Conflicting Landscapes: Father Michael Oleksa

Posted At : March 18, 2009 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Science & Social Science,Alaska

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Taken from Conflicting Landscapes: American Schooling/Alaska Natives by Clifton Bates and Michael J. Oleksa, published by The Kuskokwim Corporation.

Contributed and read by the Rev. Dr. Michael James Oleksa, who was invited to the Alutiiq village of Old Harbor in 1970. He began researching Native Alaskan history there in 1977, and completed his doctoral dissertation in this field, receiving his Th. D. at the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1988. Father Michael's four-part PBS Television series, Communicating Across Cultures, has been widely acclaimed. He currently serves St. Alexis Orthodox church in Anchorage where he resides with his Yup'ik wife, Xenia, and their son Michael.

In Conflicting Landscapes, Clif Bates and I look at education and Alaska Native students.

"Of course we have some success stories. We do have Alaskan Native college graduates. We do have articulate, inspiring Native leaders, ... men and women in various professions around the state. But for every success we have twice as many tragic failures. For every graduate we have two or three drop outs. For every college alumnus we have five times more deaths, accidents, and suicides. For every star we have a dozen black holes.

I have buried too many victims of both suicide and accidents. I have shared the grief and the trauma, the anger and the sadness of elders and parents who have watched as their children drift off into lives of addiction, crime, sickness, suffering and death. And I am convinced that the seedbed out of which these destructive behaviors emerge is the school. Our schools are killing our kids."

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Father Michael presents a sad truth; the Alaska Natives who thrived before the Russians arrived in the mid-1700s experienced the collapse of their societies when overwhelmed by missionaries and colonists from Europe. As a result, the native people, have, in the past century, experienced a substandard quality of life as measured by the Human Development Index -- Alaska Natives have a lower life expectancy, lower school enrollment and educational attainment, and a lower standard of living when measured by income.

In his Pulitzer-prize winning book "Guns Germs & Steel", Jared Diamond shows how societies evolved in their environments. To thrive, hunter-gatherers need knowledge, intelligence, skill & organization to a greater degree than those in agrarian or industrial communities. Despite these skills, the flood of Eurasians produced a situation where the original Alaskans find themselves struggling to cope in the aftermath of societal destruction.

What would the Golden Rule have you do now?

# Posted By Don Karabelnikoff | 3/18/09 10:21 AM

We can be overwhelmed by these issues as you say, but we are a resilient sort and will (many already have) get our situation together and carry on our culture, however that may shift. We need to not be inundated by so many arcticles that would have us be such bloody victims, even if that's what we are. We also "conquered" this continent first, and still have all we need to adapt. In my village young men were knocked down by their uncles when they got their first seal; this signaled a threshhold. Well, I believe we are getting back up and reaching back to help others arise. I thank Father Alesi for all the work he's done in the area of cross culture relations.

# Posted By Susie Silook | 10/3/09 7:39 PM

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