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This Indigenous-led project aims to better understand historical and contemporary ways in which Alaska Native Peoples steward salmon and the values connected to salmon stewardship. Indigenous Peoples have stewarded Alaska lands and waters for thousands of years yet have been largely excluded from western science and management systems. In this project, we utilize a participatory approach that allows for the equitable valuing of ideas and knowledges to document the breadth and depth of Yup'ik and Athabascan knowledge and governance systems in southwestern Alaska. We reshape research methodologies by centering Indigenous frameworks and methodologies, including circle dialogues and multi-generational interviews led by Indigenous scholars and students in their home communities and regions. In this paper, we share the Yup'ik and Athabascan values, knowledge, management, and governance mechanisms that can improve the long-term sustainability and equity of Alaska salmon systems. This research elevates the voices of Alaska Native salmon stewards and experts from the Kuskokwim Bay and the Kuskokwim River. We elaborate on five key themes that emerged from this research, including traditional Indigenous ways of life, Indigenous stewardship, self-determination, food and livelihood sovereignty, and ecosystem changes, and identify a more equitable and sustainable path forward for salmon and people in Alaska.
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This content will become publicly available on March 26, 2026
Reckoning with coloniality: Trawl fisheries governance and the fight for equity and environmental justice in Alaska
ABSTRACT We examine the coloniality of Alaska pollock (Walleye Pollock Gadus chalcogrammus) trawl fisheries governance and its role in enabling salmon bycatch, highlighting the resulting impacts on Alaska Native communities and subsistence practices. We expose how the systemic marginalization of Alaska Native voices and knowledge in federal fisheries management perpetuates dispossession, oppression, and is a barrier to food sovereignty and environmental justice. Alaska Native communities have long attributed the decline of salmon populations, particularly Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and Chum Salmon O. keta, to bycatch from the pollock trawl fishery—a concern ignored for over a decade. The repeated failure to meet salmon escapement goals has led to subsistence and commercial fishery closures, deepening food insecurity, health crises, and cultural disruption for Alaska Native peoples. Meanwhile, industrial trawl fisheries persist with minimal accountability, exacerbating ecological harm by capturing nontarget species, such as salmon, halibut, and crab, further impacting local, nonindustrial fisheries. We advocate for urgent reform of Alaska’s federal fisheries governance to center Alaska Native voices, integrate Indigenous knowledge, and address inequities in salmon allocation. Specifically, we call for revisions to the national standards of the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to ensure policies that respect Native sovereignty, promote sustainability, and mitigate the ecological and social consequences of industrial trawling. This approach is critical to achieving equitable and sustainable fisheries management that upholds environmental justice and Alaska Native rights.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2022190
- PAR ID:
- 10658309
- Publisher / Repository:
- Fisheries
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Fisheries
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0363-2415
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 416 to 427
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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