Crew members prepare a diversity of fresh fish, including Dolly Varden, pink salmon, least cisco, and two species of whitefish. 7/27/2007, Nelson Island, Alaska. Photo by Tom Doolittle.

John Roy John prepares a recently-harvested young bearded seal. 7/23/2007, Nelson Island, Alaska. Photo by Tom Doolittle.

Fresh-picked salmonberries, an essential part of agutaq, or Eskimo ice cream. 7/27/2007, Nelson Island, Alaska. Photo by Tom Doolittle.

  In late July 2007, Supervisory Wildlife Biologist Tom Doolittle of Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge joined a collaborative expedition blending western science and traditional Yup'ik Eskimo knowledge. With 23 other adventurers, Doolittle circumnavigated Nelson Island on the Bering Sea as part of a Calista Elders Council (CEC) project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Social Science Program.  Participants in the 14-day, 300-km journey ranged from 15 to 77 years. The CEC is a non-profit organization representing 1,300 Yup'ik tradition-bearers of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and the major organization documenting the traditional knowledge of the Yup'ik people. The trip was organized by CEC director Mark John and cultural anthropologist Anne Fienup-Riordan. 

Most of Nelson Island is owned and managed by Yup'ik native corporations and villages surrounded by Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.  The trip was both a partnering adventure with Refuge neighbors and a scientific reconnaissance since little previous survey work had been conducted on Nelson Island.  As Yukon Delta Education Specialist Brian McCaffery noted in the NSF grant proposal: “From the perspective of western science, the natural history of Nelson Island is a virtual terra incognita”. 

The primary goal of the Nelson Island Project was for elders and youth from five communities to work with non-Native scientists to document unique natural history and cultural geography.  Topics included traditional place names, weather and ice conditions, harvesting patterns, animal and plant communities, and oral traditions. The CEC project enabled Nelson Island residents to document their local and traditional knowledge due to observed climate change related to subsistence harvest.  Scientists represented agencies and organizations that work with Yup'ik communities including Calista Corporation (geologist June McAtee), the Association of Village Council Presidents (archaeologist Steven Street), and Yukon Delta Refuge staff.

The Nelson Island Project was endorsed by the International Polar Year committee as part of the Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU) initiative linking to other projects including the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA) to reach out to the broader global community.

Nelson Island youth helped Yukon Delta’s Doolittle trap small mammals, collect aquatic invertebrates, and identify birds. Living and learning together in a remote field camp removed many social barriers.  Doolittle was exposed to a wide array of culinary delights ranging from raw pike and young bearded seal to bird soup and agutaq or “Eskimo ice cream” made of salmon berries, whitefish and seal oil.  Rumor has it Doolittle lost 14 lbs on the trip.