“We Teach in Alaska:” A Handbook for BIA Teachers in Alaska

Mar 19

This is part of our ongoing research into the Wrangell Institute.

We Teach in Alaska is a BIA handbook published between 1957 and 1965. It documents the agency’s policies, practices, and advice for teachers across Alaska’s BIA schools.

Read online:
1st Edition (1957) | 2nd Edition (1959) | 3rd Edition (1965)

Purpose of We Teach in Alaska

In the 20th century, the U.S. federal government tasked the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) with providing many government services in Alaska, including the education of Alaska Native youth. The BIA brought teachers to Alaska from around the United States who were unfamiliar with Alaska Native communities, culture, or languages. We Teach in Alaska was intended to prepare teachers for what they would experience in Alaska, as explained by this passage which appeared in all three editions:

“This handbook has been compiled to give you general information which should be helpful to you as an Indian Service teacher and as a resident of Alaska. It is an informal supplement to the Field Manual to help you in school administration, classroom organization, village relationships and Arctic or sub-Arctic living. We urge you to keep it as a ready reference whenever questions arise concerning your work in the school and community.”

An expressly stated goal of the BIA was to prepare Alaska Native youth for life as Americans. As steamships, vehicles, and aviation accelerated settlement into Alaska, rural communities began to engage more with settlers who brought Western beliefs and practices. A passage from the first two editions of We Teach in Alaska describe it as:

“Varying amongst themselves, the Native people have a great many traits in common. Ordinarily speaking, they are quiet people of dignity and individualism. They have made an almost perfect adjustment to a country that has almost defied the domination of our 20th century culture, and the conflict between the two disparate civilizations has caught the children in its vortex: they are commanded to make the most of two worlds, their customs rooted in the neolithic age and their thinking projected into the atomic age.”

About The Authors

To write the handbook, the BIA tapped two experienced teachers of its schools around Alaska: Eunice Logan and Dorthy Nadeau Johnson.

Eunice Logan

Eunice Logan (1905-1995) was born in Kentucky and attended college in North Carolina. After several years of teaching in the American Southwest, she transferred to Alaska in 1936. According to a BIA Bulletin, she taught in “1936 Kake, 1937 Hoonah, 1938 Sitka, 1939 Juneau, 1943 Nome, 1947 Kotzebue, and 1952 Wrangell Institute” for several years before accepting a position in the BIA’s Juneau Area office.

She retired in 1970, and one year later she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Interior for “notable contributions as an educator and her outstanding service and dedication to the advancement of Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut people.”

Eunice Logan passed away in 1995 at the age of 89. Her obituary identified her as “the author of several educational publications, including We Teach in Alaska.”

(image source: Alaska’s Digital Archives)

Dorthy Nadeau Johnson

Dorthy Nadeau (1913-1991) was born in Montana and attended college at the University of Puget Sound. In 1937, she married Rayno Johnson and in 1938, the couple had a son, Michael. In 1939, the family moved to Alaska. The Tacoma News Tribune reported that she “will teach 20 Eskimo children how to be good Americans. She may have to teach some of them how to talk English.” She reportedly also managed a herd of reindeer for the BIA in Alaska.

The Johnsons moved around Alaska for the BIA to communities including Elim, Kanakanak, Juneau, and Mt. Edgecumbe. The 1957 Mt. Edgecumbe yearbook is dedicated to her, stating, “To Mrs. Johnson, for her guidance and friendliness, we the Seniors of ‘57 dedicate this Taheta.”

She may have left BIA service sometime in the 1960s. She passed away in 1991 in Sequim, Washington at the age of 77.

(image source: Taheta 1957)

*Photograph of a classroom in a BIA field school from the 1965 edition of We Teach in Alaska.*

Rural Field Schools

Most of the guidance in We Teach in Alaska is geared towards teachers in BIA-operated “field schools.” In a single classroom, a teacher taught the youngest children in a village and sent them home to their families every night.

In 1959, over half of the seventy-five schools operated by the BIA had only one teacher. Villages were far away from field office hubs, and teachers typically flew in only once a year. Teachers were expected to be self-reliant and capable of handling any situation. We Teach in Alaska devotes a great deal of advice towards social relationships. To maintain positive relations with villagers, all three editions of We Teach in Alaska contained this advice:

“It is important to remember that you and your family are a minority group in an environment new to you. Alaska is Alaska. It is not “like” upper New York state, or Minnesota, or Montana, or anywhere else at all. It is unique and its people are likewise new to your experiences. They are not “like” any other people you have ever met before. They are the result of their heritage and their environment. They are original, as well as being aboriginal!”

To administer these field schools, the Juneau office of the BIA operated field offices in Bethel, Nome, Barrow (Utqiagvik), and Fairbanks. Teachers communicated with their field office via radio and infrequent airplane mail service. Teachers typically flew to the village in the fall, and they flew home at the beginning of summer.

*A chart from the 1957 edition of We Teach in Alaska showing the departments and student enrollment within the BIA in Alaska.*

Two Boarding SChools

Less emphasis in We Teach in Alaska is placed on the BIA’s two boarding schools: Wrangell Institute and Mt. Edgecumbe. According to the handbook, boarding schools provided an education for students whose home village had no field school, or for students who had already completed the “highest grade offered in the local school.” For some students, that might mean beginning education in their home village in a day school, then advancing to a boarding school as they got older.

In 1959, We Teach in Alaska reported that “5,000 children of Aleut, Eskimo and Indian descent” attended BIA schools, but less than a thousand of these students attended boarding schools. That same year, less than one-quarter of the BIA’s 279 teachers worked in a boarding school.

Wrangell Institute

From 1932 until 1947, the BIA operated the Wrangell Institute as a high school mainly for Alaska Native teenagers from southeast Alaska. In 1947, the school converted to an elementary/junior-high school and accepted students from all regions of Alaska.

All three editions of We Teach in Alaska describe the Wrangell Institute as, “This school is maintained for the benefit of children from remote areas of Alaska where no elementary school facilities are presently available” and referenced a student population of 250 students.

The third edition of We Teach in Alaska added, “The majority of children admitted to Wrangell are 14 and 15 years old. Students finishing the ninth grade at Wrangell may enter the 10th grade at Mt. Edgecumbe the following year.”

(Illustration of the Wrangell Institute from the 1959 edition of We Teach in Alaska.)

Mt. Edgecumbe

Mt. Edgecumbe began as an Army Air Forces base near Sitka, Alaska. When it became surplus after World War II, the BIA relocated the Wrangell Institute high school program to the facilities in 1947, where it still operates today.

All three editions of We Teach in Alaska state, “To be eligible for enrollment a student must have completed the eighth grade and be a resident of a community where no high school facilities are available.” Each edition approximates the student population at 650, but only the final two editions qualify that students must be “one-quarter or more degree Native blood.”

All three editions of We Teach in Alaska emphasize Mt. Edgecumbe’s vocational track, including business, aviation, carpentry, mechanics, welding, cooking, dental laboratory, and practical nursing.

(Illustration of the Mt. Edgecumbe school from the 1959 edition of We Teach in Alaska.)

*An illustration of two children from the cover of the third edition of We Teach in Alaska (1965).*

Mandatory Attendance

All three editions of We Teach in Alaska included a passage outlining the requirement for all children, including Alaska Native children, to receive a school education:

“The Alaska State School Code provides for compulsory school attendance for all children between ages of seven and sixteen. Experience has shown that the most effective enforcement of compulsory education is that which is secured by local authority. The aid of the Village Council should be enlisted in cases of violation. Often a word to the Village Chief suffices.”

Attendance was so required that expulsion was not allowed. We Teach in Alaska advised that “no child is to be dismissed or expelled from school for any reason" and cited this Indian Affairs Manual rule:

“Pupils may not be dismissed from school for any cause, nor refused re-admission to Federal schools, without a statement of intention being furnished the Reservation Superintendent from whose jurisdiction they come, the parents of the children, and the home Area Office, together with a request to the home Area Office that other arrangements be made to insure educational facilities to such students. It shall be the duty of the Area Educationist to make satisfactory arrangements for the child.”

*A young girl raises her hand in a classroom in this illustration from the 1959 edition of We Teach in Alaska.*

English Language

Nearly every student in BIA schools was raised speaking an Indigenous language. By hiring English-speaking teachers from outside of Alaska, the BIA ensured English language instruction in the classroom. Each edition of We Teach in Alaska advised, “Children who speak the Native language at home forget during the summer much of the English previously learned” and recommended additional language work at the beginning of the school year.

All three editions of We Teach in Alaska contain a passage copied directly from a much older document, Manual for the Indian School Service of 1941:

“It is self-evident that the first step in any program of instruction must be to develop in the children the ability to speak, understand and think in the English language. Every effort shall be made to provide activities and other forms of encouragement for children to use English in their daily association in the classrooms, and on the playgrounds. However, as language expression is essential to the development of thought, the use of native languages may not be forbidden or discouraged.”

The only difference is that the words “or discouraged” were removed from the end of the paragraph in We Teach in Alaska. Many former students of BIA boarding schools in Alaska report being disciplined for speaking their own language, suggesting teachers and administrators violated this policy to achieve their goals.

*An illustration of a teacher and two students from the 1959 edition of We Teach in Alaska.*

Discipline

According to We Teach in Alaska, corporal punishment was absolutely prohibited in BIA schools. This is at odds with many accounts by former students who reported physical abuse at boarding schools. Again, the handbook copied directly from the Manual for the Indian School Service of 1941:

“Corporal or Degrading Punishments Prohibited. The principal or teacher who can anticipate pupil reactions and forestall difficulties is in a far stronger position than the one who attempts to punish delinquency after it has occurred. This emphasis upon constructive discipline is made because corporal punishment of all kinds, and solitary confinement, or anything which smacks of imprisonment or punishment calculated to bring shame and humiliation upon pupils, is prohibited and may be made the basis for charges with a view to possible dismissal.”

In its own words, We Teach in Alaska expounded on the importance of not shaming students, as well:

“Natives are also patient, fun-loving and proud. They have an almost Oriental trait of caring for the preservation of ‘face.’ To be placed in a ludicrous position is intolerable. They can not stand it and violence must ensue. Even very small children have this ‘sense of face:’ it is urgent that the new teacher appreciate this fact almost above all others. Like all people, Native Alaskans dislike coercion. They not only resent its attempted use; they frequently ignore it. In school, disaster will follow the teacher who relies on force for conducting his work; the same can be said for his efforts in the village.”

We Teach in Alaska contained a list of what it believed to be true about Alaska Native children:

“• Are taught by parents to speak in low tones which are often inaudible when reciting in the classroom.
• Will seldom indicate they do not understand concepts being presented or even direct instructions.
• Seldom volunteer information.
• Strive to keep all members of their group on the same level. Group praise, when deserved, is effective in encouraging better work. Praise of an individual is best used very discreetly, as it tends to make the student an object of bitter jealousy.
• Are reluctant to assume leadership.
• Have a no sense of time. (1965 version: Have a different sense of time.)
• Place great importance upon “saving face.”
• Are not, as a rule, disciplined at home.
• Are very “heedless” in school but seldom willfully disobedient.
• Like simple, uncomplicated games.
• Are easily discouraged.
• Are highly sensitive to group opinion.
• Are likely to be ‘socially disadvantaged.’ ”

We Teach in Alaska was a mixture of employee handbook and travel guide. It reflects the agency’s values and goals, channeled through voices of Eunice Logan and Dorthy Nadeau Johnson. They saw themselves as pioneering educators in the frontier. The title “We Teach in Alaska” was a rallying cry.

Working in remote, isolated locations with little oversight, teachers had great influence over students. When the BIA in Alaska failed to live up to its mission, students paid dearly. While We Teach in Alaska outlines the BIA’s policies, it does not always account for practice.

*Willie Hensley speaking in 2022. (image source:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

Willie Hensley Remembers Logan

Willie Iġġiaġruk Hensley grew up to become an influential Alaskan political leader, but as a child in Kotzebue, his first teacher was Eunice Logan. He recalled in his autobiography, Fifty Miles From Tomorrow:

“My beginner teacher was Miss Eunice Logan, a short, red-haired slave driver with little sense of humor who ran the classroom like a minor general. Even so, I took to the school-work from the first…

My third year in school, after finishing my beginner and first-grade years, I arrived to find a new teacher in charge. When she asked us to take seats with our classmates, I simply ignored the second graders and went to sit with the third grade instead, since most of my friends were there. A few weeks later, mean Miss Logan came to school to see how things were going. She pointed out to Miss Virginia Powell, our new teacher, that I did not belong in third grade—I hadn’t completed the second. But Miss Powell said I was at the head of the class, so they let my self-promotion stand…”

Willie Hensley reflected on his own experience as a student of Alaska’s BIA schools:

“But as I look back, I cannot get over the fact that our own people were so excluded from the workings of the classroom. In my entire eight years in grade school, I cannot recall a single Iñupiaq school activity. When we were in the classroom, it was as if our people did not exist. The notion of having an elder come to speak to us about life and experience didn’t cross the minds of our teachers. The human values—the central roles of humility, cooperation, family, hard work, and humor in our lives—didn’t even register in the consciousness of the teachers who were trying so desperately to Westernize us.”