Idaho State University

NSF: Investigating Complex Human-Ecological Relationships Over Multidimensional Scales: the Sanak Islands Project. This is a multidisciplinary team of anthropologists and ecologists on Sanak Island in the North Pacific with the goal of investigating the long-term roles of humans within the ecosystem. We see the local inhabitants as key elements in the functioning of the north Pacific ecosystem, and are investigating how natural changes in the environment have conditioned human social behavior.

Collaborators: Dr. Herbert Maschner (ISU), Dr. Nancy Huntly (ISU), Dr. Jim Jordan (Antioch NE), Dr. Bruce Finney (University of Alaska)

This is a new proposal submitted to NSF for the International Polar Year initiative. This project draws from multidisciplinary perspectives in social, ecological and applied anthropology, cultural geography, and conservation biology to study the phenomena of globalization surrounding wild and farmed salmon. The study team will link historical processes and contemporary outcomes of the varying rates of global-scale commercial integrations of indigenous people and salmon using case-studies from the United States, Norway, Russia, Chile, Japan, and Tasmania.

 

Collaborators: Dr Benedict Colombi (University of Arizona), Dr. Herbert Maschner (ISU), Dr. Marianne Lien (University of Oslo), Dr. David Koester (University of Alaska-Fairbanks), Dr. Ariana Pitchon (California State-Dominguez Hills)

 

NSF Arctic Social Sciences: Analyzing Fisheries Policy and Alaska Native Testimony on the Area M Salmon Fisheries. This study is a structural analysis of the sociopolitical process of fisheries policymaking as it relates to Alaska Native fishermen and their families. Salmons’ migratory ranges cross numerous cultural boundaries, and each society lays claim to the fish in dynamic ways. The goals of this project are to test the link between indigenous people’s testimony at the Board of Fisheries level in order to understand indigenous relations with each other and with governmental entities, how they shape fisheries policies, and to understand the effects of past and current regulations. Fieldwork is in the Area M villages, Bethel, Nome, Chignik and Bristol Bay.

Sanak Islands Project

Salmon and Globalization

Fisheries Policy Project

Current and Future Research

I am currently maintaining a massive genealogical database of current and past generations of Aleut/Unangan, for both Aleut use and to assist in mapping sharing networks and other social relationships.

Aleut Genealogy

Steller sea lion collapse

Scandinavian heritages on the North Pacific

Oil/Gas development, North Aleutian Basin

 

Other Arctic Research

Future Research

Shoshone Bannock Traditional Gaming, Idaho

Energy Development in Idaho