Uncommon program helps children displaced by flooding that devastated Alaska villages

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Rayann Martin sat successful a schoolroom hundreds of miles from her devastated Alaska Native colony and held up 10 fingers erstwhile the teacher asked the pupils however aged they were.

“Ten — however bash you accidental 10 successful Yup'ik?” the teacher asked.

“Qula!” the students answered successful unison.

Martin and her household were among hundreds of radical airlifted to Anchorage, the state's largest city, aft the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated their tiny coastal villages on the Bering Sea past month, dislodging dozens of homes and floating them distant — many with radical inside. The floods near astir 700 homes destroyed oregon heavy damaged. One idiosyncratic died, 2 stay missing.

As the residents grapple with uprooted lives precise antithetic from the accepted ones they left, immoderate of the children are uncovering a measurement of familiarity successful a school-based immersion programme that focuses connected their Yup’ik connection and civilization — 1 of 2 specified programs successful the state.

“I’m learning much Yup’ik,” said Martin, who added that she's utilizing the connection to pass with her mother, teachers and classmates. “I usually talk much Yup’ik successful villages, but mostly much English successful cities.”

There are much than 100 languages spoken successful the homes of Anchorage School District students. Yup’ik, which is spoken by astir 10,000 radical successful the state, is the 5th astir common. The territory adopted its archetypal connection immersion programme — Japanese — successful 1989, and subsequently added Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, French and Russian.

After galore requests from parents, the territory obtained a national assistance and added a K-12 Yup'ik immersion programme astir 9 years ago. The students successful the archetypal people are present eighth-graders. The programme is based astatine College Gate Elementary and Wendler Middle School.

The main astatine College Gate Elementary, Darrell Berntsen, is himself Alaska Native — Sugpiaq, from Kodiak Island, southbound of Anchorage. His parent was 12 years aged successful 1964 erstwhile the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated her colony of Old Harbor. He recalls her stories of joining different villagers astatine precocious crushed and watching arsenic the surge of h2o carried homes retired to sea.

His parent and her household evacuated to a structure successful Anchorage, but returned to Kodiak Island erstwhile Old Harbor was rebuilt. Berntsen grew up surviving a subsistence beingness — “the top clip of my beingness was being capable to spell retired duck hunting, spell retired cervid hunting," helium said — and helium understands what the evacuees from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and different damaged villages person near behind.

He has besides agelong had an involvement successful preserving Alaska Native civilization and languages. His ex-wife’s grandmother, Marie Smith Jones, was the past fluent talker of Eyak, an indigenous connection from south-central Alaska, erstwhile she died successful 2008. His uncles had their hands slapped erstwhile they spoke their indigenous Alutiiq connection astatine school.

As the evacuees arrived successful Anchorage successful the days aft past month's flooding, Berntsen greeted them astatine an arena wherever the Red Cross had acceptable up a shelter. He invited families to enroll their children successful the Yup'ik immersion program. Many of the parents showed him photos of the duck, goose, moose, seal oregon different accepted foods they had saved for the wintertime — stockpiles that washed distant oregon spoiled successful the flood.

“Listening is simply a large portion of our civilization — proceeding their stories, letting them cognize that, ‘Hey, I unrecorded present successful Anchorage, I’m moving 1 of my schools, the Yup’ik immersion program, you guys are invited astatine our school,’” Berntsen said. "Do everything we tin to marque them consciousness comfy successful the astir uncomfortable concern that they’ve ever been through.”

Some 170 evacuated children person enrolled successful the Anchorage School District — 71 of them successful the Yup'ik immersion program. Once the smallest immersion programme successful the district, it's present “booming,” said Brandon Locke, the district's satellite connection director.

At College Gate, pupils person acquisition successful Yup’ik for fractional the day, including Yup’ik literacy and connection arsenic good arsenic subject and societal studies. The different fractional is successful English, which includes connection arts and mathematics classes.

Among the program's caller students is Ellyne Aliralria, a 10-year-old from Kipnuk. During the surge of floodwater the play of Oct. 11, she and her household were successful a location that floated upriver. The precocious h2o besides washed distant her sister's grave, she said.

Aliralria likes the immersion programme and learning much phrases, adjacent though the Yup’ik dialect being spoken is simply a spot antithetic from the 1 she knows.

“I similar to bash each of them, but immoderate of them are hard,” the fifth-grader said.

Also hard is adjusting to surviving successful a motel country successful a metropolis astir 500 miles (800 km) from their colony connected the southwest coast.

“We’re homesick,” she said.

Lilly Loewen, 10, is 1 of galore non-Yup'iks successful the program. She said her parents wanted her to enactment due to the fact that "they thought it was truly cool.”

“It is conscionable truly astonishing to get to speech to radical successful different connection different than conscionable what I talk mostly astatine home,” Loewen said.

Berntsen is readying to assistance the caller students acclimate by holding activities specified arsenic gym nights oregon Olympic-style events, featuring activities that mimic Alaska Native hunting and sportfishing techniques. One example: the seal hop, successful which participants presume a plank presumption and shuffle crossed the level to emulate however hunters sneak up connected seals napping connected the ice.

The Yup'ik immersion programme is helping undo immoderate of the harm Western civilization did to Alaska Native connection and traditions, helium said. It's besides bridging the spread of 2 mislaid generations: In immoderate cases, the children's parents oregon grandparents ne'er learned Yup'ik, but the students tin present talk with their great-grandparents, Locke said.

“I took this arsenic a large accidental for america to springiness backmost immoderate of what the trauma had taken from our Indigenous people,” Berntsen said.