Tribal delegates gather for Alaska Native education summit

Bernadette Yaayuk Alvanna-Stimpfle knew only her Native Inupiaq language when she entered school in the western Alaska town of Nome at age 5, when the only way to learn English was by observing teachers and memorizing phrases.
Decades later, the language preservation expert still chokes up over the plight of Alaska Natives thrust into a Western education system that once punished them for speaking in their Native tongue.
Alvanna-Stimpfle was among speakers at a tribal education summit wrapping u