Cultural Crossroads: Helping Native Alaskan Students Thrive

Ralph Watkins '09, PhDEL '24When Ralph Waktkns ’09, PhDEL ’24 arrived in Alaska in 2014, he was excited about the adventure of teaching in Alaska and passionate about creating change for students.

Armed with the skills attained from his undergraduate degree in education and learning from Pacific University and a master’s degree from the University of Wyoming, Watkins set out with the goal of improving academic performance in the small village of Shishmaref on Sarichef Island along the isolated Bering Strait.

He experienced change, but that change came in the form of his understanding of how education works in The Last Frontier’s small school districts.

“My journey has been one of learning and discovery,” said Watkins, who continues to work in Alaska, now as the superintendent of the Chatham School District along southeast Alaska’s Inland Passage. “It is also recognizing that when you lead in predominantly Native spaces, the power doesn’t belong to you,” he said. “You need to be working with intentionality to return that power back to the people who it rightfully belongs to because Native people never surrendered their sovereignty.”

Watkins continues to strive for academic success in the districts he has served. But his bigger goal is integrating the culture of Native Alaskan tribes that are the majority population in all three districts he has served and helping other non-Native educators put those values into practice. Cultural relevance and cultural responsiveness, he believes, help build bridges to students and ultimately improve academic achievement.

That passion for cultural responsiveness ultimately led Watkins back to Pacific, where he earned his PhD in education and leadership in 2024. His dissertation studied chronic absenteeism of students in rural Alaska schools, focusing on students from the Tlingit Nation, the predominant ethnic group in his current district.

The findings of his dissertation backed up what Watkins had already learned: Students thrive in places where they feel like they belong and around teachers who make them feel like they belong.

“When I first started out in education, one of my professors said, ‘Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,’” Watkins said. “When you build trusting relationships, both with students and the community, you can leverage those relationships to help manage, modify and change behavior.”

EDUCATING THE EDUCATOR
The importance of integrating cultural relevance and responsiveness was an education for Watkins. Since arriving in Alaska, he has learned from and appreciates the tradition and history of Alaska’s Indigenous people and is sensitive to the repression tribes have endured since European colonists arrived in Alaska.

Watkins believes the bridge between cultural responsiveness and education was firmly built in his mind when he interviewed to become superintendent of Hoonah City Schools in 2016. Before accepting the position, the outgoing superintendent insisted that Watkins attend the district’s annual ku.éex’, or potlatch, celebrating the community’s Tlingit culture.

The ku.éex’, which means “to invite somebody” in Tlingit, features students from preschool through 12th-grade singing, dancing, reciting speeches, and performing skits that carry forward their ancestors’ traditions. The ku.éex’ left a lasting mark.

“As a person of African descent, I know nothing about my history. I can’t find information about me before the 1870 census,” he said. “And here I am among these people who have been marginalized and subjugated, who are making sure that their kids don’t lose their history and identity. I was so moved by that. I had a physical reaction to it.

“I decided at that point that I was going to come here (to Hoonah), whether I got the job or not, because I wanted to be a part of people who were invested in ensuring that their history and identity and culture are not lost to successive generations.”

Moved by that experience, Watkins worked to integrate more cultural elements into Hoonah’s educational curriculum. By his second year, two years of Tlingit language classes were required for high school graduation. Every Monday started with a cultural celebration, inviting elders to sing, dance and tell Tlingit stories.

“We had mothers and fathers and uncles and grandparents in there dancing and drumming with the kids. And the spirit in the building, you could just feel the change,” Watkins said. “By the time I left, it was a completely different space.”

While the villages of Hoonah and Angoon, where the Chatham School District is based, are separated by just 52 miles, the two community’s history and culture are completely different. Where Hoonah thrived historically as a center for fishing and the fur trade, Angoon suffered from subjugation by the United States government. The village was destroyed by a U.S. Navy bombardment in 1882 and was not re-settled until the late 1920s. The Navy formally apologized for the bombardment in October 2024, 142 years after the incident.

Watkins, who became Chatham’s superintendent in 2023, is working to create a culturally aligned curriculum in the district, ensuring that the region’s area and culture are celebrated. That includes education on the Angoon Bombardment, but also the stories and legends passed down through the generations.

“It’s honoring the history and the culture that has been here since time immemorial,” Watkins said. “Relevance and responsiveness are tied to teaching and curriculum. How can I make my Westernized Eurocentric teaching more palatable to Native students? We have to start with believing that the culture and history that is already there is important in and of itself.”

Ralph Watkins '09, PhDEL '24 (right) and Talia Corvus PT '12, PhDEL '20 at August 2024 CommencementHELPING MAKE EDUCATION CULTURALLY RELEVANT
When Watkins arrived in Alaska in 2014, he had adopted a nomadic existence. At one point, he chose his next move by throwing a dart at a map. When he and his family pulled up roots for Alaska, it was as much for the adventure as it was for the challenge.

While he is now working in his third district in 10 years, Watkins has remained in the 49th state. The reason why is simple: He believes that his advocacy work is not done. More must be done to meet Native students where they are.

“We have 50-some school districts in Alaska and only two of them have been trained to work in these spaces,” he said. “They’re doing the best job that they can do. But if they had a framework that allowed them to do better, the kids would do better.”

That desire to create those spaces led Watkins to found Empowered Voices Consulting to support non-Native school leaders serving predominantly Native schools. Through Empowered Voices, Watkins provides speaking engagements, professional development classes and aids for strategic planning.

Through his business and his self-published book, Leading With Purpose, Watkins hopes to improve Alaska’s educational landscape through the lessons learned through his own experience.

“On this part of the journey that I am on now, I am trying to help others,” he said. “I am trying to build capacity in others by providing this framework that’s helped me to do less harm.”

Watkins has two other dreams for Alaska’s K-12 education system. The first is to see Native programming integrated into every district’s curriculum, funded by each district’s general fund instead of relying on grants and community support.

The second is to find himself out of a job and replaced by an Indigenous leader who can carry his passion to the next generation of students.

“The goal is not to be the longest-tenured superintendent in your predominantly Native district. The goal should be seeking out the people that we can mentor and build capacity in so that we can turn that leadership over to them,” Watkins said.

Monday, Feb. 3, 2025