ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the strategies for English-language assimilation used by early American missions in Alaska, along with their subsequent influence on public schools. The analysis is based on documents that show language policy in action from 1877, when the first American mission school opened in Alaska, to 1931, when educational policy and oversight shifted significantly. Although Russian, English, and Canadian missions had brought Christianity and colonial languages to Alaska earlier, the Alaska Purchase spurred a widespread push by American missions to “capture the land in the name of Christ and to bring civilization to Native people”. A number of the earliest missionary educators saw Christianizing and civilizing Alaska Natives as their primary goals. The missionaries’ projects of Christianization and civilization aligned with the federal government’s goal of Americanization. Educators who more strictly adhered to English-only and language suppression policies identified lack of immersion as a central roadblock to their work.
