K Reedy-Maschner

An Introduction to the Biocomplexity of Sanak Island, Western Gulf of Alaska

Abstract: The Sanak Biocomplexity Project is a transdisciplinary research effort focused on a small island archipelago 50 km south of the Alaska Peninsula in the western Gulf of Alaska. This team of archaeologists, terrestrial ecologists, social anthropologists, intertidal ecologists, geologists, oceanographers, paleoecologists, and modelers is seeking to understanding the role of the ancient, historic, and modern Aleut in the structure and functioning of local and regional ecosystems. Using techniques ranging from systematic surveys to stable isotope chemistry, long-term shifts in social dynamics and ecosystem structure are present in the context of changing climatic regimes and human impacts. This paper presents a summary of a range of our preliminary findings.

Where Did All the Aleut Men Go?: Aleut Male Attrition and Related Patterns in Aleutian Historical Demography and Social Organization

Abstract Historical, economic, and political influences on Aleut demography and social organization are considered in relation to an apparent deficit of Aleut males in the early 20th century. Ethnohistoric records detail persistent waves of explorers, fur hunters, missionaries, bureaucrats, and foreign fishermen coming to the Aleutian region for economic exploitation, with some making it their home. The first major wave consisted of Russian and Siberian crews in pursuit of sea otters and fur seals. These entrepreneurs moved Aleut men to hunting grounds and replaced a large portion of them in the villages. The second wave consisted of Scandinavian and other European immigrants who followed cod, halibut, and herring fisheries and who married into eastern Aleut villages. These movements resulted in two genealogical deficits of Aleut men with concomitant shifts in social organization and economic emphases that contribute to the modern diversity of Aleut society. Aleut evacuation during World War II exacerbated these sex imbalances in the villages of the western Aleutian and Pribilof islands.

Salmon Politicians: Mapping Boundaries, Resources, and People at the Bristol Bay–Aleutian Border

Commercial fishing in Alaska must be preceded by skilled political action by fishermen and local communities, drawing on diverse sociopolitical resources to improve access to fisheries for themselves and their constituents. The interplay of politics before the Alaska Board of Fisheries between resident and transient fishermen shapes southern Bering Sea Alaska Peninsula salmon fisheries. By analyzing how various models of management, boundaries, fleets, and villages are deployed, the realities and positions of place, tradition, flexibility, and expertise from which these groups engage with the political arena expose power relations that create and transform high-value, volatile, heavily regulated, commercial salmon fisheries. Resident, indigenous fishermen and transient fleets are on unequal footing in these processes because of differential access to funds, science, identity resources, and organization. Local communities are often unaccounted for in the final decisions to implement changes in fisheries policy in favor of a desocialized vision of space.