Two of this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives Presidential Awards went to recipients with ties to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. They went to a set of parents who are raising the next generation, and a student who is helping lead the next generation. AFN streamed a pre-produced video of the recipients’ speeches during its annual convention earlier this month. This story was produced from those speeches.
Hazel Alstrom and William Alstrom II are parents of three boys in St. Mary’s, ages 22, 16, and 12. Hazel said that before her father passed away from cancer a decade ago, he asked her and her husband to pass along the subsistence lifestyle to their children.
“Of gathering wood, hunting, fishing, trapping, and to always, always share our subsistence catch with our Elders, widows, and families in need of subsistence food,” Hazel said.
Her husband William said that practicing subsistence activities has helped keep their family close.
“Everything we do, we do it together,” William said. “Whether we're hunting, fishing, camping, or building a cabin, we do it together.”
William said that subsistence is now as important to their boys as it is to him and his wife. He said that one of their favorite activities is boating from St. Mary’s over 100 miles to the ocean to hunt seals and beluga whales.
Hazel said that her father also asked the couple to emphasize formal schooling for their boys. She said that they’ve done that by volunteering on their children’s school trips and extracurricular activities.
William and Hazel were awarded the AFN President’s Award for Parents of the Year for passing on the values important to Native people to the next generation.
A member of that next generation with ties to the Y-K Delta was awarded AFN’s Lu Young Youth Leadership Award. Madilyn Short, whose family is from Bethel, graduated from Dartmouth College and is now a medical student at the University of Washington. She said that it wasn’t easy to get there.
“Starting in undergrad, I realized how many barriers there are to get into medical school. And many of these disproportionately affect Alaska Native and American Indian people,” Short said.
She attributes her success to her mentors.
“Especially those within the Native American program at Dartmouth, and my family up here in Alaska, that I'm in medical school today,” Short said.
To pass forward the help she received, she’s creating a mentorship program with her classmates for Alaska Native students that want to go to medical school. She wants to see more people like her in these institutions.
“I've observed how having health care personnel that look like you and understand the needs of your community can have a profound impact on health care delivery and health outcomes. And for this reason, I believe that Alaska Native people need Alaska Native doctors to care for them,” Short said.
Both Short and the Alstroms said that they could not have achieved what they were recognized for without the help of their families, particularly their parents and grandparents.
