Sexual Assault in Rural Alaska from a non-Native Perspective

This piece was written by a rural Alaska teacher who wishes to remain anonymous.

I am writing this from the perspective of a white woman who has lived in rural western Alaska for five years. What I will share, though it is published anonymously, is anecdotal. I can only describe my experiences. I want to use my privilege to highlight a serious problem impacting most of Alaska: sexual assault in rural communities. I also hope to acknowledge how Alaska Native history impacts the abuse in rural communities.

When I decided to move to a rural Alaska village, I was overwhelmed with excitement and ready for adventure. My village (population just over 600) was so different from the Midwest community of over 800,000 that I grew up in. Even though most of the village did not have running water, I was offered a beautiful furnished apartment with running water, heat, and attentive maintenance staff.

My first year of teaching was rocky (as it is for most new teachers), but it was easy to overlook those hardships when I think about the passion I had for my students. Because of the rapport I built within my classroom, students often told me things happening in their lives and in the community—both the amazing and the horrible. I had heard from other adults that sexual abuse was rampant in Alaska, but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the truth of just how much it impacts the community.

One example occurred between students in a 7th grade class, when a male student inappropriately touched five female students without their consent. The assaulter was a good student: he had never been in any sort of behavioral trouble, played on the JV basketball team, and he was on the honor roll. Because of his status, his punishment was one week of after school detention and one week benched from basketball practice. The assistant principal at the time, a white man, had a shockingly cavalier attitude about this situation. One teacher even reported to me that he literally said, “Boys will be boys!” about the situation. The female students who had been assaulted had to spend every day for the rest of their school career with their attacker.

There is one situation that also happened to me my 4th year teaching. I was at an open house at the beginning of the year, and the father of one of my students followed me into my room as soon as the open house was supposed to end. As he walked into my room, we chatted for a bit about my classroom rules and procedures, then he reached out for a handshake. As he did so, I also extended my hand, to which he pulled me into an attempted embrace I did not consent to and proceeded to grope the majority of my backside. I was frozen in fear. This was not something I asked for or wanted. He then left my classroom of his own volition.

Thinking about the fear I felt in that moment and then thinking about how what I just experienced was nowhere near the same as what some of my students have experienced made me even more upset for the sake of my children. I, luckily, had a boss who supported me through it and who put me in touch with the local authorities. When the local authorities showed up, they left a lot up to me: they wanted to know if I wanted to press charges or to, basically, just give him a stern talking-to and limit his time at the school. I opted for the latter. I appreciated that they gave me the power to make that decision for myself. However, they asked me several times if I thought he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the grope. I told them that I didn’t actually know for sure, but they continued to ask. I am not sure what relevance that has to the situation, but it made it seem almost like the drunkenness in this dry village was the worse crime. Obviously that was not said, but that is sort of how I took it because I didn’t understand its relevancy to this particular crime. I also kind of only felt I was taken seriously because I was not the only one to have made similar reports.

In my five years teaching, I learned about many instances of sexual assault. One student’s mother told me that she had been raped by two separate family members. One of the girls from the previous paragraph who had been groped in the school was caught later in the school cuddling with the student who had assaulted her. One student left an abusive situation in her home only to return to it a few months later.

Adults who worked in the school were accused of assault with no consequence. Reporters (like myself) were not properly trained on how to properly report a case to the Office of Children’s Services. The reputation of social services in Alaska is widely considered inadequate. If I reported abuse, nothing would get done. I always reported abuse anyway, but it seemed like nothing changed and that abuse was just an accepted part of the community.

I cannot in good faith continue to discuss the matter of sexual assault that is so prolific in rural Alaska without discussing the tormented history of Alaska Natives. I realized how much I didn’t know about the history of Alaskan Natives. I participated in a culture camp, where we were introduced to subsistence lifestyles. We talked and learned about how Alaska’s indigenous cultures were changed by European and American influence. Alaska Natives have experienced discrimination, abuse, racism, and segregation recently in their history and continue to experience racial abuse today. I attempted to locate statistics on how many cases of rape, sexual assault, and molestation occurred prior to the 1960s to Alaskan Natives with no results. I have been told, however, that there was significantly less sexual abuse at that time. Trauma is intergenerational, meaning the traumas wreaked upon Alaskan Natives by Europeans and Americans in generations past still affects the population today. Trauma feeds trauma.

It is the acknowledgement of this history and the active teaching of our young people about what consent is and how to respect one another, no matter what, that will lead to change. We must teach this if we want to see the change we are trying to create.

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Edie Grunwald
5 years ago

Culture changes start with “leadership.” Culture changes also start with teaching young people “right” from “wrong.”
We must model what we teach and practice what we preach.

Camai
5 years ago

Sexual misconduct is not limited to the native population. Tribal leaders have told me that it is not traditionally cultural. I have worked in the genre for years. However, there is a real disregard for personal rights, space and sexuality… not only in the Bush, but most certainly in the Bush. Life is cheap when people are poor. Isolation, hopelessness, poor role modeling and alcohol has ruined the poor of the culture and given the educated a drum to beat and something to deny! Tell me, as I heard just today, that sexual misconduct never happened before “contact.” And to… Read more »

Jack Klompus
5 years ago

Oh for fuck sake stop the bullshit “as a white woman” and “use my privilege” and your half-assed middlebrow attempt to understand “indigenous” issues. Call wrong as wrong. Stand up for values that you believe are correct and appropriate as a human being. Clearly you believe that some norms and standards of human behavior apply regardless of culture or you wouldn’t pen this “I’m so conflicted” dilemma. Otherwise get the fuck out and return to cushy lower 48 white liberal bourgeois life and congratulate yourself on your adventure and your subscription to Mother Jones. God, white liberals are such a… Read more »

Steve Jones
4 years ago
Reply to  Jack Klompus

That was a pretty nasty teply.

Lorenandrews
1 year ago

You started the article by saying you were privileged but you didn’t say why?