A History of Salmon Fishing and Contemporary Issues in the Upper Kuskokwim Region, Alaska, U.S.A.

Abstract

In this paper, I describe a history of indigenous salmon fishing technologies and management issues in the Upper Kuskokwim region, Alaska, U.S.A. As a traditional food, salmon has been an important part of culture for the Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan people. Intensive contacts with non-Natives in the early 20th century brought some changes to Upper Kuskokwim people’s subsistence technologies including fishwheels, which made it possible to obtain large amount of salmon efficiently in siltladen main streams of the Upper Kuskokwim tributaries. Conflicts with non-Native wildlife management regime began after Alaska's statehood when the State banned salmon fishing technology which involves blocking the entire width of a river or stream. As a result, Upper Kuskokwim people were forced to abandon their fishing weirs and fences at Salmon River since the late 1960s. After a decade or so, subsistence salmon fishing with rods and reels resumed at Salmon River. Nowadays, Salmon River Culture Camp has been organized by Nikolai Village Council to revitalize their fishing traditions. Since the 2010s, severe decline of king salmon populations in Alaska and Yukon has become a serious issue in indigenous societies of the areas. Local people think that commercial fishing (including bycatch) in high sea negatively affects the king salmon populations, while some others point out that increased activities by beavers and low-level of water in interior rivers might have been causing disruption of salmon's upstream migration. Through my observation of people's activities in salmon spawning areas, I argue that making a small opening to beaver dams (instead of totally destroying them) may actually benefit spawning salmon populations.