Coastline Ethnographic Landscape Study as a Baseline Document for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Management

Project ID: P25AC00524

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Partner Institution: Portland State University

Fiscal Year: 2025

Initial Funding: $28,046

Total Funding: $49,705

National Park: Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve

Principal Investigator: Deur, Doug

Agreement Technical Representative: Cohen, Amber

Abstract: 

Performance Goals – The goal of this project is to collaboratively document traditional and local knowledge about the Wrangell-St. Elias coastline and adjacent lands and, using this information, produce an Ethnographic Landscape Study – a baseline document describing human connections to this landscape and informing park managers and interpreters of significant natural and cultural resources along this coastline.

Project Objectives – PSU researchers and NPS staff will collaborate to accomplish specific project objectives and complete an Ethnographic Landscape Study baseline document for Wrangell-St. Elias Park and Preserve. The primary objective of this project is to assemble information and develop documentation relating to landscapes along the Wrangell-St. Elias coast that are used, visited, and valued by the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe and the Native Village of Eyak. This work will conform to the standards outlined in the NPS Cultural Resource Management Guidelines (NPS-28) for the development of traditional use studies, a category of baseline report produced for units of the National Park Service to inform management, interpretation, tribal consultation, and other essential park operations and mandates. As described in NPS-28, Chapter 10(B)3b, traditional use studies are conducted for the purpose of “Describing and analyzing traditional resource use and management regimes,” and “will be conducted and periodically updated for all parks having traditional resource users.” As noted in NPS-28, these studies fill gaps identified in the park Ethnographic Overview and Assessment (completed for the Wrangell-St. Elias coastline in 2015), and aid the park in meeting a number of agency legal obligations specific to Native communities’ past and present uses of natural and cultural resources. The expected results of the project are as follows: 

1. Producing a scoping document that prescribes specific research methods and protocols for this research, developed in consultation with the Native Village of Eyak and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe.
2. Documenting traditional and local knowledge about the Wrangell-St. Elias coastline, including sites, resources and landscape features that are important to the Native Village of Eyak and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, through interviews with elders and other knowledgeable individuals, group meetings, archival research, literature review, and field visits. Interviews will address such topics as places of special importance in the histories of these Native communities, or the impacts of changes in coastline geology, glacial movements, and fish and wildlife distribution on natural and cultural resources of importance to these communities along the Wrangell-St. Elias coast.
3. Attending a culture camp, community “return to homeland” trip, or similar event with local elders and youth to share information regarding study methods, protocols, and outcomes and, as appropriate, to document information regarding community heritage and knowledge of the coastline that will inform the study.
4. Producing an Ethnographic Landscape Study that thematically summarizes project findings as they relate to specific landscape features along the Wrangell-St. Elias coastline.