A state judge has ruled that Southeast Traditional Tribal Values posters may hang throughout the Ketchikan School District, rejecting a lawsuit that sought to ban the posters.
The judge’s ruling also allows the schools to continue using the tribal values in programs about expected behaviors.
Ketchikan Superior Court Judge Katherine H. Lybrand’s order, which was announced on May 8, rejected a lawsuit that Justin Breese and Rebecca King filed last year against the Ketchikan School District and Ketchikan Charter School over posters titled “Southeast Traditional Tribal Values.”
The posters feature an image of a totem pole, the phrase “Our Way of Life” and display a list of 14 traditional values such as “Be Strong in Mind, Body and Spirit,” “Patience,” “Humor” and “Speak with Care” that an elders forum on traditional values developed in 2004.
Breese and King argued that one of the 14 values, “Reverence for Our Creator,” is religious and asked the court to order that the posters be removed from schools and bar the schools from using the values in a behavioral incentive program.
The plaintiffs sued on behalf of themselves and their children who attend Ketchikan schools.
King is a teacher for Ketchikan Charter School, where the values are posted widely and incorporated in a behavioral reward program that recognizes students who embody a chosen “value of the week” from the list of traditional values.
Breese and King represented themselves in court. The trial spanned about eight hours over two days the first week of May.
According to the judge’s ruling, Breese and King raised the case because they “believe the current use of the poster is teaching the values themselves and setting an expectation that students must follow all of the values in order to be a good student.”
The plaintiffs argued that the district is violating the state and U.S. constitutions, which protect the right “not to believe in any religion” and “mandates government neutrality” between religion and non-religion.
Lybrand ruled in favor of the district, which argued that the value of “Reverence for Our Creator” is not religious but reflects Indigenous people’s way of being, and is an important tool for cross-cultural understanding and place-based learning in schools.
The judge wrote: “Historically, Southeast Indigenous people’s practices, language and way of life were suppressed, often violently, by the Western world. The development of the Southeast Traditional Tribal Values poster was an effort to record traditional tribal values and have the record of those values available for younger generations as well as for the Western world.”
The court considered evidence about the value of “Reverence for Our Creator” from individuals who work for the school district and from experts on Southeast Alaska Indigenous cultures.
Teresa Varnell, who belongs to the Haida Nation and is cultural coordinator for the school district,
received permission to purchase the posters in 2021. She bought enough so that every classroom could have one if the teacher wanted, and for display in common areas like school lobbies.
According to Lybrand’s decision, “Reverence for Our Creator” promotes “a belief that all beings should be respected and valued,” and that tribal values are indeed “comprehensive and part of the fabric of Indigenous life.” The judge further wrote, “There are no efforts to convert individuals into Indigenous culture or Tribal membership.”
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