Federal policy and Alaska Native languages since 1867 Item Type Thesis Authors Alton, Thomas L. Download date 07/10/2021 16:28:45 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9512 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. 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FEDERAL POLICY AND ALASKA NATIVE LANGUAGES SINCE 1867 A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Thomas L. Alton, B.A., M.A. Fairbanks, Alaska December 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9918834 UMI Microform 9918834 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FEDERAL POLICY AND ALASKA NATIVE LANGUAGES SINCE 1867 By Thomas L. Alton RECOMMENDED: Advisory Committee Chair Department Head y APPROVED: PeanTCollege ofrLibgfjM Aro Deajrof the Graduate School y //v/~yg Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 A bstract Researchers and the general public have often contended that punishment of children for speaking their native languages in schools is the cause of the decline of those languages. But native language loss in Alaska is rooted also in the choices Natives made themselves to accept English for its social, economic, and political opportunities. Since the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, English has replaced native languages as the first language learned by children in nearly all homes. Although none of Alaska’s twenty native languages is yet extinct, most are at a point of peril as English has replaced a pattern of linguistic diversity that existed from time immemorial. This study documents the history of language decline and the role of federal government policy in that process. Congress extended federal policies to Alaska in 1884 when it established civil government in the territory. In 1885 the Bureau of Education assumed responsibility for running rural schools. Federal policy during that era grew out of America’s desire for uniformity of culture, religion, and language, and as a result schools often forcibly suppressed Native American languages and punished students for speaking them. Yet Alaska Natives have been active participants in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 change, not passive victims of an overwhelming bureaucracy. The switch to English occurred as Natives responded to the influx of American population with its systems of economy, society, politics, and justice. Natives abandoned their old languages when they became convinced through pressures from the outside world that English held more prestige and advantage than their native languages. Government policies defined the choices that were available, and Natives adopted English for the opportunities it afforded them in a modem system that was not of their own making. Once families began using English as the language of the home and thus interrupted the continuity of native language use from one generation to the next, the decline of native languages was assured. Punishment of school children for speaking their native languages, along with American social, economic, and political systems, created an environment in which Alaska Natives made the constrained choice to adopt English as the language of the home and community. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 Contents Alaska Native Language M ap ...................................................................................... 7 P reface............................................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgments.......................................................................................15 C hapter 1 ......................................................................................................................... 18 The Situation Today Remembering School Days .........................................................................20 A Sense of Loss, Frustration. Regret.......................................................... 35 The Need and Desire for English ................................................................ 46 Television...................................................................................................54 Teaching Native Language in Communities and Schools Today ................. 59 C hapter 2 .........................................................................................................................75 The Russians Language Prehistory ................................................................................... 76 Early Expansion ......................................................................................... 79 Russian Orthodox Clergy ............................................................................86 Ioann Veniaminov...................................................................................... 91 C hapter 3 .........................................................................................................................99 The Founders and a Common Language Jefferson and the Enlightenment ................................................................102 Noah Webster’s ‘Band of National Union’ ................................................112 C hapter 4 ....................................................................................................................... 119 Language Policy in Nineteenth Century America Federal Funds for Indian Education........................................................... 122 Cherokee Literacy .....................................................................................124 Federal Policy Evolves .............................................................................. 127 Varying Missionary Views of Language ....................................................133 Increased Urgency..................................................................................... 137 Reservations..............................................................................................142 Grant and the Peace Policy ........................................................................145 The Influence of Education .......................................................................152 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 Chapter 5.........................................................................................................................161 ‘Cult of Nationalism’ 1880-1900 Industrial Boarding Schools ...................................................................................162 John D.C. Atkins and the English-only Rules .....................................................167 Thomas Jefferson Morgan ...................................................................................... 177 Education for Assimilation.................................................................................... 183 Immigration and National Unity ........................................................................... 185 Withdrawal of Federal Funding ............................................................................ 187 Chapter 6.........................................................................................................................198 American ‘Customs, Methods, and Language’ in Alaska 1867-1900 First American Missionaries................................................................................