List of Alaska Native inventors and scientists

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Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program

The following list of Alaska Native inventors and scientists begins to document Alaska Natives with deep historical and ecological knowledge about system-wide health, knowledge that in many cases precedes and exceeds discoveries published in the scientific literature. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

For more than century, Alaska Native naturalists have entered into collaborative relationships with scientists working in the field or in their communities (International Polar Year (IPY), Native Contributions to Arctic Science, [4] Barrow Arctic Research Center). Their many contributions extend from indigenous ways of knowing to practical and applied inventions needed to subsist from the land, air, and waters (Sharing Knowledge Smithsonian Exhibit).

As institutions strive to decolonize, indigenous-settler relationships remain contentious and marked by structural inequities. In the history of the New World, Old World explorers and settlers often relied for their survival on the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous peoples. [5]

While this list focuses on individual biographies, there are many other collaborative projects (e.g., Barrow Arctic Research Center). In addition to recognizing community-based participatory research (CBPR), this list credits the organizations that develop and advocate for the education of future indigenous scientists and engineers, young scholars who will increase the number of indigenous scientists and engineers earning degrees. According to a 2019 report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, fewer than 1% of bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering programs go to American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islanders. These organizations include American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP), Recruitment and Retention of American Indians into Nursing (RRAIN), and Recruitment and Retention of Alaska Natives into Nursing (RRANN).

Inventors and scientists

NameYearsTribal

Affiliation

Degree

Knowledge area

Citations
Billy Adams1965- Iñupiat Utqiagvik - NSB Department of Wildlife Management - extensive experience (30+ years) working with scientists, and continues to inform marine mammal and ice scientists [6]
Harry Brower Sr. 1924-1992 Iñupiat See The Whales, they give themselves, and  Fifty More Year Below Zero:
Tributes and Meditations for the Naval Arctic Laboratory's first half century at Barrow, Alaska
[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Patricia Longley Cochran Iñupiat [12] [13] [14]
Stanley Edwin Gwich'in UAF - Atmospheric Sciences, Climatology - PhD [15] [16] [17]
Sven Haakanson 1967- Alutiiq [18]
Al Hopson, Sr. or Eben Hopson Iñupiat See Fifty More Year Below Zero: Tributes and Meditations for the Naval Arctic
Laboratory's first half century at Barrow, Alaska
Orville Huntington Athabaskan B.S. Wildlife Biology, Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge, Subsistence, Alaska Native Corporations [19] [20]
Paul John 1929-2015 Yup'ik [21] [22] [23] [24]
book review [25]
Teresa Arevgaq John Yup'ik [26] [27] [28] [29]
Oscar Kawagley 1934-2011 Yup'ik traditional knowledge and science educator [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]
Della Keats 1907-1996 Iñupiat Healer, midwife
Joe Leavitt1959- Iñupiat Utqiagvik - extensive experience (40+ years) working as consultant with ice scientists. [35] [36]
Ilarion (Larry) Merculieffcirca 1950 Aleut [30] [37] [38]
Simon Paneak1900-1975 Iñupiat See Fifty More Year Below Zero: Tributes and Meditations for the Naval Arctic
Laboratory's first half century at Barrow, Alaska
[4] [39] [40] [41] [42]
Peter Sovalik 1910-1977 Iñupiat An Original Arctic Naturalist, by Robert E. Henshaw and Max C. Brewer 2001 [43] [44] [45] [46] [47]
Tina Marie Woods Aleut Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology with a Rural Indigenous Emphasis from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Worked within the Alaska Tribal Health System for over 15 years, with much time administering the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. [48] [49] [50]

Native science organizations

See also

References

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  2. Mistry, J.; Berardi, A. (June 9, 2016). "Bridging indigenous and scientific knowledge" (PDF). Science. 352 (6291): 1274–1275. Bibcode:2016Sci...352.1274M. doi:10.1126/science.aaf1160. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   27284180. S2CID   206646704.
  3. Johnson, Jay T.; Howitt, Richard; Cajete, Gregory; Berkes, Fikret; Louis, Renee Pualani; Kliskey, Andrew (December 12, 2015). "Weaving Indigenous and sustainability sciences to diversify our methods". Sustainability Science. 11 (1): 1–11. doi: 10.1007/s11625-015-0349-x . ISSN   1862-4065. S2CID   131199874.
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  5. Brewer, Joseph; Kronk Warner, Elizabeth Ann (2015). "Guarding Against Exploitation: Protecting Indigenous Knowledge in the Age of Climate Change". SSRN Working Paper Series. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2567995. ISSN   1556-5068.
  6. Koenig, Ravenna (November 12, 2018). "In a warming Arctic, October in Utqiaġvik presents an especially striking picture". Public Media: Alaska's Energy Desk. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  7. Bodenhorn, Barbara (January 27, 2010). "The Whales They Give Themselves: Conversations with Harry Brower, Sr., edited by Karen Brewster". Arctic. 58 (2). doi: 10.14430/arctic413 . ISSN   1923-1245.
  8. Albert, T. F. (2001). "The influence of Harry Brower, Sr., an Iñupiaq Eskimo hunter, on the bowhead whale research program conducted at the UIC-NARL facility by the North Slope Borough. In Fifty More Years below Zero: A Life-Time of Adventure in the Far North". The Geographical Journal. 112 (1/3): 265–278. doi:10.2307/1789177. ISSN   0016-7398. JSTOR   1789177. S2CID   129759330.
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  12. Chief, Karletta; Chischilly, Ann Marie; Cochran, Patricia; Durglo, Mike; Hardison, Preston; Hostler, Joe; Lynn, Kathy; Morishima, Gary; Motanic, Don (2015). "Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges in Climate Change Initiatives" . SSRN Working Paper Series. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2555299. ISSN   1556-5068 . Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  13. Tetpon, John (March 5, 2019). "Alaska Native women – front and center". Anchorage Press. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  14. "Alaska Native Science Commission". Climate Policy Watcher » Canadian Arctic. September 16, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  15. Edwin, Stanley (August 2016). Climatology and Forcing Mechanisms of Funnel Clouds in Alaska (Thesis) via Scholarworks@UA, Electronic Resource Collection, Internet.
  16. Friedman, Sam (October 20, 2014). "Gwich'in man finds home in academia". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  17. Friedman, Sam (July 2, 2018). "Destructive tornadoes unheard of in Alaska, but funnel clouds occasionally form". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
  18. Haakanson Jr, S.D.; Steffian, A. F., eds. (2009). Giinaquq Like a Face: Suqpiaq Masks of the Kodiak Archipelago. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9781602230491.
  19. Chapin, F. Stuart; Trainor, Sarah F.; Huntington, Orville; Lovecraft, Amy L.; Zavaleta, Erika; Natcher, David C.; McGuire, A. David; Nelson, Joanna L.; Ray, Lily (June 1, 2008). "Increasing Wildfire in Alaska's Boreal Forest: Pathways to Potential Solutions of a Wicked Problem". BioScience. 58 (6): 531–540. doi: 10.1641/b580609 . ISSN   1525-3244. S2CID   13501721.
  20. Watson, Annette; Huntington, Orville H. (March 28, 2008). "They're here—I can feel them: the epistemic spaces of Indigenous and Western Knowledges". Social & Cultural Geography. 9 (3): 257–281. doi:10.1080/14649360801990488. ISSN   1464-9365. S2CID   144252322.
  21. Paul John Calricaraq Project, Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation. "Becoming The Healthiest People".
  22. John, Paul (2003). Fienup-Riordan, Ann (ed.). Stories for Future Generations / Qulirat Qanemcit-llu Kinguvarcimalriit: The Oratory of Yup'ik Elder Paul John . Translated by Shield, Sophie. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN   9780295983509.
  23. Fienup-Riordan, Ann (1998). "Yup'ik Elders in Museums: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head". Arctic Anthropology. 35 (2): 49–58. ISSN   0066-6939. JSTOR   40316487.
  24. "Yuungnaqpiallerput - The Way We Genuinely Live - Masterworks of Yup'ik Science". Calista Elders Corporation.
  25. Rasmus, S. Michelle (2004). "Fienup-Riordan, Ann (ed.), 2003 Qulirat Qanemcit-llu Kinguvarcimalriit, Stories for Future Generations: The Oratory of Yup'ik Elder Paul John, Bethel, Calista Elders Council, and Seattle, University of Washington Press, stories translated by Sophie Shield, 778 pages". Études/Inuit/Studies. 28 (1): 193–195. doi: 10.7202/012651ar . ISSN   1923-1245.
  26. Parker Webster, Joan; John, Theresa Arevgaq (2010). "Preserving a space for cross-cultural collaborations: an account of insider/outsider issues". Ethnography and Education. 5 (2): 175–191. doi:10.1080/17457823.2010.493404. ISSN   1745-7823. S2CID   143889077.
  27. John, T.A. (2009). "Nutemllarput, Our Very Own: A Yup'ik Epistemology". Canadian Journal of Native Education. 32 (1): 57.
  28. Parker Webster, J.; John, T. (2013). "On Becoming a "Literate" Person: Meaning Making with Multiliteracies and Multimodal Tools". Communities of practice: An Alaskan Native Model for language teaching and learning. University of Arizona Press. pp. 73–100. doi:10.4324/9781315697826. ISBN   9781315697826. S2CID   129492550.
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  31. Marker, Michael (January 29, 2015). "Indigenous knowledge, indigenous scholars, and narrating scientific selves: "to produce a human being"". Cultural Studies of Science Education. 11 (2): 477–480. doi:10.1007/s11422-015-9660-1. ISSN   1871-1502. S2CID   145601831.
  32. Kawagley, Angayuqaq Oscar (2006). A Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit. Waveland Press. ISBN   978-1577663843.
  33. Barnhardt, Ray; Kawagley, Angayuqaq Oscar (2005). "Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing" (PDF). Anthropology and Education Quarterly. 36 (1): 8–23. doi:10.1525/aeq.2005.36.1.008.
  34. "Kawagley, A. Oscar (Angayuqaq Oscar) 1934-2011". World Cat Identities.
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  36. "Joe Leavitt". PROJECT JUKEBOX: Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
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  38. Merculieff, L.; Roderick, L. (2013). "Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education". University of Alaska Anchorage.
  39. Campbell, J.M. (2004). In a hungry country: essays by Simon Paneak. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.
  40. Irving, Laurence; West, George C.; Peyton, Leonard J.; Paneak, Simon (1967). "Migration of Willow Ptarmigan in Arctic Alaska". Arctic. 20 (2): 77–85. doi: 10.14430/arctic3284 . ISSN   1923-1245.
  41. North Alaska chronicle: notes from the end of time: the Simon Paneak drawings. November 1, 1998.
  42. Irving, Laurence (January 1, 1953). "The Naming of Birds by Nunamiut Eskimo". Arctic. 6 (1). doi: 10.14430/arctic3864 . ISSN   1923-1245.
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  44. Sovalik, Peter (1977). Ukpiglu kayuqtuglu: The owl and the red fox. Barrow, AK: Inupiat Material Development Center, Barrow School.
  45. Brewer, Max (February 16, 1976). "The legacy of Alaska's Native naturalists". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Page 4. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  46. Maher, William J. (January 1, 1960). "Recent Records of the California Grey Whale (Eschrichtius glaucus) Along the North Coast of Alaska". Arctic. 13 (4). doi: 10.14430/arctic3705 . ISSN   1923-1245.
  47. "Deaths L-Z - North Slope AKGenWeb". akgenweb.com. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  48. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (May 24, 2016). "High school dropout to Ph.D.: One Alaska Native scholar's path". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  49. Woods, Tina Marie; Zuniga, Ruth; David, E. J. (March 2, 2012). "A Preliminary Report on the Relationships Between Collective Self-Esteem, Historical Trauma, and Mental Health among Alaska Native Peoples". Journal of Indigenous Research. 1 (2).
  50. Lewis, Jordan; Woods, Tina Marie; Zuniga, Ruth; David, E. J. R. (August 2010). "The Indigenous Peoples of Alaska: Appreciating the Role of Elders in Shifting Toward a Strength-Based and Culturally-Appropriate Approach to Mental Health" (PDF). Communique: 23–27.

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