01 June 2009

My Place, My Identity

Erosion can be seen at the village of Newtok, where residents are consulting tribal elders and geologists about global warming.

By Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley

Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley is professor emeritus of education at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and has a long-time interest in the biological sciences. He was born into a traditional indigenous Yupiaq family in Alaska, where he was raised by his grandmother from the age of two, after his parents died. She spoke only Yupiaq, so Yupiaq was his first language, and the tribal culture his first culture. The Yupiat are among several Arctic tribes sometimes referred to as Eskimos. Professor Kawagley has been executive director of several nonprofit corporations focused on science, education, and health. He currently serves on Haskell University’s American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group.

I recently watched a television program titled “You Own Alaska.” My first reaction was that this was an expression motivated by political and economic interest. But the more I thought about it, the more it grated on my worldview. How could anyone “own” Alaska? According to my ancestral traditions, the land owns me! Thus began my reflections on how my Yupiaq worldview differs from that of the dominant society.

The cold defines my place. Mamterilleq (now known as Bethel, Alaska) made me who I am. The cold made my language, my worldview, my culture, and technology. Now, the cold is waning at a very fast rate, and as a result, it is changing the landscape. The changing landscape in turn is confusing the mindscape of the Yupiat, as well as other indigenous people. Some of the natural sense makers of Mother Nature are out of synchronization with the flora and fauna.

We, the Yupiat of the Kuskokwim River, used the leafing of the alder tree to tell us when the smelts would journey up the river and we could begin dip-netting for them. When the alder leaves emerge from the bud, the king salmon will be arriving, and so on. But these indicators are no longer reliable when spring arrives two to four weeks earlier than usual. This is just one example of the changes that are taking place in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Landscape and Identity

In the times past, the landscape formed our mindscape, which in turn formed our identity. I grew up as an inseparable part of Nature. It was not my place to “own” land, nor to domesticate plants or animals who often have more power than I as a human being.

We know that Mother Nature has a culture, and it is a Native culture.

This is why we as a Native people have to emulate Her. We know that the Ellam Yua, the Person or Spirit of the Universe, lives in Her. That is why she serves as our guide, teacher, and mentor.

Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley, Yupiaq elder and professor emeritus, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

We need to spend much time in Nature to commune with the Great Consciousness. This gives balance to the Native person. She encourages us to become altruistic, showing the utmost respect for everything around us, including the flora, fauna, and all the elements of Mother Earth — the winds, the rivers, the lakes, the mountains, the clouds, the stars, the Milky Way, the sun, the moon, and the ocean currents. Mother Earth gives me everything I need to know and be able to problem-solve. But times have changed, making living a life in concert with Mother Earth more difficult.

Missionaries and the educational system had the first impact. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, schools were introduced to the Yupiat people by the Christian churches under contract with the U.S. government.

Boarding schools were established for Alaska Native youngsters. The education provided was organized to assimilate the Native people to the techno-mechanistic and consumerist worldview. The education was oppressive and suppressive of the Native language and culture. By this time the United States had become very adept at organizing and administering boarding schools for American Indians. Native children were taken away from their parents and villages for long periods of time. They would return to their home villages but no longer fit in.

Their wants and desires were averse to the village life. The assimilative education was so effective it caused most Native youngsters to suppress their own Nativeness.

From the late 1960s and up to the present, Native people have been working diligently to change education so that it accommodates their languages, worldviews, culture, and technology. This is a slow healing process for the villages. Our educational mission is to produce human beings who are at home in their place, their environment, their world. This is slowly being brought to fruition through the efforts of the Native people themselves, with support from others of like thinking.

Merging Traditional Wisdom with Technology

The Yupiat have been proactive in reorienting the education system for their children and are now proving to be equally proactive in dealing with the effects of climate change. They are looking at how our ancestors dealt with climate change in the past and applying what they learn to the present. Once they have an idea of what might be done, they devise a plan and ask for technical assistance from engineers, hydrologists, geographers, and other scientists whose knowledge and skills will give them the best guidance.

For example, the village of Newtok, which has suffered from extensive erosion, has taken a leadership role in planning the move of their village. This means seeking finances, looking at a possible new site for the village, and asking elders and geologists to provide an assessment of whether their choices are right. This is a village-led design and organization for moving everything: from the homes, airfield, water well, and other community facilities.

The Yupiat are also proactive in cleaning spawning areas for salmon. They meet periodically with state fisheries experts to let them know their concerns and to address issues in which they need technical help.

Native people realize that the traditional ways of knowing and doing can benefit from technical assistance provided by the various disciplinary sciences to strengthen their plans and work. The working together of the two ways of knowing are much more powerful and, hopefully, more conducive to doing the right thing. It is through such collaborations that the historic clash of worldviews as reflected in the phrase “You Own Alaska” can become a force for new understandings and solutions to the many challenges we face together.