Empowering Alutiiq people to achieve their potential through education.

The Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA) CEO, Mike Pfeffer, presented the Koniag Education Foundation with a $50,000 donation in honor of Koniag’s 50th Anniversary. Quyanaasinaq to the KANA Board of Directors, CEO Mike Pfeffer, staff for their generous contribution to the continued success of our students! KEF couldn't do what we do without the help from Koniag, KANA, and other partner organizations that support and believe in our mission of empowering Alutiiq people to achieve their potential through education.

Good news! We have recently instituted a ‘spring only’ scholarship for those students who may have missed our annual deadline of March 15. Applications are open from August 1 until October 31. All the requirements will be the same, but the award will only be for the spring term.

The KEF General 23-24 application will open on December 15, 2022, and close on March 15, 2023. Apply by February 15, 2023, and receive an additional $50 Early Bird award!

Please email kef@koniageducation.org visit our website, or call (907) 562-9093 for more information. We’re here to help!

Piiyuuk Qungurkaq-Shields is Yup’ik originally from Nunakauyak (Toksook Bay) in the traditional Qaluyaat region. She is a tribal member of the Nunakauyak Traditional Council and a shareholder at the Calista Corporation. Piiyuuk is a strong advocate for language revitalization and maintenance, education, and social justice. Piiyuuk volunteers her time sharing the traditional knowledge passed down to her by the elders and cultural bearers that helped raise her.

Her passion for learning and sharing has taken her to many villages and communities during her time as Miss Cama-i 2016, Miss WEIO 2017, and after. Prior to working at KEF, Piiyuuk worked as a legislative aide in the office of Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky, focusing on education, and at the Clare Swan Early Learning Center as a Yup’ik Language Nest Coordinator.

As the Program Manager at KEF, Piiyuuk uses her talents of connecting, learning, and sharing culture to connect scholarship recipients to their Alutiiq roots.

Piiyuuk is currently pursuing a BA degree in Elementary Education. Piiyuuk enjoys beading, sewing, traveling, spending time with family, and yuraq-ing (Yup’ik dancing).

John Fredson circa 1913

DENA Museum Collection 22778

Flora Harper smiles on her graduation day at the Alaska Agricultural College and School of

Mines in 1935.

Interior Aleutians Campus, Harper Building

John Fredson & Flora Jane Harper

In 1930, John Fredson, a Neets’aii Gwich’in, was one of the first Alaska Natives to graduate college. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of the South in Tennessee. While there, he worked with a linguist to help document his Gwich’in language. After graduating, Fredson returned to the Denali region and worked for the Alaska Road Commission at what is now Denali National Park. He then moved to Fort Yukon where he met and married his wife, a nurse’s aide at the hospital. After moving to Venetie, the couple helped establish a school and post office. Fredson focused on teaching his people English so they could achieve more self-governing power. He is best remembered for leading the fight to create a federally recognized reservation for Venetie, passed in 1941.

Meanwhile, Flora Jane Harper, at the age of 25, was the first Alaska Native to graduate from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. In 1935 she received a bachelor's degree in home economics despite many personal hardships. During the next few years, Jane taught at several major Indian Boarding schools. Having an Alaska Native teacher during this time must have been just as impactful to Indian and Inuit children attending these schools as it is today. 

The term “Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)” describes the educational methods Jane brought to classrooms where she incorporated her Native knowledge into western classrooms.” A moving part of Flora’s legacy was her ongoing donations to the Office of Rural Student Services at UAF. The funds were used for Alaska Native students who were struggling financially. 

These two significant Alaska Native graduates sparked the flame of pursuing higher education for many years to come. We at KEF are proud to be one of many Alaska Native organizations to provide scholarships to keep the flame alive among our people. 

Sources:

Honoring the Unsung Heroes of the 1913 Summit Expedition: Esaias George and John Fredson

A History of Women in Higher Education

Flora Jane Harper

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

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