One of the biggest things that I can think of education-wise, just because I struggled a lot with it…and there were resources there for me…but just being able to get yourself to even go to those resources and reach those things is really difficult. So I think one of the biggest things - especially for our community because of our history and our traumas - is working on health first and emotion. Emotional health, mental health, just because you can't really do anything until you get past that gate...So I think that bringing awareness to those things and helping people that may not be healthy is definitely something that needs to be one of the most upfront things before you can even move on to any kind of educational aspect.

Correcting with kindness. So speak with love, give everyone a chance to speak. We need to hear everyone's voices. No homophobia. We include everybody. Unless someone asks for help, you are not to correct them immediately. This is a safe space. Don't be afraid and your mistakes help you and others learn. So it's something that I talked about as: that should be the foundation for any school, regardless of what the culture is because as a Native people, I would like to say that everyone believes in those things, you know, especially throughout Alaska.

So one thing that I always look back on is this core values, like the poster made by Alisha Drabek. It talks about different spheres that need to be uplifted. There's the physical sphere: ties to our homeland, our land, stewardship of animals, land, sky, and waters, a subsistence lifestyle, respectful and sustained by the natural world. There's the emotional sphere: faith and spiritual life from ancestral beliefs to the diverse faith of today, humor "we like to laugh" social sphere. There's also the ethical sphere and cognitive sphere. So one thing I always like to promote is that you kind of need balance in order to be able to do anything successfully. I always think about people having access to basic necessities, having shelter, food, and water because if somebody's worried more about getting food on their table and what they're going to eat that night, they're not gonna be able to do homework. They're not gonna be able to go to class and be in a sound state of mind. They're not gonna be able to learn. So being able to help people that are in need like with mental health, emotional health, but also physical health. If somebody doesn't have access to good food and good diet, giving them access to that somehow is definitely something that would be involved in a learning environment. That's based on culture, just because our culture is, it takes a village to be, to do anything. It takes a village to raise somebody. It takes a village for everybody to sustain ourselves and to be healthy. So making sure that, Hey, if we're gonna go on a field trip or something, make sure that everybody has a ride there, something as simple as that, where you're taking the worry from somebody and just letting them live and be able to be there present instead of worrying about the future or the past.

I have one person in mind that went to jail and he had a child in his adolescent years, and he changed his whole life around when his boy came into the world. He went to prison...but he still got his diploma and he changed his whole life around because of his son…I would love to see him tell his story. You know, people in our community, there are people in our community that are changing, that are breaking those generational cycles, but they're not being…no one is, you know, bringing the limelight on them…you know, these kids need motivation. So I've tried to tell the district, we need to bring in people, to have an assembly in the school, where they will be, where they can tell their story and the kids are gonna be like, looking up to them and like, wow, you know, he experienced everything I went through and I can do it because he got through it.

So what, for the ideal Ahtna community, what is the center of the village? What is the heartbeat? I feel like we would put our kids there because…I guess I think about it in a ring, like - our kids would be at the center and then the Elders would be in the ring right around it. Because you would want them to have the easiest access to each other.

Wanting our future Ancestor to know how to help and interact with others. Like they should know how to go visiting and support others.

Spend time with our future Ancestors. Elevate their voices. Not just making decisions on what we think they need.

It's so hard for me to like, to even put into words because connection is everything and everything is connected. So I feel like there's already education happening in these areas. There's already been solutions that have been provided to individuals who have the power to do something about it. And I feel like it's not necessarily us having to do the work to share that, but it's individuals who know that these problems are happening and have voiced and said, we know that this matters, but bringing in money matters more. So we're going to do everything against what would heal our communities, our land, our wellness.

Kinda shows the importance of movement though...expected just to harness all our energy and not move. So we see some charter schools like Discovery Peak. They have movement in the morning and they do like two core classes and then everybody gets together and then students choose where they want to go and do their explorations. Like movement isn't an option. You have to move and they have smaller class sizes…And they base their building off of movement. So you walk in and it's just that open area and then upstairs is open so they can run around and it's open when you walk in.

...And so at the bottom of all that is just creating a positive identity. Yeah. That's what I want. Healthy, strong kids.

For our future Ancestors, I would tell 'em to never give up, to keep going and persevere. To always lean back and reach for a hand if you need help, to always ask for help, don't be afraid to do that.

One thing that I noticed that doesn't really get brought up is that sometimes our kids come from a lot of trauma-based families. And so they go in from survival mode into the classroom and so it changes their brain and how they think and how they work with people and how they communicate. I think that some teachers, not all, some need to be more empathetic and realize that our people come from trauma in all aspects. And students are living that day to day still. And so they come in and they want that safe place. And then, where's your homework? Did you do this? Did you do that? That's not what they need.

Once upon a time there was a little kid who went to school and their teacher decided to tell a story in the class instead of making them watch a video. And then the child was very much more engaged. And then what happens… And as the student grew up and continued his or her school years, he began to see classes and schools where his family members felt more engaged and more welcome in the schools. And there were more teachers that looked like him and like his family. And he learned a little bit of the language every day as he got older and so did his classmates. And there were different ways to learn. It wasn't always just sitting in the class, it was sometimes walking outside and doing things outside. School's have open spaces, school have year-round language teachers, generational gap is closing. Culturally relevant standards and assessments. If more of our students learned about navigating and connecting to land and water they would adapt to climate change, be more resilient and have food security. And then when that student entered middle school, there wouldn't be a classroom that was just the four walls in a school but the city of Fairbanks or the outer areas of Fairbanks would provide a lot of learning for our students. In 20 years that student learned enough so that the language wouldn't be endangered. And there was no funding barriers. So that means the definition of success would change. So they'd graduate and live a happy life.

One of the first conversations I had with Bree when she came on was the conversation about better transitional teams for students that are coming in and out of the village. Cause we see a lot of transient students that, you know, will spend a month in the village and then come here for a month. And so really ensuring that there's a system of support around those students, both while in our system, but then also making contact with the village school on the other side to ensure that that student and family are really taken care of. There's a lot of research around students coming into school and that they don't have good social connections within the first three days that they lose a year of progress…And so we have transitional teams for our military connected youth. And so taking a similar model that seems to be working for some of those students for some of our Alaska Native students that are going back and forth between villages...From a high level educational standpoint, culturally relevant, assessment standards, place-based, project-based learning, all of those things happening more frequently within, being allowed within our system. And then being able to implement that at the local level. Increasing partnerships with TCC and other entities to increase behavioral health services within our schools. We have a little bit of that, but that's a huge issue for a lot of our students now.

And have an abundance mindset. So don't worry about scarcity or holding things back. Or only giving people a little bit cause you only think that's what they deserve. Being really abundant with our resources.

If we had that [cruise ship] head tax go to our schools, that would be amazing! I don't know how many people on cruise ships each year. There's a $3.50 head tax. If it was $4.50, 50 cents that goes to the Seward schools, we'd be in much better shape.

I think it would open the doors for generational healing. I think that would be a big part of it, because once you heal one group and then it continues on down. Where I think in the past we've really been good at putting it in its own special place. And that trauma has been passed on to our children and our grandchildren. So I think it is generational trauma. And I think if you had these kind of things, you wouldn't have generational trauma. It would start clearing up most of that.

I remember my granddad…so - Bethel is the hub of all of the communities, all of the villages in the western side of Alaska. And he obtained his driver's license just by drawing out a map of how he should go or where to turn or when to turn because he was illiterate. He didn't know very much English words but he did get his driver's license. He did pay off his brand new truck - with cash. So it's like, wow. I mean, just to learn how to drive. I mean it's of course it's not that hard, but not learning, not reading the DMV book. I kind of thought it was kind of amazing. I think that's why I really need to look up to him…He had his way of learning.

And what does, what does that look like?...it could be teachers, not only teachers, and organizations, and other workplaces. How are they gonna contribute to our community here? Whether they're whalers, seamstresses, in a dance group, there's so many different things that they can contribute to.

I have a three year old in school right now. And when I get his report cards, the report cards aren’t A, B and C or he got an A because he can say the alphabet…And, this is K3, K4 level, like three and four year olds that are learning compassion and that are learning sharing. And these values are instilled so early and are taught so early, you know - resolution of conflict. Can you get along? Are you able to cooperate? Can you work with another student to do this? Do you understand the concept of family and that kind of thing? And those are things that are…and are you compassionate? Those are things that are, I guess, assessed early on. And not just, I guess, in the sense of values, but I guess as…society.

Having our lands would ensure and sustain healthier communities because we'd be eating better, because we'd be eating wild food in our traditional foods. We'd be more grounded in our culture, and we would flourish because our students would learn to respect the land the way our ancestors did. And so we just drew a picture of the lands with our beautiful river, with the fish running up it with fish drying on the racks. This represents the diversity of our cultures and that we all respect the diversity in our cultures. And then we drew a couple pictures of different, excuse my representation of a clan house here, I don't you know, it's pretty bad. But then the little men's house and then a kashim and then the sun. And then this is the school that everybody came out of. And we're all out here learning on this land.

...how do you navigate laws that impact our traditional roles?

So we have accountability in our communities and accountability isn't a bad thing. It's really about how we help one another succeed. Right? And how we pull one another up. That's what I love about the Native Youth Olympics games is that we coach one another to be our best, our individual best, it's based on relationship. And it's not individual person succeeding at the cost of the people around them. It's really about the individual people succeeding together. Right? And how for communities that there is some real accountability as it relates to making good decisions or not making such great decisions. So I do think that we really look at success as a group rather than an individual. And that's important. It's really important as it relates to learning and education.

I’m very proud of this place.

Having there be field trips or, or just practice of how do you get into an, immersion suit and how quickly you need to get ready to get off. And safety to me in a community like this is also learning how to swim at an early age and learning how to swim effectively and when swimmings not the right choice and you just need to float, cause you don't have enough energy - it's too cool.