Indigenous peoples and salmon stewardship: a critical relationship

• Published in: Ecology and Society
• Main Authors: Courtney Carothers, Jessica Black, Stephen J. Langdon, Rachel Donkersloot, Danielle Ringer, Jesse Coleman, Erika R. Gavenus, Wilson Justin, Mike Williams, Freddie Christiansen, Jonathan Samuelson, Carrie Stevens, Brooke Woods, S. Jeanette Clark, Patricia M. Clay, Liza Mack, Julie Raymond-Yakoubian, Andrea Akall'eq. Sanders, Benjamin L. Stevens, Alex Whiting
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Resilience Alliance 2021
• Subjects: alaska; alaska native; indigenous peoples; salmon; stewardship; Biology (General); QH301-705.5; Ecology; QH540-549.5; ahtna; tlingit; Yup'ik; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11972-260116; https://doaj.org/article/9ae20b9da6a04e88a2c3282bcf187339

Indigenous Peoples and salmon in the lands now called Alaska have been closely entwined for at least 12,000 years. Salmon continue to be central to the ways of life of Alaska Natives, contributing to physical, social, economic, cultural, spiritual, psychological, and emotional well-being. Salmon have also become important to Alaskan settlers. Our research and advisory team conducted a synthesis of what is known about these diverse human-salmon relationships, drawing on 865 published scientific studies; Indigenous knowledge; state, federal, and tribal data; archival materials; oral histories; and cross-cultural dialogs at working group meetings. Two important socio-cultural dimensions of salmon-people systems emerged from this synthesis as fundamentally important but largely invisible outside of Indigenous communities and the social science disciplines that work closely with these communities: (1) the deep relationships between Indigenous Peoples and salmon and (2) the pronounced inequities that threaten these relationships and stewardship systems. These deep relationships are evident in the spiritual, cultural, social, and economic centrality of salmon across time and cultures in Alaska. We describe Indigenous salmon stewardship systems for the Tlingit, Ahtna, and Central Yup'ik. The inequities in Alaska's salmon systems are evident in the criminalization and limitation of traditional fishing ways of life and the dramatic alienation of Indigenous fishing rights. The loss of fish camps and legal battles over traditional hunting and fishing rights through time has caused deep hardship and stress. Statewide, the commodification and marketization of commercial fishing rights has dispossessed Indigenous communities from their human and cultural rights to fishing ways of life; as a result, many rural and Indigenous youth struggle to gain access to fishing livelihoods, leaving many fishing communities in a precarious state. These deep relationships and relatively recent fractures have motivated a concerted effort by a ...