Following the Senate HELP Committee field hearing that I chaired at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on October 19, 2012, I created an “Alaska Education Library” to help Alaskans share new, effective ideas that are helping to increase our students’ success, both as students and as people.  Here, you will find information from Alaskans who think outside the box and get results. 

Any Alaskan—educators, parents, or members of a school board, tribe, Native organization, the University, a state agency, or other non-profit—can e-mail a summary of their policies, methods, or innovations to AlaskaEdSuccess@Murkowski.Senate.Gov.  Those stories will then be posted here for other Alaskans to learn from and, if appropriate, replicate for their students.  Data, charts, pdf documents, links, and other formats can be accommodated.

Thank you so much for your work with Alaska’s future leaders,

Lisa Murkowski

The Alaska Education Library

Dog Mushing in Huslia

George Attla of Huslia, Alaska The legendary open-class sprint dog racer has won more Fur Rendezvous World Championships (10 wins) than any other musher to date. He won 8 North American World Championships and 9 ISDRA unlimited class metals. His book, Everything I know about Training and Racing Sled Dogs, is still considered the musher’s bible. His life story became the subject of a film, Spirit of the Wind and a book of the same title has been published. In 2000 he was awarded the Best Musher of the 20th Century and voted No. 2 Alaskan Athlete of the Century. In 2007, he was inducted into the first Alaska Sports Hall of Fame. 2008 marked his 50th year of competitive sled dog racing. In April 2011, he won the Bergman Sam Memorial Koyukuk River Championship in Huslia.

Mr. Attla has been working for five years to establish a program in Huslia that incorporates dog mushing into the school curriculum.  He worked closely with the teachers and the principal there and this past school year, they began a pilot program that gives students credit for working and caring with the sled dogs. He works with kids from 6 years to 16 year olds and currently have 33 in the program. This is a non-profit program but the children are receiving academic credit for participating.

He teaches the kids how to hook up the dogs, how to care for the dogs and how to race the dogs.  They are called the Huslia Hustlers.  There are 4 kennels in Huslia that support his efforts and he has buy in from the school teachers and principal and the community which is most important. There are about 40-50 community volunteers total.

The children organized their own races this year and they varied from 1 miles sprints to 7 ½ mile courses.  There used to be a big turnover of teachers in Huslia, this year not one resigned and one even has stayed over the summer.  He challenged the teachers to participate in the program and “mix” with the people. He said historically, the teachers had been seen as the enemy and they stayed within the fenced school and never interacted with the community members. That has now changed.

The students now have better attitudes.  Out of the 33 students in the program, not one disciplinary problem was reported all year.   Many of the girls that participated were part of the Huslia basketball team that went to the state championships. 

They told many stories about how they are using the dogs to teach writing and grammar because now the teachers have the students write about the dogs. It teaches math because they have to use fractions and divisions to feed the dogs, etc.  The dogs are incorporated into most of their subjects because the children have now bonded with them and relate to their furry friends.

The pilot program will continue next year, September – June 2014. More info here: http://attlamakingofachampion.com/

Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools

Alaska Native Cultural Charter School

Alaska’s Progress