Project Jukebox Survey

Help us redesign the Project Jukebox website by taking a very short survey!

Susan Georgette

Originally from southern California and having earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Susan Georgette felt a pull toward wild places and came to Alaska in the late 1970s during the time the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was being proposed. She worked for the Subsistence Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game where she did important work to record traditional ecological knowledge, shape regulations suited to local practices, and document subsistence economies through harvest surveys in various parts of Alaska. By the mid-1980s, she settled in Kotzebue, Alaska and continued to work for the Subsistence Division. She later went to work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, whose headquarters are in Kotzebue. She enjoys the interface between intact ecosystems, cultures with longstanding connections to land and resources, and personal relationships that her conservation work has allowed her to experience. She has collaborated closely with the Native community, organized local science-culture camps, and is the author of numerous subsistence studies and cultural documentation reports. She has been the Refuge Manager at Selawik National Wildlife Refuge since 2015, and continues to enjoy living in and exploring northwestern Alaska.

Susan Georgette appears in the following new Jukebox projects:

Land Use and Environmental Change, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge

As Interviewer

Interview Title	Archive #: Oral History	Project	Abstract
May Walton	2018-04-02	Land Use and Environmental Change, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge	May Walton was interviewed on February 8, 2018 by Karen Brewster and Susan Georgette at May's home in Selawik, Alaska. In this interview, May talks about living a traditional subsistence lifestyle, spending time at the upriver community of Niliq, hunting and trapping muskrat, processing and selling muskrat furs, the fur trade, and traveling down river on a log raft. She also discusses fishing, eating traditional Native foods, changes in wildlife populations like caribou, ptarmigan hunting, early forms of money, and other families living up the Selawik and Kuugruaq Rivers.
Pauline Ramoth	2018-04-04	Land Use and Environmental Change, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge	Pauline Ramoth was interviewed on February 9, 2018 by Karen Brewster and Susan Georgette at Pauline's home in Selawik, Alaska. Nichole Hanshaw sat in and listened to the interview. In this interview, Pauline talks about growing up in Selawik when times were tough, only going to school until the sixth grade, and learning English, living a subsistence lifestyle of moving to seasonal camps for hunting, trapping and fishing, traveling on the river on a log raft, and stopping at Niliq and visiting the Rotman family who lived there. She also talks about muskrat hunting, preparing and trading the skins, eating traditional Native foods, use of plants, spring celebration and games they played.
Emma Ramoth	2018-04-01	Land Use and Environmental Change, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge	Emma Ramoth was interviewed on February 7, 2018 by Susan Georgette and Karen Brewster at Emma's home in Selawik, Alaska. In this interview, Emma talks about growing up at Niliq on the Selawik River, living a subsistence-based lifestyle, going to spring camp, hunting muskrat and selling furs, fishing, and rafting wood downriver for firewood. She also talks about other people and families who lived at Niliq and at other camps along the Selawik and Tagragvik River, and about experiencing earthquakes, floods and fires. Emma's description of her early life on the river and the many other people living in the country offers insight into a lifestyle that has disappeared and the many traditional places that are no longer used. Her stories also demonstrate changes in the environment and the fish and wildlife populations.
Grant Ballot	2018-04-03	Land Use and Environmental Change, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge	Grant Uiugaaguqruak Ballot was interviewed on February 8, 2018 by Susan Georgette and Karen Brewster in the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge's office in the IRA Traditional Council's building in Selawik, Alaska. Nichole Hanshaw sat in and listened to the interview. In this interview, Grant talks about growing up following a traditional nomadic subsistence lifestyle, going to mission school, trapping, fishing and hunting. In particular, Grant talks a lot about muskrat hunting, preparation of the skins, and the fur trade. He also talks about other people and families that lived in camps and settlements along the Selawik and Tagraġvik Rivers, and changes that have led to the loss of cultural traditions and the importance of passing these along to the younger generations.