Kiana High School Graduation

Good evening graduates of Kiana High School, proud parents, school
administrators, grand parents, elders, teachers, friends and relatives.
Thank you for inviting me to be a part of your celebration. I am deeply
honored and stand before you as your humble servant.

Whenever I give a commencement speech, I try my best to talk about your life
and what promise there is for you in the future. My speech is for each and
every one of you graduates. As you go through life, you reach our age and
you look back on your high school graduation, most all of you will not
remember who gave your commencement speech. I believe my purpose here is to
provide you with some insight about your future, advise about how you might
want to get there and just maybe, a little word of inspiration that may
influence you for the rest of your life.

I would like to quote a respected Elder from Ambler who recently passed away
this winter. Tommy Douglas, when interviewed about his life, he would pause
to reflect on the concerns of our people and send encouragements for all
people of this region. Tommy’s life experiences of encouragements are as
quoted “Being only seventeen and eighteen and to be responsible to support
the family by working hard turned out very rewarding. To gain knowledge of
the land and its animals ahead of time is the best! To be a young man and
know these things makes a big difference later on when you become a man or
woman. Today most young men do not know the land and its animals, it is
important to take time to learn.

I feel that they are so lucky today, with all the modern conveniences they
are exposed to and also a day to get educated. The men from ancient times
along with their natural abilities of survival and to have all this new
stuff, imagine how excited they would be; they would achieve much, much
more. It would be nice to know that the young people can take the time to
learn the importance of hunting and take the time to learn a valuable trade.
The reason, today they not only have to live off the land but to earn money
to help their family survive and not depend on others.” (unquote)

I wanted to share these quotations that Vernetta Nay Mobley collected from
Tommy while he lived at the Kotzebue Senior Citizens Cultural Center. I
wanted to share Tommy’s wisdom because he hits the core of what I want to
talk about. Reviewing our Inupiat world view provides us the opportunity to
develop that foundation to build a good life for each and every one of us.
Our values of respect associated with our spiritual ways provides that much
needed sturdy foundation to build character. Character development was
central to our Inupiaq world view. In ancient times, in our not to distant
past, central to our character development was a strong sense of
spirituality. Our Elders still play a

very important role with our communities, providing the wisdom and knowledge
that is vital in a healthy Inupiaq community.

In modern times, religion and prayer had significantly changed the Inupiaq
world of spirituality. Even though this had changed, spirituality still is
the foundation of our homes and the heritage of our Inupiaq world-view. Good
character development cannot be accomplished without some sort of a
religious or spiritual foundation. So much of the time nowadays we teach our
young people to be smart but we don’t always teach them to be good people.
Your village, I believe, has done a good job in providing your youth with
this good strong foundation. Not long ago I read an article that quoted one
great American, Theodore Roosevelt: “To educate a man in mind and not in
morals is to educate a menace to society”. You must recognize that the many
problems of our villages stem from the lack of character, virtues and
values. Character development stands at the heart of teaching. So many of
our communities throughout Alaska are lost in providing these very important
elements that allow our people to make healthy choices in their lives.

The parents, teachers and the Elders of the community must take
responsibility to teach character development. Our school teachers do have a
great responsibility to teach character development in the classroom,
however, when they do this they must have total community support. We’ve all
heard the slogan that says “It takes a whole village to raise a child”.
Parents, Elders and community members all must get involved to pass on the
values of the community to our school children. Everyone must work together
to continue to teach our Inupiaq values and traditions of character
education at home, at work, in play, out hunting, fishing, butchering and
processing our Native foods and in our schools.

I would like to share with you some simple but a real life experience that I
had over the years that did make a difference to someone. A few years back,
Albert Smith Jr. came to me and thanked me for taking him out hunting with
my sons when he had lost his dad. To me it was such a small jesture of
concern for a young man who had lost his father. Albert was about 15 years
old at the time. To Albert this meant a lot and did make a difference in his
life. Sometimes the simplest action or thought that you share with someone,
can and will help that person cope with or adjust to his or her situation in
life, especially to a young man or woman. I would encourage all of you to
keep this in mind and take the time for someone in your community that may
need your attention at the time they need it most.

The Northwest Arctic Borough and the North Slope Borough in our three Arctic
Economic Development Summits looked at what drives our economy in both
regions and what can we do to generate economic resource development that
would be of benefit to both boroughs. After our first economic summit we
established core values that are

sacred, that cannot be overlooked if and when economic resource development
is considered within our two boroughs. In the second Economic Summit meeting
we looked at what resources we had in each borough and what might be
economically feasible. At the time of the second economic summit nothing
panned out because the economic conditions were not right for development of
these resources. Now with the prices of zinc, gold and coal gaining strength
each day, the global economic picture has changed.

In the third summit, both boroughs looked at their own human resources
within their respective communities. What we found in both boroughs lead us
to take action to make things better by promoting and supporting healthy
community and community wellness initiatives so that we can provide our
children from Kindergarten to grade 12 with the
greatest opportunity to succeed in all subjects they encounter. After
looking at our whole social, economic and political structures we found that
all of us, in whatever capacity we worked, whether it is with the NWAB,
NWABSD, Maniilaq or NANA, that we all must take full responsibility to
change things for the better. Of the five priorities we agreed
upon, four focused on what we needed to do:
(1). We will have safe and healthy communities and proved a quality K-12 education system.
(2). We will focus on developing our workforce-specifically on promoting the
opportunities for jobs/careers and training/education.
(3). We will encourage communities to create comprehensive plans and visions that reflect
their local values.
(4). We will build on our shared Inupiat values and traditions. Through our Northwest Arctic Leadership Team the regional leaders of the NWAB, NWABSD, NANA and Maniilaq have agreed to work together as a team to achieve the Joint Arctic Economic Summit priorities. The North
Slope Borough is working to accomplish the same thing. All of us must take responsibility for making positive changes in our communities.

I was very impressed with one of your own graduates, Zazell Stahlie who
recently attended and facilitated a wellness program in the Kotzebue high
school on helping young people to understand how to recognize and use local
assets that will help students succeed in school and society. Her mother
Heiny was also there. It is this kind of involvement by our people to help
affect change so that we set the stage for all our children to succeed in
school. We have what it takes to make a better society but we must work at
it with a commitment like our lives depended upon it.

My advise to you is to dream. Know what it is you want out of life but also
know that it helps to realize your dream if you have some talent to fulfill
that dream. You must under-stand that talent alone won’t get you far unless
you combine that with hard work, commitment and discipline. Don’t be afraid
of discipline. Many young people equate discipline with strict rules and
punishment. Put that attitude out of our thoughts, think of discipline as a
form of ‘tough love’. Discipline is an every day thing; not just once a week
or twice a week. It’s a commitment to something you love. When you learn how
to develop discipline, it will be your friend, not your enemy for rest of
your lives.

I remember about ten years ago when one of your own students from Kiana was
having a difficult time to complete her courses to obtain her teaching
certificate. Janice Westlake Reich was nowhere to be found when I visited
the campus as the NWABSD student advisor. I knew that she was in her last
semester of college so I also knew how difficult that was because I had been
there in 1972. I visited her room on my last day there and did find her
home. When she saw me she said to me, “I need a hug”. That was all she
needed to finish her studies and to get her degree that spring. It was her
determination, commitment to her studies and hard work that made her finish
college that year. Of course, she had all the support of her parents and
community. It takes that kind of resolve
to get our young people to complete what they start. Janice has been a
teacher her in Kiana for more than 12 years. I am so proud of her
accomplishments.

In the Inupiaq culture, through our values, we use the knowledge from our
Elders to develop the basis for hope in our daily lives, we nurture love of
our past and our ancestors which in turn helps each of us to have a good
self image so that we have faith for the future. What we learn from our past
is a source of knowledge and character development that gives us this source
of hope for the future. As you grow older, keep these thoughts in mind
because our Inupiaq ways do have a very important place in contemporary
times. In my opinion, the Inupiaq world view is vital to each of you living
your lives by making healthy choices so that you will all be successful
adults.

These values I have talked about will help each of you graduates to “reach
for the stars”, to do things in life that will allow each of you to practice
what you preach, to live your lives with Inupiaq values daily and to raise
your children with a solid foundation based upon respect, humor, discipline
and spirituality. Live a life that matters. This doesn’t happen by accident.
It is not a matter of circumstances….it’s a matter of choice. So choose
wisely. Thank you and good luck to all of you for a successful and long life
ahead of you.

Northwest Arctic Borough Staff Directory

Northwest Arctic Borough
P.O. Box 1110 Kotzebue, AK 99752
(907)442-2500 (800)478-1110 Fax:(907)442-2930

(c) 2001 Northwest Arctic Borough All rights reserved