A SURVEY AND ANALYStS OF NATIVE ALASKAN ADULT EDUCAHCNN PROGRAMS Thesis 1m film Degree of Ph. D. MICHEGAN STATE UM‘JERSEW Jamas E). Miine ’ 19.52 This is to certify that the thesis entitled A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF NATIVE ALASKAN ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS presented by James D. Milne has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for _Ph_-_Q._ degree in -Edgg ation )' / / U 1/ " ‘ “1,7 f L; _ .\_" " {4/ , Major professor DateflmmheLZle 0-169 LIBRARY Michigan State Univcrfitv PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE a? SEP 1" m @3002 &l‘ f 6/01 cJCIRC/DateDuepSS—p. 15 . II- Ill‘ III [III ll I ll A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF NATIVE ALASKAN ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS BY James D. Milne AN ABSTRACT OF A THESIS Submitted to the College of Education, Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 1962 ABSTRACT JAMES D. MILNE The purpose of this study was to survey the extent of the programs in Adult Education in Alaska as directed towards assimilating the native into the White Man's culture and to determine to what extent natives par- ticipated in such programs. The study was restricted to those educators in Alaska conducting Adult Education courses. In order to include as many institutions as pos- sible that might be conducting programs, a letter was sent to all Govern- ment agencies and services and to all schools listed in the Alaskan Educa- tional Directory. The 23 cooperating Adult Education directors were asked questions pertaining to their duties, qualifications, administrative and so- cial inter-relationships. They were further questioned as to their philos- ophy toward the native and their program goals. In receiving the material, it was felt that further information was needed. The author taped ques- tions that needed further classification and the tapes were sent to those included in the study in order to search more deeply the reasons behind their answers. The questionnaire of the modified structural type and tape record- ings were used to collect these data. A 100 per cent return of question- naires was achieved. From the data collected, it was determined that evaluation of the native was a primary goal of the Adult Education courses. II III ul’ll..||"lll[[ {E I. III- I . .{lnlAyA {l.lll|lIl|l\ {[(l {In I JAMES D. MILNE It was further determined from the data that the Alaskan native could be readily divided into three groups as pertaining to their acceptance of the White Man' 3 culture: 1 . the conformist native, 2 . the non-conformist native, and 3. the undecided native The conformist native constituted the greater number of those attending Adult Education courses and the subjects taught were generally geared to this group. Most of the educators interviewed felt that the non-conform- ist native was a 'lost cause" and little was done to entice them into , school. The undecided native was considered by the educators to be the one offering the greater potential and were being encouraged by social and economic means to attend school. It was also determined that all of the 23 respondents had teaching experience in Indian schools but none could speak a native language. It was further determined from the data that the native culture is not being preserved but is being rapidly assimilated into our culture. This author has made certain recommendations in order to accom- plish the objectives indicated in this study. There is need for curriculum research by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with special attention given to teaching English. Related research data from studies of other countries might be considered as potentially applicable to the native situation. JAMES D. MILNE Every Adult Education program must be formulated in the light of unique and particular community status and resources. Geographic, ecological and human factors must be assessed before any plan is put into action. The community itself must be aware of the problems and be convinced that a change should occur. It is difficult to accurately assess to what degree the cultural aspect of the native society could influence the Adult Education program. It does have an intrinsic value in that it could command the at- tention of the teacher and commit him to develop and encourage the com- munity to retain its native culture. These data further suggested that this investigation represented an initial exploratory attempt to: 1. Learn the degree of assimilation of the Alaskan native into our culture . 2 . Learn the extent the Adult Education program played in this assimilation. 3. Learn the extent that socio-economic factors played in the evaluation of the Alaskan native. Additional studies of the social and economic problems of the new state of Alaska need to be done as well as numerous studies in the field of education. The most urgent study should be concerned with the definition of desirable goals of education for native youth as well as adults in the de— velopment of curriculum objectives to attain their goals . I . Ill Il'llllllll (Ill. {fll‘l Irl {.(lll‘ ll‘ lllll‘ [Ill lull A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF NATIVE ALASKAN ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS By " >> \ James D o Milne A THESIS Submitted to the College of Education, Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 1962 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. Harold J. Dillon and to the members of his Guidance Committee for their encour- agement and guidance during his pursuit of his doctoral studies and particularly for their help in the preparation of this thesis. The author is also grateful to the many educational leaders in Alaska who spent much of their time in gathering the material needed for this study . TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................... ii LIST OF TABLES ........................... vi PREFACE ............................... 1 CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM .................... 3 Part I . Introduction ............... 3 Economic and Geographic Conditions. . 13 Climate of Alaska ............ 15 Settlement Patterns ...... , ..... 18 Resources ................ 21 Fishing ............. 21 Mining .............. 23 Timber .............. 24 Furs ............... 25 Agriculture ............ 25 Part 11. Survey of the Present Educational System in Alaska ........... 26 Part 111. Statement of the Problem ........ 32 Part IV. Importance and Need for the Study. . . 32 Part V. Basic Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Part VI . Delimitations .............. 38 Part VII . Methodology ............... 38 Part VIII. Hypothesis to be Tested ......... 39 Part D(. Definitions ................ 39 Part X. Review of the Literature ......... 40 II. THE METHOD OF INVESTIGATION ........... 43 Construction of the Instrument ............ 44 Sample ........................ 45 Analysis of the Data ................. 45 -iii- iv TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) CHAPTER Page III. ALASKAN ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMS ....... 47 Alakanuk ....................... 48 University of Alaska, College, Alaska ........ 48 Beaver ........................ 49 Chevak ........................ 49 Elim .......................... 50 Elmendorf Air Base .................. 51 English Bay ...................... 52 Haines ........................ 53 Kaltag ........................ 53 Lower Kalskag .................... 54 Kwigillingok ..................... 54 Kodiak ........................ 55 Ketchikan ...................... 55 Palmer ........................ 55 Shageluk ....................... 56 Shungnak ....................... 56 Sitka-Sheldon-Jackson Junior College ........ 57 Teller Mission .................... 57 Tetlin ........................ 58 Wrangell ....................... 59 IV. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES. . 60 Analysis of Data from Questionnaire Number II. . . . 74 Promotion of Adult Education Classes. ....... 83 Program Objectives .................. 8 S V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 91 APPENDIX I .............................. 1 0 5 APPENDIX H ............................. 1 0 6 APPENDD( III ............................ 1 0 7 APPENDD( IV ............................ 1 l 2 IIII{II \ll’l I it I I‘I ll ill [I Ills! ll I I‘! I) .I) ll. [ I {li‘lll‘ull {III lftfk [ll lll:||l.l|\ [ [ [l TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) APPENDD( V ............................ APPENDD( VI ............................ APPENIHXIHI ............................ APPENDIX VIII ............................ BIBLIOGRAPHY ....... ' ..................... Page 115 121 123 125 136 TABLE II. III . IV. VII. VIII . LIST OF TABLES Schools Conducting Adult Education Programs. . . . Schools Teaching or Attempting to Teach Native Cultural Heritage ................. Use of Native Language to Stimulate Program Interest ...................... Knowledge of Native Language ............ Background and Training of the 23 Adult Educators Covered by this Study .............. Number of Years and Kinds of Teaching Experience. . Adult Educators Participating in In—Service Train- ing Programs. . . . ............... Availability of Library Facilities to Adult Students . . Bureau of Indian Affairs Proposal ........... _vi_ Page 61 61 63 64 75 77 80 82 93 PREFACE A brief description of the physical, geographical, and economic conditions as they exist today in Alaska is considered important to this paper since they affect the social conditions or more probably have cre- ated the social situation that exists today in this state. Any factor which affects the social situation is one which must be considered in an educational system. Social change may be brought about by education. Alaska is a state in which many dichotomies exist. It has had a rather exceptional educational system with many well trained teachers. Its administrative setup has been a holdover where advancement was by virtue of tenure in office, not ability. It is a land bursting with nat- ural resources, yet most of its food and machinery are imported, conse- quently causing the cost of living to soar. Thousands of acres of land have been closed to human habitation, farming and mineral exploration because of the whim of a handful of conservationists who wish to pre- serve a herd of moose. 1 ' Native Indians and Eskimos who have de- pended for centuries for a livelihood on hunting and fishing are now told what they can hunt and fish and where and when they can hunt and fish. 1 ' Jensen, Hans E. "The Alaskan Economy under Statehood: An Approach to the Unapproachable." Unpublished research paper, November 3, 1958. -1- - 2 _ Among the native people, the most numerous is the Eskimo. More than other natives, the Eskimos have preserved their ancient customs, habits, and language. They are fur trappers and fishermen. Their ancient cus- toms and rights are being restricted and discarded and only recently there has been a number of incidents in which actual shooting at Fish and Wild-— life planes and service members has taken place. The Eskimos are not a warlike people but it would seem that contact with the white man, as has happened with native peoples the world over, has brought to the sur- face any hostile tendencies they may have. The white man, or more par- ticularly, the American white man, is the most evangelistic person in the world when it pertains to his culture. He attempts to spread it with the fervor of a missionary. The field of education has its share of these people. It is they who must be limited in their contacts with the native people of Alaska . CHAPTER I PART I THE PROBLEM Introduction: The Eskimos and Indians are being assimilated into our culture. This absorption is clearly the trend but it is doubtful if these people, especially the Eskimo, who remains closest to the old ways, can suc- cessfully be integrated into our culture with any profit to them. Primitive people, left to themselves, establish a nice balance with nature whereby they have better than an even chance for survival. From year to year, the take of game, fish, fruits, or other natural pro- ducts suffices to feed the native population of a country and provide for a normal increase in population. Nature at times may be hard and cruel, migrations of people may be necessary and a fixed abode impossible in certain years. Famine may ensue and the population be reduced in num- bers but for the most part, the balance between mouths to feed and neces- sary fare is generally maintained. When another race with superior implements, with more rapid means of transportation, with other avenues of support and sustenance than the country affords and with small regard for the welfare of the native race enters the field, but one result can follow, namely, the extinction of the native -_3_ _ 4 _ unless he can adapt himself to the new conditions. For generations, the Alaskan native has occupied the bays, inlets, and inland water— ways of Alaska. They are almost entirely meat and fish eaters, con- sequently they are hunters and fishermen. Their abodes are more or less fixed with seasonal migrations. Wild deer and caribou along with fur bearing animals are the land animals on which a dependence for food and clothing is placed. However, the sea is the main source of the comforts of life by providing housing and boats for sea use. The Alaskan native society consists of Eskimos, Aleuts and Indians. The Eskimos live in the north and northwest; the Aleuts in the southwest; and the Indian tribes, Tlinglet, Tsimpshian and Haida in southeastern Alaska. Athapascan Indians live in the interior and south- eastern part of Alaska. Many of these people have retained their tribal traditions but a great number have also adopted modern ideas.* More than any other natives, Eskimos have preserved their ancient customs, habits and language. They are fur trappers and fishermen. They also engage in ivory carving and mining. The Aleuts are closely related to the Eskimos. They are able and clever fishermen. They have their own language and retain many of their traditions. The Aleut has a deep respect for his religion and for the graves of his people.** * Mid-Century Alaska: United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. , 1958 ** Op.cit. _ 5 - Approximately half of Alaska's Indians are Tlingits. To the Tlingits, trees are friends. He has for centuries depended on them for canoes, beams and rafters, the boxes which contain his family treasures, dancing masks and totem poles. When the non-native first came to Alaska, the Tlingits battled fiercely for their ancestral forests. They still rely on fishing as a means of livelihood. Many of them own and operate their own fishing boats and supplement this income with trapping and hunting in the fall and winter. Others carry on the tradi- tions of their people by carving and woodworking. The Tsimpshian Indians came from British Columbia in 1887. Most of them live in the model village of Metlakatla on Annette Island. The village is run on a cooperative basis and their enterprises include a salmon cannery, a water system, an electric plant, and a sawmill. The Haida Indians are related to the Tlingits. They are noted for their fine slate carvings. Their mode of living is much the same as that of the Tlingits. The Athapascan Indians are very poor and their villages are small. They live largely by fishing and trapping. The present native population in Alaska is about 38,000. Of these natives, 24,000 reside in rural villages and the rest in Alaska's larger cities. Although there are more Indian communities the total Indian population is about the same as that of the larger and less num- erous Eskimo villages.* * United States Census, 1960. Ill I‘ \(llltlll I Ill [l l .[ I III! (II ll. l I)- l l l l .1|l l l [I [III llll‘ [ {lull [I {Ill {It _ 6 _ The following is the distribution of Alaskan natives as compiled by Ivar Skarland, Professor of Anthropology. University of Alaska and Margaret Lantis, Anthropologist, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: I. Southeastern Alaska 1 . Tsimpshian - Annette Island 2 . Haida — Southern part of Prince of Wales Island 3. Tlingit — Mainland and islands of Southeastern Alaska from Ketchikan to Yakutat and Klukwan 11. Southwestern Alaska 1 . Eyak - near Cordova 2 . Prince William Sound Eskimo - Valdez, Seward, Portlock region 3. Tanaina Indians (Athapascans) - Cook Inlet, Susitna, Lake Iliamna, Lake Clark 4. Koniag Eskimo - Kodiak Island, Alaska Peninsula to Stepovak Bay 5. Aleut - Rest of peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and Pribilof Islands 111. Bering Sea Region 1 . Bristol Bay Exkimo - Bristol Bay, Egegik to Togiak 2 . Kuskokwim and Nunivak Eskimo - Kuskokwim River below Sleetmute, Nelson and Nunivak Islands and Hooper Bay _ 7 - 3. Lower Yukon and adjoining groups — Yukon River below Holy Cross and Delta Region Linguistic boundry north of Saint Michael, be- tween Eastern Eskimo and Western Eskimo lan- guages: 4. Norton Sound Eskimo - Unalakleet to Elim Mission 5. Seward Peninsula Eskimo - From Golovnin to Bering Strait 6. St. Lawrence Eskimo (Yuit) - St. Lawrence Island IV. The Arctic Eskimo of Alaska - Arctic Coast from Bering Strait to Canadian Border V. The Inland Eskimo - Woodland: Selawik, Kobuk and Noatak Rivers; Mountain: Anaktuvuk Pass VI. The Interior Indians (all Athapascans) - Middle and Upper Yukon, Upper Kuskokwim, and Copper River tributaries. According to Willard Beatty in Education for Cultural Change, "Adjustment to another culture can be achieved only as the members of the minority group retain their self respect, their pride of achievement and their recognition of those elements in their culture which have endur- ing worth. These factors not only serve as a foundation upon which a minority may hope to build for adjustment, but also may make worthwhile contributions to the majority culture. "2 2 ° Beatty, Willard and Others. Education for Cultural Change. U. S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Chilocco, Oklahoma: Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, 19 53 . .. 8 .. The non-native doesn't exist as far as the Eskimo is concerned. Their life is dominated by religion and they consider the possession of "Inua" a kind of reinforcement or formative principle of the soul as the criterion of existence. If a man does not possess "Inua" he is not ac— tually existing as a man. He may be in some state of formless potency but "Inua" is the thing which differentiates the real human being from the more or less dead world of shadows that walk like men. Needless to say, the Eskimo doesn't ascribe "Inua" to the white man. This preoccupation with religion-centered life is common to most primitive peoples and it is the great form giver of their culture. Their culture, in turn, is an integral whole upon which depends their physical, emotional and mental well-being as a people. It would be quite rash and certainly expensive to tamper with any aspect of their culture unless one is certain that improvement will result. As far as Western Christi- anity goes, the natives often find themselves in a situation where five or six missionary groups are competing for the assent of the same village. In such situations, the natives often become converts to each faith, while the missionary distributes free food, etc. When one faith's gifts run out, the natives adjourn to the supply shed of the next theologian. Another important cultural consideration is the native attitude to- ward work. They have established a subsistence level society. When they work, it is for a specific goal such as a winter's supply of fish. The native stops working when his goal is reached and nothing will induce _ g _ him to continue accumulating wealth. The theory of money signalizing an accretion of products plus standard precious metals is inconceivable to the native. For this reason, he is not an apt pupil for capitalistic endeavor. When a native does, by dint of good luck, manage to ac- quire a surplus of food or ornaments, his cultural instinct is to give it all away. Indeed, there are some northern tribes which work strictly on the principle of conspicuous consumption and a man will deliberately begger himself to demonstrate his generosity. 3 Max Weber's position that Calvinism was the great driving source of the capitalistic accumulation of wealth in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is well known. Our society is motivated by this Calvinistic desire to create and accumulate wealth. For this purpose, it is neces- sary to work unceasingly. Such diligence has, in an anthropological sense, risen to the level of a religious value. In our society a man must work. It is an end in itself. As the geriatricians point out, the sudden shift from activity to idleness is a salient cause of much anxiety and men— tal illness in the elder retired population. Dr. Karl Menninger, the fa- mous psychiatrist, has said that if it were possible to reduce everyone's work hours to four per day, it would still not be feasible to do so. The reason he gave is that a mass wave of mental, and hence social disturbance, Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934. .. 10 _ would ensue since the great percentage of our population is completely unable to direct so large a proportion of free time. Work is their life, not ease or leisure, and certainly not contemplation, even of the joys of nature. For most people, their estimate of personal value depends upon how much they have managed to amass of consumer goods. This, of course, puts a premium upon the competitive urge - the drive to excel or to lead. At this point it becomes necessary to mention that nothing is more alien to the native than this competitive urge. He cannot under- stand it, he depreciates it and it violates every rule of good behavior known to his upbringing. The average native firmly believes that his actions and his carefully controlled mental outlook have a strong bear- ing on his environment. For example, the natives are much concerned with illness which they believe is caused either by malevolent sorcery or lack of mental equilibrium. A native's social mores have combined with his religion to prescribe a deeply disciplined calmness in all his social relations. To upset or unbalance that mental outlook may, in a primitive tribe, bring about shattering upheavals in a community whose members depend on each other. But the natives, with a certain animism in their outlook, have extended the utilitarian social ideal of calmness until it has become, to them, a way of warding off disease, evil spirits, famine and drought and is a spiritual means of controlling their environ- ment. _ 11 - The native is, above all, a cautious man who fears excess of any kind in his social relationships. A native rarely seeks to lead. A man prominent in the council is laughed at because he seeks the limelight. Even athletic events are often barred to exceptional athletes on the theory that it is no longer a game if it is dominated by one person. Competition is for war and even there a man who deliberately gives vent to all his de- structive urges at the expense of caution is a "crazy dog who wants to die." The native ideal is an affable, quiet man who never projects his ego nor slights anyone else. Natives are usually energetic but see their activities in those of the group, not in competition. Self esteem is encouraged but not sought through ego fulfillment. The rules of religion, which are coordinated with those rules by which the world operates, offer scope for protection to the Indian or Eskimo. If suddenly the native culture is supplanted by a work—a-day Western accumulation of wealth, it will be contrary to every instinct the native has. If our experience with the Navajo, the Blackfeet, Ojibwa, and other tribes with a similar outlook are any clue, we will fail in trying to inculcate our way of life. If we do not make al- lowances for this cultural change, such failure would mean more bitter- ness and maybe even mental breakdown for many people involved. 4' 4' Beatty, Willard and Others. Education for Cultural Change. U. S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Chilocco, Oklahoma: Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, 19 53 . - 12 - At present, there exists practically no mental illness in the native societies. This is something that our society cannot boast of. It is no small consideration to destroy the serenity of mind created by a cultural pattern and to replace it with our idea of utilitarian values which evoke nothing but fear, anxiety and dislike. Even now, many of the Eskimos and Indians resent us so much that occasionally the school books that the children take home are torn up by their elders who feel that the non- native is ruining the old way of life. Although it is extremely doubtful that these natives - honest, modest, and dignified in their original state - will ever conform to our cultural demands. The Eskimos and Indians are being exploited by business entre- preneurs looking for cheap land, minerals and oil. Before their situa- tion, already complicated by the depletion of animal life, becomes even worse through exploitation, it would seem incumbent upon us to do some- thing in the way of adult education. If something adequate to the cir- cumstances is done, a severe problem regarding the above mentioned exploitation might be forestalled. If nothing is done, then perhaps the cultural conflicts previously noted might grow into more serious problems and legal controversies over which the government might have to arbitrate. In order to alleviate these and other unhappy possibilities, it is necessary to attempt a basic literacy program for adults on a much larger scale than is now being done. Also, the accent on fundamental literacy, depending on the approach, might take some of the emphasis off cultural - 13 - assimilation as a consciously pursued goal. Of course such a program does not contemplate constantly underlining our literacy and economic and historical traditions to the disparagement of, or the ignoring of, the natives' . Such would be recognized as non-native literacy. 5‘ There have been numerous instances of cultural imperalism which need mention- ing. The attempts to outfit many villages with a council form of govern- ment, complete with parliamentary procedure, might well fall into this category. Certainly, the newly enacted fish and game laws would qualify. True, they may have been passed as a conservation measure but their en- forcement plays havoc with the native hunting and fishing. It is now much more difficult to support life by these traditional means. So objec- tionable have these laws become that a running battle goes on between the natives, who desparately need the food, and the wildlife authorities. If we insist upon reducing native traditions to nothing by a "wicker basket art" as we have done so many times before, we will create nothing but a vacuum into which a proud culture will be destroyed and there will be nothing left but apathy. Economic and Geggraphic Conditions: Alaska was acquired by this country from Russia 93 years ago. It measures 586,400 square miles. It is one-fifth as large as the other 49 states combined. It is about 1400 miles from north to south and 2700 ° Ibid. _ 14 _ miles from east to west. Alaska is the only area under the American flag to extend into the Arctic Circle. It has 26,000 miles of coast line and has within its borders the highest mountain on this continent, Mt. McKinley, which is 2320 feet tall. Mt. McKinley rises from the Susitna Plain to the south and the Tanana Valley to the north. Its full height is visible from Alaska's two principal cities, Anchorage and Fairbanks. Moving westward, one approaches Mt. Fairweather where the waters of Lituya Bay touch the south wall of this mountain. It is the closest juxtaposition of ocean and high mountain on this planet. On this coast line is also located the Malaspina, a 1500 square mile Pied- mont glacier, the largest outside the polar regions. Next comes the Copper River Delta, Prince William Sound, Resurrection Bay, Cook Inlet and the two mountains, Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Iliamna. Mt. Iliamna is the first in a chain of 70 volcanoes, over half of which are active. They extend along the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. In the midst of this chain lies the Katmai National Monument where a great volcanic upheaval in 1912 created the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. This Alaskan mountain range is a continuation of the Sierra Nevada and bisects Alaska from east to west in a huge curve. North of this range lies the Yukon and its tributaries, the Porcupine, the Tanana and the Koyukuk. This river system is the third longest in North America. It flows for 1500 miles from east to west and empties into the _ 15 - Bering Sea. The most remote part of Alaska lies north of the Yukon. It is almost uninhabited and is largely occupied by the Brooks Range which is a continuation of the Rocky Mountains. This area lies within the Arctic Circle. Its highest peak, Mt. Michaelson, is 9200 feet high. Many rivers emerge from it. The Koyukuk flowing southwesterly, the Kobuk and Noatak flowing westerly and the Colville flowing northerly into the Arctic Ocean. The peculiar geography of Alaska has greatly influ- enced its settlement and growth and in many instances has isolated set— tlements of people, creating a difficult but challenging problem in the field of education. Climate of Alaska: There are many widely held misconceptions concerning the cli- mate of Alaska. Alaska is divided into four natural regions from north to south. They are: (1) the Arctic SIOpe, (2) the Rocky Mountain System, (3) the Interior Plateau, and (4) the Pacific Mountain System. This latter region is divided into three very different sections - South Central Alaska, the Panhandle, and the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands chain. 6 The Arctic Slope covers about one-sixth of Alaska. The climate is of the Arctic type, with light snow and little precipitation. The soil is tundra. The sun continually shining in the summer brings up mosses 6' Denison, B. W. Alaska Today. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1949. .. 16 _ and flowers although the soil thaws only to a depth of two feet. At Point Barrow the sun remains above the horizon for 82 consecutive days. This region is one of low temperatures but its low temperatures are still higher than those of the Interior Plateau because of the tempering effect of the Arctic Ocean. The Rocky Mountain System separates the Arctic Slope from the Interior Plateau. The Brooks Range, 600 miles long, a wilderness of ice and snow, form the backbone of the system. This whole area is within the Arctic Circle. It has been little explored. The Interior Plateau is a vast upland larger than Texas. It is here the extremely low temperatures are recorded. The climate is of the extreme continental type with a wide range from summer to winter. Fair- banks and Nome are the only important communities in this region. They experience temperatures of minus 40 degrees to minus 60 degrees in the winter and up to as high as 100 degrees in the summer. The Alaskans are prepared and equipped for the cold. Their houses are well heated and insulated. Their outdoor clothing consisting of parkas, fur caps and mukluks, in addition to other clothing, is very protective. Annual precipitation of rain and snow is eight to 15 inches. The summers are short but the daylight lasts 20 hours. During this season, the topsoil thaws but the frozen subsoil or permafrost causes water to remain on the surface of the land. The fourth region, the Pacific Mountain System, curves around the entire south coast. The climate is the wet, cool, marine type ._ 17 _ tempered by warm winds and ocean currents from the Adriatic mainland. This is where the majority of the Alaskans live. In this region are lo- cated four cities that rank from third to sixth in population - Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, and Kodiak. It also includes the cities of Wrangell, Valdez, Petersburg, Seward, and Cordova. The explanation of the phenomenon of warmer winter temperatures in latitudes that are 1000 miles further north is the Kuroshio which is a warm Japanese current which originates off the coast of Asia and sweeps eastward across the North Pacific and along the west coast of North America. The climate here, due to the Kuroshio, is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than that of New England, Norther and Central New York and much warmer in its winter temperatures than that of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Montana. The Kuroshio is also re— sponsible for the heavy rainfall along the coast and the luxuriant rain for- est of southeastern Alaska. The Panhandle, which is actually the coastal section of northern British Columbia, is 300 miles long and 30 miles wide. Here is located Ketchikan, one of the wettest regions in the continent. The average rainfall here is 150 inches annually. Further north on the Panhandle, the precipitation drops to about 87 inches at Sitka and 90 inches at Juneau and tapers off to only 25 inches at Skagway. Subzero temperatures here are rare and of brief duration. The average January temperature for Ketchikan is 32 . 6 degrees, for Sitka 32 . 4 degrees, and for Juneau 29 . 5 degrees. The average temperatures in July in southeastern Ell-ll Ill’l - 18 .. Alaska are in the 60's and rarely rise above 80 degrees. The United States Weather Bureau states that the mean temperature of January at Sitka is nearly a degree higher than the mean temperature of January at St. Louis for the same month. Anchorage, which is located in Central Alaska partakes of both the maritime climate and of the Interior Plateau's climate and consequently experiences the extremes of a rise into the 90's in the summer and a drop in the winter into the minus 30's. It has an annual percipitation of about 15 inches. As a whole, Alaska's climate is more favorable, not merely for comfort, but for survival and security than nearly every area in the other states. Alaska suffers little, if any, of the climatic catastrophies that periodically affect portions of the other states such as hurricanes, torna- does and floods. Settlement Patterns: The Russians occupied Alaska for about 126 years and left the natives much as they found them with the exception of the Aleuts. These people live on the Aleutian and Prifilof Islands. The Russians enslaved them and practically wiped them out. 7' Today, they number only about 4,000 people. Further north, along the Arctic coasts and the Bering Sea and along the Kobuk, Noatak, Kushokwim and lower Yukon rivers, are the Eskimos. The Athabascan Indians are located in the interior. The Bancroft, H. H. girstoerof Alaska, 1730-1885. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft Company, 1886. _ 19 - Tlingits live in southeastern Alaska. None of these three native cul- tures were disturbed and were found much as they have always lived. The Russians were wholly interested in the fur trade and there- fore did not penetrate very far inland. The earliest Russian settlement was made in 1784 on Kodiak Island and was later moved to its present site, the village of Kodiak. Some remnants of the Russian days are found in a few Aleut villages such as Chernofski, Belkofski, Unalaska and Nikolski and on the Kenai Peninsula in the villages of Kenai, Kasilof and Ninilchil. They consist of log cabins and Orthodox churches with their round, beet shaped domes with the double crosses. On the whole, the Russians left little in the way of permanent settlements in Alaska. The native villages were more permanent. Such villages as Akiak, Kotzebue, Unalakleet and many others have descendents of the aboriginal inhabitants and show little or no influence by the non-native. Former native cities like Juneau and Wrangell have now been pretty much taken over by non-natives. Ketchikan is another example of this which is caused by the attraction of the abundant salmon and mining. It is, today, the first port of call for north bound ships. It has the largest pulp mill in the state and is the biggest salmon canning center. Juneau, the capi- tal, has a history going back to 1880 when gold was discovered nearby. The mine is now inactive and the chief industries of this city are lumbering and fishing . 8' Ibid .. 20 _. Fairbanks began as a mining camp in 1902 and it is still a mining center for gold. It is the end of the Alaskan Highway and the Alaskan Railroad. The University of Alaska is located here. Anchorage is the largest city and was founded in 1914 as a con- struction camp for the Alaskan Railroad. It is Alaska's chief center for air transportation and is the headquarters of the northern defense. Cities such as Haines, Skagway and Valdez owe their existence chiefly to being ports of entry to the Klondike during the great gold rush. It was at this time that much intermarriage took place. Seward was brought into being early in this century when a group of businessmen at- tempted to build a railroad from there into the interior. This enterprise failed and a group of speculators bought up most of the land anticipating that the government might make it a rail center, but the government de- cided to utilize Anchorage instead. Alaska is a young country and a new state that is extremely diversi- fied as to resources and population. The United States Census Report for 1960 indicated an increase in population in Alaska which almost doubled in the ten years since the 1950 census. From 1930 to 1960, the popula- tion increased over 300 per cent and all indications point to a continued population explosion for the new state of Alaska. Needless to say, these large numbers of new people, products of Western civilization, are having a tremendous impact on a once serene and relatively stable native popula- tion and economy . _ 21 - Differences between ethnic groups as to historical background and customs, the natural geographic and climatic barriers, all offer a challenge and problem to the modern educator. The map on the following page shows the location of the various cities, schools, adult education projects and serves to show the vast area covered by our new state of Alaska. Resources: Fishing Fishing is still the major industry of Alaska. Salmon, halibut, herring and crabs are the most important ones being processed. Salmon has long been the principal mainstay of this industry but it has been steadily declining. This is a reflection of what has happened in Alaska before. Whales, once found in large numbers in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans, were victims of unrestrained pursuit during the era of yankee whaling ships. Walrus were indiscriminantly slaughtered for their ivory and hides. As many as 10,000 were killed annually, thus depriving several thousand natives of Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska of their principal means of livelihood. In 1952 a treaty was drafted with Japan which allowed unrestricted catching of fish west of the 175th meridian. Although most of the fish spawned within this border, the greater number migrated beyond this line and are being caught in huge numbers by the Japanese fishermen. The natives living upstream on Alaskan have, for centuries, depended on the -22- as: 3335 29:33 5:9 maooxom a2 #295353. f wJOOXUm FU‘KI—ZOO 1.. 31.30.200.761 uuooxom In 969.3 925.2% .«._.m ":5 odCIaam m3: 3“; 2353033: $5 w40m2>w a4! nun. >1!