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Science and Culture Camp in Bethel

Nov. 24, 2021

This past July, the Orutsararmiut Native Council’s Natural Resources Department partnered with the ²ÝÁñÉçÇø’s Kuskokwim Campus to offer an intensive two-week science and culture class, where students from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta could earn 2 college credits. 

With a fully vaccinated group of students and faculty, 15 students from across the Y-K Delta were able to come together in person for the full learning experience. These students were exposed to a range of classes, including subsistence management of salmon resources, moose biology, ethnobotany, and Yup’ik epistemology (way of knowing) and ontologies (nature of being). 

Daytime activities involved classroom lectures and hands-on experiential learning. The settings ranged from science laboratories to a traditional fish camp and classes held on the tundra, and included drift net fishing, cutting and preparing fish, along with visiting a fishery sonar site. Laboratory classes learned about scientific ways of assessing the health of wildlife populations by articulating a seal skeleton and performing a necropsy on sea otters.

Partnership with the University of ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus, allowed for the program to become a recognized undergraduate class. With the INBRE program’s support for curriculum development, Professor Shannon Atkinson served as the ²ÝÁñÉçÇø instructor of record and partnered with ²ÝÁñÉçÇø alumna Janessa Esquible, who initiated the science and culture camp through ONC in 2016. The class development team also included Katie Rearden, KuC assistant director; Ryan Henderson, KuC’s college readiness coordinator; and Karaline Black, Katie Russell and Danielle Lowrey, of ONC’s Natural Resources Department. 

The program was funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Youth Initiative, First ²ÝÁñÉçÇøns Institute, Rural ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Community Action Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Orutsararmiut Native Council. ONC will work to continue the summer camp in 2022 with in-person instruction and university credit. 

If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out to Danielle Lowrey at dlowrey@nativecouncil.org or call ONC at 907-543-2608 and ask for the Natural Resources Department. 

Written by Shannon Atkinson, ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Professor, Fisheries Department and Institute of Marine Science; Janessa Esquible, ONC Natural Resources Department director; and Karaline Black, Katie Russell and Danielle Lowrey, ONC Natural Resources Department