Circle of Knowledge on Climate, Weather and Environmental Change: A Community-based Research Project with the Koyukon Athabascan Communities along the Koyukuk River in Alaska

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ABSTRACTSGER PI Shannon McNeeleyUCARThis SGER proposal is to co-develop a community based research project "Circle of Knowledge: Climate, Weather and Environmental Change" along the Koyukuk River (Huslia, Hughes, Koyukuk, Alatna, Alakaket), Alaska. The proposed research is appropriate for a SGER as it is "preliminary work on untested and novel ideas," as well as "a venture into emerging research." Traditional knowledge is an emerging research concept in the social sciences that has the potential for developing new ways of thinking not only among social scientists but natural scientists as well. The Arctic Social Sciences Program has funded several projects collecting and identifying traditional concepts of the environment, climate and social relations, but few of these projects were co-developed between scientists and communities, such as proposed here.It is always important for scientist to make solid social relationships and inform people and gain consent prior to undertaking research in Alaska Native communities. This is a well-stated principle in the NSF's "Principals for Conduct of Research in the Arctic." What is unique about this proposal is that the PI is not only making contacts and receiving consent crucial to the success of any scientific research project and all the more crucial among politically empowered Alaska Native communities, but she is consulting Alaska Native communities about the research from its very conception and design. In addition, the proposed SGER will lay the groundwork for future research by the PI in a region that has few research project, the Interior of Alaska among the Koyukon Athabascan people.