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Article title :: Traditions make Inuit, their at-risk Arctic environment, one and the same
Associated Press, adapted by Newsela staff
01.08.2016
Articles :
ANCHORAGE, Alaska Oogruk, or the bearded seal, is a marine mammal prized for its meat, oil and hide. Inuit John Goodwin hunts oogruk and is one of approximately 35,000 of the native people in Alaska. In some places, the Inuit are also known as Eskimos. They live in the Arctic region, which includes parts of Alaska, a few European countries and Russia.
The oogruk are the largest of Alaska’s ice seals. The animals use sea ice to rest and to birth pups. After the long winter, ice breaks into floes, or sheets of floating ice near Goodwin’s home, the small city of Kotzebue, Alaska. Goodwin has only a short time to hunt. Soon the seals will migrate north through the Bering Strait, a waterway that connects the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea.
A hunting season that used to last weeks is shorter now, and ice that used to freeze to at least 5 feet thick is now just a fraction of that. Goodwin says, “As soon as the sun comes out, it starts melting, or we have a heavy rain. Basically, it’s the rain that deteriorates the ice real quick. We don’t have enough time to hunt.”
Group Seeks To Protect Villages
The Inuit consider themselves to be part of the environment. They want to protect their culture as global warming, the heating up of the Earth’s climate, takes a toll. It is a threat to food security, or people having a way to get enough safe and healthy food.
The Inuit Circumpolar Council-Alaska looks out for coastal villages in the state. The group recently issued a report asking for laws to protect Inuit traditional food and the Arctic environment. The study included visits to 15 Inuit villages and contributions by 146 authors. Carolina Behe is the organization’s expert on native knowledge and science matters. She says, “When we say food security, it has to do with the health of all of it.”
More than 90 percent of the food in Alaska comes in from elsewhere. A reliable food supply in bigger cities like Anchorage means affordable prices. It also means groceries shipped north by barge or jet. However, for the Inuit, who have survived for thousands of years in one of the harshest climates on Earth, food is a connection to the past.
Food Traditions Tied To Nature
For thousands of years, food traditions such as hunting seals and gathering salmonberries were passed on through the arts and language. Visual art, storytelling, dance and drumming helped preserve the culture. The report states, “Our traditional foods are much more than calories or nutrients; they are a lifeline throughout our culture and reflect the health of the entire Arctic ecosystem.”
Inuit leaders spoke about food at public hearings when the climate began to change. Their description of secure food differed from ideas held by lawmakers, who spoke of nutritional value and purchasing power. “They were talking two different languages,” says Behe.
Behe remembers a meeting where someone asked whether the Inuit were looking forward to increased shipments of food. She says, “Our people were saying the exact opposite. We’re really concerned about these ships because they’re going to disrupt our hunting, the noise is disrupting the animals, the pollutants, and that’s a threat to food security.”
Behe also says that the report asks lawmakers to make Arctic policy decisions with food security in mind. When lawmakers look at information on the Arctic ecosystem, Inuit leaders want the report to include both science and native knowledge. For example, a scientist researching salmon might look at the salmon population first. An Inuit would taste the water, look at vegetation, check fish scales and check the feel of the meat. “You’re asking two different questions but both of them are really needed,” Behe says.
Many Government Agencies Are Involved
The report also points out that land, ocean and wildlife laws are created by different government agencies. State lawmakers set hunting seasons, which may correspond to the best time to process fish and meat to then sell it. Federal lawmakers oversee hunting of marine mammals and larger commercial ocean fishing. In addition, officials have to work with other countries to make decisions about salmon and migratory birds.
The United States and other countries all contribute to global warming and pollution that affects the Arctic. Behe says, “The people causing the pollution have to have more responsibility and have to be expected to change their behavior, as opposed to expecting the Inuit to change theirs.”
Fran Ulmer is head of the United States Arctic Research Commission, a government agency that oversees U.S. policy for the Arctic. She says food security is a top goal. Researchers want to better understand how rapid climate change in the Arctic is affecting the environment and the people who live there. Ulmer says the problem is also important to the Arctic Council, a gathering of Arctic countries.Arts & HumanitiesEnglish
