Sativa Quinn Writing Sample

Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity – Page 1

Two surprising developments occurred in 2003, both of which appeared at first to
have a negative impact for the revitalization of our language, but we now believe that
both developments have in fact been positive.
The first took place in August of 2003, when Nikaitchuat staff learned that the
parents of our older students had decided they needed to transfer their children to the
public school system. At this time the staff at Nikaitchuat were working to develop
curriculum for the higher grades, but we were not very far ahead of the curve in this
work, so there was little material available to serve some of the older students. We had
expected to have students up through 3rd grade in the 2003-04 school year, but all of the
children who would have been in 2nd or 3rd grade were pulled out by their parents. This
was entirely due to concerns about the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and
other tests required by the State of Alaska. Parents felt their children might not do well
on these tests if they did not enter the mainstream school system. Tribal staff met with
these parents, listened to their concerns, and agreed that these were valid concerns for any
caring parent to have. As it turned out, the children themselves wanted very much to
continue their connection with Nikaitchuat and their Inupiaq education, so we arrived at a
compromise. June Nelson Elementary agreed to give the children some time off from
their studies to attend an Inupiaq immersion class at Nikaitchuat one hour a day. We have
provided this program for 2 years now at no charge to the parents because we did not
want to let these children, who are nearly fluent in the language, forget what they have
learned.
Although this crisis was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, it was a major
setback in seeing the school become what we want it to be. We realized that we would
have to revise our curriculum from top to bottom in order to be absolutely certain that we
could meet state standards for reading, writing and mathematics as well as our own
standards for Inupiaq communication skills and cultural/spiritual development.
The curriculum development and teacher training activities proposed here are
designed to make sure that Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat is ready to meet all of the needs of older
students… (details removed)
We feel that it is important to address this crisis in our history openly because it
demonstrates the school’s ability to be responsive to our community even when that
 Sativa Quinn Writing Sample
Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity – Page 2
communication process becomes challenging and requires re-thinking some of our plans.
In fact, nearly all of the parents who pulled their older children out in 2003 are currently
sending younger siblings of those students to Nikaitchuat. We are keeping these families
informed about the curriculum development strategy and our ongoing progress in
meeting our objectives, and the parents have expressed confidence that these children
will be staying with us through 6th grade.
The second surprising development occurred just three months later, in November
of 2003, when the Northwest Arctic Borough School District issued a “call to action” for
other organizations to take on the responsibility of preserving the Inupiaq language and
culture. The District had been offering classes since the early ‘80s, but the demands of
No Child Left Behind and other state level testing initiatives led them to believe that they
would not be able to afford the time and expense of these classes very much longer.
The Northwest Arctic Leadership Team responded to this call to action by
establishing a formal Inupiaq Language and Culture Task Force to be guided by the
Regional Elders Council. The Lead Teacher from Nikaitchuat Ilisagviat is a member of
this task force, and the Executive Director of the Tribe often acts as a facilitator for their
meetings. The Task Force has recognized Nikaitchuat as the only formal model of
success in our region when it comes to language programs, and as a result the school has
recently received requests to assist the villages of Ambler, Kobuk and Shungnak in
establishing similar programs.
We are entering a very exciting time for those who have long wanted to see
substantial, region-wide collaborative efforts to revitalize our language and culture.