Another Alaska -- from Mudflats

[Blue_In_AK]

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/another-alaska/#comments

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My wife and I have been teaching and living year-round in bush Alaska for the last four years, and recently moved to Anchorage. We left after trying to make changes in an extremely broken system that has been ignored and overlooked by the state and its officials for far too long. Our jobs were threatened, we had no union to go to, and therefore no recourse. Our issue was targeted at education , but the poor state of education in the bush can be easily attributed to a broader problem of isolation, poverty and lack of oversight that no one at the state level is willing to get a handle on.

Anchorage and the state “cannot stand by and tolerate the deterioration of rural Alaska,” the letter said.

The major problem that my wife and I are running into when we tell people our story is that many believe it is the Alaskan Native’s problem as a federally recognized tribe and therefore is no different than the many cases and issues that exist on the lower 48 reservations. This is not the case. Alaskan Native tribes are not a sovereign nation. There is no legal difference in the villages that exist off the road system in Alaska, and a small rural town in Kansas. The only difference is that if a small rural town in Kansas had overwhelmingly high suicide rates, rape cases, domestic violence issues, no infrastructure, no running water, poor electricity, energy bills that exceed thousands each month and no money or jobs to help cover the costs, someone would do something about it!

We became very close with a family in our village that had a child drown in a steel container of raw sewage. Let me say that again. They had a child drown in a steel container of raw sewage. Their child was simply outside playing and since there is no playground equipment for the kids to play on, they play on anything, often things too dangerous for children. In this case it was something commonly referred to as a “honey bucket.” This is a steel container where house sewage is dumped since there is no indoor plumbing.

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[BrklynLiberal]

1. Mudflats is an incredibly great source of information and insight into Alaska.

It would seem that the attitude toward the Natives there is what the attitude was toward Native Americans two hundred years ago.
The "white man" went to Alaska and took it for their own and gave nothing back to those that were there before them. The prejudices and intolerance persists, as do the injustices and maltreatment.
The only ting that matters to the politicians up there is to suck the land dry and fill their pockets with the riches.
THIS is what the barracuda stands for...and nothing more.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. I'm afraid you're right.

This is why I worked so hard the past year for Diane Benson in her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. Diane is a Tlingit from Southeast Alaska and has worked tirelessly on Native issues here for many years. Unfortunately, she was defeated in the primary by Ethan Berkowitz, who in my opinion, while maybe somewhat better than Don Young, is just more of the same politics. Diane did very well in the Bush, but had a harder time in the urban areas.

Here are some Berkowitz quotes from last night's House debate: http://www.adn.com/3017/story/548031.html

Democrat Ethan Berkowitz, challenging Congressman Don Young for Alaska's seat in the U.S. House, declared in a debate Monday night he'd have a better chance of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling than the 18-term Republican.

"Don's had the chance to do it and hasn't done it. He'll tell you he got it out of the House, but he didn't get it through the president and that's the test of a bill," Berkowitz said in the Anchorage debate.

Berkowitz said the argument for ANWR drilling needs to be about the nation's trade deficit, not just increasing the supply of oil.

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Berkowitz bristled, saying he's tough enough to represent Alaska over his party, and that Young knows better than to suggest otherwise.

"I can't wait to go to Washington D.C. and tell Nancy Pelosi she's wrong about ANWR," he said.

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Berkowitz joked that he's supporting "Barack Obama and Tina Fey."

"I know Sarah and I like her, and I think with a little more seasoning she'll be ready for the national stage," Berkowitz said. "I just don't think her time is yet."

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Color me unimpressed. There was no mention in the ADN article of Native issues. The full debate will be aired on Sunday, and I will be watching to see if either of these two address them.

I REALLY miss Diane. :cry: :cry: :cry: http://www.bensonforcongress.com/

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Souonds like Berkowitz may be what is called a DINO.

[CampDem]

3. Thanks for posting this

I have worked in social services here in Anchorage at Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC). The tragedies experienced in the Bush have broken my heart over and over.

Palin brags about our state surplus. Why are there still no services for these people in their own communities?

Why are the Anchorage politicians/school board members begging for help because people are pouring into Anchorage?

ANMC is stretched thin and there is no health care for them in the Bush. There are not enough beds for the homeless. There are hundreds turned away who need detox beds. API dumps people on the streets who need mental health care.

Native teens kill themselves or are raped and there are very limited services to offer them or their families.

How can Palin sleep at night?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I don't know how Palin sleeps at night

or any of Alaska's politicians, to tell you the truth. I haven't had a lot of recent experience -- other than through Diane when I was working on her campaign -- but I worked as a CO/counselor at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center way back in the early '80s and it was apparent even then that the state was seriously falling down on its job. There was such a disproportionate number of Native inmates, and their life stories were unbelievably heartbreaking. It was little wonder that they were getting in trouble with alcohol and drugs, breaking the law and ending up in prison. And I know that the situation for the inmates is even worse now with so many of them being sent down to Arizona where there are no services and being so far away from their families.

I don't know the answers, but our state government must become more proactive in this. In a state with such surplus, it's inconscionable that we have these problems.

[CampDem]

6. Yes, Alaska throws our mentally ill/addicted populations under the bus

When they get out of prison or jail there is little continuity of care if they have mental health problems or addictions. They don't bother to send the records to the primary care or mental health provider. They give them a few days of medication and tell them to set up an appointment themselves.

There are limited Chronically mentally ill services available at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Many times CMI folks run out of medication and end up wandering the campus at ANMC with no prescription, no follow up appointments and no place to go. Providers are exhausted, angry and some times pay for food and shelter out of their own pockets to help them. Trying to get records for patients recently incarcerated can take days unless they are gravely disabled and you can demand them.

A disproportionate number of native people end up in Alaska Psychiatric Institute for a few days so that someone can get them to the top of wait lists. API tries to get them follow up care, but there is little to be found in the smaller villages. Some of the villages are so at a loss that they won't allow them back to the community. This is why Anchorage needs more funding desperately for the CMI population. The cutbacks in beds at homeless shelter means more of them will get frostbite, suffer amputations, and die this winter. With the massive cutbacks in detox beds those that can get to the ER are stabilized and sent straight back to the streets. Residential alcohol treatment is a 6 month wait list here in Anchorage. I have never seen things this bad for our mentally ill Native population here.