Review of a recent NPS study on traditional lifestyles on the Yukon River, Alaska

1. Voices of the
Upper Yukon River
Surveying Local and Traditional
Knowledge of the Salmon Fisheries

2. Traditional Ecological
Knowledge, or TEK is…
“A cumulative body of knowledge and beliefs, handed
down through generations by cultural transmission,
about the relation of living beings, including humans,
with one another and with their environment. TEK is
an attribute of societies with historical continuity in
resource use practices; by and large, these are non-
industrial or less technologically advanced societies,
many of them are indigenous or tribal.”
-Fikret Burkes, Natural Resources Institute, Univ. of Manitoba

3. Why TEK is important
“Any study aimed at understanding the natural environment
must include the role of humans as participants within the
natural environment.”
-John Sallenave, Senior Policy Advisor,
Canadian Arctic Resources Committee

4. Objectives of this study include...
Collecting data on the Upper Yukon River
subsistence fisheries.
Learning the seasonal cycle of subsistence living,
finding out how people live here.
Learning local place names and interactions among
species.
Learning how to better manage Yukon River
fisheries.
Training local research associates.
Establishing better relations between local
stakeholders and the NPS.
Encouraging more local participation in subsistence
policy decisions.

5. In Search of Local Expertise…
In 2005, research began in
Eagle and Eagle Village on a
U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service project, to document
local subsistence knowledge
and practices concerning the
Yukon River Salmon
Fishery.
Researchers asked 19
local fishers for their
observations about the stock
status and health of the
salmon runs, local harvest
and processing techniques,
and recommendations for
better management of the
fishery.

6. Eagle, Alaska
Eagle has been the historical home to Han Native Alaskans since before the
arrival of Europeans in Alaska.
In the late 1800s, Eagle became a supply and trading center for miners
working the upper Yukon River. By 1898, its population had exceeded 1,700.
In 1901 Eagle was the first incorporated city in the Alaska Interior The gold
rushes in Nome and Fairbanks lured people away from Eagle.
Present-day Eagle is home to around 200 people, mostly of European
descent. Eagle Village has a small population that is about 50 percent Han.

7. Local resident researchers
One of the goals of the study
was to train local Eagle and
Eagle Village residents in
interviewing, camera work and
oral history documentation
skills. Local researchers showed
an unique understanding of
their subjects, including
familiarity with place names,
fishing methods, and life ways.
Local fishers trusted neighbors
not to give up their hard-won,
closely-held, secrets.

8. Fishers told personal stories
Chief Isaac Juneby was born in
Eagle Village, and has been
subsistence fishing on the
Yukon River since he was 11
years old.
“One of the things that I like to do
or pass on is that traditional
culture…passing on anything
that I know that will be beneficial
to them in the years to come…I
once said that that I would rather
know that the fish I eat are good
because I prepared them with my
own hands.”

9. Subsistence fishing is the basis
of life on the Upper Yukon
“People out here don’t have
choices. It’s a thousand miles to
get to the grocery store, and for
some people that’s not even an
option. The fish run is very
important to them and they need
to be able to get to the fish.”
-Scarlett Hall

10. Fishing “fuels” other year-round
activities that comprise bush life
Dog teams are used for hunting,
trapping, and recreation. Dogs are
more reliable than a snowmobile,
and cost less to maintain. On
average, one dog requires about
200 chum salmon per year.
“A lot of our winter travel with the
dogs, for hauling wood and water
and just transportation back and
forth during wintertime on the river.
It’s safer than any other type of
transportation. We take the kings in
the summer for ourselves and then
in the fall when the chum roll
around we start putting them on the
rack for the dogs.”
-Scarlett Hall Andy Bassich’s dog team

11. Fish wheels gather fast…
Fish wheels are the most
efficient way to catch the large
amounts of salmon some
families require.
“Yesterday we turned the wheel
for 24 hours, we couldn’t stay on
top of it. We had about 550 fish
in the morning, cleaned them out
and then by afternoon, the
baskets were completely full, the
fish were falling out of the boxes
back into the river...”
–Andy Bassich

12. …but nets are easier to assemble
Elders like Matthew Malcolm
are legendary for their
knowledge and net-handling
skills.
“It is just really something to
watch Matthew fish! When
you’re out there with the boat,
he’s pulling, getting the boat up
so that he’s pulling up the net,
he’s taking the fish out of the
net. Sometimes he gets in
trouble, you know, and we give
him hand, but usually he does
this himself. And it is amazing,
to watch him get these fish out of
the nets sometimes, it is just
incredible!!!
-Barry Westphal

13. Economic changes pose challenges
“You average the year
with $25 to $50 a day
checking your nets and
wheel. You know, if
you're not getting good
fish, you can't afford to
run up and down the
river. You know, it's
not worth it. You know,
with the gas price up,
no way.. It's wear and
tear on your motor,
yourself. “
Albert Carroll, Jr.
Andy Bassich heads out to check his fish wheel

14. Many spoke of environmental
changes seen over the years
“It’s much warmer now in
the wintertime than what we
used to have. So evidently,
this has affected the water, I
mean, this has affected the
fish. One of the things you
could notice is that there are
getting, a lot of more
sandbars…So you see this
sudden change within our
lifetimes—not in
evolutionary time—affects
the water and the animals.
I think that will drastically
affect them one way or
another. ”
-Chief Isaac Juneby

15. King salmon caught now are
smaller than in the past.
Nearly all the fishers
interviewed found that the
king salmon they catch have
become smaller and smaller
over the years.
“Instead of the huge, big kings
we’re getting smaller fish.
And you know, there’s
several ideas to why that’s
happening and one of them is
the large mesh nets that are
being used commercially
which target big fish. We
don’t want to lose that
genetic line.”
-Scarlett Hall

16. Bigger nets catch larger fish
“Drift-nets and large-mesh
gear--in my opinion--target
large females. And I think
we’re beginning to change the
genetics of the Yukon River
stocks and that’s a huge
concern of mine at this point
in time. I know when I first
came here in, in 1983-84, it
was quite common to see a 65-
pound fish come out of the
river and, I doubt very much
that there are probably more
than 4 or 5 that I saw last year
out of the whole Eagle area
that were that big.”
-Andy Bassich

17. The Old Days
“I remember fish that were just
like humongous, you know, I
mean, huge fish, that would
swamp the boat practically if they
weren’t dead, you know, just. I
remember one time my dad and I
checked the net across from our
old fish camp down there. I was
young teenager or something and
the fish was giant and it wasn’t
dead and, you know, he wanted
to keep it of course. And it
almost flipped us!”
-Sonja Sager Fisher Mike Molchan hoists a large king
salmon in this archival photo

18. Pests and disease
Some fishers attribute occasional
outbreaks of Ichthyophonus and
tape worms to warmer air and
water temperatures. Parasitic sea
lampreys let go in fresh water but
leave scars.
“Last year I caught a lot of fish
that had lamprey marks on it…I
just throw it away because, even
for dogs I don’t think it would be
good. And I had quite a bit of fish
that were like that. And one of
them was a big fish and it actually
was pretty bad. The quality of fish,
in sickness, that one I noticed.
Tape worms reside in the stomach and gut -Chief Isaac Juneby
of salmon

19. Many fishers took time off
to let king stocks rebuild
Today, Upper Yukon fishers
like Don Woodruff are more
likely to ease off their efforts if
they see a weak run.
“I’ve taken a bit of a sabbatical
from the king salmon fishing
because I wanted the stocks to
rebuild. And I took a personal
leave to make my contribution to
salmon getting up on the
spawning ground until they build
up enough where I think that we
can start harvesting ‘em again
for personal consumption and
drying ‘em for strips.”

20. Salmon meals take many forms
Primary means of processing are: drying, smoking, kippering, jarring
(canning) and freezing. There is a tremendous variety in cutting techniques,
drying and or smoking systems, jarring, and recipes for cooking.

21. Salmon eggs are rich in protein
Skeins of chum eggs hang to dry
Chum salmon eggs fill five-gallon buckets
Eggs can be brined or dry salted, too.

22. The spirit of sharing lives
along the Upper Yukon
The same spirit that
compels some to forgo
fishing when runs are
weak provides a sense of
community and sharing.
“When you get your first
anything, you share it with
the elders, you share it
with the whole village.
There used to be a guy
here, if he caught one fish
he made a big pot of soup
just so it would feed
everybody. That’s what we
tried to get across, that
anything you kill should
be shared…your first
salmon, that should go to
the whole village.”
-Ethel Beck

23. Teaching traditional life ways
“I want him to have a connection
to the land just like I do. And I
don’t see how he cannot, you
know, growing up here. You tell
your kid, ‘don’t step on the edge
of the cut bank,” tell you kid,
‘hey, that’s overflow,’ tell him all
those kinds of things. You should
always just do subsistence and I
think that’s the important thing.
Take what you need and try to
take good care of it.”
–Sonja Sager
Sonja Sager and son Finn

24. But those ways face changes
“There’s a certain segment of
young people that would like to
find out if they’ve got what it
takes to go out and cut logs and
build a cabin and fish and hunt
and find out if they have what it
takes. You can’t do that now. My
grandson will not be able to go
downriver and build a cabin on a
nice looking bench over the river.
But I think people should have
the opportunity because we’re
not short on land, we’re short on
people.”
-John Borg John Borg talks with interviewer

25. Keeping this life alive
Fishers were asked what measures would best preserve and enhance
salmon runs that are the fuel to their unique life way. Responses included:
1) Remove requirement to completely pull nets during closures.
2) Undertake further study on the effect of large mesh nets on size selectivity.
3) Rethink models of “customary and traditional.” Go beyond racial
conceptions of fishing dependence and recognize that there is now a 40-
plus year history of non-Natives learning about the fishery from Native
experts, who are fast disappearing.
4) Develop quantitative analyses of subsistence fisheries.
5) Study correlations between low snow cover and/or cold winters for effect
upon fry survival.
6) Study the demographics. Are there more or fewer subsistence fishers
riverwide? More or less harvest?

26. “I think the northern environment is particularly
delicate because it grows so slowly. Whatever damage
is done may not be reversible. We need to think of it
not as what I can get out of it but rather how we can
preserve it for others. When I say others I don’t
always mean people. We are here with animals, and
without them we wouldn’t be here.”
-Elizabeth Sager