IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2023i1p248-d1034681.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alaska Native Allotments at Risk: Technological Strategies for Monitoring Erosion and Informing Solutions in Southwest Alaska

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan S. Lim

    (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3TG, UK)

  • Sean Gleason

    (Hampden Sydney College, Hampden Sydney, VA 23943, USA)

  • Hannah Strehlau

    (Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, 24837 Schleswig, Germany)

  • Lynn Church

    (Nalaquq, Quinhagak, AK 99655, USA)

  • Carl Nicolai

    (Qanirtuuq Inc., Quinhagak, AK 99655, USA)

  • Willard Church

    (Independent Researcher, Quinhagak, AK 99655, USA)

  • Warren Jones

    (Qanirtuuq Inc., Quinhagak, AK 99655, USA)

Abstract

After the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, Alaska Native lands have existed in a legal state of aboriginal title, whereby the land rights of its traditional occupants could be extinguished by Congress at any time. With the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, however, Alaska Native individuals were given the opportunity to select and secure a title to ancestral lands as federally administered ANCSA 14(c) allotments. Today, though, these allotments are threatened by climate-change-driven erosion. In response, our article provides an erosion monitoring tool to quantify the damage caused by coastal and riverine erosion. Using the Yup’ik (pl. Yupiit) community of Quinhagak as a case study, we employ high-precision measurement devices and archival spatial datasets to demonstrate the immense scale of the loss of cultural lands in this region. From 1976 to 2022, an average of 30.87 m of coastline were lost according to 9 ANCSA 14(c) case studies within Quinhagak’s Traditional Land Use Area. In response, we present a free erosion monitoring tool and urge tribal entities in Alaska to replicate our methods for recording and quantifying erosion on their shareholders’ ANCSA 14(c) properties. Doing so will foster urgent dialogue between Alaskan Native communities and lawmakers to determine what measures are needed to protect Alaska Native land rights in the face of new environmental challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan S. Lim & Sean Gleason & Hannah Strehlau & Lynn Church & Carl Nicolai & Willard Church & Warren Jones, 2023. "Alaska Native Allotments at Risk: Technological Strategies for Monitoring Erosion and Informing Solutions in Southwest Alaska," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:1:p:248-:d:1034681
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/1/248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/1/248/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorena Becerra-Valdivia & Thomas Higham, 2020. "The timing and effect of the earliest human arrivals in North America," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7819), pages 93-97, August.
    2. Jonathan D. Oldfield, 2016. "Mikhail Budyko's (1920–2001) contributions to Global Climate Science: from heat balances to climate change and global ecology," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(5), pages 682-692, September.
    3. Todd J. Brinkman & Winslow D. Hansen & F. Stuart Chapin & Gary Kofinas & Shauna BurnSilver & T. Scott Rupp, 2016. "Arctic communities perceive climate impacts on access as a critical challenge to availability of subsistence resources," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 413-427, December.
    4. Elizaveta Barrett Ristroph, 2021. "Navigating climate change adaptation assistance for communities: a case study of Newtok Village, Alaska," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(3), pages 329-340, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pilowsky, Julia A. & Manica, Andrea & Brown, Stuart & Rahbek, Carsten & Fordham, Damien A., 2022. "Simulations of human migration into North America are more sensitive to demography than choice of palaeoclimate model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).
    2. Katy Davis & James D. Ford & Claire H. Quinn & Anuszka Mosurska & Melanie Flynn & IHACC Research Team & Sherilee L. Harper, 2022. "Shifting Safeties and Mobilities on the Land in Arctic North America: A Systematic Approach to Identifying the Root Causes of Disaster," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Emilie Zentner & Maik Kecinski & Angeline Letourneau & Debra Davidson, 2019. "Ignoring Indigenous peoples—climate change, oil development, and Indigenous rights clash in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 533-544, August.
    4. Schwoerer, Tobias & Schmidt, Jennifer I. & Holen, Davin, 2020. "Predicting the Food-Energy Nexus of Wild Food Systems: Informing Energy Transitions for Isolated Indigenous Communities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Bélisle, Annie Claude & Wapachee, Alice & Asselin, Hugo, 2021. "From landscape practices to ecosystem services: Landscape valuation in Indigenous contexts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    6. Dana R. N. Brown & Todd J. Brinkman & W. Robert Bolton & Caroline L. Brown & Helen S. Cold & Teresa N. Hollingsworth & David L. Verbyla, 2020. "Implications of climate variability and changing seasonal hydrology for subarctic riverbank erosion," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Emily J. Potratz & Robert D. Holt & Joel S. Brown, 2024. "Ecology of Fear: Acclimation and Adaptations to Hunting by Humans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-20, January.
    8. Benjamin Beuerle, 2023. "From continuity to change: Soviet and Russian government attitudes on climate change (1989–2009)," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(4), pages 1-19, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:1:p:248-:d:1034681. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.