When I go off to Sacred Heart school, they're gonna call me Luke because my Inupiaq name is too hard. Nobody has to tell me this. I already know. I already know because when teachers try to say our real names, the sounds always get caught in their throats, sometimes, like crackers.
-- Luke (My Name Is Not Easy, September 5, 1960 paragraph 1)

Importance: Luke already understands that the people at the school will not acknowledge his Eskimo heritage and name and will give him an English name. Their Eskimo language may be difficult for other people to pronounce but by denying it, they are denying the children and invalidating them. This makes Luke and the others feel insignificant and unimportant.

Aaka is still eating maktak, and even though no one ever said it, I know them horse-eating, kid-stealing Catholics aren't ever going to feed me what I like--whale meat and maktak. And I'm all of a sudden so hungry, it seems...
-- Luke (My Name Is Not Easy, September 5, 1960 paragraph 7)