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Anna Haala: Leading from the Heart
by Diane Dash

Anna Haala’s experiences span the extremes – from being attacked with broken bottles by a racist mob to meeting the Dalai Lama in the French Alps. She has founded or helped found so many nonprofit organizations she’s unclear as to the exact number. Her guess is at least 10. Often the goal is to address concerns of Native Americans, but Haala has also assisted with other minority causes.

“I help all colors,” she says. In 1992 Haala was designated a peace elder by the National World Council of Indigenous Elders. And this year she was one of three recipients of Edmonds Community College’s distinguished alumni award.

Tlingit on her mother’s side, and Quinault, Warm Springs and Cowlitz on her father’s, Haala never really knew her parents. Both were alcoholic. Her mother never recovered emotionally from being taken from her home at a young age and put into boarding school during the period of federally-forced assimilation of Native Americans. She contracted tuberculosis and died before Anna was 5 years old. Anna and her brother were removed from their home due to their father’s alcoholism. His illness prevented their having a meaningful relationship with him, and he “crossed over” while Haala was in her thirties.

For Haala, these ordeals fueled a resolve to transform her own life, and the lives of those around her. “When I was a child in numerous foster homes that were very negative I would occasionally meet a Native American elder,” she says. “I always seemed to glean some positive information from each one I met along the way. It all boiled down to if you don’t like the way your life is, it’s up to you to change it. You need to get busy and be a positive entity in your neighborhood.”

Haala’s career began in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. She served as a dental technician making partials, dentures, and performing facial reconstructions on wounded soldiers. “I enlisted because I had to find a permanent job and it was the only one I could find that was respectful,” she says laughingly.

While attending basic training in San Antonio, Haala and some friends who are mixed race were attacked with broken beer bottles. More subtle forms of discrimination in both military and civilian life followed. “In other situations it was verbal. When it came time for promotions, they didn’t happen.” Being a woman didn’t help either; but, adds Haala, “I learned to forgive and move on.”

After the war, Haala returned to the U.S. to work as a dental assistant. She met her husband of 50 years, James Haala, at Fort Lewis and they settled into a home in the Crown Hill neighborhood. Somehow, around working full-time and raising six children, she found the time and energy to volunteer for nonprofit organizations helping Native Americans. “I try to help people be independent and not rely on outside support like welfare, and to build self-esteem so they feel capable of doing different tasks. I want to reconnect people with their roots, Native American or not.”

The list of organizations Haala’s been a part of is long: Seattle Indian Health Board, Seattle Indian Center, American Indian Student Association, Foundation for Historic Preservation, United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Washington chapter. Currently, she volunteers for the Chief Seattle Club, the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens, is a board member of the IWASIL Boys and Girls Club, and is president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood. Her contributions consist of everything from teaching beading to offering dental care to underprivileged individuals.

After three decades of nonprofit involvement she realized that many of the organizations she worked with were in dire need of leadership skills. Hoping to provide those skills, she resolved to continue her education. In 1979, when her youngest child started school, she enrolled at Edmonds Community College. She also continued to work full-time to “pay for and support my habit of volunteerism.” In 1982 Haala earned a degree in professional management and supervision, allowing her to run and start up the numerous groups with which she’s been involved.

Haala had the opportunity to continue her formal education but declined. “It’s not my calling to get another square piece of paper.” Haala refers to “square teachings” or those of white or dominant culture as involving square buildings, square desks, square books and square pieces of paper. “My calling is to build our indigenous culture, to teach the round teachings, sacred hoop teachings of thousands and thousands of years.” Native American circle or hoop teachings have no beginning or end, and are metaphors for continual learning. “It’s very difficult for indigenous people to live in two worlds, to have cultural teachings and the teachings of the land.” Haala draws a square conjoined by two halves of a circle – forming a heart – to demonstrate how our cultures can coexist, explaining that round teachings “are about doing and being here in the now – not living in the past, making now the best we can for the generations to come.”

Word spread of Haala’s accomplishments and generosity. After being named a peace elder, she sought to celebrate and honor the diversity of indigenous minorities. She’s traveled to Mexico, South America, Puerto Rico, Australia, Canada and many parts of Europe. While in Puerto Rico, Haala met with parliament where she introduced a resolution to establish a holiday to celebrate the native Tiano people, which the government claims no longer exist. Haala exclaimed, “I’m standing amongst several of them, why are you telling me there are no more? You need to get your history right!” For more than a decade, she has continued to write the Puerto Rican parliament asking that the resolution be passed.

In 1997 the Dalai Lama held a Spiritual United Nations gathering at the Buddhist Monastery of Karma Ling in the French Alps. At the invitation of His Holiness, spiritual emissaries from the world’s major religions and indigenous ancestral traditions attended to discuss global unity and diversity. Haala was part of the American delegation. The week-long conference consisted of Buddhist teachings and the sharing of indigenous peoples words, customs and ceremonies. During a private audience with the Dalai Lama, Haala presented His Holiness with an eagle feather passed down from her elders.

Anne Cassidy, director of Edmonds Community College’s alumni foundation, says, “When Anna’s application came before the committee, they thought her qualifications, her experience, her background were so outstanding because of the work she’s done in the Native American community.”

At 70 years old, this Seattle woman has no plans to kick her “habit” of changing what needs to be changed. Haala muses, “I see with my heart, hear with my heart, speak and hear with my heart throughout my life. It has taken me to a lot of adventurous places and I’ve learned a great deal that way.”

Diane Dash is a Seattle-based freelance writer.

©2006 Caliope Publishing Company