Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T02:42:29.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Shaping the Long View: Iñupiat Experts and Scientists Share Ocean Knowledge on Alaska’s North Slope

from Part I - From Practice to Principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Marie Roué
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Douglas Nakashima
Affiliation:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France
Igor Krupnik
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

The Iñupiat Eskimo on Alaska’s North Slope live semi-traditional lives characterized by subsistence hunting and fishing and expansive natural travel networks. To the Iñupiat, the North Slope coastline is a social-cultural boundary between sea and land, marked by the location of past and current settlements, burial sites, family hunting locations, traditional places of refuge, and places immortalized through traditional stories. The coastline is where they observe, enter and exit the marine environment, and hence is interwoven throughout their local and traditional knowledge of the ocean and sea ice environment. Rarely, do local experts speak of ocean or ice features, or of a hunting story, without referring to a place on land. North Slope communities and their coastline are also staging areas for scientists who have adopted the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as their natural laboratories. This chapter will explore a cross-section of the North Slope’s rich history of scientists working with local indigenous experts on coastal and marine topics, with specific attention to coastal emergency preparedness.

Type
Chapter
Information
Resilience through Knowledge Co-Production
Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Global Environmental Change
, pp. 67 - 92
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albert, T. F. 2000. The influence of Harry Brower, Sr., an Iñupiaq Eskimo hunter, on the bowhead whale research program conducted at the UIC-NARL facility by the North Slope borough. In Norton, D. W. (ed.) Fifty More Years below Zero: Tributes and Meditations for the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 265278.Google Scholar
Anungazuk, H. 2003. Whaling: Indigenous ways to the present. In McCartney, A. P. (ed.) Indigenous Ways to the Present: Native Whaling in the Western Arctic. Edmonton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute Press, pp. 427432.Google Scholar
Baseline Studies Agreement. 2010. Collaborative research agreement by and between the North Slope borough and Shell exploration & production company, NSB Contract Number 2011-080.Google Scholar
Berkes, F. 2009. Indigenous ways of knowing and the study of environmental change. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 39(4): 151156. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014220909510568CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boas, F. 1888. The Central Eskimo. Sixth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology 1884-1885: 399–675.Google Scholar
Bockstoce, J. 1986. Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
BOEM. 2012. Special issue on traditional knowledge. BOEM Ocean Science, 9(2): 116.Google Scholar
Brewster, K. 1997. Native contributions to Arctic sciences at Barrow, Alaska. Arctic, 50(3): 277288. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic1109Google Scholar
Brewster, K. 1998. An Umialik’s Life: Conversations with Harry Brower, Sr. M.A. Thesis. University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Dale, A. and Armitage, D. 2011. Marine mammal co-management in Canada’s Arctic: Knowledge co-production for learning and adaptive capacity. Marine Policy, 35: 440449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2010.10.019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druckenmiller, M. L. 2011. Alaska Shorefast Ice: Interfacing Geophysics with Local Sea Ice Knowledge and Use. Doctoral thesis. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, M. L., Eicken, H., George, J. C. and Brower, L. 2010. Assessing the shorefast ice: Iñupiat whaling trails off Barrow, Alaska. In Krupnik, I., Aporta, C., Gearheard, S., Laidler, G. J. and Kielsen Holm, L. (eds.) SIKU: Knowing Our Ice. New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 202228.Google Scholar
Druckenmiller, M. L., Eicken, H., George, J. C. and Brower, L. 2013. Trails to the whale: Reflections of change and choice on an Iñupiat icescape at Barrow, Alaska. Polar Geography, 36(1–2): 529. https://doi.org/10.1080/1088937X.2012.724459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druckenmiller, M. L., Eicken, H., Johnson, M., Pringle, D. and Williams, C. 2009. Toward an integrated coastal sea-ice observatory: System components and a case study at Barrow, Alaska. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 56(1–2): 6172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2008.12.003Google Scholar
Eicken, H., Ritchie, L. A. and Barlau, A. 2011. The role of local and Indigenous knowledge in Arctic offshore oil and gas development, environmental hazard mitigation, and emergency response. In Lovecraft, A. L. and Eicken, H. (eds.) North by 2020: Perspectives on Alaska’s Changing Social-Ecological Systems. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 577603.Google Scholar
Foote, D. C. 1960. The Eskimo hunter at Point Hope, Alaska: September, 1959 to May, 1960, United States Atomic Energy Commission: 58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gearheard, S. F., Holm, L. K., Huntington, H., Leavitt, J. M., Mahoney, A. R., Opie, M., Oshima, T. and Sanguya, J. (eds.) 2013. The Meaning of Ice: People and Sea Ice in Three Arctic Communities. Hanover, NH: International Polar Institute Press.Google Scholar
George, J. C., Huntington, H. P., Brewster, K., Eicken, H., Norton, D. W. and Glenn, R. 2004a. Observations on shorefast ice dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the responses of the Iñupiat hunting community. Arctic, 57(4): 363374. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic514CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, J. C., Zeh, J., Suydam, R. and Clark, C. 2004b. Abundance and population trend (1978–2001) of Western Arctic bowhead whales surveyed near Barrow, Alaska. Marine Mammal Science, 20(4): 755773. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2004.tb01191.xGoogle Scholar
Givens, G. H., Edmondson, S. L., George, J. C., Suydam, R., Charif, R. A., Rahaman, A., Hawthorne, D., Tudor, B., DeLong, R. A. and Clark, C. W. 2013. Estimate of 2011 abundance of the Bering–Chukchi–Beaufort Seas bowhead whale population. Paper SC/65a/BRG01.Google Scholar
Glenn, R., Itta, E., Napageak, Jr., T. and Klick, M. 2011. Local perspectives on the future of offshore oil and gas in Northern Alaska. In Lovecraft, A. L. and Eicken, H. (eds.) North by 2020: Perspectives on Alaska’s Changing Social-Ecological Systems. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 605614.Google Scholar
Haley, S., and Eicken, H. 2011. Introduction: Coastal and offshore oil and gas development: Balancing interests and reducing risks through collaboration and information exchange. In Lovecraft, A. L. and Eicken, H. (eds.) North by 2020: Perspectives on Alaska’s Changing Social-Ecological Systems. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 495501.Google Scholar
Hegger, D., Van Lamersb, M., Zeijl-Rozema, A. and Dieperink, C. 2011. Knowledge co-production in climate change adaptation projects: what are the levers for action? Colorado Conference on Earth System Governance, Fort Collins, CO, May 17–20.Google Scholar
Huntington, H. P. 2013. Traditional Knowledge and Resource Development. Gap Analysis Report #11. Resources and Sustainable Development in the Arctic.Google Scholar
Huntington, H. P., Brower, Jr., H. and Norton, D. W. 2001. The Barrow symposium on sea ice, 2000: Evaluation of one means of exchanging information between subsistence whalers and scientists. Arctic, 54(2): 201206. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic780Google Scholar
Johnson, M., Eicken, H., Druckenmiller, M. L. and Glenn, R. 2014. (eds.) Expert Workshops to Comparatively Evaluate Coastal Currents and Ice Movement in the Northeastern Chukchi Sea; Barrow and Wainwright, Alaska, March 11–15, 2013. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. and Jolly, D. (eds.) 2002/2010. The Earth Is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change, Second edition. Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, Fairbanks, AK: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I., Aporta, C., Gearheard, S., Kielsen Holm, L. and Laidler, G. (eds.) 2010. SIKU: Knowing Our Ice: Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, R. and Schweiger, A. 2015. Arctic sea ice thickness loss determined using subsurface, aircraft and satellite observations. The Cryosphere, 9: 269283, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-269-2015.Google Scholar
Lowenstein, T. 1980. Some Aspects of Sea Ice Subsistence Hunting in Point Hope, Alaska: A Report for the North Slope Borough’s Coastal Zone Management Plan. North Slope Borough, Barrow, Alaska.Google Scholar
Mahoney, A. R. 2006. Alaska Landfast Sea Ice Dynamics. Doctoral thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. 1969. Hunters of the Northern Ice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
NOAA. 2016. Federal Register, Vol. 81, No. 32, February 18, 8177.Google Scholar
Quakenbush, L., Citta, J., George, J. C., Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., Small, R., Brower, H., Harwood, L., Adams, B., Brower, L., Tagarook, G., Pokiak, C. and Pokiak, J. 2012. Seasonal movements of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock of bowhead whales: 2006–2011 satellite telemetry results. Report to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission, SC/64/BRG1.Google Scholar
Statscewich, H., Weingartner, T., Danielsen, S., Grinau, B., Egan, G. and Timm, J. 2011. A high-latitude modular autonomous power, control, and communication system for application to high-frequency surface current mapping radars. Marine Technology Society Journal, 45: 5968. https://doi.org/10.1109/OCEANS-Yeosu.2012.6263620Google Scholar
Stefansson, V. 1919. My Life with the Eskimo. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Stephen R. Braund and Associates 2011. Chukchi and Beaufort seas national pollutant discharge elimination system exploration general permits reissuance: report of traditional knowledge workshops – Point Lay, Barrow, Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik. Prepared for Tetra Tech. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. March 11, 2011.Google Scholar
Stern, P. R. 2004. Historical Dictionary of the Inuit, Historical Dictionary of Peoples and Cultures. No. 2, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Stroeve, J. C., Serreze, M. C., Holland, M. M., Kay, J. E., Maslanik, J. and Barrett, A. P. 2012. The Arctic’s rapidly shrinking sea ice cover: A research synthesis. Climatic Change, 110(3–4): 10051027 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584–011-0101-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thewissen, J. G. M., George, J., Rosa, C. and Kishida, T. 2011, Olfaction and brain size in the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Marine Mammal Science, 27(2): 282294. https://DOI.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2010.00406.x.Google Scholar
Tillman, M. 1980. Introduction: A scientific perspective of the bowhead whale problem. Marine Fisheries Review, 42(9-10): 15.Google Scholar
US Army Corps of Engineers. 1999. Beaufort Sea oil and gas development/Northstar Project: final environmental impact statement. 4 volumes + appendices. Prepared by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District.Google Scholar
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and Snyder, W. M. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Woodby, D. A. and Botkin, D. B. 1993. Stock sizes prior to commercial whaling. In Burns, J. J., Montague, J. J. and Cowles, C. J. (eds.) The Bowhead Whale. Society for Marine Mammology, Special Publication 2. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press, pp. 387407.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×