A Brief History of Alaska Natives and Natural Resource Claims
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Regulating a Mystery: Science, colonialism, and the politics of knowing in the Pacific halibut commons A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Laurie Shannon Richmond IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY George Spangler, Jean O‘Brien-Kehoe February 2011 © Laurie Richmond 2011 Acknowledgements This project really has been a labor of love for me. By far my favorite aspect of this dissertation has been the new friends and, yes, even new family that I have gained throughout the research experience. Conducting field work alone is not always an easy thing and I ran into many challenges and moments of doubt. I am thankful to so many people for being there to provide me with support and guidance through this process. I am in awe of you and gifts that you have brought to me. Old Harbor: It is difficult to even put into words my gratitude for people from the community of Old Harbor who showed so much hospitality and kindly schooled my wide-eyed, unknowing self about the ways of Old Harbor life. To the entire Haakanson family – you treated me like family and I will forever be grateful. Mother Mary, thanks for letting me stay in your home I will always remember the late night nachos. Phyllis and Glen thanks for making sure that I ―eat lots‖. Blondie thanks for the friendship, guidance, laughter, and teasing. Fisherman, thanks for introducing me to your family and community. Rolfie, Gwen, and Gwendolyn, thanks for letting me stay with your family during several visits and taking me fishing, camping, and keeping me fed. I would like to thank the many elders who shared with me their stories and attempted to teach me a bit about the Sugstun language. Paul ―Abalik‖ Kahutak, thanks for taking me out fishing nearly every sunny day and for being so open with your stories and history. Carl Christansen Sr, thanks for taking me fishing, going for walks, and sharing amazing stories about the days of salmon fishing. Papa George, you had an amazingly full and generous life, sharing stories and history with anyone who asked. I feel incredibly blessed that I had the opportunity to connect with you and hear your stories prior to your passing. And Laurence ―Ewok‖ Ashowak, my anagyuk, you mean the world to me and my dedication to you is contained in Chapter 6. I also would like to thank the many people who offered me their friendship during my time in Old Harbor. Lena, thanks for allowing me to join you in Sugstun language sessions and providing me with feedback on parts of my writing. Melissa and Zora, you are amazing. Thanks for your friendship and including me in good times, whether it be late night clam digging or winter towing. Teacon and Jennifer Simeonoff, thanks for the friendship, the endless games of Wizard, and all your guidance and advice. To the Overbeek family, many thanks for providing me with a place to stay, with a network of support, and lots of late night laughter over board games. I would like to offer thanks to so many other friends from Old Harbor who offered support, Freddie for giving me guidance about fishery politics, Barbara, Peter, Cody, Allen, Wesley Jr., Shaun, Tasha, Wanda, CJ and Angie, Jeanie, Peggy and Tony, Thomas, Walter, David, Sergie, Carol, Darrion, Garrett, Cami, Trinity, Alex, and all the kids. I would like to thank three families who graciously put me up in their houses while I was in Kodiak, AK. First the Whipple family – Erin, Wes, and Tessa – you didn‘t even know me and you offered to have me stay with you for a week and then many days i after, I can‘t even express my gratitude. I would also like to thank the Marsh family. Continued apologies for damaged done to your car while Mary and I were driving perhaps a bit too fast on the backroads. Mary, you are an amazing friend. Also, many thanks to Bev, Ali, and Elijah for putting me up in Kodiak. I offer my greatest appreciation to the Old Harbor tribal council and in particular president Conrad Peterson for agreeing to let me conduct this research and providing guidance. Finally, I would also like to thank the Alutiiq Museum for many forms of assistance in this project. The museum allowed me to witness Alutiiq/Sugstun language sessions where elders discussed place names, they confirmed the spelling of Alutiiq/Sugstun words, provided an important background about the history of the region, and allowed me to examine and photograph fishing artifacts. I am so grateful for your assistance. International Pacific Halibut Commission: I would also like to thank folks at the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) for your generous assistance with this project. This dissertation never would have been possible without you. I would like to thank director Bruce Lehman and research program manager Gregg Williams for allowing me to conduct the otolith analysis and providing so much assistance and support. The IPHC provided me with an office, lab space, access to their historical otolith collections, their otolith aging staff, and technical assistance to develop the project. I would also like to thank IPHC staff for including me in their community and bringing friendship at a time when I had few friends. Special thanks to Tim, Tracee, Steve K, Steve W, Robert, Claude, Juan, and all the sea and port samplers for the friendship and laughter. In addition, I offer my thanks to Don, a halibut fisherman, for offering me insights into political processes of the fishery. Funding: This project was generously supported through funds from several sources, these funds gave me the freedom to travel and fully immerse myself in the fishery. My appreciation goes to the National Science Foundation, the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change MacArthur program, the University of Minnesota Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment, and the Life Sciences, and the University of Minnesota dissertation fellowship program. University of Minnesota: Many thanks to friends and colleagues in the Conservation Biology program. You all provided support, guidance, and discussions that made my work so much better. I offer so much gratitude to my twin brain, Rachel Brummel; I really am not sure if this would have been possible without your support. Much gratitude to Erin, Genya, Leah, Adam, Liz, and Hadas. I would also like to offer my gratitude to Jason Breeggemann for his assistance in measuring halibut otoliths. This final product would not be nearly as good without the assistance I received from my colleagues in the American Indian Studies workshop. They workshopped ii several of my chapters, and helped me hone my ideas into something much better. Robert, Boyd and Tanya, Kate, Demetri, and many others, thanks for providing me support and friendship. I can say with 100% certainty that my dissertation would not look like anything like this without my involvement in the U of M Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC). The program and community of scholars it brought together opened my mind to new kinds of theory and ideas and provided a venue that encouraged innovative and cross-disciplinary thinking. I could not have incorporated the elements of anthropology, geography, and science studies that are central to this project without so much encouragement, support, and training from friends in the ICGC program. Thanks especially to Gina, Raj, Govind, Stuart, Jesse, Drew, and Yasmeen. Finally, I want to offer my greatest thanks to the six committee members who gave me so much guidance throughout this research project, who encouraged me to be creative, and who provided me with some amazing role models. Tamara, thanks so much for staying with me through this process and for so carefully and thoughtfully reading my material. It is only because of your constant guidance that I came to realize that this work is at its core a history project. Kurt, thanks for being so friendly and inclusive and providing an amazing example of how a physical scientist can engage with interdisciplinary material. Kristen, thanks for supporting the human dimensions aspects of my research from the beginning and for insisting that I remember to keep aspects of my work applied – those were very important lessons. Vinay, thank you for being so warm and open towards my research ideas. Thanks for encouraging me to be creative and to pursue my visions for this work. Sometimes it felt like you knew what I wanted to do with this work before even I did. You are an incredibly generous scholar. I also want to offer thanks to my two advisors. Jeani, I cannot offer enough thanks for your support of my work. Thank you for encouraging me to follow my own voice, for providing me with an intellectual community, and for showing me the potential of my research. Finally, George, you have been with me from the beginning and I am so grateful for the support you have given me in my research. You provided me guidance while also giving me the freedom to pursue new ideas. I came to University of Minnesota in order to work with you and I have learned so much from you. It has been an amazing collaboration. Friends and Family: Lastly, I would like to offer many thanks to my friends and family who provided me with so much support and guidance. I am so blessed to have some of the greatest friends in the world. First, I would like to thank Molly for convincing me that I was a writer from very early on.