Noatak Celebrates

I had the honor and pleasure of spending last Thursday and Friday in Noatak for Inupiaq Days and the high school graduation ceremony. Noatak is always a wonderful place to visit but those events made this trip especially enjoyable.

The graduation commencement was held Friday evening in the gym, which was decorated beautifully for the occasion. It seemed that most of the village was on hand to celebrate the completion of high school for Adam Adams, Roland Ashby Jr., Elmer Howarth Jr., Mary Jones, Murphy Moo and Martha Woods.

As the commencement speaker, I talked about traditional values and discipline as the keys to success for our young people. While some call it "tough love" when we impose rules and accountability on our children, I see it more as true love. Interestingly, almost every one of the six graduates made remarks about the value of being pushed in the right direction by parents, teachers and other community members.

Each of the graduates seems to have a clear idea of where they are heading in the future. Whether they are choosing college, vocational education, or the National Guard, each is embarking in a direction that should lead to a fulfilling life. The entire village should feel pride in that.

At the same time that I was speaking in Noatak, Martha Whiting of the Borough staff was giving a commencement address in Deering. I am proud that she was afforded that honor and certain that she did a great job. While in Noatak, I spent the two school days doing a wood carving demonstration for the students. Donald Ferguson, a top ivory carver from Kotzebue, also made the trip to teach the students about ivory carving. Donald has been active in teaching on Inupiaq Days at the Kotzebue schools for a few years now and does an excellent job with the students. Reggie Joule III made the trip with me as well. He has knowledge and expertise in Native Youth Olympic events and was able to share that with the student body. Reggie will be attending the University of Alaska, Southeast in the fall.

The Noatak Inupiaq Day activities and the graduation ceremony will receive special news coverage this year because a representative of Independent Native News was on hand to film and report on all the activity for national television. It should be pointed out that this coverage was due to the efforts of Noatak Principal Fred Deussing and Maniilaq Association, which assisted with the cost of the travel and production for INN. James Mason of the Arctic Sounder, who does a consistently excellent job of reporting for our region, was also there to cover the events for the newspaper.

I would like to convey special thanks to Fred and all his school staff, as well as all the folks in Noatak, for making those two days so memorable. And I'd like to congratulate the six graduating seniors for not only what they accomplished thus far, but for the goals they have set for themselves.