Reply to John Landon's Position Paper Arlene Stairs The Professional Development of Native Educators: Context, Culture,

and Language I am fortunate that my experiences in Canadian Native education include one exceptionally hopeful situation which is evolving strongly towards the mainstream and nonassimilative Native education model proposed by John Landon. The Inuit of Arctic Quebec provide this example of exceptional progress; an example which must be related to two unique historical-cultural circumstances as well as to the will and effort of educators and the population. First, Inuit in Arctic Quebec maintain the highest level of Native language use in Canada, including an Inuktitut basic literacy rate of close to 100 % (Stairs 1985). Relative geographic and economic isolation, and the fact that Quebec has two competing non-Native languages, are among the factors cited to explain such high Native language viability. Second, Native negotiation with eastern North Ameri-ca's demand for electricity led to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1976, which has been responsible for Inuit political an