Tlingit Education History

There have been infinite control policies over the course of the Tlingit people’s history that effected their schools and educational system. Before Alaska was purchased by the United States, formal education came primarily from the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian-American Company. The Russian Orthodox Church through Bishop Innocent (Veniaminov) created the first alphabet for the Tlingit language and developed a Tlingit literacy program. Additionally in the nineteenth century, the first attempts were made to communicate in Tlingit through writing. The Orthodox Church supported bilingual education in its schools, but the Americans didn’t and sought to eliminate the use of the language completely. It was not until the 1960s that a Native language literacy movement was established by linguists such as Constantine Naish and …show more content…
The value of education and its importance for their future endeavors both in life and in their occupations is impressed upon their children from day one. Higher education is promoted as well. Despite all the attempts to “civilize” them, somehow they have managed to come through with most of their culture intact. Their strength, determination, and tenacity are unparalleled. However, to this day their language struggles to remain in active use. This is so important…as was stated so eloquently in the 1994 Final Report of the Alaska Natives Commission: "At the core of many problems in the Alaska Native community are unhealed psychological and spiritual wounds and unresolved grief brought on by a century-long history of deaths by epidemics and cultural and political deprivation at others' hands; some of the more tragic consequences include the erosion of Native languages in which are couched the full cultural understanding, and the erosion of cultural