Tanana residents, from left, Tom Hyslop, Charlie Campbell, and Kathleen Zuray talk to Sidney Stephens about climate change.
Residents of Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, and Tanana shared their observations on everything from salmon harvests to wildfire to water temperature.
IARC Director Larry Hinzman told the participants, “What’s really important is how climate change is affecting the people of the Arctic. If we know your perspectives we can build models that incorporate the understanding you have.” He cited the work of the late Gerald Mohatt, director of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, as an example to aspire to. “He always said to listen to the people of Alaska,” Hinzman said.
Listening has been a primary task for project coordinator Sidney Stephens, a UA Geography Program instructor and principal investigator/project lead on the stakeholder project, and William Schneider, UAF oral history curator. Over the past year, the two have traveled to the three villages involved and conducted extensive interviews and collected oral histories about climate change observations. Soon the films will be available for viewing on a website that is being developed, Climate Change Jukebox. “There will be a great deal of information with lots of interviews,” Schneider said.
Another form of communication in the works is a publication that would highlight the results of the project. Sue Steinacher of Nome, who publishes Caribou Trails for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, said she has observed over the years how there can be a lack of communication between agencies and villagers following a meeting of this type. She wants to prepare a report similar to the caribou document that could be sent to rural residents.
SNRAS Professor Elena Sparrow, co-principal investigator on the project, said she hoped the sessions would create closer working relationships with the university and community experts. “The UAF scientists need this information to better predict and make models that are accurate,” she said. As she works with teachers and students all over Alaska, Sparrow said she always invites local elders to become involved. “It’s very important that teachers understand the Arctic and the Earth as a system; the elders treat everything as a system; everything is connected.”
Discussions brought up a wide range of topics. Tom Hyslop of Tanana noted that he had always looked to the snowcap on the Kokrine Hills as a signal that winter was arriving. “I used to see it the second week of September but now it is later and later and it is not dramatically white anymore.”
James Kelly of Fort Yukon said climate change is interesting to look at. “Through the span of time you identify the changes,” he said. “The tool we use is living on the land and making observations. We sit one on one and listen. We are all identifying closely with what we see happening. In the long run it is going to impact everyone.”
Subjects broached included water levels in ponds and creeks, changes in moose and geese hunting seasons, warmer river temperatures, and shifting foundations of homes. Each village had particular concerns but one of the goals of the seminar was to compare common observations in the three communities.
Schneider summed up, “The penultimate question is what do we do with these impacts in the way of your future? It may be the scientific community can help with modeling and your observations help them. We can get this type of synergy going.”
Further reading:
Caribou Trails (PDF) news from the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, Fall 2008
Project Jukebox, UAF Oral History Program website
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