| Summary: | This paper describes recent activities focused on teaching locally important subsistence skills to the youths around the village of Nikolai, Alaska. Compared with the prior studies on similar activities sometimes called "Culture Camp", ones organized by the Nikolai Edzeno' Village Council are unique in that fishweels, which were originally introduced by non-Native prospectors, are considered as a part of local Athabascan "tradition" and that non-Native instructors such as wildlife biologists are principally absent. One of the reasons why fishwheels are considered as "traditional" is because they had been deeply integrated to the local subsistence cycles, which enable people in the Upper Kuskokwim region to survive the turbulent mixed economy of Interior Alaska. "Culture" is not (just) what divides the humanity from nature or one ethnic group from the other; it is a part and parcel of "survival" where animals stand as teachers of humans. The issue of survival remains important in rural Alaskan villages where so-called "modern" necessities need to be imported from elsewhere via air. In Alaskan Athabascan societies including the Upper Kuskokwim region, elders express their concerns that tl1eir descendants in the (near) future might have to go back to completely subsistence-based life. In this context, the activities aimed at teaching and learning subsistence skills can be understood as attempts to increase self-sufficiency, a cultural theme in Northern Athabascan societies. In a sense, just as past leaders in the nomadic bands and, more recently, village churches who have been concerned themselves with the food security of their followers, contemporary leaders of Athabascan villages function as, borrowing Robin Riddington's words, a "hunt chief" who organizes the community hunting and provides people with the opportunities for food-gathering activities. As for the detailed ways in which in-situ learning occurs during such activities, it is important to note that learners' voluntary participation is valued and that ...
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