​Every time I travel to Alakanuk, I’m reminded how fortunate we are that our fieldwork allows us to visit such a special and unique place – one that many do not get the opportunity to experience. We are truly given a gift, not just for the ability to work in a location where we can conduct impactful research on the frontlines of the climate crisis, but also where we can engage and interact authentically with Yup’ik people and culture. Even though we spend a short period of time in Alakanuk and the lower Yukon, it is life-changing. In an effort to share even a sliver of that experience, I will do my best to detail some of the magic we (Sasha Wagner, Maddy Miller, Alexis Slentz, Harrison Smith, and I) encountered on our last sampling trip to the Yukon River Delta.
 
One of the benefits of sampling during the spring freshet is that we witness the transition from winter to spring. The air temperature gradually increased. Ice-covered rivers and lakes thawed. Landfast ice slowly broke away from the shore. Bare trees started to grow leaves and buds. Moose shed their winter coats. Birds started laying their eggs. And the people of Alakanuk were excitedly moving boats into the river in preparation for spring and summer subsistence activities.

​We were above the clouds for the first half of the flight from Bethel to Emmonak, our excitement bottled by the white sheets below us. But as we got closer, glimpses of the rivers and sloughs of the Yukon Delta began to emerge. I was reminded of sifting through optical satellite imagery of this region and seeing mostly clouds but reveling in any clear pixels. Ah, but the resolution was better! Fellow passengers pointed enthusiastically to moose wading in ponds. A woman sitting behind Maria showed us where she would ice fish: all beautiful reminders that we weren’t just approaching our field site but a vast home.

​When doing fieldwork in remote Alaska, complications always arise that require adaptation and adjustment. However, Anne Kellerman and I were ready for ANYTHING after the complications we encountered during the early August trip to the Yukon River delta. As Anne, Alexis Slentz, Harrison Smith, and I congregated in Anchorage leading up to the trip, we made sure that we were all on the same flights so we wouldn’t get separated, had GCI SIM cards for communication, and were traveling with all our necessary essentials. Thanks to all the phone calls, pre-planning, and constant vigilance, we made it to Alakanuk together, safely, and with all our bags. You can never be too sure…

​When we made it to the village, we were welcomed by Teddy Hamilton, Maria Tzortziou and her collaborator Emily Raboteau – kind faces to see after a full and slightly stressful day of travel! While we settled in, we learned that one of our usual boat drivers was unavailable due to his fishing schedule and we’d need to find a replacement if we had any chance of sampling in the Bering Sea. Our fantastic local collaborators, Augusta Edmund and Teddy, quickly identified and contacted a potential boat driver in the village (Sony Isadore). Sony came in the next morning to meet with us and talk about the plan for a salinity transect, which we needed to do on Day 1 due to weather conditions. In short, he mentioned that the weather wasn’t optimal and that he “can't promise anything.”

By Kiera Strongheart, 10th Grade Student
“What I liked about this job was doing something different than what most kids in the village do. It was a different experience. Plus, we did not work too long so I would not get too tired. Looking back at it now, I kind of miss it !! Working with more instruments and having one or two more students to work with, would make the experience even more interesting next summer!!!”
  - Kiera
 
By Theodore Hamilton, 12th Grade Student
“Working on the project this past summer was interesting and fun. What is interesting about the project is how the color of the filter changed from June to now. Late May and early June the color was a bit darker than July and August. Collecting water samples at the Alakanuk mouth was pretty fun for the ride and spending time outdoors…
The color of the filter after being sampled would change due to seasonal changes. Also, coastal erosion, winds, and currents could also cause changes on the sample, lol!
Working in the Lab used to be a bit difficult for the first few days because processing the samples is something me and Kiera haven’t done before. But with experience, the work became much easier.
Working and being part of the project this summer was very fun, and gave me an open mind and experience for future jobs!
   - Theo

​I was invited by my colleague Dr. Maria Tzortziou to join her on a research trip to the Yukon Delta where her NASA-funded team is studying coastal changes due to the climate crisis. (We are being financed by an interdisciplinary research grant through City University of New York.) As a climate writer interested in environmental justice, I feel excited and fortunate to be partnering with an environmental scientist who can help me understand the larger picture of global warming and its implications for frontline communities such as here in the remote village of Alakanuk, Alaska, by sharing her scientific observations. While Maria’s team continues methodically gathering water samples and taking satellite imagery that over time have a story to tell about environmental change in the most rapidly warming part of the planet, we have come for five days to gather stories from members of the local Yup’ik community – some of them collaborators in the larger research program - about what changes they have observed in their home place, how they are adapting to these changes on sociocultural and spiritual levels, stewardship, and traditional ecological knowledge.

Before journeying to the Arctic, I asked my friend, environmental historian Bathsheba Demuth, author of the epic Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait, what books I should read about this region to help me prepare. One of the many illuminating texts she recommended was Wise Words of the Yup’ik People: We Talk to You because We Love You by Anne Fienup-Riordan. It documents traditional Yup’ik qanruyutait (guiding wisdom) regarding a balanced way of life between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and non-Natives, recorded by elders in the community twenty years ago in an effort at cultural preservation. According to this book, the Yup’ik people of southwest Alaska were among the last Arctic peoples to encounter non-Natives, and as a result, Yup’ik language and many traditions have remained intact.
 
One of the elders whose knowledge was collected in this book was Joe Joseph, born in Alakanuk in 1922.  Imagine my surprise to find him commemorated on the wall of elders in the same Tribal Council building where Maria and I are now sleeping among pictures of dozens of other elders who have passed on—a century after his birth.  In my short time here, it’s already clear that respect for elders is a pillar principle and way of life. I am grateful to Augusta Edmund, head of the Tribal Council, for helping to orchestrate interviews with some elders in the community, to learning more from them, and (with their permission) to sharing their wisdom.  

 - Emily Raboteau

Going out to the field in the Yukon River delta is always an experience, and after two years of being office bound during the pandemic it was a welcome sight to fly over and see the beautiful landscape. I think we saw over 50 moose flying below the clouds at 500 ft from Bethel. It can also be a challenging place to get to, and the trip out required 30 hours of Anne Kellerman and I waiting in Bethel to be cleared to fly with our equipment on a charter to Alakanuk. When we got in, Alyssa Burns and Peter Hernes had already been hard at work sampling the northern region of the delta. No time can be wasted when we only have 5 working days to try and get a widespread snapshot of the carbon system in this remote and dynamic region.

This spring - and after two years of no measurements in the Yukon due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions - our team was finally able to visit again the Village of Alakanuk, located on the Lower Yukon River in Western Alaska.

There, we met with our local partners from the Alakanuk Tribal IGAP, Augusta Edmund and Ted Hamilton, to plan measurements for the 2022 spring-summer season.  We also trained two remarkable high school interns, Kiera and Theo, from the Lower Yukon School District. Keira and Theo will be collecting and filtering water samples from within the Yukon River Delta all summer, contributing a very important dataset on organic carbon and particulate loading from spring-freshet to fall. This dataset will help the development and validation of satellite ocean color algorithms for water quality, that will enhance our understanding of the changing Yukon’s past, present, and future.

​We are excited to be doing research in the Yukon, again, and even more so, to be able to reconnect and work closely together with those who call it home!  

- Maria Tzortziou (May 2022)