Projects

• Held statewide regional meetings that documented traditional knowledge and observations of concern to Alaska Natives and led to the creation of a searchable one-of-a-kind database. The reports, funded by NSF are available for download.

• Provided training, coordination of lab analyses, report development, and dissemination for the Traditional Knowledge and Contaminants Program that developed a cadre of community participant researchers who collected traditional food samples for contaminant analyses.

• Completed the Wild Foods Safety Program that documented existing community nutrition and consumption levels of wild and traditional foods.

• Provided liaison services between scores of researchers and Alaska Native communities and resource people.

• Documented traditional knowledge and local observations involving climate change, habitat and wildlife anomalies and distributed the information through conference presentations, newsletters, and the ANSC websites.

• Provided in-depth, cross-cultural orientation to researchers. Developed protocols and conducted educational programs for researchers in processes, protocols, and other information to assist researchers to work with Alaska Native communities.

• Provided input and direction in scientific forums about areas conducive to research partnerships with Alaska Natives and highlighting needs for new or expanded research.

• Provided the leadership and facilitation for Snowchange 2005 where indigenous leaders from 8 Arctic countries deliberated on climate related changes and observations (report pending).

• Completed the collection and analysis of traditional foods from 13 communities in four geographic areas of Alaska.

• Facilitated a National Subsistence Technical-Planning Meeting for the Protection of Traditional & Tribal Life-ways, funded by US EPA, and developed a national subsistence database on the ANSC website. Report is available for download.

• Updated and expanded ANSC’s two websites: www.nativescience.org and www.nativeknowledge.org, that contain several interactive databases (all databases allow researchers and communities to input additional data to keep them current), including:

• a database of NSF research projects being conducted in Alaska; a community knowledge database for researchers and scientists conducting research in or around Alaska Native communities;

• a community directory identifying local, statewide, and federally recognized Alaska Native agencies;

• a database of Native subsistence projects being conducted around the nation.

• The Native Knowledge website contains 7 years of data on Alaska Traditional Knowledge and Native Foods and provides contaminant data, harvest data, consumption data, nutrition, and community harvest descriptions, Native knowledge network, research on contaminants, research-based knowledge, and Native concerns for each village in Alaska.

• Published bi-annual newsletters to scientists, institutions, and Alaska Native communities on a range of Alaska science and research-related issues.

• Presented at many major scientific and other forums on Alaska Native observations and concerns about contaminants and global climate change, including: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, World Wilderness Congress, HARC/SEARCH (Human Dimension of the Arctic System and Study of Environmental Arctic Change) meetings, AFN Leadership Summit, Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Conventions, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) Information meetings, Partnering in Research Seminar, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Symposia, International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS), Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., Alaska Forum on the Environment, American Fisheries Society annual meeting, World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education, NPR National Native News, BBC radio and TV, and local radio and TV stations.

• Provided Alaska Native representation and participation in the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study program funded by the National Science Foundation.

• Provided Alaska Native perspectives on Alaskan issues at a nationwide EPA regional directors’ planning meeting in 2004.

• Developed and taught a 500-level University of Alaska Anchorage graduate course on Alaska Native Perspectives on Western Science and Environmentalism in 2005.

• Made extensive contacts with researchers at training sessions, board meetings, regional meetings, professional meetings and presentations, and various local, national, and international meetings and conferences, as well as in response to email, phone and mail requests.

• Provided assistance in Weather Workshops in Huslia, Alaska, attended by Alaska Native elders, leaders, and scientists, highlighting Alaska Native observations and issues concerning Arctic climate issues (funded by NSF).

• Provided information on research protocols and ethics, intellectual property rights, and the uses of local and traditional knowledge in science research . Guidelines for respecting cultural knowledge, project results, code of research ethics, quality assurance, general research protocols for conducting research in Alaska Native communities, and a partnership template agreement are posted on www.nativescience.org.

• Developed numerous presentations and position papers and are available to researchers upon request.

• Completed the Social Transition in the North Project, an anthropological study of health, population growth and socialization in Alaska and the Russian Far East, initiated as a result of the AFN Call to Action reports. ANSC stepped in to complete the project when all principal investigators were killed in a boating accident in Russia . The STN collection is now housed at UAA.

• In the past three years, ANSC engaged 14 Native college Student Interns and facilitated intern positions with other organizations and researchers focused on science and traditional knowledge and wisdom. The staff also worked with many students by mentoring and advising on senior projects, Master’s thesis, and doctoral dissertations.