NOT ALL DRIFTWOOD IS CREATED EQUAL: WOOD USE AND VALUE ALONG THE YUKON AND KUSKOKWIM RIVERS, ALASKA Claire Alix Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)/Paris I UMR 8096 Archéologie des Amériques; University of Alaska Museum and Department of Forest Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks. P.O. Box 756960, Fairbanks AK, 99775-6960.
[email protected] Karen Brewster Oral History Program, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 756808, Fairbanks, AK 99775.
[email protected] Abstract: The “Catching the Drift Project” along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in 2002 combined tree-ring and oral history research to explore the natural production of driftwood and its past and present human use. Discussions with Yup’ik and Athabascan elders focused on methods of driftwood procurement, criteria for wood selection, categories of use, and wood working techniques and terminology. Retracing the history of the wood from trees along the river bank to driftwood logs to modified wood or fire wood, allowed us to go beyond the making of objects. By traveling downriver we were able to document people’s perceptions of this important resource: its origin, its cycle, its value. Analysis of our oral history recordings indicates that people along the rivers who have access to standing trees rely on driftwood to a larger extent than expected. Today, driftwood is mainly used as firewood but is also part of some critical subsistence activities, such as fishing. The value of driftwood is influenced by geographic location, local economics, individual and cultural preferences, as well as physical characteristics and post-drift condition of the wood.