The Village Council of Kipnuk was upset that the principal of the K-12 school was not incorporating enough of the local Yu’pik dialect into daily lessons.
Villagers were angry that some of Chief Paul Memorial School Principal LaDorothy Lightfoot’s relations were not positive. And they said she neglected an important part of being a leader in Kipnuk, that she wasn’t sensitive to people’s feelings and needs, and that she violated local, state and federal law.
“This is coming from The Kipnuk Yup’ik Tribe. We are kindly encouraging you to leave your position as Kipnuk Site-Administrator at Chief Paul Memorial School. We, the Native Village of Kipnuk, have received many calls from the local Kipnuk Tribal Members about you, LaDorthy Lightfoot. Since you been here in Kipnuk, you have neglected one ofour Kipnuk Tribe Constitution in related to Bilingual Education Act – 1968 known as the Title VII of the Education. You have neglected important part of being leader in Kipnuk. The relationship with variety of people was not positive. We have enough facts to ask you to leave, Kipnuk, whereas you have violated the federal, state, and local laws. (See the listed facts other page). Being a principal for a school is wonderful opportunity and serious responsibility. You are a guest of this village and never really know the extent of your influence. You have had affected the students, parents, local leaders, and this village. You were not being sensitive to the needs and feelings of them,” the letter reads.
“Native Village of Kipnuk Yup’ik Tribe is Federally Recognized Community and has the power to self-governance. We the Native Village of Kipnuk Council Board of Directors would like you to leave effective upon the receipt of this letter. Native Village of Kipnuk Board of Directors are banishing you permanently.” It is signed by Jimmy Paul, president; James Mesak Jr., treasurer; Daniel Paul, board member; Jerry Amik, board member; Noah Attie, Kipnuk tribal judge; and Richard Paul, tribal judge.
The letter is followed by a more fulsome explanation of the charges against Lightfoot, who fled the village, along with the entire teaching staff. The school has been closed due to no teachers available, and the students are supposedly studying remotely from home.
The village council also issued a search warrant for Lightfoot, who had barricaded herself in her office and then fled to her living quarters. The search warrant was to search every house in Kipnuk and all school classrooms and property in search of Lightfoot.
The search warrant:
The banishment letter and attachment:
This is what happens when you leave a lightfoot in charge. Quayana.
Native Movement can learn a lesson of due process more effective than blocking a bridge. The tribe tried working with the princpal and teachers before the letter. I don’t get
why teaches of a
bilingal community or immersion class don’t learn yupik too. If i was an elementary teacher i would make myself learn the language of students families. Teachers should have initiative.
How much in tax funds out of their own pockets would you say the parents in Kipnuk contribute to the educations of their kids, Jen, and why should the rest of Alaska squander increasingly scarce state funds to pay for their insistence that lessons also be taught in a language which has no practical use whatsoever outside of Kipnuk?
What’s the ROI on it all, Jen, and why is the language we use to communicate with here on MRAK insufficient for use in Kipnuk’s public schools?
sally change your attitude! A real teacher or a real missionary would learn a peoples language at their own expense. People like you today always look to the government pay for everything. Besides there is a yupik app staff could had learned if they had initiative. Its good they left. Perhaps the next principal and teachers will have self initiative. Also the language barriers could find money through native corporations if money is to include speakers in classrooms.i just found out sealaska heritage removed the money barrier for those to learn tlingit at uas. Its about time.
For gosh sake, Jen, you have it completely backward. It isn’t me who’s always looking for the government to pay for everything, it’s you and those like you who imagine you’re special and deserving of costly additional accommodations at the expense of the rest of us.
The notion that English isn’t spoken in Kipnuk thus necessitating the hiring of Yupik facilitators at the State’s expense is completely bogus and you know it. It’s pure fantasy.
A far better solution would be for those in Kipnuk to ensure their kids embrace effective use of the English language which will equip them to participate in the first world for the rest of their lives. If they really need to be conversant in Yupik or Ttingit or any other novelty languages which aren’t practical anywhere other than in small villages among extended family members, the parents and/or the native corporations who deem it important should cough up to cover it.
You might want to dry your eyes and redirect your outrage toward those wasting valuable public funds which could be much better utilized to immerse village kids English and STEM programs, Jen. There just aren’t a lot of jobs out there for fan dancers and storytellers these days, y’know?
Or dog trainers like you Sally dear.
I’m just guessing here the dance fans I gave as gifts to MY grandchildren seem a bit on the “extraneous” side to you.
Fun fact: Did you know all languages are the same age and value to the Creator who created each of the earth’s human languages? But, aren’t we ? fartunate enough to have the all-knowing Sally among our midst who is well qualified to evaluate among earth’s lingo to determine for us which ones are of succeeding and descending values. Get down in your knees this instant and genuflect to Herr Sally.
Cold hard reality check majority of these teachers are recent graduates from lower 48 looking for adventure. No tenured teacher in Alaska is going to leave the road system to go rough it in western Alaska. Should I leave ASD or MSD for Bethel? said no teacher ever..
JW, there is always a real reason. Doing a teaching stint in the remote villages gets their student loans paid off by the BIA. That said, its always best if parents have the most control over their children’s education. Seldom does anyone care for a child more than the parents.
Have you lived in the Alaskan Bush for over 15 years and yes some of that time as a teacher, I can tell you that in the schools I’ve been associated with, we offered daily yupik classes where language and culture was taught. Every student had that class. We also did the pledge of allegiance each morning over the intercom led by students in both English and Yupik. There was an immersion throughout the building and classrooms of native culture and art items. If Lightfoot wasn’t doing this, then she was throwing up badly but it wasn’t the tribal councils place to treat her like this. They should have had a meeting and invited the school board and the superintendent and given the leaders of the school district and opportunity to deal with this. They are her bosses not tribal counsel. The districts I’ve been associated with have been sensitive to native issues and that’s never been a problem. I am a native American myself but I never disclosed that when I was in the bush. Rather, I wanted to be treated on my own merit rather than some long lost bloodline. Only when we were leaving the bush for the rest of our lives did I disclose this and people were shocked. Some asked me why I didn’t tell them and I returned a question to them would it have mattered? They already love this and we were always welcomed into the village as one of their own and even given native village names. I don’t need a badge to show people around me what I’m made of. So mistakes were made on both parts here if Lightfoot wasn’t promoting native culture and presumably on the village tribal councils part and their attorneys for overstepping their authority. The only exception would be if this is a tribal ran School or a charter school. Then the village council is in charge of the school but if it’s a public school that received Federal money, they are a state entity and proper channels have to be followed. Sorry folks but that’s the law.
I also spent alot of time in the Bush and it seems you weren’t paying attention to village politics, or just very misled.
While I do empathize with parents’ concerns regarding their children’s education I point out a few matters that may put the letter into a different light.
One, that Lightfoot was principal there for EIGHT years. That’s one more than seven, two more than six, three more than five, etc. Something, obviously, happened to make this year so very special…it probably has something to do with how the native staff are treated…
Another note, I noticed while working Yupik communities, was that in the YK Delta, if you hold certain persons to standards of punctuality and performance, you are often accused racism or at least, insensitivity. If you spent even one week in a village you know very well what “village time” is.
Oddly enough, I witnessed far fewer issues in Inupiat communities than Yupik.
Kipnuk has a 100% graduation rate, btw.
I suggest that if you could look deep into this issue I would wager there was a changeup in folks of the council, and/or an employee of the school was disciplined. Lightfoot isn’t Alaska Native, she’s a convenient target/scapegoat.
Yes, racism exists in the villages, under the name of “traditional values.”
There were some folks (always elders) in Yupik villages who would ask me in private “are you an Indian? If you are, don’t worry, I’ll be quiet.” Because they knew as well, maybe better, how native Americans, especially from Outside, can be treated in a Yupik village.
Just like in court, you never get the whole story from just one side. Of course, don’t expect to hear the whole story.
Nope. Well versed on native politics. Try again if you must.
And yet many tenured in the bush wouldn’t transfer to a road. Cities suck or hadn’t you noticed,?
Not necessarily. That is a bit arrogant assumption
Better yet. Why don’t the Yupik teach? Why can’t they provide teachers?
Many Alaskan natives do teach if they have the credentials. Still have to be licensed by the state.
Perhaps they are teaching in other districts. To be sure, U of A had internal English instructors obstructing “native” students as well as adjunct instructors in math courses doing the same thing. They held hard-core racist attitudes like Sally’s attitude and would spout these in a test review so the selected paying students would get angry, leave the room and miss the pre-test review. The white guys were glad this wasn’t happening to them. etc.
We are Americans. The only language we can afford to teach is the English language. If they want to have additional studies after school on a volunteer basis so be it.
Sounds like she wasn’t “Woke” enough for them. LOL! Village of the doomed if that’s the case.
It’s not a matter of being woke fool. Alaskan natives and tribes have been trying to hang on to their culture for generations now after being assimilated or attempting to be. You go right ahead and keep on showing your ignorance.
Looks like you need another gentle reminder that Native people didn’t even have the wheel, let alone the honey bucket, literacy, fire-making devices, toilet paper, modern medicine with attendant enhanced lifespans and qualities of life, spectacles, the rifle, fiberglass and aluminum boats with outboard motors, snow machines, airplanes, permanent abodes, Pilot Bread, Carhartts, computers, corporations, photography, nor any of the rest of the niceties enjoyed by Natives today before White folks came along with civilization, Forkner.
Not even the wheel…
What’s your point . I can tell you they’d give it all up if you would leave.
No you can’t. Subjective reasoning is a waste of time in this context.
Aunt Sally left out cooking stoves, petrochemical fuels, air travel, native only clinics, general stores, insulation, and a ton of other modern world items that you’re pretending to know others would give up. I get it; you’d like to portray yourself as a worldly wise native as well as a credentialed and certified educator but you’re coming across as a phony when you invent subjective arguments and logical fallacies and attempt to pass them off as truths.
Agree. If they choose to live “tribal” then let them, but without the benefits western civilization provides.
Ahhh, the racists are showing up. Good. Bless your hearts.
Alaska has no industrial base. Quite literally, the states service based jobs that economically provide for the recent immigrant populations of Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau would not exist without the resources and taxes coming from the North slope, Northwest Arctic and other native villages.
The arrogance and pretentiousness of the recently settled peoples in regard to native issues is really just embarrassing.
Can’t even build a homeless shelter in Anchorage for these people but you sure can incarcerate them disproportionality.
You are a guest, you should treat the natives who are the real heart of Alaska, with respect.
Joe, in order to understand your post could you please elaborate:
Please could you define “recently settled”.
Please could you give more detail on the “recent immigrant population”.
Please explain how the native population of the north slope built the oil extraction platforms and the pipeline to created all that tax revenue.
Why do you believe Anchorage should built a homeless shelter instead of respectfully re-repatriating those individuals with their families, who know how to show the proper respect?
Thank you I await your reply.
You sound very prejudiced to me. Have you and your family always prejudged others in Anchorage? This is an instance where the people of the land do not cow tow to Anchorage social prejudgments.
There you go again with that preposterous “people of the land” garbage, GG, and I’ll ask you once again to define what that even means as well as to identify those you imagine to not be “people of the land”.
The fact is that you can’t refute anything that I’d posted above in my response to Forkner and instead you’re resorting to hurling baseless butt-hurt accusations of prejudice on my part as you prejudicially and wrongly presume I’m from Anchorage or that I want anyone to kowtow (<- note the correct spelling) to "Anchorage social prejudgments", whatever that's supposed to mean.
Quit crying in your beer and smarten up, Sonny.
“Aunt” Sally aka Stranger Sally knows what you need to know. isn’t that special. Thanks ASD for teaching Sally everything she needs to know about others. And Sunday School. She goes regularly but only attends the children’s portion to avoid discussions regarding “adultery” etc.
Granny… you are responding w/ vitriol to Aunt Sally’s objective questions and you’re way off track in 100% of your stream of consciousness retorts. Is it possible that you may have had a little too much fire water? If you need an intervention know that it’s ok; we’re all family here.
So to hold on to their culture they hire woke outsiders to teach it to their children? LOL! Sounds like a plan only a woke Democrat could think up. LOL!
If I may be so bold to respond to the flippant Herr Sally “prejudiced” is word derived from the word “prejudge” which is derived from the word “prejudgment(s)”. You know, deciding a thing (about all natives of Alaska) before it is heard like you do based upon the assumption you know more already than others because of your own superior KSAs.
Sally never operates alone like honest people do. She sits around a table controlling six people all hours of the day. Flying monkeys. She jettisons them one by one. She cannot operate alone. Truth is malleable. But, she ‘s got her sneaks around. They can’t operate without their racist ring-leader. She is just a poor little white thug around all these minorities. Boohoo. A dime dozen in the projects.
It began with the missionaries moving in thinking that they knew better and grabbed up all the kids and took them to a charter school. I’ve spoken to many elders about this and I asked him if they would do it again and they said hell no. Government schools are part of the assimilation process. Let’s not beat around the bush. Only recently due schools curriculum native culture and language. Many schools provide their local culture taught by local natives. They’re under the charge of a certified teacher and are given the title as an aide. There’s nothing that a non-native can teach a native about a native culture. If you go into the village with your eyes wide open perhaps there’s something they can teach you about them and maybe even about yourself.
So do the folks in Congress, Juneau, Anchorage need to get squared away on jurisdictions and US Constitutional rights. We have the plain language of the US Constitution. Alaska has never been within the US Constitution’s fold nor do the rinos and dems have any cognitive recognition of the precepts.
When they said two plane loads left with the state troopers, you knew it was a good chunk of the teaching staff, but damn the whole teaching staff split town. Now good luck to that village, getting anyone to go out there and teach now. This will all the sudden become a state issue. I cant wait to see the job advertisement for school gigs in that community…
It will all end up back as the taxpayers problem.
This has always been a taxpayers problem. Do you think the village contributed a penny to “their school” or paid the teachers out of their pocket?
There is considerably more to this story and nobody has yet heard the side of the teachers. Given the hostility by the tribal council and the implied complaint about teachers non-conformity to village council demands in this letter, one wonders what really happened. Clearly teachers were not welcome. It is also unusual for the entire teaching staff to flee. Given the ridicules search parameters in the “warrant” they probably feared for their lives.
I could go out there tomorrow and successfully teach. Some people just aren’t meant for the bush. I’ve seen it time and time again and I’ve seen people go running and screaming towards the plane by Thanksgiving and I’ve seen people leave at Christmas time to never come back and abandon their personal property in place.
Do it then.
Please!
Looks like Kipnuk needs you, Batman.
The question is, will you help your people or will you instead selfishly live out your retirement in FL, as far from the village as you can get and still be in the US?
I remember during a war we used an Indian dialect and no code crackers had an chance at cracking it at all. That helped our country win a war. So these is that
Job Advertisement for Kipnuk village- Fun loving community out near bethel seeking highly qualified teachers. All that is required is that you leave all your rights at the Ted Stevens Airport. Look forward to you spending a cold miserable winter with us, uh we meant look forward to you teaching our kids, Cheers!
Working in the bush is a give and take. Legally you don’t have to give up your rights, but you need to be smart about things and try to understand where these people are coming from and where they’ve been. You come out to the bush with your eyes wide open and usually your mouth clamped shut and you’ll do fine until people in the village get to know you and you are accepted then you can pretty much do anything you want because like I said you’re accepted and of no threat and are welcome
That search warrant was a joke. Worse than a joke, a total travesty of justice.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized – 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
This violation of Lightfoot’s rights as a United States citizen, as well as any other house that was entered in search of her, should be prosecuted fully. There’s no room for any “sovereign” nation within the United States. This movement needs to be stopped.
Yes there should be a lawsuit pending.
It ought to be a piece of cake to find another principal after this, huh?
Yes it should be. I know of several that would go if they weren’t retired. They have close to two decades of successful tenure in the bush in multiple villages.
“If” doesn’t get it done….
Doesn’t mean there aren’t others.
Bat**** crazy.
Going to be a long time until someone applies for any vacant openings at kipnuk school. This isn’t a new problem in village schools.
Your assessment is wrong. Working in the bush can be a revolving door but I know many people who’ve been there for decades. It’s not for everybody and if you go out there expecting working vacation, you are sorely mistaken. It’s hard work and hard on you mentally and sometimes physically. But I found it one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life and I’ve made many lifelong friends.
Sounds like Lightfoot was too heavy-handed for the peeps.
And students were kept home a month earlier because parents felt it was unsafe at school…because they were not being taught their culture and Lightfoot’s interaction with a variety of people was not positive?
Sounds like some educational choice action and parent autonomy. Maybe we can hire the Kipnuk community to banish the federal department of education and return rightful control to states, local communities, and parents. Then, next, get rid of the NEA. Unless I am missing something, I don’t see this as a bad thing.
What you’re missing is the fact that constitutional rights were violated. But then you didn’t go to law school did you?
So did they catch her & banish her, put her on a plane, bus, snow machine or did they just send her on a walk into the wilderness?
They chartered a couple of planes because all the teachers wanted to leave as well. – sd
Interesting. Are the elders going to do anything about the abuse rates in the village now that external observers are gone?
That would be a job for troopers.
For sure. They’ll ramp it up to traditionally normal levels. That’s why the median age in Kipnuk is 28.3 years for males and 22.2 years for females.
Young women bail out after they’ve been exposed to traditional village mores. That probably says a lot about what a trooper Granny Galeutian might be.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, EXACTLY, LOVER? Not a serial sleep around, changing locks to keep the husband/owner out of his property while he’s at work so as to get dome leg with the handyman “JimJim” as I mentioned to the handyman insurance corporation. Like the children’s large, lusty mother; EXPOSING IN AN EXHIBITIONIST MANNER to the children in the home all the sexualist handyman could muster (before his alleged back injury cooled his jets some). The wise lustful couple have been sneaking around “quietly” ever since the insurance company got wind of certain business practices).
Oh my gosh, Trouser Bark. I won’t even try to make sense of the mess this poor unhinged creature responded to you with but he (or she?) is clearly an absolutely triggered nutbar.
Hope he doesn’t have any car keys or weapons nearby.
I hear you, Sally. I was pretty sure it was you that p*ssed her off up until I noticed that she wasn’t on the same page with anyone, ever. This column and the responses to it offer genuine insight into village politics, elders and the ability to work within such an unusual paradigm. Imagine yourself as the administrator at LKSD responsible for developing a working solution to whatever the issues were at Kipnuk. You’ve called a meeting of the villagers to come up w/ a solution and you want to hear from each of them that care enough to have their perspective shared. Yellow pad in hand; you’re ready.
A few parents say something that underscores that there may be a problem, then others in the audience interject their views:
GF: “Me and Jesus invented the perfect curriculum when me and ravens were the lords of education. If you teach in Yupik these kids’ll pick up theoretical mathematics without understanding a lick of english. NBD as we’ll tell ’em they’re Rhodes Scholar material and pass ’em anyway. Synapses take a bit to fire”.
GG: “They’re from the VOLCANO, LOVER”!
GF: “Sue the b*stards”!
Administrator: “Sue us”?
AG: “I told the insurance company about LARGE and LUSTY dome leg”!
GF: “Who cares what you think”?
AS: “Where are you going w/ this crap”?
GG: “I’m in the top 20, dammit! Listen to meEeeEEE. Serial sleep around! Oooops… Hey, get one of them Rhode Scholars to clean me up! How’s your back? Maybe I change the locks?”
—–
It’ll take years and years to repair this and Fork’s assertion that there will be emergency teachers there shortly is nonsense. The primary losers will be kids now celebrating their elder’s having chased school work out of town. They’ll blame the prior generation when they’re 40, on welfare and Mark from Pebble has taken a major deuce on the environment such that local wildlife is no longer fit for human consumption. At that point they won’t be qualified to work so they’ll be the next version of the fine folks hanging out as Minnesota and Spenard.
Throughout human civilization there has been one approach to cultural differences and it’s been conquer and assimilate. Numbers 31: 17-18 summarizes it well.
The reality is that obsolete cultures die. Their language goes away, their artificially propped up way of life goes away, etc. Ask anyone around if they speak a little Midianite.
It has been ever thus and resistance is futile.
Still(!!!) … Baseless claims, without reasonable merit, and irresponsible actions by the Village. If this is allowed to stand, without consequences, these types of encounters will only embolden other communities to emulate similar foolishness, and these events will no doubt flourish into a firey frenzy of emotional chaos and mayhem. If there is ‘no’ common Rule of Law, applicable to “all” citizens of the US, who will ever want to travel to a Rural Village to perform any measure of work or services, without some type of exorbitant Hazard Pay?
Hopefully, reason and logic will emerge so that we can focus on solving important issues together to help advance Alaska into a dominant economic force that we all contribute and share in the success.
What is “rule of law”? Do you know? Do you mean abject subjugation by individuals wearing costumes?
T Bark. I’m glad you live in California and Washington not Alaska. Shouldn’t YOU be plugging IN a generator or something? We are all family? I don’t think so.
Forecast: class action lawsuit settlement paid by either APEI or AMLJIA to the tune of $10m.
Wrongful termination pays.
“Needs and feelings…” What!? No statute is mentioned, no specific violation is given, nor is there mentioned the right to an attorney, and the right to appeal to a court of law. No, this is… tribal… banishment – of an employee of a school district that is established under state law. Let this sink in. It is a species of tyranny. This outrage cannot stand. And, folks, this development was inevitable from the time that Gov. Tony Knowles determined, without statutory authorization, that the State of Alaska would recognize the formation of these many scores of village tribal sovereignties, each of which would exercise powers that would be in direct contradiction to Alaska’s Constitution and statutes.
We can’t pin it all on Knowles, hasalaska.
Dunleavy emboldened these irresponsible self-important goofs as well and we’ll all be on the hook to pay for the nonsense: https://mustreadalaska.com/tribal-compact-for-schools-signed-into-law-and-alaska-officially-recognizes-229-tribes
This sort of aggression happens in select villages. I remember being in a particular village with adjacent federal land. The village requested a survey of the land limits over a year ago, but we were still confronted by and screamed at and accosted by a tribal elder for almost an hour until the powers that be pointed at the survey stakes that showed we were on federal land the whole time. Didn’t matter we had survey grade GPS and deeded paperwork, we were screamed at by an old guy who kept saying “this is “our land” ” inside a federal set aside. You cannot win with this mentality. If they want tribal status, cut them off from state grants. We can use that money to treat their banished reprobates in the cities.
“Aunt Sally” is evidently an ignorant, prejudiced white woman who would never feel so exaggerately self-important anywhere else in the world but Alaska. Her exaggerated self importance make her a legal liability in any environment where she will interact with the people of the land. In my case VOLCANOES! She is LIKELY an ignorant remnant of Irish extraction. I wish she would go back to her pubs and sheep herds and stay there. She is a complete jerk.
Sally, darling, I know you imagine yourself to be well-loved child of God. The Holy Scriptures refers to “the people of the land”. Every land tends to have people on it even the maritime latitudes of Ireland your homeland.
Oh, you poor dear, GG. I’m trying not to laugh at you but you have nothing to argue with other than your teary-eyed sense of entitlement, your sad and completely unfounded allegations of racism, your vivid imagination as to my heritage, and name-calling of the sort that we might expect a low-IQ ten year old would be ashamed to have to fall back on.
I’ll remind you that you’ve once again dodged providing a definition for this “people of the land” nonsense you’ve been spouting off about which further implies that there are those you imagine aren’t “people of the land”.
Where are you going with this crap, Sonny, and why is it so difficult for you to communicate properly?
You must relish this opportunity to be honest for once about the hate in your heart for others. Let your lying cheaters you hang with pity you. I don’t.
So do the folks in Congress, Juneau, Anchorage need to get squared away on jurisdictions and US Constitutional rights. We have the plain language of the US Constitution. Alaska has never been within the US Constitution’s fold nor do the rinos and dems have any cognitive recognition of the precepts. Still making fun of my Grandson I see.
No doubt laws were broken and rights were violated by the tribal council and there shall be a pending lawsuit that will cost them dearly. They went about it the wrong way. Gone are the days when village councils banning someone by putting them on an ice flow and setting them adrift. Proper channels have to be gone through. I find it amazing that the school board who must have received countless phone calls about this problem and also the superintendent allowed it to escalate this far. Their jobs are to tamp down fires before they get to this severity. Yes mistakes were made on all sides it appears but the village council violated rights and that is culpable. The school personnel screwed up by abandoning their post and vacating their employment. Unless they can prove there was a physical threat against person and well-being, they shouldn’t have done that. They should have stuck it out contacted the superintendent and gone through the school board and came up with a solution that way rather than just bugging out. But that’s a different case. Tribal council screwed up and overstepped their authority and violated rights. Allegedly I should put. If tribal counsel physically kept the School employees from doing their job, then there can be no harm done on the employee’s part by abandoning a job that they were not permitted to do. But this falls on the superintendent in the school board just as much as it does on the tribal council.
Did you not read that search warrant?? It Said search every house, all school property etc. for Lightfoot. You think anyone would stick around after that. Constitutional rights were trampled all in the name of tribal sovereignty.. This school district is screwed. State of Alaska is screwed as well letting kangaroo court proceed like this. I guess so much for due process and all that other stuff in our constitution.
This is the second or third time you’ve suggested that a lawsuit might cure the issue and you’re absolutely incorrect. You’re not going to legislate their behavior and you’re not going to sue impoverished people into responsible action.
The average household income in Kipnuk is $42,152 with a poverty rate of 33.33%. The median house value is $57,500. The median age in Kipnuk is 26.5 years, 28.3 years for males, and 22.2 years for females.
Kipnuk Demographics
According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Kipnuk was:
Native American: 97.22%
Two or more races: 2.50%
Black or African American: 0.28%
White: 0.00%
Asian: 0.00%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.00%
Other race: 0.00%
What’s your point besides wasting a bunch of time typing demographics that you got on the interweb? You don’t sue the individual people you sue the council and you sue the native corporation. That’s where the money is.
You should not find research challenging. That took me all of about 15 seconds but I appreciate your kind remark.
Suing the Corp would be a childish waste of time and you know that to be the case. Were that not so the Corps would’ve already been tasked with cleaning up the recreational street drunk problem in Anchorage. In that and other ways you may have noticed that NCorps are not responsible for the behavior of their shareholders but I recognize the effort you took to deflect the Elder’s need to adhere to any benchmark of responsible deportment.
Regardless, your proposed solution would be little more than a court case that tied up the court system. Ultimately you cannot legislate a path toward smarter spawn. More the worse when parents will happily deny the following generation an education absent unusual notions like ‘god is a raven’ nonsense.
Somebody mentioned fan dancers earlier and it reminds me that far more than half of the dancers you see anymore don’t look like natives at all and those (like Fork) claiming to know what natives would gladly give up are themselves outside the phenotype, outside the community, and hope to inject an opinion from authority they do not possess.
Little pretend ‘sovereign’ nations attached to the real nations teat. Really a joke on all fronts. Welcome to animal farm 2022.
Not one teacher stuck around makes me wonder who was really feeling threatened..AST asks so who wants to leave. Hands go up AST counting, stops looks at his buddy yeah we are going need another plane.
It sounds to me like this principal and a group of teachers came into the village with the wrong mindset. They should have came in wanting to promote native culture. That’s if the allegations from The village council is even correct. Some groups want to take over the school operations but they aren’t qualified because they don’t have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. They do as parents know what they want their children to be taught and if these folks were following the curriculum, that would have been covered. Some people come into the school with a head hunting mindset. It’s the even-minded teacher who has a conversation with these people and finds out what their concerns are and as ever they can to address those concerns if this goes outside there teaching boundary for what they’re not capable of doing, then they can resign their position. I’ve seen it happen many times not to anyone’s fault, but mostly the teacher was in a situation that they weren’t prepared for. I’m not sure what they were expecting but they didn’t do their homework. If they came in to the village thinking they were better than everybody, well that was mistake number one. It takes time for village members to trust a new person in the village and teachers and administrators need to give the village all the time they need. It’s their kids and it’s their land and you are a visitor getting paid good money to be there.
It sounds to me like you are attempting to place the blame here on these teachers when you, by your own admission, don’t know the whole story.
No doubt there will be much blame placed on the teachers but not before the whole story gets told. And few new teachers are totally prepared for their bush jobs IMO. That said, it escapes me how this school principal was threatened by this village council without going through the school board. I suspect this village council will suffer serious consequences for their blunder here.
Who cares what it sounds like to you? Leave me be. I know something on the subject.
Your post was just a collections of “ifs” that suggests you don’t know squat here Gregory. If you do know something on the subject then by all means give us your knowns rather than “if this” and “if that.”
Do that and I’ll leave you be. Heheh!
Okay Billy try this on for size. The teachers and the administrator were under a contract. That’s a legal binding promise. If you break a contract like that, you can be held for liable, which means you have to pay for all the costs the district spins trying to replace your position. Recruitment money signing bonuses it doesn’t matter. You also could lose your teaching license because you left your post. That could be career ending because the next time you go and try for a teaching job even if it’s out of state there’s always a question on the application have you lost your license and why? I’m not sure you want to put on there I quit my job because I didn’t get along with the village. That’s what I do know no if ands or buts about it. Those professionals are supposed to be adults. That’s for sure for certain. I’ve been in some situations that I might have wanted out of or wanted my contract to come as quickly to an end as it could but you stick it out. Are you telling me that in two months time things deteriorated so rapidly that all these teachers and their ringleader had to bug out like a thief in the middle of the night on airplanes? Had to or wanted to is the real question. We all know what should have happened. The local school advisory committee and or the tribal council should have tried to work it out at a local level. If they couldn’t then it should have escalated to the school district and the superintendent, and then to the school board and then to the states teachers ethics committee. In that order. It appears that Hot heads prevailed on both sides and here we are. Again Billy these are the facts and they are not disputed. But bless your heart for trying.
I could see a couple teachers leaving with principal but the whole teaching crew up and left. I think that’s what you failing to see here.
To “promote native culture” is foolish notion and not what the school system exists for. Call Calista Corp for that nonsense. The federal government built the nicest building in town by far to give these kids the opportunity to be productive members of society and maybe even break free of their village’s 33% poverty rate.
Now the Elders have befouled the government’s gift and will most assuredly raise a generation of dolts until the idiocy is forgotten. That too will take a generation and in that time the school building will have become a disused and poorly maintained broken windowed dump.
You like the idea of having others think you’re a teacher but seem to have missed a huge lesson that others haven’t. Do you actually have a degree and a teaching cert?
I wonder how effective a Dick and Jane approach would be there?
You are a weakened vestige of the boarding school days.
Go lay down by your dish, Lucinda.
If you’re speaking to me yes I do. If you have ever lived in a village, then you would know that the school is just one function of the building. The school building is used for carnivals, fundraisers, funerals, potluck, weddings, corporation meetings. It is the central structure and feature of a village. It does more than just teach reading writing and arithmetic. The school district will get some emergency people in there until those positions are filled permanently. It’s the village’s kids and how dare you fault them for wanting to have their children raised a certain way.
Always look on the bright side of life.
Lots of comments by those who do not understand the importance of tribal traditions in more isolated villages. Thank you, Suzanne, for sharing this letter. As for the NEA and teachers now, so many are teaching Critical Race Theory (Judge everyone by their skin color and remember that the white person in the mirror is an oppressor), and sex education for Kindergartners. We have no idea if this was the case here, but not recognizing local traditions in a period from 2013 – 2022 and shutting out parents and tribal councils just doesn’t make sense. It would appear that the tribe tried for almost a decade to communicate, but were rebuffed. In an age where parents are being targeted by Biden’s FBI for contesting the teaching of CRT and sex education for kindergartners, and the assault on families and family values is on the increase, it makes perfect sense for one segment of our society to protect itself. Where are the rest of us?
What does CRT (or sex education) have to do with anything here Shelia?
Kinda depends on what are being claimed as “traditions.”
Are the “traditions” conducive to children being able to learn the syllabus, or are they contradictory to that goal?
Well said.
I love how the search warrant for that village is an all-encompassing blanket form that someone filled out. Any of my homeschooled kids could have produced a more complete search warrant and professional document in our home during their “recess.” Did anyone else chuckle at the poor language, grammar and punctuation issues or overall lack of proper legalese in any of the docs provided?! The story is one thing, but the documents about the story allow for the story to take on a whole different shape.
Am I the only one that noticed that the “warrant” said the search must be conducted before 10/28/2022 but was dated 10/28/2022?
My guess is the warrant was filled out after Suzanne started poking around. A very poor job of CYA if you ask me.
Still, nothing will come of this. State has little power in the tribal communities and Congress could care less…until of course, a threat to federal control is perceived.
Waiting for Governor Dunleavy’s Commissioner for Education to address how this wil be resolved with the Community
I called it, according Frank it is now the State’s problem. Not the lower kuskowin school district problem..
He won’t. It’s too close to the election.
Gov. Wally Hickel said often we need to be “One state, one people.”
Test scores for kids in Western Alaska are among the worst in the US. Creating division like this doesn’t improve an already dismal situation.
Gov. Wally Hickel said often we need to be “One state, one people.”
Test scores for kids in Western Alaska are among the worst in the US. Creating division like this doesn’t improve an already dismal situation.
I’m from the Western side of Alaska. I tested in the top twentieth percentile of the nation. Sooo…
Then you should understand how statistics work, right? And that, unfortunately, statistical exceptions prove rules, they don’t disprove them?
This indicates scholastic abilities are available our residents who have opportunity to receive a comprehensive education like America’s rural founders had the opportunity to study.
Huh???
I read this several times and it still doesn’t make any sense. What are you saying? You mean if educational opportunities are available then residents, who are so inclined can study and get ahead?
Yes and ???
Individual anecdotal experiences do not in any way invalidate statistical averages. BTW Who are America’s RURAL founders? To my knowledge back in 1776 and 1787 most of the US was rural.
My wife and I had the privilege of working with CPMS for three years. There was never any contention with the village or the district, half of our staff were native and our principal was native. Yupik was taught at every level and all teachers had a working relationship with each other. As dean, I had a close relationship with the village and was never at odds with them or the village with the school. Kipnuk is a loving native village and I am extremely proud to have been accepted by the people of the village. Even though we have been gone for twelve years, my wife is on Facebook with a large number of our friends there. If we were not so old, we would willingly go back and be a part of the village again.
Taxpayer: In haste and with no editing available I omitted “to” which Suzanne kindly provided. Yes, our founders were rural people, studying classic literature, chopping wood, carrying water, defending their properties, building this nation. They were very often rural people which is why Alaskans of all people should not be afraid of applying the US Constitution as it is actually written.
I’m all for teaching traditional classes and native language. But probably should be more emphasis on the constitution and the bill of rights. I also recommend the tribal council taking a refresher course on the constitution as well..
Sounds like the writer of the letter could have used more education with respect to grammar and sentence structure. Good grief.
There is much here not out in the open yet. I’m waiting to see how many other shoes drop.
Regardless, I worked in the bush for native corps for years. Outside of the odd nut, I got along fine and was treated the same.
When you are living/working in a culture/subculture not your own, showing respect to said culture goes a long way. It’s incumbent on you, the outsider to at least learn how to adapt.
Respect isn’t owed. It’s earned.
You said it. That’s what it boils down to. Outsiders looking down their nose at natives and getting butt hurt for being called a racist. Perhaps if they walked a mile in the native shoes they would change their mind. Maybe the natives are tired of drugs coming into the village from outside and contributing to the downfall of the children and young adults. Many villages are dry banning alcohol but yet it’s still smuggled in at extremely high prices. Maybe native dream of the old days when their culture and language was strong and life was little more than strong family values, a successful hunt, raising children and fair weather. Maybe they long for those days and have learned by the mistakes that were made in the past during the assimilation process. Very few living today remember when it was a time before the outboards and the rifles and lumber. But some that I’ve spoken to remember speaking with their elders so we’re talking about four or five generations ago. Some wish that everything was the same but times change and whites destroyed many cultures and civilizations on their movement.
Pull yourself together, Forkner. Today’s Natives are lucky enough to have had White folks come along with civilization in the first place and no amount of fantasizing or wishful thinking on your part is going to change that fact.
No rational Native would go back to the stone age if given the chance.
Not even the wheel, Forkner. Let that sink in…
You know nothing. Ask them. I did.
You know Greg, it is nice to romanticize subsistence living from 150 years ago, while sitting in your presumably air-conditioned dwelling in Florida.
Living totally off the land without modern conveniences is hard, the live expectancy is low, but someone wants to do it, no one is stopping them.
You make the claim here that the white man brought booze and drugs. I beg to differ, they simply had a better supply and technology. Fermented alcoholic beverages have been around since the Egyptians and there is a long documented history of native tribes using hallucinogenic herbs (peyote comes to mind). Yes there is a alcohol and drug problem in the villages, yet no one is forcing anyone to drink or take them. If there is no market then there is no need to “smuggle it in”.
Mankind’s history is one of migration, conflict and progress. Maybe after 150 years it is time take a good hard look at the state of communities in the villages and quit blaming every problem on outsiders to obscure the issues within.
It is ironic that the grammar, syntax, and composition of the letter (not to mention the “legal” wording) written by village adults and legal “professionals” is so poorly written? That school is evidently failing its community.
But the best part is the warrant. I’m keeping a copy of that one for presentations. It’s a doozy.
Oh! The excelling excellence of the English language is only exceeded by German: Weltschmerz!
You know who’s going to be left holding the bag after lightfoot and the other teachers sue the state and school district for wrongful termination, violating constitutional rights? You guessed it all of Us.. That whole teaching crew going to make so much money off this, they will never have to work again. Thank you LKSD
They weren’t wrongfully terminated. They abandoned their jobs willingly.
In order for the lawsuit to be successful, there has to be fault assigned. I’m not sure who’s going to win that fight. I don’t believe the teachers or the principal was fired by the school district. That’s who they had a contract with. What did happen was they left their post and broke their contract so unless the native folks showed up outside teacher housing with torches and pitchforks, the certified people should be lawyering up.
How is that when they violated their contract? You’re kind of getting the rules switched there aren’t you pal?
If you read everything carefully and not so closed minded, where in any of this (besides the comments) does it mention the teachers being banned or forced to leave. If you paid attention as you were reading without brewing a lot of nonsense in your head. You would see that the tribe tried for many years to speak to the principal. There is a whole lot more missing from this article. The teachers weren’t the focus here. They weren’t told to leave by the tribe. I heard they were forced to leave by LKSD or they would be fired. The council did try and work with the superintendent, but all the complaints made by the parents were shoved under the rug. Unless you have worked with LKSD yourself, your opinion doesn’t matter, ask any teacher who worked for them in the past 10 years. LKSD is a joke.
Yeah I wonder when they started searching homes which homes they hit first??? I’m going to take a wild ass guess and say the teachers. I guarantee you it wasn’t Hank and Edith place. Schools employees first..
If what you say is true, then it looks like the village did everything they could to rectify the situation. The local advisory committee submitted something to the superintendent and according to you it was ignored. It should have been escalated to the school board which is made up of natives. Did the school board get involved? They are the ones that have the supreme authority to hire and fire including the superintendent. Again with this being all hearsay, I’m not sure why the principal and the teachers fought so hard against the wishes of the village. It’s a village’s kids, if they want something then let them have it. What’s the big deal? I think without knowing anything, the teachers were green and not Bush savvy and came out there many probably as their first teaching job, and carried with him some preconceived notion taught in teacher class 101 about classroom management and how they must be in charge and in control of everything in the classroom and the school. That’s not how it works. Not in the bush and not in real life anywhere. It’s a give and take and it’s about building relationships and gaining trust with the villages most precious commodity, their own children. And teachers that think they know better are prone to getting run out of town on a rail. But there’s a little matter of the teacher contracts and if after discipline and growth plans and countless visits from upper administration the teacher is decided to be unfit, then it’s pretty easy for a non-tenured teacher to be fired come hell or high water even if the nea is involved. You can be fired for no reason at all.
“Open Minded” you are correct, the teachers were not asked to leave by the village. You seem to be focused on that fact, in a effort to ignore the bigger picture. You further base your opinion on hearsay. It appears that you have a bias against the LKSD.
What you so studiously ignore are the documents in front of you. Vague complaints and innuendo without actual facts are difficult to judge. Some complaints stick out and tell an interesting story. For instance the principal’s refusal to hire 2 local teacher and instead hired “her friends”. Where these local friends the KTC simply did not approve of or outside personnel from the LKSD? Small town politics are a microcosm all its own. The KTC claims she never once communicated with them in 10 years. That claim seems doubtful in a small community such as this one.
But back to the teachers, would you feel comfortable or safe living in a place where the the council can have your home and your personal things searched at any time without an actual legal reason and since this a remote community you have no recourse? From the reporting so far it appears that teacher voluntarily left with the principal, accompanied by the state troopers.
It is clear that there were tensions between the LKSD staff and the tribal leaders, however considering this principal had been there for a considerable time, one should assume that the community could have dealt with this in a better manner.
This school states that it has a 100% graduation rate. But the State tests show that at the 9th grade level less than 9% can read and ZERO percent are proficient at math. Any questions?
Oh my. This presents a bit of an issue.
A separate one but that would be NCLB on steroids. We’ll need Fork to explain how you misunderstood that stat.
Well since you don’t actually know the difference between a hill of beans and a pile of squat I’ll try to educate you. In the classroom, you teach students based on their level. At one time a teacher might be teaching six different grade levels in the same class of the same age children. That’s why testing is so important to see what level the kids are at. Some of the kids progress more quickly than the others. Retention rate is almost non-existent unless agreed upon by the parents. Teachers evaluate students based on their performance and their willingness to learn and do the assigned studies. Teachers must be flexible. So students are moved along to the next grade and because most of the teaching positions are revolving door, a new teacher may or may not look at what level the student is on and try to just teach one grade level to all ability levels and that’s when students run into problems. But as long as a student is in there trying and completing the assigned work, they will be promoted and eventually graduated. Now to answer your question, graduation rate and passing standardized test rarely are the same thing in the village. You have the statistics to back that up. It’s all about synapses and experiences but that’s probably way over your head. The bottom line is some brains don’t develop as much as others without a little prodding. Things that you take for granted out in the real world because you’ve been learning your entire life don’t always happen in the bush so those kids don’t get that benefit. Trying to pass a standardized test is an unfair comparison. It’s not all black and white and there are many shades of Gray. I hope this helps you understand.
…and GG since he scored in the top 20th percentile in the nation!
My prononun is “she”. My noun is Grandmother and Elder.
The nineth grade proficiency requirement is true for all Alaska. It is the dumbing-down of America goal of the same players in our Revolutionary War “partnering” through to the present to harm our guaranteed republic form of government.
What amazes me is that in a village of 700 with 200 student age children, there’s not one local who is a teacher…that’s absolutely astounding.
Reading the letter from the Native Village of Kipnuk it appears that the state funded education system has failed these folks for generations and perhaps they should pursue alternative means of education.
How did the state funded education system fail these folks Steve-O. And by these folks, I mean the village council, rather than the people represented by the school board.
Clearly the writers of that letter are not the sharpest tools in the Kipnuk shed, but their issue is with their school board and not a case for banishment of the principal. What sort of alternative means of education would you suggest?
Bill,
You should read the article again, then read my comment again. Keep working at it Bill, the answers you seek are right there in front of you. Less time writing more time reading will help Bill understand what is going on and what is being written.
It’s OK Steve-O to say you don’t have a clue, rather than your asinine cop-out here. Heheh!
Bill,
Keep working at it buddy you will figure out how to read and understand what you read…at some point.
How did state provided education fail them? Read what was written, Bill. There isn’t a single qualified educator in a village of 700, they need to have state provided teachers who they then run out of town by force. Do you think state provided education somehow didn’t fail them, that’s completely absurd!
What sort of alternatives you ask, anything other than what has obviously failed them…what an asinine question. That’s why it’s called an alternative!
Read the article again, Bill. Read my comment again, Bill. Try to understand what you read before you comment again, help yourself out man.
The state doesn’t provide their teachers Steve-O and we have no idea whether/not Kipnuk has had local teachers in the past. Further, since when has the goal of education been to provide local teachers?
Like I said earlier, it’s OK to say you don’t have a clue-just like you have no idea of any alternatives. Whew!
Poor, poor uninformed Bill,
The state in fact provides the teachers, and in more ways than one. Once again we find that reading, is in fact fundamental and I am glad to help you in your journey of literacy. The “state” is a generally understood term for any and all government, whereas “State of…” is a generally understood term for the state level of government. Therefore, when I say “the state funded education system has failed”, or “state provided” any reader who understands the English language would understand that as government funded education system. State funding, as in State of Alaska funding makes up a large percentage of all school district funding, by law. In the case of Kipnuk, which is in the unorganized Kuskokwim Borough, the vast majority of funding is provided by the State of Alaska, in fact over 70% is provided by the State of Alaska with Federal funding making up almost all of the remainder of the funding.
Now that you’ve been informed you can see, when I said “the state funded education system has failed” I was talking about government funding, but it also works with the funding provided by the State of Alaska. The state does in fact provide the teachers by way of funding.
Speaking of having no clues, what else do you have no clue about that you’d like to be informed of?
Another long-winded cop-out there Steve-O.
The local school board provides the teachers (and curriculum) and that board is elected by its constituents. Granted funding is provided much by State but the hiring and firing is left to that local board. Two entirely different things.
Your “they need to have state provided teachers who they then run out of town by force” is not the same as “state funded education” that you allude to. And you’ve avoided your suggestion that a goal of education is to provide local teachers. Go ahead and delve right into that tidbit. Heheh!
Bill,
I’ve already answered your questions, it’s up to you to read and understand the answers I’ve provided, unfortunately you continue to struggle with that. As usual you’ve read something that isn’t there and you are hung up on it for some reason, nowhere did I say the goal of education is to provide local teachers.
Keep reading, Bill. Think about what you’ve read, mull it over, then read it again. When you think you actual understand what you’ve read and want to write a comment, read it again and think about if your comment is actually a response to what you’ve read. When you are ready to write your comment, go ahead, but make sure you keep on point and when you get done writing read what you wrote to make sure you didn’t wander off course, as you are so often prone to do. Good luck Bill, literacy isn’t gained overnight.
It’s not uncommon for there to be a complete non-native teaching staff. I’ve been in schools where 50% of the teachers were local folks who went to Fairbanks and got their teaching degree and came home and now teach at the school. But most of the villages aren’t that lucky. They rely on a revolving door of new faces every year. Local people know that people from the outside aren’t going to stay so they are reluctant to develop relationships and get to know someone because they know and 8 or 9 months you just going to leave them like everyone else has rather than stay and really try to make a difference.
There are actually several local teachers at the school. In reality, the majority of the staff are from the village. All of the aides, maintenance, office staff, custodians, kitchen staff, and approximately 30% of the teaching staff are from the community.
Still waiting to find out the rest of the story. Who didn’t get greased, contract, or job.
No one is used the r word on here yet so let me be the first. Some of the comments on here simulator racist activity in their writing. There are those that I worked with that were only there for the money and the adventure and look down on natives. I knew a woman who was trying to get a after school playhouse started in the school because she fancied herself as some sort of a professional actor. Then that same woman in her own blog went down to the Christmas pageant at the local church and criticized the Christmas play that they were showing there. That is the sort of person that the bush does not need nor want. Unfortunately that’s the type they get from time to time but they don’t last very long. Many are allowed to quit.
Fascinating playhouse story. That’s not the way racism typically works though and it looks a hell of a lot like another of your invented perspectives. The majority demean the minority; that’s racism. A perfect example of that was in the 70’s when if you looked like me you would not be welcome in Tyonek.
Just in case that teaching cert you wish others to infer you have is expired note that the minority in this case is anyone that is not among the 97.22% native population of Kipnuk.
I don’t even really know what you’re asking or trying to imply. I haven’t looked up my certification for a couple of years now since I left Alaska. I think it probably has expired by now.
The kettle calling the pot black eh handyman? How’s your back?
My back is fine and I have no tool skills but I can surely recognize one when I see one. I’ve also read enough of your comments here to see that debating w/ you is outside my skill set. Anyone that responds to reasonable assertions by referring to themselves as a “people of the land VOLCANO” and that then goes on to make harshly prejudicial remarks about the questioner’s heritage is definitely a force to be reconned w/ there, granny. So much for what Fork was attempting to imply about racism having been directed at the Kipnuk community by teachers.
How about this… you tell us something useful instead of simply being cranky when someone has a point? The first would be that if you’re old and you were provided an education that allowed you to be in the top 20% of tested academic scholars, do you think that you should have been denied academic success by your parents or worse yet, by someone that’s not one of your parents at all?
Being Irish is not harsh and that thug can fight her own fat girl battles. Get lost.
If we are dust some of us literally are volcanic dust. That’s science. I understand it doesn’t interest you – at your level. That’s fine.
Nah we are saying those folks in that village need a quick class on the constitution and the 4th amendment.. We can probably throw the 14 th amendment in their as well.. Far as the Christmas story have no idea what that has to do with constitutional rights.
Free inhabitants (natives and residents) are not bound by oaths to defend “the US Constition” unlike public servants on the clock. Family enclaves are not obliged to donate private assets to provide government amenities for any outside traveler’s reasons. You do understand that; correct?
Beautiful artwork btw.
Yes it is. The schools received grants a few years back and many used the grant money for cultural awareness. I was in a village once where they brought in a guy and him and the students steamed the wood and made a traditional Aleutian kayak and then each got a chance to try it out in the lake. Another school hired a local artist to sculpt a giant wall hanging and paint a big mural that they hung in the gymnasium. Some of you used the money to hire local native Craftsman to make traditional grass baskets on display. Beautiful priceless works of art.
Send whole Anchorage assembly out there. They can practice their woke agenda.
One village in Alaska does not determine the whole state of Alaska and all the other Tribes and Villages. This is one village, with one Tribal Council and one School. All the comments are directing this one village actions and reflecting it on the whole state and every village of Alaska. Incorrect. We have a white principle and white teaches that all have been excepted by the village and our principal even came to our village with a Yupik name given to him by the previous village he taught in. One of our white teachers even married a local native and has kids with. There were times when a few came in to teach and was not liked by the village but they finished the year and left. If that teacher or principal came
back year after year of course there would be animosity toward that person and especially parents would feel very uncomfortable sending their children to the school with whomever that person was especially if it was a principal. Tribes do have authority to govern and do have jurisdictions in their communities. I my self learned allot of my Yupik words in school and it would be nice if I was able to continue into high school so I can talk to my elders that mainly spoke Yupik some
whom are no longer alive. The only options of language classes I had in HS was spanish, Japenese and a few others to choose from. It is important for schools especially in Alaska to have that option to learn the native language of our heritage. Any community in Alaska wants their heritage and traditions to be respected and sounds like this principal did not respect or live up to this community’s standards. It is different village to village but one thing we all hold in common is to respect our way of life because it nearly was taken away from all of us especially some of the stories our elders would tell of abuse from the missionarys and especially the teachers. That will no longer be tolerated especially in the time we live in. So again this one village does not represent every village and tribal organization in Alaska but it does send a clear message to future educators or people that want to move to one of these villages is to respect the values and people of these villages. Imagine going to a foreign country and not respecting the village any where in the world you would be outcasted and maybe worse. This village had one message and to one person the principal to leave. It’s unfortunate that the whole teaching staff was afraid and left also. Those poor kids that cant go to their school anymore. No sports or anything. For God sakes lets think of these children for some thats the only thing they look forward to is the sports.
In your case, you really need less Yupik and more English. Sheesh.
Americans have the right to travel since before the Charter of Jamestown (before the Mayflower). If the teachers wanted to pursue happiness elsewhere; great. What’s it to ya. Tribes are family and kin. If they don’t want someone around it is fair to say so. It takes unique persons to comfortably integrate in these little villages. It doesn’t “work” for everyone. Nice try tho.
But here’s one more refutation. In the 1860’s my Great Grandmother was photographed wearing glasses in Alaska. Where was your great grandmother photographed in the 1860’s?
OH…Now the truth comes out.
I’m so happy for us. Our tribal (family, kin) are NOT obliged to transmute ourselves into corporations and third-class cities of family and kin by governmint edict representing newcomers who hate us, our children and our languages. Government has no subject matter jurisdiction over family, kinship identities to devolve us into mere corporations or mists that disappear like mythological persons – corporations.
Few things #1) TERRIBLE “search warrant” and letter from the tribal council. That is semi hilarious the amount of grammatical and spelling errors in that thing. It’s hard for people to take you serious when you can’t construct a document that is just full of hearsay with no facts. #2.) The handling of this will result in lawsuits to LKSD for violations of civil rights etc. Even employees in rural schools have protections from this sort of thing. Legally LKSD can’t put staff in dangerous and hostile situations. #3) The principal wasn’t a new staff member from what I gather she had been in the community for years, I’m betting this is a situation where she stood her ground on something and people got upset then the small community rumor mill kicked into high gear. #4.) Blockading against the AST ? Really if KTC is trying to get the heavy hand of justice slapped at them this is how you do it, Don’t think the federal government is waiting to pounce on any tribe who tries to defy it ? Not a fan of history I guess. what this is going to actually result in is slower processing of EVERYTHING that has the word Kipnuk on it to make sure no one is chased around the village by a lynch mob.
Don’t huff and puff too much “Aunt” Sally.
Not to mention fake friend “Aunt” Jodi. Various and sundry fake kin. ETC. Jesus loves you. Who needs family and tribes when any old stranger off the street, anyone at all, can be your kin. Who needs kin (tribes). Angle for stranger’s bucks eh “Aunt” Sally? Like Momma taught you. Any old bucks will do.
I believe you have an item or two to put on Wednesday night’s prayer list. So do I.
6. ALL Relationships have beginnings and endings and are always dynamically changing. Put your jack boot down ? ? ? ??
Wow. So much for dry villages, eh granny G?
Handyman, trousers as I said to your bonding company I wouldn’t trust you in the house. I meant that.
See how Sally and her pathetic minions camp out here to jump on my comments and me personally targeting my age and heritage. They should comment on the stories. I recommend Sally and her boyfriend be removed since they cunningly are merely targeting other commenters and have nothing to say about the story. It is sad that they have kidnapped my grand kids and are filling the children’s heads with hate for their paternal family. They should be in jail.
That’s one heck of a bender you’re on, Sonny! You do realize that people aren’t laughing at you because they’re mean, right? 🙂
A hundred people in the room? You’ve got to get over on each and every one of them. You aren’t all that. That’s why you hate the projects. You will never improve. You can’t. Why do you attempt to speak? Why aren’t you in ? Sunday School?
Spiritual fervor and love for family is a laughing place for jokers like Sally and her flying monkeys. That will never change.
So do the folks in Congress, Juneau, Anchorage need to get squared away on jurisdictions and US Constitutional rights. We have the plain language of the US Constitution. Alaska has never been within the US Constitution’s fold nor do the rinos and dems have any cognitive recognition of the precepts. Still making fun of my Grandson I see.
Another odd thing, a commenter or two in this fling of comments actually is opposed to education at all. It spoils the innate perfection of her accoutrements (her kids). So she precludes an actual formal education for her own children so as to keep them enslaved by ignorance within her infinite control. Why does she give a ding doing about anyone else’s problematic efforts at education since she is opposed to it because it embarrassed her “mother”. Yes. This is a true and weird anecdote.
I am thankful Sally and ? bark are dealing with a God-given power outage just now and I may comment in peace. Thank you God.
I hope Kipnuk is successful in keeping out haters like trouser and sally. It is better for the kids.
With all due respect to other posters here there is no such thing as a God-given power outage; you’re being ignored.
100% of your comments in this thread have ranged from oddly inappropriate to completely off topic and even in the context of raucous conversation your comments come across as mean spirited (or did I misunderstand when you demanded that I get lost?). To top it off you’ve answered no one’s questions. At the risk of seeming rude I’ll apply a useful stereotype here and it is that you appear to be absolutely hammered and the only person in this thread to be similarly drunk. To the point that you stopped spelling your own name correctly as the day progressed. For the sake of yourself, your friends and your family, consider getting some help.
When you start a sentence with a numeral it must be spelled out. “He who is faithful in little is faithful in much.” You aren’t.
I am mean spirited with people who ridicule ethnic Alaskans. Over seventy years of this prevalent garbage and I’m sick of it. “Ain’t” Sally and her chorus came to Alaska with a ‘tude. It wasn’t Wisconsin. She hated it so much she refused to learn one new thing. Now that she is grooming dogs elsewhere she reaches back to entertain her in a hurry to get away boyfriend and together they spout off their hatred of Alaskans. They only stopped because of a gale that blew up from nowhere in the northwest and knocked out power. They still don’t have power.
My apologies. I wasn’t aware that you were aiming for artful prose here.
Obviously the best and the brightest are governing Kipnuk. And certainly there is are a few here, too, who are weighing in on this “debacle,” and we have yet to delve into the issue of Christianity! If the Kipnuk “elders” want to maintain the “Eskimoness” of the village, when will they be banishing all the church leaders and flushing the Christian beliefs from their tainted souls?
Kipnuk is family and kin primarily. Who says their family must turn itself into “government”? You?
A. Galeutian, get a grip on who is saying what! The “Letter of Removal and Banishment” that the Kipnuk Traditional Council sent to Ms. LaDorothy Lightfoot was signed by the council’s president and co-signed by its treasurer, along with two other “board member” and two Kipnuk tribal judges. Among those who were sent copies of the letter were the Kipnuk Tribal Court and the Kipnuk Police Department. Furthermore, as indicated in their letter, they “are” a tribal government organized constitutionally!
Kick back, there is no further reason to act ignorantly!
Edit (second sentence); “And certainly there are a few here, too, who are weighing in on this ‘debacle,’ and we have yet to delve into the issue of Christianity!”
?, you do not qualify to speak to me or for the thug.
I am really discouraged about the amount of disinformation that is in the banishment letter that KTC put out. As a former employee at CPMS under Ladorthy, I can attest to some of the disinformation. 1st they said that the Yup’ik language has declined since she arrived. That is false. Prior to her arrival CPMS was an English-only school in which students had only 1 hour of Yugtun instruction a day. Since she arrived she has implemented a dual-language program in the elementary school which is now up to the 4th grade. CPMS has some of the highest growth rates for Yugtun across the district. 2nd they said that Yup’ik elders were no longer invited in, that is a lie. I personally invited elders in on several occasions but was turned down because they had other things to do. This happened on several occasions. Occasionally we were able to get elders in and they were welcomed with open arms to come in and share their knowledge with the students and staff. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=600517595280553&set=a.570949304904049
The 3rd point that learning local culture was limited is not true. All of LKSD’s science and social studies curriculums are tied to local traditions and culture and are taught at CPMS. The point they made that culture week went from 2 weeks to 3 days is also untrue. It was a week and the issue was not that they did not want it to be more, but that there was a lack of elders and community members willing to come in and help teach the students local culture during those times. The claim that NYO was not being hosted at Kipnuk is a lie. I personally have been a part of the procedure to host students for NYO at CPMS in the last 5 years and when I went to another school sent my own students to compete at CPMS for NYO. There were no games during the shutdowns due to COVID. In regards to hiring staff without the approval of the board is a lie. It is district policy that each school board must choose how they are going to hire staff. CPMS’s school board could choose to interview all candidates and give the top 3 choices to the principal for them to choose, they could choose for the principal to conduct all interviews and relay the top 3 choices to the board for them to choose the candidate to hire or they can defer all of the responsibility to the principal. Each year the board reviews and determines which way they want to address hiring.
At the end of the day, I am just saddened because this situation is helping no one. This really boils down to the leaders at the council do not like LaDorothy because she did not bend to their every whim; she was trying to do what was in the best interest of the whole child. During COVID it was the council who chose to keep the school closed due to COVID, which was in their rights and the school worked to try to provide the best education during an impossible time. Now that the school is open again it is the council that is keeping students from receiving an education due to their own personal agenda. If you asked any of the students at CPMS about LaDorothy they would tell you that she cares about them.
Thank you!
It is good to get some insight from some one who was there. Your post here is very much appreciated!
Spiritual fervor and love for family is a laughing place for jokers like Sally and her flying monkeys. That will never change.
G, Everything Sally said about village and native culture is true or you wouldn’t be raging like you are. Native culture is a failed culture. They are like grown adult children still living in their parents basement while simultaneously crying that their pathetic life is their parents fault. Almost every native I’ve know blames white people for anything bad that happens in their life. Why does Kipnuk need an outside teacher to teach their own culture. Why can’t the people of Kipnuk teach this themselves?!?! Can they do anything for themselves? All that I’m seeing are more native adults acting like sobbing whiny brats. Native culture has become a racist bigoted pathetic victim culture. Or maybe it always was. Grow. Up.
I beg to differ. It is a stereotype useful to stupid white people who could not otherwise oppress others, which they greatly, sportingly and stupidly enjoy doing in Alaska and if they can hurt children and families and generations they are so degenerate they are compulsive about doing it as you display. You love negative stereotypes and are committed, married to one-upping someone, anyone. You believe as a religion you have a right to economic harm to natives because in stupid Alaska you will always get by with it. All stated public policy is PREJUDICIAL AND UNABATED against natives since the purchase of Russian interests in Alaska and there is no hope of ever changing any of it until the apocalypse. I would suggest educating children anywhere else in America. Heck, Kentucky still believes in the US Constitution. Juneau Alaska is too elite for the US Constitution.
As displayed here racial discrimination, indeed, racial hatred against native families (by low education dog groomers) is alive regardless of federal suggestions to the contrary. More is the pity. ALASKA natives, children to grandparents, there is no hope for you in either party. Alaska is too toxic a place to educate children.
Sally refused “higher” education for herself and couldn’t tolerate one semester of “higher” learning. She thinks education is unnecessary for herself or others and “Fire” is apparently one of her of her grain fed flying monkeys.
Do not regurgitate your gross stereotypes to me. They are garbage.
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