Bristol Bay Culture Camp 2021

The Bristol Bay Native Corporation Culture Camp 2021 was a seven-day immersive learning experience through Indigenous Alaska Native cultural activities and ways of knowing of three major Alaska Native groups — Yup’ik, Sugt’stun and Dena’ina. Fourteen high school students, all shareholders in the BBNC, took part in the activities.

Sarah Mitchell was one of four instructors who worked with UAF and the Village of Igiugig to advance Indigenous knowledge systems by preserving Native ways of knowing and understanding ways they align with Western educational criteria. 

In the study of joining Indigenous ways of knowing into Western educational frameworks, many researchers argue the importance of blending. Researcher Cash Ahenakew explains how Indigenous cultures use the land as a learning base. Ahenakew also argues the importance of including Elders in the educational process. Using their knowledge of connecting to the land is priceless, and can be used in real-world situations.

The staff and Elders of the BBNC Culture Camp focused on the learning aspect of each activity, spanning a wide array of STEM activities. Each day the students, staff, and Elders spoke in their Indigenous languages about the weather in detail. Topics included: the sun, types of rain, cloud formations, wind direction and speed, as well as local ways of predicting the next day of weather, one example being that the black ducks fly a certain direction when the next day will be nice. This way of predicting the weather was proven during the camp.

The students also learned boat safety. Using math and physics, they were shown how to balance a boat with weight to provide the safest crossing over water. They also learned about the different types of hulls needed, depending on the waters that will be crossed (e.g., flat bottoms for rivers and creeks and V-bottom boats for lakes and deeper waters).

Subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering are a central way of life to Alaska’s Indigenous peoples. The students and staff all got to take part in catching, cutting, prepping, brining, smoking, and canning wild caught sockeye salmon. They learned how to bleed the sockeye salmon, what each body part is and what it is used for. Two Elders are former teachers and included Indigenous language when explaining how to cut the fish with uluaqs/vashlas (traditional rounded knives) and what thickness and angles would produce the best smoked fish. Brining, drying, and smoking the fish provided essential knowledge on the uses of tools, salt, air, wood, smoke, and time to properly put smoke fish away. Canning the three-day smoked salmon included the use of heat and jars to preserve fish for the winter. As the week went on, the students took part in berry picking to make the traditional desserts of navagii and akutaq.

While berry picking, they experienced the importance of spatial awareness while in bogs and were told how to keep themselves from going under in a deep bog. The berries contain specific vitamins essential for bodies to remain healthy in a subarctic environment. Each student was taught how to make insect repellant and medicinal salves, which incorporated botany and chemistry with local plants and herbs found throughout Bristol Bay.

All camp participants were able to make their own drum with skins, a wood frame and leather lashings by following the specific blueprints provided. They were taught the use of water to soften the skins and hide strings to make them pliable enough to stretch and tie around the wooden frame. Once the drums were dry they were shown how the thickness of the hide and the dryness of it changes the sound it will make. Due to weather, the sound of the drums changed as well and they were shown how to warm the skin to change the sound of the drum.

With the camp located at Igyaraq, campers gleaned insight into Yup’ik ways of naming geography like "water down the throat,” signaling the location of Lake Iliamna as it drained into the Kvichak River. They learned how to identify themselves with “Igyararmiunguunga,” or "I belong to the place _______ ," as well as the meaning behind village names in Bristol Bay.

Elders told stories that aim to help students learn and grow, including the Stone Lady story, which contains a moral for living, and Stupid Boy stories that show the importance in listening to elders and responsible adults. The Stone Lady in particular contained deep environmental knowledge, like location of events, geographic features on the landscape, and water levels predicting the strength of the salmon run. It also taught a mnemonic method (storyknifing) to listen and recount a lesson.

Each camper had the chance to carve their own oil lamp, make fish skin leather as well as miniature Alutiiq visors. All of these activities combined created an immersive learning environment that tied the participants to their Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

"BBNC’s culture camp is a great foundational way of learning that can be widely used throughout our region and state," Mitchell said. "For too long our Indigenous ways of being have been disregarded by Western education, and seeing it now being cherished and welcomed is life changing. I once heard someone say, 'Don’t teach me my culture, use my culture to teach me.' I find this incredibly relevant, and am proud to say that the BBNC Culture Camp has done exactly that."

One aspect that was present throughout the week was the emphasis on being a “whole” person. Every activity focused on unity and wholeness as a people, and how they relate to STEM. It was evident when an elder explained counting in Yugtun and the mathematical explanation or the numbers. Five is from the root of one arm, numbers 6-10 includes the “other half” of the upper body, 15-19 counts the bottom half with emphasis on 19 being almost a whole person and 20 meaning a whole person.

Mitchell emphasized that although the camp's activities were related to STEM,  Indigenous teachings and values span across every aspect of learning, not just STEM. She said that the students, Elders and staff were enveloped in the teachings and explanations that encourage living a whole life as an Indigenous person, with a focus on traditional values of unity, wholeness and respect.

Organizers plan to continue the culture camp next year. For more information, call the Bristol Bay Campus at 907-842-5109.