Raven’s Feast
June 12, 2003
         Thank you, Letoy.  Good evening.  My name is Julian Argel, and I’m a former officer for the Alaska Native Brotherhood.  I’m Tsimpshian and Haida.  I served as an Alaska Native Brotherhood officer while I lived in Ketchikan, Alaska, before I moved here to Seattle in 1988.  I’m presenting in place of the Seattle elected officers Lindsay Buxton and Donna Bolima who could not be here this evening.  I’d like to tell you a little about the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood. 
            The Alaska Native Brotherhood was organized by a number of Tsimpshian, Tlingit, and Haida tribal members in Southeast Alaska in 1910.  The group came about to foster the camaraderie among Alaska Native men and women.  The original members were young men and women who had met at the Indian boarding schools.   At the turn of the century and through the 1960s, the government boarding school experience was common and many times challenging and harsh, not always a positive experience for our Native people in Alaska.  As in other tribal communities around the United States, Native children, from 5, 6, and 7 years of age, were taken away by government policy and sent to Bureau of Indian Affairs institutions for their educational experience.  They were gone from Kindergarten through high school graduation.  Away from their own families, these Native children created their own communities among other boarding school students.  Their peers became their family:  brothers and sisters.  
               And so, as graduates, with education and knowledge learned at the boarding schools of democracy and social justice, these young Native women and men organized the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood to represent the interests of tribal people in Alaska.  Brotherhood and Sisterhood members have become responsible citizens, and are in a variety of professions including being: fishermen, cannery workers, teachers, principals, artists, attorneys, police officers, social workers, doctors, nurses, judges, college professors, university administrators, and state legislators.  And, they have advocated and promoted social equality and educational equity for our Native communities through city, school board, county/borough, state, and federal legislation. 
               In honor of those students who have strived to get an education, especially those who have struggled, and have performed well in school, the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood organization and its local chapters have made scholarships available to support, acknowledge, encourage, and reward excellence in education among tribal peoples. 
             The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood Seattle Camp want to recognize 2 students this evening for overcoming great odds and for their success in education. 
          The first student that ANB & ANS wants to acknowledge is one who is a new graduate from the School of Social Work.  Her Counselor Candace Fries has encouraged this student through her graduation this week.  Out of a family of 7, this student is the first to obtain a college degree.  Taken from her own family when she was young and put in a government boarding school had a profound impact on her life.  She has become a strong advocate for Indian Child Welfare issues.  A leader in organizing, Cherokee Pettis organized a student group called “SWINAC” or “Social Workers Involved in Native American Communities.”  To help her with her future plans for a dual program in Masters in Social Work and Law, the ANB & ANS would like to award Cherokee Pettis this scholarship.
             The second student that the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood want to award a scholarship to is graduating this year in 2 fields of study:  International Studies and Russian.  In the first grade, this scholar was diagnosed with Mirror Dyslexia.  Having learned in spite of that, with perseverance and determination, he graduated from high school, and entered the University of Washington.  And, in the Spring 2000 Quarter, he went to Vienna on a UW sponsored travel abroad program, where he learned more of the European culture and studied the German language.  And with an interest in the Russian language, he planned his own education by living with a Russian family in Sochi, Russia, and studied at Moscow State University.  During his undergraduate experience, Matthew Lamm made the Dean’s list 7 times.  Planning on attending law school, Matthew Lamm is planning on returning to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to be part of and help his community.  The Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood are pleased to award Matthew Lamm this scholarship award.     

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