 By Rick Grams May 14, 2005
When my kids and I lived in Virginia, the school system there would take them into the other school districts to learn about African-American history. The school district classified this to be a multi-cultural event, even though it was the same process year after year. In Virginia they never learned about any other culture, only that one (which is another very valuable history lesson). However, my children are of Alaskan Native decent, but the only Native American lessons they would learn about in Virginia were from the Pow-wow events in Richmond, VA, or Roanoke, VA. Thank goodness here in the Ketchikan/Saxman area we have wonderful people such as Martha Denny, Rhonda Ball, Linda Schrack, Cheryl Haven, Martha Johnson, Willard Jackson and many others who care enough to share their knowledge about local native history. We have lost many elders over the past years to ignore the importance of the knowledge which is threatened. My point is this - each person is responsible for learning and spreading the knowledge of their own culture either single-handedly or as a group/organization. The importance and necessity of this knowledge is immeasurable and priceless. Mr. Don Hoff Jr. is correct about the importance of Pennock Island. From my perspective, the subject that he has continually brought up here on Sitnews is a history lesson in itself.
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