Almost half of Wrangell school students counted as Alaska Native

Almost half of the students enrolled at the school district are counted as Alaska Native.

Schools Superintendent Bill Burr confirmed that out of a total of 270 students enrolled in the district, 122 are registered as Alaska Native, while 13 are American Indian. “We’re 50% or really close,” he said. “Some of those might be mixed, depending on which parent filled it out.”

Burr added that while Kim Powell, the district’s administrative assistant, had told him that the ratio has always been around that percentage, statistics from the state and federal government have the number listed as lower, about 35%, possibly because of a variety of factors, including improperly completed paperwork, discrepancies in census data and confusion between ethnicity categories such as “American Indian and Alaska Native” and “mixed race.”

Also, the federal government records ethnicity differently than how the state records it, according to Burr. “It usually looks lower than it actually is,” he said. “It depends on a lot of different factors, depending on how paperwork is filled out.”

The U.S. Census estimates that Wrangell’s Alaska Native and American Indian population last year was 17%.

“How do you incorporate identity in a box?” asked Mike Hoyt, who began as the new Indian Education Act director at Wrangell schools on March 11.

A day before her resignation on Feb. 29, then-IEA director DaNika Smalley reported on the changing demographic at an Indian Education Act committee meeting at the high school. She later explained on March 13 how IEA formula-driven grant funding can affect the district, depending on the number of Native students. “We already qualify for the grant,” she said. “But the more Native students we have, the more funding we’ll see for the school year.”

She added that such funding is used for cultural-based events and classes like the Tlingit language class run by Virginia Oliver, as well as the shadowbox plays which are regularly staged at the elementary and high schools.

Smalley said parents registering their children as Native must file a form and provide proof of tribal membership, either through the child, parent or grandparent.

Burr said funding can also provide tutoring for eligible Native students for subjects across the board that they’re having trouble learning. In addition to tutoring, Hoyt also wants to instruct teachers on how to incorporate Native culture into their curriculum.

Hoyt suggested that there might be potential ways to seek alternate funding outside of federal avenues, including nontraditional sources like Sealaska Heritage Institute. He also said confirmation of having such a large Native portion of the student body can have an impact on curriculum and provide opportunities to introduce more culturally aware material.

“Lately, there’s been more of a push within Native communities to make their cultural identity known,” he said. “That can be seen in the increase of different cultural events both in the community and in the classroom.”