Connecting with place: implications of integrating cultural values into the school curriculum in Alaska

Abstract

Many authors primarily from industrialised nations discuss human relationships with the natural environment in the context of global environmental issues, and highlight the close relationships that ‘traditional’ societies have with nature. There is a growing trend among indigenous people in North America to restore such a connection with the land through place‐based education. This article reports on progress on such a programme at Russian Mission School in rural Alaska in the period 2002–2007 and its implications for sustainability. The programme actively seeks to integrate the community’s cultural values and activities into their curriculum. This has resulted in raising pupils’ academic skills and confidence, and seems to be bridging a gap of distrust between the school and community. An ethnographical approach was adopted with a mixed research design based primarily on participant observation, supported by semi‐structured interviews, written surveys, and conversations with stakeholders, student writings and secondary sources. The initial fieldwork in 2002 was followed up five years later.

Keywords:

• place
• education
• identity
• community
• culture

Acknowledgements

We would like to show our sincere appreciation to the community members of Russian Mission. Without their openness, hospitality, support and patience, this study would have been impossible. We are particularly grateful to Mike Hull, Jason Moen, Mildred Askoar, Max Nickoli, Wassily Alexie, Mae Pitka, Sandra Ehlers and other Russian Mission School staff, and Dr Ray Barnhardt who gave important support during the fieldwork as well as constructive feedback on earlier drafts of the paper.

Notes

1. Using Bureau of Indian Affairs, US Department of Interior as a source, C. Barnhardt (1985) suggests it was 1906.

2. A traditional outer garment usually made out of cotton with the look of a smock with a hood.

3. Petrivilli (1998) suggests that depending on communities, subsistence resources account from 10% to as much as 90% of the Alaska Natives’ nutritional intake (269). Wolfe and Walker (1987) indicate that the annual harvests in Russian Mission amount to 599lb per person, predominantly fish, whereas an average American purchases 222lb of meat, fish and poultry.

4. Nunamieutak – food derived or coming from the land.

5. ‘Yuq’ means a person, and ‘yuuyaraq’ literally means ‘how to be a real person’ (L. Bush, 22 March 2002). Napoleon (1999) translates it as ‘the way of the human being’ (4–5), and defines it as the law by which the Yup’ik lived. The term covers a range of broad and deep concepts, including morals and values, and it is based on a way of living close to the land as community. Bush said ‘if you follow Yuuyaraq, you live in harmony’ (L. Bush, 22 March 2002). To live in harmony includes relationships not only with other humans but also with animals, spirit and all the other elements of the world.