User:Mattzoltek/sandbox

The Tobeluk v Lind lawsuit of 1973-74 (commonly referred to as the Molly Hootch lawsuit, due to the fact that her name was at the top of the plaintiffs) was a landmark decision in the making of Alaskas school system. What the settlement accomplished was providing of schools and funding for about 145 villages, towns and cities that were not provided with schools or methods of transportation to have access to nearby schools.

The big problem for Alaska natives before the changes were fully implemented in 1976 was that they all had a primary school up to eigth, or in bigger villages, ninth grade. To get a diploma, they had to go hundreds or even thousands of miles away to go to either boarding schools in the states, or they had to live with a family in a city who would take care of them while they went to school. This didn't work very well because the families that took in the natives would usually be either neglective or abusive. On top of that, boarding school has a tendency to make people home sick. For others, they couldn't leave home because they were needed to help out there.

The reasons that were believed to be the cause of the lack of secondary schools were believed to be racism. This was proved in a study that was performed in Alaska. It was found that towns with a predominately white population (+50%) were provided state funded schools while towns with a predominately native population were not, even when it was formally requested.

When the settlement was made in 1976, it ordered the State of Alaska to allocate at least $20 million to construct approximately 145 secondary education schools for villages in the bush of Alaska. The settlement also gave specific ssizes for the facilities to be made based on the number of students that were going to be attending the school.

Today, all villages in Alaska have access to secondary education facilities. All thanks to the people who fought to make it so.

http://www.alaskool.org/cgi-bin/java/interactive/timeline5.asp http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/law/mhootch.html - Official copy of lawsuit http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/MollyHootch/Court%20cases.htm http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/MollyHootch/Introduction.htm http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/MollyHootch/Cases/1-11-74Summjdgmt.pdf http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/law/tobeluk.html - Official copy of settlement

All information on this page is published with permission and is subject to copyright of ISER-UAA (Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage)