Hi. I thought some of you—a mixture of my family and my friends and co-workers—might like to read this. Here's my thoughts for what they're worth on our latest Generation www.Y adventure. This trip made a deep impression on my psyche. I don't know if that will come through in this writing. Jeff [Gen Did student from Olympia School District], the teachers were so impressed with your presentation and hold hope that their children can find similar roads to personal success and happiness through technology. The plan is to make Brevig Mission the prototype Gen www.Y school and then spread it to the other 14 remote villages of the Bering Straits School District.

August 18, 2001 on an Alaska Airlines flight from Nome to Anchorage. 9 PM. It's still daylight with no signs of sunset. 48 hours ago we left SeaTac and flew to Anchorage and then to Nome and took a Bering Air flight (we were the only passengers) to Brevig Mission 55 miles north of Nome—an Eskimo village population 250. On the way we stopped in Kotzebue, North of the Arctic Circle.

Purpose of our trip: to do a workshop for the teachers in Brevig Mission on Generation www.Y

The Eskimo people here speak Yupit(k).

The Brevig Mission school staff:

The teachers (10) all come from the lower 48 which is the term everyone uses here for the rest of the U.S.

Many have spent their careers teaching in this area—the Bering Straits School District. All the teachers we met
were originally from Northern states—Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin. None of the teachers are native. Many of
the teachers are couples. Two couples have children. Ginger, the tech liaison is married to the Lutheran pastor and they have 4 children. Another couple have a baby and a 10 year old. A local woman baby-sits the little one during school times. A third woman was pregnant and will have her baby in the winter time. The plan is to fly to Anchorage in time to deliver.

Randy, the school counselor lives with the principal, Barb. He is a stargazing aficionado and is building a site to keep his telescope in so that he can keep it set up all year long. With three hours of daylight in the winter, he has tons of time to stargaze although in order to do this he must stand outside in the cold (-40 degrees). Don't ask me how this can happen.

He splits his time between Brevig Mission and another village. In the balmy months, the district pays for him to fly
back and forth. He spends a week at each site alternately, sleeping in the school at the other village. In the winter time
the Bering Sea inlet between the two villages freezes (salt water) and he is able to snow mobile back and forth.

The teachers were busily preparing for the beginning of school which starts on August 20 this year (today). They are
incredibly committed and work really hard. Since the school is small—110 students, they all teach a variety of
subjects and grades. They have no planning period—just an hour before and after school. No substitutes available
of course. When I asked this question, they answered by saying, "they wing it." Breakfast and lunch are served at
school. There are no after school activities. Sports is not a big attraction.

In this community, there is a strong bond among the teachers. They don't have a high turnover rate as some of
the other villages do. The principal, Barb, is given a great deal of credit for her ability to keep everyone focused on their mission when things get tough. Tough is an understatement. Many have been here for years. Some have spent their entire teaching career in the Bering Straits school district. Retirement in the Alaska system comes after 20 years.
Housing is paid for. I imagine the salaries are high but we didn't ask this. Still, what would compel people to
come this far north, endure the isolation , bitter cold and harsh living conditions year after year?

When Barb, the current principal, arrived here 7 years ago, standardized test scores for the village were at the 1st
percentile. They are now up to 30th percentile. This is an incredible gain. More about the native people in another
section.

A few reflections:

Everyone has a gun here. "This is Alaska", Randy said. If you go even 15 miles outside the village, you could become
lunch for some bear.

Individual freedom is at a premium. There are laws but they are not enforced.

Rugged individualism is highly valued.

For women, there is no emphasis on physical beauty. That is not the cultural value. In fact, if we were to appear in
fancy clothing and make-up, etc. we would not have been accepted.

This is the great American wilderness—still.

These folks were not upset about the pipeline. It brings so much money to Alaska. It is built above the ground so it
doesn't impact the roaming of the animals. There is so much land that the pipeline is seen as a mere dot on the
landscape.

The Living Situations

Currently none of the homes in Brevig Mission have running water or toilets. The principal's trailer does and I
think some of the teacher's places may have. Hence, we slept in the Special Ed room in the school on
mattresses on the floor with sleeping bags that we brought. They have hot showers in the school.

For the last year they have been working on putting in sewers and running water. This will be done by November.
Electricity came to this community only 50 years ago and only in the last 10 years have they had it all year long.
Before then it was on from November to May and then off for the "summer" months. People have buckets in their
homes and place plastic bags in them with toilet seats on top. When they are full they are collected and dumped at a site a ways from the village. The houses are very clean and don't have any stink.

There is concern about how the running water and sewers will affect life. Pipes will freeze. Systems will break down.
Who will be trained to maintain and repair?

The land and weather

In the winter the temperature goes down to -40 degrees and daylight is almost nonexistent. The teachers all leave in the summer and spend a great amount of time stocking up for the winter, shipping back all that they will need. Weather while we were there was like a gorgeous day in late February. I was comfortable in jeans, a long sleeve shirt and fleece vest; locals were wearing shorts and T shirts. This was their best weather so far this summer. It rained most of the time.

This is tundra. The ground was squishy to walk on in areas where there were no stones. No roads or paths are paved.
People get around in Honda 4 wheelers in the summer and snow mobiles in the winter. The villages borders on the
Bering Sea. Siberia is 134 miles West. There are no trees, hardly anything growing. Musk ox are seen occasionally. 15 miles outside of the village one can encounter moose, bear, reindeer. We didn't even see any birds - sea, sky,
tundra and surrounding hillsides with patches of snow in late August.

The Eskimo people of the village

There are around 280 people in the village. While we were there we were treated to a native dance and drumming
performance where the King Island dancers came over and taught the children the traditional dancing and drumming.
This is one way that the community is trying to keep some of the old ways alive. The King Island folks were recently
evacuated from King Island and relocated to Nome because it was decided (I don't know if it was a BIA decision
or what) that the location was too remote and inaccessible.

When someone dies in the winter, they bring kerosene heaters to the cemetery to thaw the ground so they can dig the
grave. The number of people who come out to help dig depends upon how well liked the deceased was.

Drying racks are visible around the village where fish and skins are dried. In days gone by the whole community would leave in the summer and go to different fish camps where they would work hard to gather all the food that they would need for the winter. That doesn't happen anymore. So here's today's scene:

In Alaska, native peoples receive lots of money. They virtually do not need to work for a living. This has undermined
their existence. NO PURPOSE. That is the root of the problem. The picture starts to unfold. Here is what is
happening:

Suicide—highest rate in the world in the Bering Straits communities

Alcoholism—rampant

Drugs—pervasive

Sexual and physical abuse—frequent

Most children are sexually active by 6th grade.

Homes have TV—need I say more?

Children do not leave the village for a "better life."

Question: Have we done these people any good by bringing Western ways? They see education and the new ways of
living as the white man's world. They don't belong. Yet their own ways of living are no longer necessary. There are no role models for these villagers. No one as yet has "made it" in the modern world and come back and helped build the bridge so that the group can participate in modern culture and still maintain pride and connection to their traditions.

The language is fading away. Nothing has taken its place.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps this is just the first phase and as contact increases curiosity and interest in learning new things will bring that
sense of purpose that seems so essential to human happiness. Everyone is incredibly friendly. I didn't sense
hostility. In fact, the children sought us out.

Basically, there is nothing to do. By providing financial security these people have been emasculated.

Randy sees entrepreneurship as the only possible answer. If cottage industries can be organized, perhaps the village will again thrive. If some students make it through high school and go on to college or the Job Corps, will this lead to a positive change?

There are no simple solutions. We know that. In other parts of Alaska that aren't this remote and isolated, there is more mobility between cultures.

It makes one stop and think. In the name of progress and help, what have we done? The verdict isn't in. Will
technology be able to provide healthy solutions?

It's so strange to be back here in Olympia doing our life and thinking that another whole reality is happening 2,000
miles North of here.

Live and be well,
Marilyn