Alaska: preserving nature but losing culture?
A search into the difficulties Native Alaskans face
Alaska, the largest state of the USA, has a size similar of The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Spain combined. Only about 800.000 people live there, imagine just the city of Amsterdam spread out on all this land. Well, it is clearly the land of the wilderness with more than 3 million lakes, seventy active volcanoes and seventeen of the twenty highest mountains of the USA that can be found there. The land of the midnight sun and the polar night, the land of cold and snowy winters where -35 degrees Celsius are no exception in the North. Alaska: The Last Frontier.
The travelers who reached Alaska
Just like Canada, the Indigenous, or Native People were the first humans to inhabit Alaska. The most well-known theory is that more than 16.000 years ago (some theories suggest even 30.000 years ago) the Bering Strait, the sea between Russia and Alaska, was solid frozen and people traveled over the ice. These Natives traveled and settled throughout Alaska, Canada and even further down south to the lower parts of the USA. As can be read in the previous article about Canada, a conflict arose between them and the western people when Europeans discovered North America and colonized it. When Europeans reached Alaska, estimates tell us there were about 80.000 to 90.000 Natives living there, which soon declined because of diseases after contact.
Still today, about 20% of Alaskans are Natives, a larger proportion than any other state. Especially in the last 100 years the population of Natives have increased significantly. The Natives living in Alaska are made up of many different cultures, languages and have lands in each region.
Native People were the first humans to inhabit Alaska.
Today, Alaskan Natives live mostly in small villages in remote areas in the north and west, pieces of land that are only accessible by bush planes. They live according to their traditional culture, meaning they fish and hunt for food and clothing, thereby depending heavily on wildlife and other natural sources. But do Alaskan Natives live only in these remote areas, far away from civilization?
No, about 40% of the Natives are nowadays found in urban area’s. And that is not only for job opportunities or a higher quality of living as you might think. There is also another reason involved, which is unfortunate and shows a problem the state is dealing with.
Living without shelter
Homelessness is, just as everywhere, also present in urban area’s of Alaska. To put it in perspective, Alaska belongs to the top 10 states with the highest homelessness rate in 2022 (relative rate, not in absolute numbers). Many homeless people come to urban areas, such as Anchorage, for one reason or another and get stuck there. About 45% of the homeless people in Anchorage are Alaskan Natives. Currently there are more than 3000 homelessness people in Anchorage, but only just over 600 beds are available at shelters.
Homelessness gets quite some attention in Alaska and one might wonder why. Especially if there are other states where homelessness is even worse. Well, the answer lies in its climate. It is not just the numbers what is putting the attention to this problem, it is the extreme, long and cold winter that does. When listening to the local radio in November 2023, the news announced that in the past few days 4 homelessness people have died in Anchorage because of hypothermia. The harsh winter was kicking in at that time of the year. With the enormous shelter beds shortage, the extreme winters takes its death toll each year. This is not a new problem, it already exists for quite a while. Not having found a solution for it drove the mayor to a desperate thought last year: buying a one-way plane ticket out of Alaska to a warmer Seattle for the homelessness people.
Back to the considerable high rate of Alaskan Natives who are homeless. Why is this ethnic group overrepresented? Is it because of a lower education and worse job perspectives? Partly. Is it because their traditional way of living is not sustainable anymore due to a culture fading away? Partly. Is it because of climate change causing rivers to erode and permafrost to melt, resulting in their houses to collapse? Partly. The Native Alaskans face many difficulties and challenges nowadays. Let’s zoom in on a particular, more socially-rooted problem. Think about it: why does a Native walk away from their community and choose to break-up with their family and friends?
A society gone off-track
Sadly, the answer has become quite clear. In Native communities is a high rate of social problems, like sexual assault, child abuse and many of that is at the heart of alcoholism. Alcoholism, drugs and abuse are common. Reading about a case illustrates the modern daily life of many Native Alaskans.
A girl got her first drink when she was 5 years old, her father gave it to her. Her brother had prepared the drink for their father, but it was all mixed up with too much alcohol. The father said: the one who will drink it will get 5 dollars. So, she drank it. She wanted his approval and to be a good girl.
Her mom was abused, her grandfather, and they were not the only ones. Waking up and seeing your parents drunk at the kitchen table for breakfast, visiting family and seeing your aunt stabbing your uncle’s leg. She didn’t know she had a choice, it was part of her life, everyone did it. Showing this behavior was normal in her village. Living so isolated and secluded in a community like that, she didn’t know or see any different than this. She fled to Anchorage and lived for months on the streets with her three young children. According to her view, the problems Natives are facing are generational. It all started when the western people were going up north and brought all the diseases and oppressed the Native Alaskans.
She didn’t know she had a choice.
One might ask, what is the Alaskan government doing to tackle this problem? Well, the main initiatives of the past decades include the division of land: entitling Natives to certain land areas, creating several Treaties and Acts, making arrangements involving climate goals and the reduction of contamination of land, etc. As you notice while reading this, it only contains matters about the division of land and environmental issues, nothing about the social problems related to losing a culture, alcoholism, abuse and sexual assault.
And what about society, think of charities, public organizations or private institutions? Yes, there are institutions raising awareness on this topic, which is of course a good thing. But it must be said, having lived in Alaska for a couple of months, it is a topic that seems to be in the background for most (white) Alaskans. They know it, they are aware of what is going on, but they regard it as not their business. It doesn’t affect their life, some even think of this topic as it is their problem, not ours.
Nature can be preserved, how about culture?
Questions arise: is the government of Alaska responsible for providing funding and solutions for the problems Native Alaskans face? Because the white and western people are the cause of it? Or is it their own problem, is it their issues they cannot control the use of alcohol and cannot stop abusing each other? It might be difficult to answer; what we do know is that we are dealing with a complex matter, one that has been ongoing for centuries.
Where the majestic nature of Alaska can’t be missed and is overwhelmingly present, it almost steals the show for the other side of the real Alaska. Nature is preserved as a precious and valuable thing, which it is of course, but putting it in the spotlight as is done today is almost disproportionate with regard to the attention the Natives get. Yes, there are ‘Native workshops’ for tourists where you can learn about how they make clothes, but you know what we mean: that is not the core of their story and it doesn’t show the complete picture…
Hopefully, Alaska can be a place where the heartbeat lives on in connecting different cultures and bridging the gap of a difficult social history.
What must be said is that the (white) Alaskans are known for being a tight community, and yes that is what we experienced as well. Helping each other is, especially when living off the grid and in extreme weather conditions, necessary. It is a place where you can step back from the high-paced technological world and connect with nature. Slow yourself down, embark on outdoor adventures and live your most healthy and adventurous lifestyle. It is certainly a place where the heartbeat of passionate people and the wilderness lives on. Hopefully, it can also be a place where the heartbeat lives on in connecting different cultures and bridging the gap of a difficult social history.