Oral History of Fisheries in Alutiiq Communities

1. Catherine Chambers & Courtney Carothers School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks Discussion Major Interview Themes • -Altered lifepaths: within lifetimes and over generations. • -Stories are situated in the past, but they are very meaningful for the present. • -Oral histories help us to understand transitions resulting from fisheries management such as lost generations, seasonality and pace, barriers to entry. • The reflections of informants on lived experiences over time has helped us to understand how rich emotions and feelings associated with past memories of fishing continue to create meaning for Alutiiq fishermen today. • Growing up fishing • -Crewing before owning own boat; fishing with uncles who would “be hard on you like your parents wouldn’t.” • -“Fun” times of not only fishing with family, but also visiting other fishermen on the docks or at the cannery. • -Kids used to play boats – they would build mini-seine boats. Oral History of Fisheries in Alutiiq Communities • Technology • -“Doing everything by hand,” cotton nets, from grandies to fiberglass boats (“Tupperware fleet”) • - New technology meant fewer limitations for larger boats who would have once been hindered by weather, speed, or tank storage size. Heading to an interviewin Old Harbor. • Being a good fisherman • -Morality and values acquired by growing up fishing: working hard and being a good leader. • “We didn’t need the Coast Guard. we had common sense.” • Purpose and Importance • To generate stories from the past through the eyes of those engaged in a long history of fishing. • Previous research in Kodiak Alutiiq villages suggests that large transitions in fishing took place during the 1970s. But to understand the larger picture, we needed to get a better idea of how fishing was in the 1950s and 60s. • Importance: -Recreates timelines and “factual” events • Explores people’s perceptions associated with the past • Addresses how the stories from the past are important for today’s Alutiiq communities. • Cannery period • -Informal credit, personal relationships • -A fishing family had some security but also flexibility during any given year. • “It’s just the way things were, you know. You never thought, ‘What am I going to do this summer?’You just knew what you were going to do.” Simon’s grandson comes over for a visit. Learning about Calvin’s model boats. What is Oral History? An oral history project collects primary source material in an interview setting. Interviews can explore one person’s whole life, or one topic from multiple people. Dual purpose: 1. Collecting information to help researchers 2. Preserving information for future generations What Happens Now? -This project is ongoing: we will talk to more fishermen from around Kodiak and also to fishermen’s wives. • Shearwater Cannery, 1956. Rev. Norman L. Smith or Timothy L. Smith Collection • We made DVDs for our participants and their families, and we will be able to contribute these interviews to: • -Project Jukebox at UAF (a larger collection of oral histories from around Alaska) www.jukebox.uaf.edu • -The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak Today’s youth -Sometimes considered lazy or unwilling to fish (government aid or substance abuse problems). -Even if youth worked hard they might not get ahead; they can’t work their way up the ladder. Methods and Participants We started conducting high-quality video interviews with fishermen around Kodiak in the spring of 2010. We asked broad questions like: How did you start fishing? What was a typical year like back then? What are some major changes you’ve seen? • Environmental changes • -Oil spill changed the quality of fishing for years to come. • -Not all fisheries are the same: King crab = a boom and bust fishery, but salmon are “still here even though the others fluctuate.” Competition -Present in communities now in waysit might not have been before. “But nowadays, it’s just like dog eat dog. They’re fighting over everything. There’s just no respect anymore for who gets there first…whoever has the fastest boats is gonna get the fish.” Filming at the Kodiak harbor. Further Reading Carothers, C. 2008. “Rationalized out:” Discourses and realities of fisheries privatization in Kodiak, Alaska.In Lowe, M. and C. Carothers (editors). Enclosing the Fisheries: People, Places, and Power. American Fisheries Society , Symposium 69, Bethesda, MD. Schneider, W. (2002) So They Understand: Cultural Issues in Oral History. Logan: Utah State University Press. Sommer, Barbara W & Mary K Quinlan (2009) The Oral History Manual, 2nd ed. AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD Thank You All our participants! Funding:Alaska EPSCoRUAF MESAS A few of our wonderful interviewees