Chapter 38 #2
“I don’t know.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. The whole family now knew why he’d turned down the governorship over the summer, but it wasn’t something he’d ever intended to share, especially not with Inessa and Ilya. This conversation was turning awkward fast.
“Do you think he might ask you to be governor again in the morning?”
Alexei just shook his head. “I already said I don’t know. Do you have another question to ask? If so, get to the point.” He shoved a spoonful of borscht into his mouth.
“It’s just . . .” Inessa licked her lips. “If Secretary Gray says you need to send Ilya and me to an Indian boarding school to be governor, I’m willing to go. In fact, I want to go.”
He choked on his borscht. “You don’t mean that.”
She raised her chin. “I mean every word of it. I want to see what they’re teaching my mother’s people firsthand.
The entire point of these schools is to assimilate us so we can learn the ways of the Americans.
And I want to learn their ways. I want to see what they are teaching and doing.
And then I want to go to college and learn law like Evelina, so that I can help the Aleut in court.
I want there to be a day when the ACC refuses to pay my grandfather for the seals his village kills, and I file a lawsuit in court.
Or file a lawsuit for the Tlingit down in Klawock, saying they shouldn’t be forced from their homes and shouldn’t have to give up their ability to fish in the waters around Prince of Wales Island. ”
“That doesn’t mean you should be that person,” Alexei growled.
On the other side of the table, Evelina sat quietly, tearing off a bit of bread and dipping it into her borscht.
Alexei narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t look surprised by this.”
Neither did Jonas.
Evelina exchanged a glance with Inessa. “We’ve been discussing the boarding-school idea for a few months, actually.”
Alexei pressed his eyes shut. “Does Kate know too?”
“It was her idea,” Inessa said.
“Of course it was.” He should have seen this coming. His first two sisters had insisted on being educated in men’s professions, so why would Inessa be any different? “Wait, you discussed going to a boarding school on your own, without knowing about the ultimatum Secretary Gray gave me?”
Inessa nodded. “I hadn’t thought of it at first. I just asked Lina if she could start teaching me law so I’d have less to catch up on when I went to Boston to study, but once I told Kate why I wanted to study law, she suggested I go to a boarding school for a year.”
“Right.” He pressed his fingers to his temple.
“I know you’ve done a lot for my grandfather, Alexei, and my mother’s people.
You do a lot for the Tlingit and Inupiat and Athabaskans too, but they need more than you stepping in and starting an argument when they’re about to be taken advantage of.
They need actual laws on their side, and who better to find a way for them to have those laws than someone who understands both ways of life? ”
“They won’t let you speak your native language.
” It was the first thing that came to mind, one of the largest objections he had to the boarding schools.
Indian youths were forced to speak English, even if they didn’t know a word of it upon arrival.
And they were treated cruelly each time they spoke in their native tongues.
But Inessa was only shaking her head at him, her long black hair shimmering beneath the lamplight.
“English is my native language. We both know I’m more American than Aleut.
Or maybe I’m more Russian. I don’t exactly know what I am, but I do know that my people need a voice, and I want to be that voice.
Going to a boarding school is a good place to start, and if it helps you procure the governorship, then that’s even better. ”
He swallowed. “Are you sure?”
“Very sure.”
“I don’t want to go to a boarding school.” Ilya scowled at his sister. “I think it’s a terrible idea.”
“It would be a terrible idea for you.” He wouldn’t send Ilya under any circumstances, no matter what Secretary Gray said about the country’s Indian policy and him being governor.
But it might not be a terrible idea for Inessa.
“Secretary Gray might not offer me the position of governor again. He hasn’t brought it up since that first night in the office, and I can’t in good conscience ask tribes to leave the land they’ve been hunting and fishing for centuries and move into towns.
That leaves me in nearly the same place I was in last summer. ”
“Can you find a middle ground?” Inessa leaned forward, her dark eyes shining. “Some way to compromise? Because if you don’t take the governorship, it will go to someone else who will want to exploit the native tribes all over again.”
“She’s right.” Mikhail rested his back against the chair.
“You would do a better job as governor than anyone else. I think you should find a way to take the position, even if you have to do a few things that don’t align with your views.
You’ll be able to do far more good as governor than you will as a business owner who’s always fighting with the governor. ”
Alexei tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, though the wooden beams gave nothing away. Could he find some type of compromise with Secretary Gray? Was there a way for him to be governor and do good for Alaska without having to pursue policies that would harm the native tribes?
It seemed like something he should at least think about.