Mary Hostetter of the Igiugig Village Tribal Stewardship and Guardians Program speaks at the Indigenous Stewardship gathering. Photo by Schuyler Alig/Alaska Conservation Foundation.
One of the newest ideas in Alaska land management dates back millennia.
At a recent gathering in Fairbanks, representatives of Indigenous organizations and communities in Alaska and Canada met to collaborate on the development of Indigenous-led stewardship programs in Alaska. Often known as Guardians programs, these initiatives engage Native people to monitor and protect their traditional lands and waters, formalizing roles that they have held for generations.
“(These programs have) created this huge shift in recognizing the role of Indigenous stewardship and Indigenous knowledge and connections of these communities to their lands,” said Leanna Heffner, Director of the Northwest Boreal Partnership and one of the organizers of the event. “It’s something that really benefits all peoples.”
Indigenous Guardians programs are flourishing across Canada, where more than 200 have been established since 1981. Similar programs have taken root in other nations like Australia and New Zealand as well. Guardians are paid employees who apply both technical skills and traditional local knowledge to tackle responsibilities such as monitoring ecological health, maintaining cultural sites, and protecting sensitive areas and species. The Kaska Land Guardians in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, for example, collect hunter observations and harvest surveys; collar bison; study bird migrations; monitor river ice, water quality and water temperature; conduct first aid and water-rescue trainings; hold land forums and school presentations; and installed a climate monitoring station, among many other activities.
“Guardian programs all have the same initiative, protecting your lands, your wildlife, your waterways,” said Tanya Ball, who leads the Kaska Land Guardians and spoke about the program at the gathering. “And that’s what we see across Alaska and Canada, it’s the same initiative.”
Alaska has a number of stewardship programs, but compared to Canada, many are relatively new and disconnected from one another. Alaska Sea Grant coastal resilience specialist Sean Kelly, who helped organize the event — officially titled “Building Connections to Strengthen Guardians and Indigenous-led Stewardship” — said an overarching goal of the gathering was to facilitate conversation and connection among Guardians programs in the two nations. He said Alaska Sea Grant became involved because of the potential for such programs to contribute to resilient communities in Alaska.
“A lot of the communities we work with in coastal Alaska, but also in the Interior and elsewhere are primarily Indigenous communities,” noted Kelly. “This gathering is a great opportunity for them to exchange knowledge and share their culture with their neighbors across the border. Events like these can go a long way toward strengthening community resilience and building lasting collaborations.”
Nearly 100 people attended the gathering, including representatives of about 20 Alaska Native and First Nations communities, Tribes and other organizations, along with agency representatives, academics and others. While the event featured numerous organized activities, it was generally loosely structured to enable attendees space to connect and share their own experiences.
“We were all just awestruck, in a way, by how much folks were engaged in the process,” Kelly reflected. “There was an energy and tone around the workshop where people felt very open and comfortable coming forward and volunteering their time and knowledge.”
There have been multiple meetings of varying scales related to expanding Guardian-like programs in Alaska. The Alaska Federation of Natives passed a resolution in support of them last year. Heffner said this and other meetings can help build a strong network to facilitate activities such as trainings, advocacy, fundraising, knowledge exchange and the creation of new programs. She pointed to great potential for expansion in Alaska, where in addition to addressing their own community priorities, Indigenous stewards could help take on tasks from federal agencies coping with staff cuts.
“Here in Alaska, in particular, we’re dealing with a crisis where we don’t have enough people to actually steward those lands under the care of the federal agencies,” she said. “So there’s an opportunity there to try and accelerate this kind of model.”
Kelly said organizers are analyzing feedback from attendees and planning next steps, which could include training opportunities and future workshops on a more regular schedule.
In addition to Alaska Sea Grant, other sponsors of the event included the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center, the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, the Northern Latitudes Partnerships and Alaska Conservation Foundation, and Permafrost Pathways. For more information on the Guardians program in Canada, visit the Land Needs Guardians website. Some Indigenous-led stewardship programs in Alaska include the Bristol Bay Guardians based in Igiugig, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s Seacoast Indigenous Guardians Network, and the Indigenous Sentinels Network, which originated on St. Paul Island.
