010 to 2014, according to a state report.

And the students still have the worst attendance and the lowest four-year graduation rate.

Cultural Lessons

Part of the reason why Native American students struggle in school is that they are taught from a “white-privileged point-of-view,” said Washington state Democratic Sen. John McCoy, a member of the Tulalip tribe who supported the new law there that requires districts to add Native American culture to their curriculum.

“That has to stop,” he said. “We have to teach history, the good, bad and ugly, but it has to be taught correctly. By giving the true history, Native students in school can start feeling better about themselves.”

Strong Native American language and culture programs have been found to lower attrition, enhance student-teacher and school-community relations, and improve attendance and the rate of students who go to college, according to a 2011 report by Arizona State University.

Cultural programs can only go so far, however, as a 2003 study indicates.

The study found that cultural programming moderately improved student outcomes — but students also needed to see strong parental involvement, solid instruction, supportive, caring teachers, and a safe and drug-free environment in order to improve.

Education sometimes isn’t valued highly enough on reservations in South Dakota, where 11.5 percent of students are Native Americans or Alaskan Natives, said Democratic state Sen. Troy Heinert, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe. He used to teach at a school on his reservation, and one of his sons still goes there.

Transportation is a big issue, he said. Some students have to take a bus more than 30 miles, one way, to get to school. If they miss the bus, they miss school.

The rural nature of the community means educators need to tailor lessons to what children know and understand, he said. Teachers shouldn’t use the example of a skyscraper to teach geometry, “when our kids have only seen them on the internet,” he said. “But we can use teepees. We have those here.”

More Funding

South Dakota will try to improve outcomes for Native American students a few schools at a time. A law that passed this year provides $1.7 million for a specialist to work with up to three schools for three years to redesign their approaches to teaching, including embedding culture in the curriculum. The program is modeled after a public charter school in New Mexico.

Another law, passed this year, aims to improve teacher recruitment and retention for schools with large Native American populations. The state struggles with that in rural areas, because there’s not enough housing, too much crime and too much poverty, Heinert said.

Under the law, the state will pay the tuition and fees for “para-educators,” or teaching assistants, who go to college to become teachers. Many para-educators now live on reservations but don’t have the qualifications to teach, said Mato Standing High, the state’s director of Native American education.

Minnesota also will give more funding to schools with large Native American populations this year, said Dennis Olson, the state’s director of Native American education.

The state used to spend about $2.1 million a year on this effort in 32 school districts that were selected based on need. It now spends $9 million a year on all school districts with more than 20 Native American students, or about 138 districts.

Schools will use the money for whatever they see fit — from tweaks to the curriculum to supports for students to training for teachers.

In Washington, the Wellpinit teachers learning how to make tule mats were the first to participate in the new certification program at the University of Washington.

The teachers are learning how to better acknowledge their students’ culture in lessons, to help them connect to what they are taught, said Kim Ewing, principal of Wellpinit Elementary School.

Since storytelling is a Native tradition, a language arts teacher could have one student tell a story while another writes it down. A math teacher could teach students how to use algebra to count the tules in a field.

If the richness of the community can be applied in the classroom, Ewing said, “that makes a huge difference in learning.”

A case against a Washington state man in a British Columbia court that begins Monday could bring an extinct Canadian tribe back to life.

The last member of the Sinixt  people in Canada died  in 1953. The Canadian government deemed the tribe “extinct” and reclaimed their land. The Sinixt still have federal recognition in the United States, however.

Among the nearly 2,500 members who live on the Colville Reservation in northeast Washington is Rick Desautel, who traveled north of the U.S. border in 2010 and 2011, to hunt for elk and deer on what he believes are his traditional hunting grounds.

“Yeah, it was a conscious plan,” he said. He fully knew he would violate provincial law.

“We notified our people that if you hunt in Canada we sanction it, we approve it and if you get into legal problems, the tribe will support you,” said Dr. Michael Marchand, the chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

The point they want to make: the Sinixt are alive and well and have the right to hunt on traditional grounds, regardless of the U.S.-Canada border.

Desautel has been charged with hunting without a license and hunting as a non-resident, both violations of provincial law in British Columbia.

Because of the complicated nature of the case, and the jurisdictions involved, it has taken six years for the case to go to trial.

A peaceful gathering took place Monday afternoon in Saxman in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Speakers expressed concerns beyond what is happening in North Dakota.

More than 50 people held protest signs, while about a dozen more watched and joined in on rally cheers.

The event initially was organized only to protest the pipeline project, but Organized Village of Saxman President Lee Wallace said it expanded to address local and regional environmental issues.

“Our environmental issues are many. There are transboundary issues. Behind Saxman we have Deer Mountain. For our southern brothers and sisters at Standing Rock Sioux, we definitely stand behind them.”

A planned section of the Dakota Access Pipeline would cross sacred sites and burial places, and the Sioux Tribe is concerned that, if the pipe ruptured, it would pollute drinking water.

Locally, Alaska Mental Health Trust announced that it would log Deer Mountain if a land exchange or other agreement cannot be reached by the end of the year.

There are also concerns about the effects of Canadian mining on Alaska fisheries and water quality.

Between speakers, the crowd chanted: “Water is life! Water is life! Water is life! Water is life!”

Richard Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida Central Council, said he’s been asked why Alaskans should be concerned about what is happening in the Dakotas.

It’s important that indigenous people stick together, Peterson said.

“We’re on the very steps of our own battle. I don’t think people are even fully aware of the impacts of what these transboundary mines are doing to our people, to our resources, to our way of life. So we are going to be asking our brothers, our sisters, our allies across the nation, to stand with us before long.”

Peterson says Natives and non-Natives need to work together to protect the land and waters.

Rob Sanderson, first vice president of the Tlingit and Haida Central Council, shared his concerns about transboundary mining.

“It’s not the big events that will happen,” he said. “In Southeast Alaska, as I have learned, it’s the smaller events that come from these mines that will hurt us. The Tulsequah Chief (mine), poison since 1957 when they closed it down. Still leaching acid-generated tailings today.”

Sanderson encouraged people to educate themselves and do their own research about local environmental issues.

Fred Olson, vice president of the Organized Village of Kasaan, read a resolution adopted by the Kasaan tribal council in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“And whereas the Missouri River tribes rely on the waters of the life-giving Missouri River for their continued existence,” he read. “And the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of the Missouri River tribes.”

Many at the rally were in Ketchikan attending the Southeast Tribal Environmental Conference.

Tony Chrisiansen of Hydaburg said events like the conference and rally help increase awareness of issues and open dialogue. He says it’s important to continue discussions and come up with solutions.

“Find an arena for dialogue, then we can find ourselves dealing with the issue face to face and hopefully get something constructive out of it. That saves our water and saves the quality of life for our people in Southeast and abroad.”

Richard Jackson of Ketchikan Indian Community says it’s important to fight for, and stand behind, the things you believe in.

“So when you do these things like ‘Stand With Standing Rock,’ ‘Stand With Deer Mountain,’ ‘Stand With What We Value for Health and Wellness,’ then we can look at ourselves and say ‘We did the best we can.’ It’s only the person who stands back and says nothing who should be very ashamed of themselves for not doing anything.”

Monday’s rally outside the Saxman Tribal House was arranged on short notice.

The group plans to hold a larger rally next week in downtown Ketchikan.

A group of Alaska Native leaders said the Alaska congressional delegation’s Sept. 8 letter to the U.S. State Department on transboundary mining is not enough.

A union of 15 federally recognized Alaska tribes called the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Group said the International Joint Commission needs to become involved now. The commission addresses U.S.-Canada water issues.

“We often talk about potential harm, but as you and I are talking right now, the Tulsequah Chief Mine continues to pollute the Taku River watershed,” said Transboundary Mining Group Chair Fred Olson Jr. ”Sure, it’s on a small scale, but now coming down the line there are these big scale projects.”

Olson said the group wants the issue to be escalated to the federal level sooner than later.

“As long as Alaska and British Columbia dance around, it certainly seems to have delayed the federal action that needs to happen,” said Olson. “No matter how good the talks are between Alaska and B.C., those aren’t the talks the need to be happening.”

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker and B.C. Premier Christy Clark signed a memorandum of understanding last year. Olson said the group takes issue with these steps because they’re not legally binding and they leave Alaska tribes “on the outside looking in.”

The Alaska delegation’s letter is the second this year. It includes several requests it would like the State Department to address, including Joint Commission involvement and the appointment of a U.S.-Canada representative.

Last month, Joint Commission expert David La Roche said commission involvement was unlikely because Canada has shown no interest, and the U.S. hasn’t shown that it’s taking the issue seriously.

State Department officials and Environmental Protection Agency representatives visited Southeast Alaska watersheds in August at the invitation of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.