So this was the basis and the major thrust for the proposal that was submitted.

We have indicated to you here that although this was submitted on February 14, 1975, we did not receive any response or indication until the first week in June that nothing was going to occur and then we were told that our proposal had not even entered the threshold and had not even been read in terms of any of its qualitative content. We were told then that the Office of Civil Rights had said that because we did not have on file an acceptable, valid, or any desegregation plan for the Alaska State Operated School System that it would not even be considered.

Now our rebuttal to that and the response we got later are included here for you to read. However, we were very disappointed that the reaction we got was that inasmuch as the State operated school system no longer existed they considered it a moot point and better luck next year. We do not think that was the kind of response that this situation deserves.

Mr. MEEDS. If I may just throw a word in here-your chagrin at the funding operation of that law is totally well founded but it is not a good illustration because it happened to almost everybody else, too. That law was never really intended to be administered the way it sounded. It was a sop in many instances to the problems that were being had in civil rights at the time.

Dr. BOWER. Well, we appreciate that Mr. Chairman-and perhaps even had we received that kind of response other than the one we got we might have felt a little differently about it.

of

We also would have felt a little differently had we gotten that kind response even 30 days after submission but to receive it about 4 hours before the cutoff date was

Mr. MEEDS. I agree wholeheartedly!

Dr. BowER. Alright, we will not dwell any further on that.

The second item we wanted to mention is the application of inappropriate standards, rules or regulations. Alaska, no matter how we try to measure, usually is atypical and so consequently in the majority of cases we find that quantitative cutoff points or other kinds of standards that are applied leave Alaska out and in particular, rural Alaska. The size of the communities involved, the numbers, do not permit Alaska to play the quantitative game very well but the needs are very critical and we believe that in many cases those needs are directly related to the letter and the intent of the law. But it is true that by procedures, guidelines, and other things that are established, we believe that the Alaska rural communities, which are predominantly Native, are left out.

A third area we wish to raise is the position of what I think we could consider unrealistic or impossible time lines or schedules. We have found that in the past even air mail service at its best will sometimes not permit us to receive something in Anchorage or the urban areas of Alaska in less than 1 week from Washington, D.C. Now if that is compounded by perhaps delay in getting these things out and in some instances we have found major important documents or items have been sent, not by air mail, but by surface mail and it may take weeks before it reaches here.

As I have indicated, in some instances, depending upon climatic conditions or the weather, it can take a month for something to get from here out into the bush or rural Alaska. So, consequently, we seem to find that time and time again, by the time we are aware of something it is already after the fact.

We indicate in our testimony here a couple of ways we think it can be overcome-I will not dwell on that.

The fourth is coordination of Federal funds and programs. At the present time there are many sources of funds for education, I should say for educational purposes, that are being requested and received by various agencies and organizations-some other than those typical in the education business. It would appear at the present time that failure for many of us to be aware of what the other one is doing creates considerable duplication and dissipation of an all too small source of educational dollars.

So we are hoping, and as we have indicated there, there needs to be some way by which that can be overcome and probably unless it's built into legislation for those laws to provide the funds it may be difficult for us to accomplish at this end.

Fifth-does speak to vocational requirements and I have included that specifically here because I do serve on the State advisory committee for vocational education-and I'll be very frank with you, we have been extremely frustrated by our inability to identify programs and bring resources and procedures to bear upon the vocational needs of rural Alaska. These programs of course are costly and they are extremely difficult to deliver in a remote setting with very limited

staff.

So, I would like to at least bring that to your attention, because that is a major area of concern.

Our sixth would be our indication to you that we would like to see a strengthening of region 10's ability to assist us. We have gotten very good support from them in the last several years during my experi ence here. We think they are a vital link between us and the CETA Federal Government in Washington, D.C. Had they either the authority or a role and personnel to be able to assist us (even though they are only 2 hours away in terms of time differential) we know it makes a big difference in attempting to deal with them and having to deal direct with Washington.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, those are my comments.

Mr. MEEDS. Thank you. I have one question-or maybe a sugges tion. Your point No. 5 with regard to vocational education has been made before to us and it appears to be very valid. Have you considered the possibility that the new regional high school concept might lend itself pretty well to accelerated efforts in vocational education?

Dr. BOWER. Yes, sir, we have; and we see that as occurring in several ways. There is a new high school being constructed at Tuksuk Bay on Nelson Island-that falls within the Bethel region; there also are three other high schools under construction, several of which should begin programs this year. Now, again, we recognize that it is not possible to duplicate all vocational needs in each site-and so we really believe that it is going to take a statewide individual counseling program because a youngster that wants fisheries may need to go where there is a stronger fishery program-and the same thing might be true of the

other areas. So we have recognized that and will try to build it in to what new schools will be implemented this year.

Mr. MEEDS. The gentleman from Oklahoma.

Mr. RISENHOOVER. I have no question-I am presently going over the testimony and am very much impressed.

Mr. MEEDS. The gentleman from Iowa.

Mr. BLOUIN. I just have one question. Is there any effort being made to try to develop some kind of vocational training in regard to the North Slope situation so that the Alaskan Natives are vocationally equipped to get jobs that are generally now, as I understand it, being riven to non-Alaskan residents-noncitizens of Alaska. In other words, is there any effort to gear your program on the State level. Dr. BowER. Yes, sir; there have been some efforts in that direction. The manpower coordinator for CETA at the State level has worked rather closely with some school districts in doing that. However, and I'd like to take this opportunity to make another point-we did find even a little over a year ago that for instance on Thorn Bay, which is one of the largest logging camps in North America located down on Prince of Wales Island, out of Juneau, we found that here was an indication and an attempt to introduce welding into that high school as one of the things that was of highest priority to those youngsters so they could go to work on the pipeline some 1,000, 1,500 miles awaywhen here was the largest tempered rain forest logging activity in the United States. And as important as lumber and lumber products were to us, the community was really somewhat incensed as to what our priorities would be when we were taking that approach.

Mr. BLOUIN. It's my understanding that the thrust of vocational education is supposed to be based on the local labor market's needs in given areas so I'd agree that they had good reason in that particular part of the State to be incensed by that kind of a requirement. What about more in the area where the need for welders is, are there any efforts specifically being made to train Native Alaskans so that they can get a share of the jobs that are being available as the result of that pipeline?

Dr. BOWER. Yes sir, I'd like to make a short response and then I'd like to ask Laurie Bernhard to respond to that. May I say that in the case of our Glenallen high school which is located within the pipeline corridor they have some vocational programs there that directly or indirectly relate to pipeline activities. There is also I believe similar activity going on in Fairbanks which you will find when you get there and talk with them.

One of the problems again is based on just the sheer geographic facts in Alaska because so many of our Native populations are not found in close proximity to where they really wish to move and uproute for that distance.

Mr. BLOUIN. Are you saying the interest isn't there for those jobs among Native Alaskans?

Dr. BOWER. Let me ask Miss Bernhard to respond to that

Ms. BERNHARD. Now if you will

Mr. BLOUIN [continuing]. My last question was-I get the impression from Dr. Bower that it's his impression that the interest among Native Alaskans to be trained for jobs on the pipeline just isn't there

therefore there is no need to defray a vocational program that would direct itself along those lines-maybe I'm misunderstanding it.

Ms. BERNHARD. I'm not going to speak for Dr. Bower here but there is a great deal of interest on the part of our Native people in obtaining jobs and perhaps for some of them to enter this economy which we have going right now which is primarily in development of the pipeline.

I think before we get to the level we're at right now we should look at the school system, the facilities that we have, which would be the ideal places to start vocational training. In many of our villages throughout the State and in our particular school system we have over 125 schools, we do not have facilities nor in some instances even the buildings to provide a good education of any kind. I am sure there are some of you here that are aware we have students going to school in a room that's about 10-by-12 feet-they do not have books, they do not have desks, they do not have any of what you would call the primary tools in education. Even before we can address something as "sophisticated" as vocational education, we need to first look at those facilities that are providing basic education to our students.

Perhaps after we have resolved that throughout the State then we can look at some of these programs. I realize how important it is for a student to be learning the vocational aspects of what is going to be their future-but we have many other problems I think that are related and one of them I have mentioned, that's providing basic education to these students.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a very excellent setup for vocattional traning at Mount Edgecumbe and the Bureau has indicated. that they would be willing to share that educational facility with some of our students in the rural areas.

Outside of that I don't know of any strong vocational training that goes on in the rural areas. We have a tool skill center which is run by the State setup.

Mr. MEEDS. Thank you-we appreciate this.

Dr. BOWER. Mr. Chairman, could I please for the record clarify (I hope) or restate my earlier statement. I did not mean to indicate that there is no interest on the part of the Native community or Native population in training for jobs connected with the pipeline but I did mean that in many instances there are a lot of things they must weigh, both in terms of that kind of training plus what it would mean to them both in short- and long-range requirements, and that becomes a very important factor because of the seasonal nature of their subsistence and their existence in many of the rural communities it may mean that they are losing more than they are gaining perhaps by going to a less than permanent type employment on the pipeline. Pipeline employment is still generally handled by the unions in terms of employment.

Mr. MEEDS. The gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. HALL. Dr. Bower, would you speak for a moment to the degree of cooperation you feel you're getting from the Labor Department on the CETA Program?

Dr. BOWER. I have not been directly involved to any extent on CETA but what contact I've had with the Commissioner's office those people that have been working with CETA there-I believe there are a fairly

substantial number of CETA programs in operation. I believe that CETA-the concept and the program could be very important to us in helping to further meet this vocational need.

Mr. HALL. Thank you, Dr. Bower.

Mr. MEEDS. Thank you very much Ms. Bernhard and Dr. Bower. Our next witness is Mrs. Edna Lamebull, acting director, Indian Education Act program, Anchorage.

STATEMENT OF EDNA LAMEBULL, ACTING DIRECTOR, INDIAN EDUCATION ACT PROGRAM, ACCOMPANIED BY ROY FAY, DIRECTOR, SPECIAL SERVICES, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

My name is Roy Fay, I am director of Special Services, Anchorage. Mr. MEEDS. Are you testifying on behalf of Mrs. Lamebull? Mr. FAY. Well, I think perhops we were not prepared for direct testimony-if you would like information concerning the program we are prepared for that.

Mr. MEEDS. Well, why don't you proceed and we'll ask you questions if we feel we need to. Or, perhaps I'll start by asking you a question first: What are you doing about Indian education in the Anchorage area-the Indian Education Act?

Mr. FAY. Mrs. Lamebull will answer that one.

Mrs. LAMEBULL. As acting director for the Indian ed program here for the Anchorage Borough School District-for the past year I've held the position of curriculum development specialist. That position was one of the most-I was on the Advisory Committee-it was one of the most important components of the Indian ed program.

The Indian ed program came into the district because of funds from the Federal act and one of the strong goals of the parent committee is to try to get the school district to incorporate some of those programs that the Federal Government is now funding and one way of doing that is to provide some sort of culturally relevant curriculum materials for the teachers within the district and that was one of my goals for the position of curriculum development specialist. If we can provide materials into the district and get them incorporated into the regular school curriculum then the district would be able to offer more culturally relevant classes, teachers who are more understanding and more aware of the needs of the Natives.

Other programs that we offer include courses in Native culture, Native literature, land claims for high school students-and we offer tutors in the elementary schools for those Native students who need more help than they are currently getting in their classroom situation. We have tutors and counselors who work basically with high school students or in families that are having problems that are affecting their regular academic work.

We offer exposure to the Native culture by offering-we have people-two teachers who meet them in their classrooms when they are for example having a unit on Tlinglit culture or on other culturewe have people go into the classrooms to demonstrate various aspects of that culture so that all the students will be able to gain some sort of firsthand experience and exposure to their Native culture.

I think that one of the problems we're having here is trying to get the administration and the Native people together to talk about mutual