Permafrost – the thick layer of frozen earth in cold climates that has long been used as a natural freezer system by Native communities to preserve their food – is melting away. Now unable to freeze their winter home-packs in the ground, villages will have to find other ways to preserve foods, or these communities will certainly face shortages of food sources. Located in the rural bush, off the grid, they have limited access to grocery stores, adequate fuel and basic amenities. By integrating modern science and freezing technology with traditional knowledge, communities can better preserve their cultural foodways.
Along with my brothers and sisters, we were taught to handle our traditional foods with care, love and to preserve our foods in the best way possible, whether it be berries, deer, spotted shrimp, halibut or salmon for our family. We froze our seafoods and venison for our winter homepacks; pickled, cold or hot-smoked and canned our fish or, hard-smoked fish and ate it off the skins; my mother Rosie and sister Pamela perfected smoking fish, and Pamela learned to make delicious salmon pates and fish eggs into caviar.
In northern, colder parts of the state, Indigenous communities used the permafrost for long-term storage. With the permafrost melting, we need to learn new acts of preservation and do it quickly, as times are changing daily. Dune Lankard, Founder and President, Native Conservancy
After our wild sockeye salmon didn’t return in 2018, our rural coastal fishing community of Cordova had few fish in their freezers. Every household was worried about how they were going to feed their families come winter. In response, our Native Conservancy piloted a new portable advanced freezer solution to locally process and freeze wild-caught seafoods for long-term storage. Now we are prepared to bring it to scale throughout Alaska.
“My theory is, if we can do it, anybody can do it. It’s up to us—we’re making the future. If we’re waiting for somebody else to grow those gardens for us, well, we’re not high on their priority list. We have a shot at doing the right thing.” Winona LaDuke, Native Conservancy Board Member
Native Elders Subsistence Food Program
Native Conservancy implemented the Elders Subsistence Food Program in 2020 to address food insecurity resulting from the Covid-19 Pandemic, initially distributing 500 pounds of frozen traditional seafoods to 150 Native Elders in Eyak (Cordova). Following Alaska Native tradition, most elders shared these foods with others in their households, tripling the impact of our distribution to at least 450 community members with each delivery. The program seeks to build capacity to deliver traditionally harvested subsistence foods (including kelp, salmon, halibut, herring eggs, gull eggs, wild mushrooms, venison, and moose) and pre-packaged ready-to-eat meals to Elders in Eyak (Cordova), Chenega, Tatitlek, and Valdez, as well as unhoused Elders in Anchorage.
Kelp as a Traditional Subsistence Food
Kelp has long been a traditional food source and a mainstay of culinary craft, cultural identity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge for coastal Native communities. Historically, Alaska Natives have used it as a nutritive food source in many forms, mixed with wild berries and seal or eulachon (hooligan) oil, or as a carrier for Pacific Herring spawn. Our Food Sovereignty program seeks to expand access to kelp as a traditional food source by incorporating our own harvest from our kelp farming programs into ready-to-eat meals prepared for Native Elders and developing nutrient-dense finished food products that can be made readily available to Native communities.
Native Conservancy Cooking For Elders and Public Events
Native Conservancy oversaw the development and production of a pilot dAXunhyuu (Eyak) Cooking Show, available on the Eyak Language ~ dAXunhyuuga’ YouTube channel. Putting a modern spin on traditional subsistence foods and recipes, the show will highlight kelp-based recipes and feature Native chefs from across Alaska.
Further expansion of our programs will include community boat trips utilizing Native Conservancy’s fleet that enable Native Elders who may not have access to their own boats to fulfill their subsistence fishing quotas. We envision multigenerational groups led by our Restoration Manager and Youth Coordinator, facilitating the important tradition of passing on knowledge from Elders to Youth and boosting the positive impact of intergenerational learning within our communities.
Community Kitchen Enterprises
Native Conservancy is in the process of acquiring commercial kitchen space in the form of a Mobile Native Food Kitchen. This food truck will be utilized both as a commercial kitchen for recipe testing and development for our Elders Subsistence Food Program and research for value-added kelp products. Additionally, the food truck would deliver pre-packaged and ready-to-eat traditional foods to our local community in Eyak (Cordova) and to unhoused Natives in Anchorage who do not have access to cold storage or kitchen space, or the means/resources to prepare meals.
