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Previous studies indicate streams in the watershed of Anchorage, AK, contain elevated concentrations of several Potentially Toxic Metals (PTMs) in the water, suspended and streambed sediment and benthic macro invertebrates. This study investigated the sources, distribution, and uptake of PTMs by aquatic organisms in the watershed and their relationship to land-use patterns. Sampling sites were chosen that represent the watercourses of each of the four major streams in Anchorage. Water, streambed sediment, various species of benthic macroinvertebrates and slimy sculpin ( Cottus cognatus ) were collected throughout the summer of 2005. A lake sediment core was also collected from Campbell Lake to assess PTM deposition...
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Mining landscapes are avowedly complex and dynamic cultural resources, representing an important part of the nation's cultural heritage. They reflect changes in technology, social organization, and the influence of outside events. Mining landscapes are also representative of the experiences of change over time. This representative experience is not well-represented in the typical approach to considering preservation of mining districts during the review of federal projects. This thesis takes a different approach, developing a classification system with a greater focus on the changes that occur, and tests this against a small-scale lode mining district in Southcentral Alaska. While the ability to factor in change...
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Political ecology is a holistic mode of inquiry that applies political analysis to resource use and access by actors and organizations interacting in defined social and cultural contexts. This thesis uses a political ecology perspective to reveal how the Atna' Athabaskan people of South central Alaska use their knowledge of their environment to articulate a specific claim to Copper River salmon. Three case studies of Atna' public activism are presented demonstrating Atna' practice in governmental regulatory process. The position of the Atna' in the Copper River salmon fishery is contrasted with three other north Pacific Native American salmon regimes in order to demonstrate the special features of the Atna' context.
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Dena'ina oral tradition indicates that the antecedent worldview brought with the migrating Athabascan Dena'ina into the Cook Inlet Basin and the Lake Clark/Iliamna Lake region included dual organization, perhaps moieties, matrilineal descent, a preferential rule for cross cousin marriage, and customs in which on ceremonial occasions guests would perform services for hosts, who recompensed the former with goods. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence is summarized in this thesis that indicates that the Dena'ina communal hunting and gathering and intensive salmon fishing strategy, in combination with borrowed Alutiiq technology, was a successful adaptation to the maritime/riverine environment of the Cook Inlet Basin...
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Cultural change should not be viewed as the slow breakdown of a "traditional" culture through absorption but rather as the blending of different components of each interacting cultural group, blurring elements through temporal change. A modified version of the core-periphery model in which both micro-level and macro-level perspectives are utilized provides a framework in which to study interethnic relations within the zone of cultural interaction. Prior to contact, the Dena'ina had successfully adjusted their subsistence strategies in order to exploit an array of ecological niches. The flexibility to reformulate their sociopolitical structure continued throughout the contact period, allowing their participation...
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