TAKING CONTROL: Eben Hopson gets an Education
7 November 2011 at 09:58
Eben Hopson Gets An Education
Early on a late summer day in the mid – 1930’s, a determined teen-aged boy packed his duffel bag, stepped out of his house, and marched resolutely down to the Chukchi Sea. Of all the Barrow students ready to venture off to high school, young Eben Hopson was the first to arrive on the beach. He had completed his elementary education and was now ready to advance on to high school.
In those days, education in Barrow and across the North Slope was funded and controlled by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. Classes in Arctic schools went no further than the eighth grade. Any student desiring a high school education had to travel, by ship, to BIA boarding schools far from their home shores.
Unfortunately, only a few students ever got the opportunity to attend high school at all. Each year the North Star, a BIA ship, would travel all along the Alaskan coast and up and down the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. The ship would drop anchor at Native villages along the way, bringing in doctors and nurses who would set up temporary medical clinics. When it came time for the North Star to leave a village, local high school students would be taken on board for the long and exciting trip to boarding schools at White Mountain or Eklutna. There was room for only a few students from each region to make the trip, and to board at the schools.
It was up to BIA educators to determine who, among all the Native youth of Rural Alaska, would have the opportunity to attend high school. Only the best, the brightest, and the most ambitious of all the village students would ever be selected.
As the story has been handed down, among the Barrow students of that year, there was none better, none brighter, and none more ambitious than the young Eben Hopson. He had studied hard, scored high grades, and had been active in student affairs. He had earned himself a berth on the North Star, and a desk in the BIA high school at Eklutna.
Yet, strangely, when the other students began to arrive at the beach, they dropped the excited chatter and laughter which had followed them there, and fell silent. Standing in awkward positions, Eben’s fellow students and friends exchanged quick, nervous, glances among themselves.
During the previous school year, young Eben had been active in civic affairs. He had taken a strong stand on an issue important to him.
He had made some enemies in high places.
The principal at the BIA school had thought it would be nice to have wooden sidewalks built between the homes of himself and his staff to the school. To accomplish this, he put Eben and his classmates to work constructed the sidewalks. For their labor, the students were to be paid nothing.
Eben protested. There were many families in Barrow who had little money, the student activist argued. The heads of these families should be paid a fair wage to build these sidewalks. Using unpaid student labor was unfair. Eben Hopson’s protestations were shunted aside.
The only thing to do, the youth decided, was to write a letter to the BIA school superintendent in Juneau. Here, Eben faced another problem. Outgoing letters were to be placed in a bag, which just happened to be under the care of the principal. Eben was quite convinced that if he dropped his letter in the mail bag, where it could sit for days before being picked up, the principal would read it. It would never get to Juneau. Eben would be in even more trouble.
He waited until the very last moment, when the mail carrier came to pick up the bag. Just as the carrier was about to pull the bag shut, Eben rushed in, and dropped his letter in. As the story goes, a dismayed principal witnessed this act, but, what could he do? He could not stop the mail, pull out the letter, and read it in front of everybody.
As a result of Eben’s letter, the principal soon found himself with some explaining to do.
Still, he would have his revenge. It was he who would make the final decision as to what Barrow students would be allowed to go on to high school. Despite Eben Hopson’s good academic record, and his strong desire to go to high school, Eben was struck from the list. “As far as I know,” Eben’s older brother, Eddie, recalls, “the principal thought he’d better keep Eben from getting more education. Eben was a good prospect to become a leader. With a little more education, he could be dangerous.”
Eben Hopson would not go to high school.
Everyone in town knew it. Eben knew it. His classmates knew it.
That is why, when they met on the beach to wait for the small boat which would take them to the North Star, the students were so quiet.
Even so, Eben had resolved that when the boat came, he would he ready to go. Eben was not allowed to board. As the boat returned to the ship, Eben held his place on the beach, waiting with his duffel bag.
People passing by suggested he give up, and go home.
“No,” he insisted, “they will send the boat back for me.”
Eventually, the North Star weighed anchor, and departed from Barrow waters.
Still, Eben Hopson held his ground.
“Why don’t you go home?” passers by asked.
“No,” Eben replied, “it will come back for me.”
Finally, Charlie Brower came by. Charlie thought that Eben had suffered a raw deal, and he sympathized with him. Still, he told the boy, “you’ve done all you can do. Now, why don’t you go home, and get on with your life?” Eben refused to leave the beach. Many hours later, after the late night sun had finally dropped from the sky and disappeared behind the Arctic Ocean, Eben Hopson, a boy who would never attend high school, picked up his duffel bag, and walked slowly home.
Much later in his life, a friend of Eben’s recalls him making the following statement: “There will be no child on the North Slope of Alaska who will be denied the opportunity to go to school.”
(Special thanks To Edward Hopson, Flossie Hopson, and Jon Buchholdt for their help in putting together the pieces of this story.)
TAKING CONTROL – a book to read and should be in our NSBSD Curriculum.