Akulmiut neqait: fish and food of the Akulmiut
Date
2019
Authors
Fienup-Riordan, Ann, author
Meade, Marie, author
Rearden, Alice, author
University of Alaska Press, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
In fall 2014, Calista Education and Culture, Inc. (CEC, formerly Calista Elders Council) began a four-year study funded by the Office of Subsistence Management of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The study focused on whitefish and other non-salmon freshwater fish harvested by residents of the Akulmiut villages of Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, and Atmautluak, as well as those living along the Kuskokwim River just below Bethel in the villages of Napaskiak, Napakiak, and Oscarville. Harvest studies have been carried out in some of these communities (Ikuta, Brown, and Koester, ed. 2014) as well as two major ethnographic studies--one in Napaskiak (Oswalt 1963) and one in Nunapitchuk (Andrews 1989). Our intended focus was not on harvest amounts but rather traditional knowledge surrounding the harvest and use of the six species of whitefish, as well as pike, burbot, and blackfish, on which people from this area relied so heavily in the past and continue to harvest to this day. In fact, all three contemporary Akulmiut villages, as well as settlements in the past, were established at sites where fish fences were built across the river each fall to intercept whitefish as they migrated out of the lakes and sloughs toward the mainstem of the Kuskokwim River. If there is one food that defines people from this area, it is whitefish.--Provided by publisher.
Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Rights Access
Access is limited to the Adams State University, Colorado State University, Colorado State University Pueblo, Community College of Denver, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University Denver, Regis University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University and Western State Colorado University communities only.
Subject
Yupik Eskimos -- Alaska -- Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta -- Social life and customs
Yupik Eskimos -- Food -- Alaska -- Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Yupik Eskimos -- Fishing
Subsistence fishing -- Alaska, Southwest
Traditional ecological knowledge -- Alaska, Southwest
Whitefish fisheries -- Alaska, Southwest
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Alaska) -- Social life and customs
Ethnology -- Alaska -- Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region
Older Yupik Eskimos -- Interviews
Central Yupik language -- Texts