Environment

Opinion: Alaska Natives know environment best

Thursday, March 1, 2007

"Growing up in my hometown of Allakaket, I have with my people lived a subsistence assimilation with the earth and have helped manage our traditional hunting lands as did my forefathers.

Villages survived by having a handful of great hunters who respected the quarry and always shared the catch with everyone in the village. This is a true practice in every village here in Alaska. Alaska Nati ves watch the weather as it changes on our traditional hunting grounds, temperatures during the four seasons, health of the animals we harvest, berries, fish numbers, how often it rains or snows, and we all respect the animals we harvest down to returning the bones back “into the woods” so our quarry will be plentiful for future generations.

It is an extreme taboo to waste our harvest, so from when we begin to hunt with our fathers, uncles, or grandfathers we are taught only to take what we need. Hunters and elders communicate to find guidance within our tribe and relate sightings along to others. With this all said, I find it distasteful and disrespectful that the Alaska Natives are never mentioned in the great debate over predator control from the News-Miner to self-proclaimed visionaries like Vic Van Ballenberghe. It is like no one lives out in rural Alaska that is worth mentioning. It seems the only time the villagers make the paper is when the troopers fly out to the villages, yet we are never mentioned in the debate over predator control."

Get the Story:
Pollock “PJ” Simon: Alaska Natives know more about wildlife (The Fairbanks Daily News Miner 3/1)