Human and Animal Relations in Southwest Alaska: Continuity and Change

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This award supports an innovative Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) collaboration between Yup'ik communities and investigators with the goal of scientifically documenting Yup'ik knowledge and creating accessible repositories of this knowledge for future generations. The PI/collaborative team will work with elder experts from six regional groups in southwest Alaska, to understand human-animal relations generally, as well as shifting attitudes toward keystone species, including; seals, moose, salmon, and whitefish. This study is highly significant, addressing directly the research needs identified by Alaska Native, Yup'ik communities. The previous NSF funded projects led by the same core team have been very successful with more than 10 major, well reviewed and well received, volumes published, including the critically acclaimed books: "Stories for Future Generations / Qulirat Qanemcit-llu Kinguvarcimalriit;" "Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival;" and "Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather: Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast." In addition, this methodology has created strong community/science collaborations and the co-production of valuable knowledge to both scientists and community member. The research teams have been very interdisciplinary, including anthropologists and Yup'ik scholars, as well as other scientists e.g., geologists, archaeologists, biologist, and physicists. Collaboration, as the PI states, is the hallmark of this project, which builds on past partnerships between the scientific community and the Yup?ik community. The project will engage institutional partners and Yup?ik collaborators from 23 communities in southwest Alaska. The primary information-gathering tool will be a series of gatherings held both in local communities and the regional center of Bethel. The research team and CEC staff pioneered this format working with elders a decade ago and have found that meetings with small groups of elder experts, younger community members and non-Native scientists for two-three-day gatherings devoted to a specific topic is a very effective means of both documenting traditional knowledge and addressing scientific questions. Unlike interviews, during which elders answer questions posed by those who often do not hold the knowledge they seek, gatherings encourage elders to speak among their peers at the highest, most complex level. The CEC method of elder gatherings in which scientists participate has been a very successful way of supporting the co-production of knowledge important not only for deeper understanding of key social and environmental issues of great interest in the region, and also for informing the public, resource managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders of the importance of these issues the region and beyond.