- 著者
-
近藤 祉秋
- 出版者
- 北海道立北方民族博物館
- 雑誌
- 北海道立北方民族博物館研究紀要 (ISSN:09183159)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.28, pp.7-31, 2019-03-29 (Released:2019-08-19)
In this paper, I describe a history of indigenous salmon fishing technologies and
management issues in the Upper Kuskokwim region, Alaska, U.S.A. As a traditional
food, salmon has been an important part of culture for the Upper Kuskokwim
Athabascan people. Intensive contacts with non-Natives in the early 20th century
brought some changes to Upper Kuskokwim people’s subsistence technologies including
fishwheels, which made it possible to obtain large amount of salmon efficiently in siltladen
main streams of the Upper Kuskokwim tributaries. Conflicts with non-Native
wildlife management regime began after Alaska's statehood when the State banned
salmon fishing technology which involves blocking the entire width of a river or stream.
As a result, Upper Kuskokwim people were forced to abandon their fishing weirs and
fences at Salmon River since the late 1960s. After a decade or so, subsistence salmon
fishing with rods and reels resumed at Salmon River. Nowadays, Salmon River Culture
Camp has been organized by Nikolai Village Council to revitalize their fishing
traditions. Since the 2010s, severe decline of king salmon populations in Alaska and
Yukon has become a serious issue in indigenous societies of the areas. Local people
think that commercial fishing (including bycatch) in high sea negatively affects the king
salmon populations, while some others point out that increased activities by beavers and
low-level of water in interior rivers might have been causing disruption of salmon's
upstream migration. Through my observation of people's activities in salmon spawning
areas, I argue that making a small opening to beaver dams (instead of totally destroying
them) may actually benefit spawning salmon populations.