8-17-09 Reporting from Aniak

Getting up at 4:45 for my 6:15 flight to Anchorage was a chore. My luck immediately turned around though when I was automatically updated to first class. I slept the whole way though, so it was wasted on me. With 3 hours to kill in the Ted Stevens International Airport, I ate a healthy breakfast at Chili’s and cancelled out the health benefits with a Starbucks soy latte.

Monument to Alaska's bush pilots at the Ted Steven Internation Airport in Anchorage.

PenAir is downstairs outside the security gates. Apparently people would have to be really crazy to highjack a PenAir or Era aircraft, so there was no inspection of any sort. The waiting area was full of young Yup’ik women and their babies, but they all flew off to Sand Point and Cold Bay. The Dillingham flight also took off full but on time. My flight was 2 ½ hours late- the plane was delayed somewhere else.

Susan was supposed to meet me here in Aniak, but she’s sick and I haven’t seen her yet.

The Kuspuk inservice was in full swing, but people were welcoming and I enjoyed the huge dinner and visit with everyone before my short presentation on Math in a Cultural Context. Dinner looked like a potluck- 3 kinds of salads, spaghetti and meat sauce, roast beef, rice or mashed potatoes, gravy and butter, green beans, jello, 4 types of cakes for dessert with Kool-Aid punch or water or coffee to drink. I must confess that I felt like I was back in the Midwest and took a second helping.

A local pizza restaurant that does a booming business.

I’m sleeping in the voc ed building. It has 2 beds per room and lots of floor space with a large kitchen, office space, a large classroom area and an attached shop. I know the kids in this district can come here for career ed classes. I’m not sure how else this nice big space is used. The women’s shower room has a “fresh paint” sign on the door, so I’ll see if it’s true tomorrow.

The inservice has been conference style with sessions for people to choose. The only discouraging thing I heard was the Kusko Corp. non-profit land permit person tell the teachers that they had to pay $100 to access corporation land for berry picking, hiking, skiing, etc. In my opinion, teachers should be welcomed into the community by being given guest access to the adjoining land- WITHOUT being the only ones who have to pay for the privilege. In other words, it is racial- I’m sure non-shareholders who are married to shareholders or other Native non-shareholders don’t pay. It also guarantees that teachers don’t feel like part of the community. I think the school district, and their local school board, could/should take care of that. No non-shareholder (apparently) is allowed to hunt on Native land, and I understand that a little better, but really- a teacher would be a prisoner without paying the $100 freedom fee.

The town of Aniak feels a lot like Galena, wrapped around the airstrip and clinging to the Kuskokwim River. It is heavily wooded with willow, aspen and birch. The houses are spread out and I’ve seen lots of gardens, trucks and boats in yards. Tomorrow I’m walking to the store which is on the opposite side of the strip from the school.

The upriver Fair was last week- just the Fairgrounds remain.

The two schools are about a mile apart- 50 kids in the middle/high school and 70 in the pre-K to 6^th grade. The little Alaska Airlines/PenAir air terminal was full of kids heading to Anchorage, but it had a satellite big tv and a semi-clean restroom. In this town of about 500 people, there are no taxis, so principal John came to get me. He said that his staff has been making huge leaps in achievement and he has had very little turnover in the 4 years that he’s been here. Other schools in the Kuspuk district are Upper and Lower Kalskag and the upriver villages of Sleetmute, Stony River, Crooked Creek, and Chuathbaluk. The next community north on the river is McGrath and south is Tuluksak. I’m planning on walking to the store tomorrow...apparently a 2 hour expedition. The road is gravel and a little dusty in spite of the rain and most people are in cars or 4 wheelers, like most villages.