Crossroads of Continents and Modern Boundaries: An Introduction to Inuit and Chukchi Experiences in the Bering Strait, Beaufort Sea, and Baffin Bay

Abstract

The homeland of Inuit extends from Asia and the Bering Sea to Greenland and the Atlantic Ocean. Inuit and their Chukchi neighbors have always been highly mobile, but the imposition of three international borders in the region constrained travel, trade, hunting, and resource stewardship among neighboring groups. Colonization, assimilation, and enforcement of national laws further separated those even from the same family. In recent decades, Inuit and Chukchi have re-established many ties across those boundaries, making it easier to travel and trade with one another and to create new institutions of environmental management. To introduce Indigenous perspectives into the discussion of transboundary maritime water connections in the Arctic, this paper presents personal descriptions of what those connections mean to people who live and work along and across each of the national frontiers within the region: Russia–U.S., U.S.–Canada, and Canada–Greenland. Some of these connections have been made in cooperation with national governments, some in the absence of government activity, and some despite opposition from national governments. In all cases, the shared culture of the region has provided a common foundation for a shared vision and commitment to cooperation and the resumption of Indigenous self-determination within their homelands.

A framework for co-production of knowledge in the context of Arctic research

“…The equitable inclusion of Indigenous communities in research has been a challenge, in some part due to the unequal power dynamics at play in typical research relationships (Nadasdy 1999, Schreiber and Newell 2006 and the history of colonization (Huntington et al 2020). Funders, policymakers, and society in general, more commonly place a higher value on information derived from science than information coming from Indigenous Peoples.…”

The Sea Unites Us but It Is Governed to Keep Us Apart: Restoring the Creole Afro-Indigenous Sea Mobilities in the Southwestern Caribbean.

“…Some of the fields drawing scholarly attention regarding movements across international boundary lines include environmental migration (Zickgraf, 2022), sea migrants (Burroughs & Williams, 2018), and transnational seafarers (Sampson, 2014). Marine social researchers studying the topic in different parts of the world demonstrate how marine practices, and fishing in particular, are affected by maritime boundary regimes (Nimführ & Otto, 2021;Scholtens et al, 2019;Song, 2021), and point out some of the counter-territorialization strategies developed by coastal populations and indigenous communities to contest stateimposed sea immobility (Barrena et al, 2022;Huntington et al, 2020;Stephen & Menon, 2016). Furthermore, ocean critical socio-legal scholars have moved beyond the inquiries around the flows and motion of ships, boats, people, goods, and ideas 'across' the sea to study the legalities of marine life and non- living resource movements happening across borders, under, and through the three-dimensional nature of the ocean and our planet waters (Peters & Squire, 2019;Peters & Steinberg, 2019).…”