APRN: BIA refuses to support Alaska Native language program

Monday, October 22, 2012  

"The tune is familiar, but the words are pure Alaskan. The children attend the Chickaloon Tribe’s Ya Ne Dah Ah school near Palmer. The school is owned and operated by the tribe, and has structured it’s curriculum to include Alaska Native culture programs and Ahtna language instruction. Jodie Willcox, the school’s education director says the school is entirely grant funded, and increased competition for language rejuvenation programs is fierce… Ya Ne Dah Ah did not get a hoped for grant this year, and now it’s language program is threatened.

Willcox says the school applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for funds to continue the school’s mission of educating tribal students and area children of all ethnicities. But the BIA replied that a 1995 ban against use of BIA funds to support elementary and secondary schools in Alaska is still in place.

”And there are millions available to our schools, not just our school, but schools throughout the state, that we cannot access because of that rider in Congress, it makes no sense. It just doesn’t make sense. We’re a state that has a huge population, and yet we are a state that is underfunded.”"

Get the Story:
Tribal School Could Lose Language Program (Alaska Public Radio Network 10/19)