Koyukon hunters knew things that biologists were still working to formally document.

The extension of this kind of systematic documentation to coastal Iñupiat communities followed, and what emerged was a picture of Arctic coastal knowledge that was, if anything, even more sophisticated and more directly relevant to survival: the detailed sea ice knowledge, the marine mammal behavioral understanding, the nutritional practices encoded in traditional food systems.

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network, formally established in the 1990s, was a response to the recognition that this knowledge was in danger — that the combination of boarding school disruption, economic pressures away from traditional subsistence lifestyles, and the physical changes to Arctic environments was threatening the transmission of knowledge that had kept communities alive for thousands of years.

The Network’s work involved documenting knowledge systems that existed primarily in the memories of elders, creating curricula that could reintegrate traditional knowledge into formal education, and advocating for the recognition of Indigenous Knowledge in policy and management decisions.