Subsistence In Native America

When thinking of ecological significance of region in distress, many times we as people tend to think of just the damage that done to the “natural” world such as the animals, water, and herbaceous communities, but people are also a part of these environments and deserve equal concern. Bristol Bay is a southwestern region within Alaska, which encompasses 40,000 square miles that are home to over 25 predominately Native American tribes, each having their own distinct language, traditions, and dialect. The remoteness and low agricultural productivity of this expanse is balanced by the richness of its subsistence and commercial fishing industry, which happens to be the greatest in the United States and among the greatest on earth. The communities

To this day, many Alaskan Native Americans still live in the locations of their ancestors. Nearly all modern households rely on subsistence ocean harvests, hunting, commercial fishing, and to a lesser extent ecotourism and sport fishing. Every activity used by the Natives is critically dependent on the sustainable use of wild renewable resources. The Alaska Federation of Natives describes subsistence in the following manner: “The hunting, fishing, and gathering activities which traditionally constituted the economic base of life for Alaska’s Native peoples and which continue to flourish in many areas of the state today. Subsistence is a way of life in rural Alaska that is vital to the preservation of communities, tribal cultures, and economies. Subsistence resources have great nutritional, economical, cultural, and spiritual importance in the lives of rural Alaskans…Subsistence, being integral to our worldview and among the strongest remaining ties to our ancient cultures, are as much spiritual and cultural as it is physical”. The people are not only tied to their lands for economic and biological sustenance, but all also as a means of maintaining a sense of community and fellowship

My family processes approximately 4,000 pounds of salmon, kings, reds, silvers, etc. We start when the fish first come into the river, all the way to the very end. My family and I smoke, dry, and freeze the salmon. I brought you some canned salmon to share that we keep year round”, “The generations that are coming who can be fed from this resource and this land and it’s a beautiful interaction and it’s one that we are losing around the world. When we realize that we have lost it we strive to get it back, but it is taking a long time for this beautiful balance between human, animal and subsistence lifestyle to come about and evolve”, “The survival of our culture directly depends on the health of our land, the fish and the wildlife. No amount of money or jobs can replace our way of life and our culture.” For many families in the Bay, moving away, finding another means of survival, or abandoning traditional ways is simply not an option. The community is so immersed in generational traditions that to remove it would be a catastrophic detriment. This Pebble Mine operation if completed will be one of the most devastating violations of environmental justice that the