Kobuk Valley National Park Traditional Use Study, Native Villages of Kiana and Ambler
Project ID: P17AC00482
Federal Agency: National Park Service
Partner Institution: Portland State University
Fiscal Year: 2017
Initial Funding: $22,339
Total Funding: $122,915
Project Type: Research
Project Disciplines: Cultural
National Park: Kobuk Valley National Park
Principal Investigator: Deur, Doug
Agreement Technical Representative: Mason, Rachel
Abstract: Kobuk Valley National Park (KOVA) is a unit of the NPS initially established as a national monument in 1978 and re-designated a national park through passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980. Totaling 1.7 million acres, the park encompasses boreal forest, montane, and riverine ecosystems, archeological and historical sites, arctic sand dunes, rare plants and amphibians, and a wide array of subsistence resources including salmon, sheefish, whitefish, Arctic char, waterfowl, caribou, Dall sheep, and moose as well as edible and medicinal plants. The Kobuk River and its tributaries have been used for subsistence and cultural purposes by Native peoples for generations. Though these people have now relocated to villages outside of KOVA – most notably the villages of Kiana and Ambler – local residents continue to depend on the resources of the Kobuk Valley for their physical and spiritual well-being.
Located at the confluence of the Kobuk and Squirrel Rivers, Kiana is roughly 20 miles downstream from the western park boundary. The Native Village of Kiana (aka Kiana Traditional Council, or KTC) is a federally recognized tribe whose membership comprises the majority of the village’s 361 residents. KTC members are Iñupiaq Eskimo (Kuuvaŋmiut) whose ancestors have lived in the Kobuk River area for generations. Prior to the establishment of the modern village around 1915, Kuuvaŋmiut lived on the land, following game and resources, establishing small camps and settlements along the way. The park lands are part of the larger Kuuvaŋmiut homeland.
Meanwhile, just upstream – roughly seven miles from the park boundary and fronting the Kobuk River –is the Native Village of Ambler. Ambler, or Ivisaappaat, was founded in 1957-58, when residents of 1971. According to the 2000 census, there were 309 people, 79 households, and 63 families residing in Ambler – most being Kuuvaŋmiut Iñupiat. Most of these families have historical ties to lands and resources now in KOVA, and continue to visit those places as part of cultural, economic, social, and subsistence activities.
The documentation and interpretation of KOVA’s Kuuvaŋmiut history, as well as the systematic evaluation and protection of sites associated with that history, are understood to be for the benefit of American citizens generally, and NPS visitors in particular. Accordingly, the NPS has a variety of obligations to document places of cultural importance to traditionally-associated peoples, and to account for these places in the future management of park lands and resources. Among these obligations is the mandate for all federal agencies to document properties eligible to the National Register of Historic Places – including Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs) – on their lands, as anticipated in Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and prescribed in National Register Bulletin 38 and other National Register publications, which will be addressed in the current effort. Also, among the purposes for which the park was created, ANILCA Section 201 mandates the NPS “to protect and interpret, in cooperation with Native Alaskans, archeological sites associated with Native cultures” – another goal of the current project. KOVA’s February 2010 draft Foundation Statement recognized the importance of ethnography in the preservation and interpretation of cultural resources stating: “Staff work in collaboration with local peoples to document their historic and continuing presence on the land and foster the transmission of cultural knowledge and values associated with resources and features of the park.”
To document these resources, this project will involve the development of a Traditional Use Study or TUS. A TUS produces information that will allow for the better management and protection of cultural resources that are of national as well as state and local significance. These documents also benefit the public by compiling information on the cultural heritage of national parklands, as well as guiding NPS staff in the development of public education opportunities relating to that heritage. These documents further assist park staff when making management decisions so that places contributing to the heritage of Iñupiaq people, and indeed the American public, are appropriately managed and protected. These management decisions are understood to affect “ethnographic landscapes” within NPS units, and such landscapes are the focus of the current TUS. Ethnographic landscapes are a category of cultural landscapes and are defined by the NPS Ethnography Program as landscapes that “are important to a people’s sense of purpose or way of life.” They represent contiguous areas of interrelated places that contemporary cultural groups define as meaningful because these landscapes are inextricably and traditionally linked to their local or regional histories, cultural identities, beliefs and behaviors.