Alaska Native Subsistence Rights: Taking an Anti-Racist Decolonizing Approach to Land Management and Ownership for Our Children and Generations to Come

Abstract

The colonization of Indigenous Peoples in Alaska was based on racism and founded the current systemic racism, discrimination, and marginalization they experience today. Land stewardship was in the hands of Indigenous Peoples, and through colonization their land and rights to steward that land were taken away. This paper is based on a participatory research project conducted in partnership with the Ninilchik Village Tribe (NVT) in Alaska utilizing ethnographic futures research scenario storytelling through Indigenous methodologies. Scenario interviews with community members explored land-based understandings of Indigenous sustainability and the roles that subsistence, food security, and food sovereignty have in maintaining sustainability and cultural continuity for children in the future. Due to state and federal land and water management practices, Alaska Natives are limited in their abilities to practice subsistence and steward their lands. An anti-racist approach to decolonizing land management and ownership is key to Alaska Natives regaining control of their subsistence rights for food security and cultural continuity for future generations. This paper speaks to policy makers, explaining the current racist and colonial situation and suggests an antiracist and decolonizing path forward through respecting Tribal sovereignty, prioritizing Indigenous-led stewardship, and giving land back to the Alaska Native Tribal Nations.