Kelp-Fed Beef, Swimming Caribou, Feral Reindeer, and Their Hunters: Island Mammals in a Marine Economy

Abstract

Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula residents have selectively introduced land mammals to their primarily marine based economy over the past two centuries. This paper describes these many introductions, contexts, and the longer term roles of these cattle, sheep, reindeer, and other land mammals in discrete island settings and the regional food economy based upon interviews in ten communities and comprehensive household surveys in eight of these. Caribou are indigenous and traditionally hunted in other parts of the state but are legally "invasive" in island contexts now managed by the federal government. Access to land and natural resources by Alaska Natives and rural peoples is regulated by state and federal agencies, but Aleutian residents have shaped their environment and engineered food sources to support their communities. This paper demonstrates that hardline approaches to removing invasive land mammal species will have human consequences and an integrated management policy emphasizing food security and conservation that includes reducing the density of these introduced species is most appropriate.

"You can never replace the caribou": Inuit Experiences of Ecological Grief from Caribou Declines

“…While Inuit in both the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador have been actively researching, monitoring, and making management recommendations about caribou, the rapid decline in caribou, the current ban on harvesting, and the resulting loss of access to caribou have led to experiences of strong emotional responses, such as the experiences of sadness, anger, frustration, shock, depression, and grief. These findings align with results from a recent scoping review by members of our research team, with other studies that documented the mental and emotional connections between caribou and Indigenous peoples in the Circumpolar North (Bali & Kofinas, 2014;Polfus et al, 2017;Reedy, 2016;Zoe, 2012), and with research examining the ways in which changing climates and environments at a broader scale lead to negative mental health outcomes, including grief over environmentally-based losses (e.g. Berry et al, 2010;Clayton et al, 2017;Cunsolo Willox et al, 2013a, 2013bDodd et al, 2018;Minor et al, 2019).…”

“…Inuit in Labrador identified an interconnected relationship with caribou that has spanned thousands of years, at once connecting people to caribou, to the land, to each other, to culture, to knowledge, and to both previous and future generations. Given this type of enduring cultural relationship with caribou-and indeed, a relationship that has been expressed by Indigenous peoples about caribou throughout the Circumpolar North (Castro et al, 2016;Meis Mason et al, 2007;Muir & Booth, 2012;Parlee & Caine, 2017;Parlee et al, 2018;Polfus et al, 2017;Reedy, 2016;Rixen & Blangy, 2016;Wray & Parlee, 2013)-the loss of caribou is something that challenges people on a deep personal and cultural level. Many Inuit in this study were expressing stress, sadness, and grief about what it means for Inuit life, livelihoods, communities, culture, and ways of knowing to move forward in a world that may no longer include caribou.…”

“It’s like a connection between all of us”: Inuit social connections and caribou declines in Labrador, Canada

“…Caribou-related activities were viewed as events that facilitated family gatherings, interaction, and shared experiences; contributed to intra-family participation and teamwork for a single activity; and supported ties between different generations within a family, while also maintaining connections with those who have passed away. These findings expand on previous work conducted in other parts of North America that recognize the interconnections between caribou and Indigenous familial bonds, relationships, and co-operation (Beaumier et al 2015, Walsh 2015, Reedy 2016, Rixen and Blangy 2016, Maracle et al 2018. For example, caribou-related livelihoods played an important role for the well-being of Inuit in Qamini'tuaq, Nunavut, through their role in family cohesion (Rixen and Blangy 2016), while the herding of reindeer on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, was seen as an important activity for uniting extended families together (Dillingham 1999).…”

“…Fourth, many participants in this research discussed the role caribou played in inter-community interactions, including how caribou enabled people to travel throughout Labrador and meet new people, develop friendships, and work collaboratively across communities. Similar inter-community dynamics through caribou and caribou-related activities have been described throughout the literature, including networks established across regions and provinces (Dragon 2002, Meis Mason et al 2007, Reedy 2016, and even between countries (Maracle et al 2018). For example, Caribou Eater Chipewyan across Manitoba were "bound to one another by complex ties of kinship and marriage, which provided a communications network extending through those bands dependent on the Kaminuriak and Beverly caribou populations" (Smith 1978:75), and Vuntut Gwich'in living on opposite sides of the state-imposed USA-Canadian border continue to socialize on caribou hunts together and share caribou meat across communities and country lines (Maracle et al 2018).…”