2026-05-24T03:04:00Zhttps://keep.lib.asu.edu/oai/request

oai:keep.lib.asu.edu:node-2023942025-08-18T22:22:09Zoai_pmh:alloai_pmh:repo_items

202394 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.202394 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ All Rights Reserved 2025 75 pages Masters Thesis Academic theses en Frankson, Priscilla Caughman, Liliana York, Abigail BurnSilver, Shauna Arizona State University Partial requirement for: M.S., Arizona State University, 2025 Field of study: American Indian Studies This paper examines Alaska Native sovereignty and land stewardship through a case study of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd (WACH) decline, integrating Indigenous knowledge and Western science using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach and the practice of ethical space. Through a document analysis of a possible policy that would change the bag limit from five tuttu per day to four tuttu per year with only one being a cow. The predetermined themes of carrying capacity and wilderness where not explicitly used within the policy document that was analyzed. What was found was the consensus within multiple parties that the herd will need conservation efforts to protect the future of the population. Through emergent themes of subsistence practices, traditional rules for tuttu hunting, and the communities’ connections to tuttu. Practices of ethical space will be explored to bring in two knowledge systems together who both have one common goal, which is to conserve the herd. This case study will also explore mixed economies and the reliance that rural Arctic communities have with the outside world with the use of snowmachines, motorboats, or 4-wheelers. In turn the reliance that hunters or their families have with the cash economy. With the understanding that mixed economies include the following: (1) market exchange, (2) subsistence activities, and (3) culturally sustained social relations continued through the sharing of wild foods and other resources. This paper will explain the nuances of the relationship through the corporate structure of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) between Alaska Native people and the federal government. Then the fight for Native subsistence hunting rights after ANCSA extinguished aboriginal title to land and hunting rights. The passing of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) that gave rural Alaskans the opportunity to practice subsistence on public lands that the state government could choose. The decline of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd case study highlights the ongoing struggle for Alaska Native sovereignty and self-determination, while also emphasizing the shared responsibility of all parties to ensure the herds long-term survival. American studies Alaska Arctic Dual Methodology Game Management Indigenous Knowledge Western Arctic Caribou Herd Alaska Native Sovereignty and Responsibility to Land: A Case Study of the Decline of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd