Project Jukebox

Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program

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olcg.jpgThe Climate Change Project Jukebox was developed in 2001 as a collaborative effort between the Oral History Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the "Observing Locally, Connecting Globally" (OLCG) teacher education project at UAF. Since one of OLCG's goals was to introduce teachers to climate change observations of local experts, Caleb Pungowiyi of St. Lawrence Island was invited to share his knowledge at a teacher workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska in December 2001. This initial presentation was recorded and provided the inspiration for development of this Climate Change Project Jukebox. In 2020, the Climate Change Project Jukebox was upgraded from its original HTML format to Drupal. The information in this project reflects the context of the original creation date. Some information may now be out of date.

Once the process began, we looked for speakers representing different parts of Alaska and selected Martha Stackhouse from Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Orville Huntington from Huslia, Kenneth Frank from Arctic Village, and Samuel Demientieff from Fairbanks. All of these people are experienced members of the Native community who maintain close contact with elders and have a strong interest in environmental issues because of their own activities on the land. Many of their observations provide direct links between climate and environmental changes they observe and the effects of those changes on life in rural Alaska. We also included a presentation from snow and climate change scientist Matthew Sturm from Fairbanks.

This project was sponsored by The Global Change Education Using Western Science and Native Observations Project, with funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) through grants secured by the OLCG project.

People

Sam Demientieff Sam Demientieff

Sam Demientieff is an Athabascan who was born in Holy Cross, Alaska in 1939, and grew up in Nenana and Fairbanks, and along the Yukon and Tanana Rivers where his father ran a barge service. He graduated from high school at Copper Valley School in Glennallen, and earned a certificate in mineral petroleum technology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Sam worked for Fairbanks Native Association, Doyon, Ltd. and retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Sam has extensive knowledge of... Read More

Kenneth Frank Kenneth Frank

Kenneth Frank is a Gwich'in "young elder" who was raised in Venetie, Alaska and also lived in Arctic Village, Alaska for many years. He grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle based on hunting, fishing and trapping and speaking his Native Gwich'in language. Kenneth is an indigenous scholar who is devoted to the preservation of his culture and language, and ensuring that knowledge is passed on to the younger generation. He has donated historic photographs from his family's... Read More

Orville Huntington Orville Huntington, Jr.

Orville Huntington is an Athabascan elder who was born in Huslia, Alaska where he grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle of hunting, fishing, and trapping according to the seasons. He earned a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as Tribal Biologist and a Refuge Information Technician at the Koyukuk/Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and as Director of Parks and Wildlife for the... Read More

Caleb Pungowiyi Caleb Pungowiyi

Caleb Pungowiyi was a Siberian Yup'ik elder from Savoonga, Alaska, a small community on St. Lawrence Island. He was born in 1941 and was raised by his grandmother in a traditional subsistence lifestyle and learned traditional hunting and survival skills from his uncles. He left to attend high school at boarding school in Sitka, Alaska, and earned a college degree. While originally from Savoonga, Caleb lived in Nome for 20 years,where he was president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and was... Read More

Martha Stackhouse Martha Stackhouse

Martha Ikayuaq Stackhouse is an Iñupiaq elder and educator from Utqiaġvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow.) She was born to Anna and Wesley Aiken and grew up living a traditional subsistence lifestyle focused on the seasonal round of whaling. Martha began teaching in Barrow in the 1980s, and has worked as a classroom teacher and Inupiaq language expert for the North Slope Borough School... Read More

Matthew Sturm Matthew Sturm

Originally from New Mexico, Matthew Sturm earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1989. He has spent thirty years studying snow, ice and permafrost in the Arctic. His research concentration is thermal effects of snow cover, spatial distribution of snow and vegetation, and effects of climate change. He has been the leader of more than thirty winter expeditions in pursuit of his science, including many long-distance snow machine treks across Alaska and Canada... Read More