Chris J. Cuomo

Producing an Indigenous Knowledge Web GIS for Arctic Alaska Communities: Challenges, Successes, and Lessons Learned

A traditional knowledge “Inupiaq Web GIS”, based on a five-year study and containing observations and environmental knowledge of Inupiat communities indigenous to Arctic Alaska, was incorporated into a Web-based platform. The website, “Arctic Cultural Cartography,” was created to be an open portal through which the password-protected “Inupiaq Web GIS” could be accessed. We discuss the process of developing the web GIS including the incorporation of user-friendly features such as links to interactive maps, video clips of interviews, discussion boards, and the integration of popular web interfaces such as Facebook. We also discuss short- and long-term goals for the further development of the GIS, its potential as a sustainable, participatory online database for sharing pertinent ecological knowledge, and challenges in achieving optimal community involvement given constraints imposed by remote locations with limited bandwidth.

Environmental, cultural, and social change in Arctic Alaska as observed by Iñupiat elders over their lifetimes: a GIS synthesis

Abstract Since 2003 our research team has been interviewing Iñupiat elders and incorporating their indigenous knowledge (IK) about the environment into a specially designed Geographic Information System (GIS). We present a synthesis of the climate and landscape change information shared during the IK GIS project. We also summarize observations, which are not geographically specific and thus not expressible as GIS data points. We present several analyses of our dataset to date. These include a frequency analysis of the topically classified geocoded observations based on elder interviews, a summary of the geographic distribution of those observations, and a discussion of non-georeferenced observations. We identify several themes that IK holders and elders felt were crucial to record and discuss. Many of these observations include environmental, cultural, and historical knowledge, and reflect the perception that their world has substantially changed in the course of their lifetimes.