ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces IEK and conservation practices in the hunting, fishing, and gathering practices among Alaskan Athabascans. Based on the author’s 14-month ethnographic fieldwork in the community of Nikolai in Alaska, the chapter discusses two examples of salmon-human interactions in the Upper Kuskokwim region. Engaging with the ecological and anthropological debates on “keystone species,” some solutions are proposed to bridge the gap between IEK and natural resource management regimes predominantly influenced by the scientific management paradigm. The chapter extends the keystone species concept further and considers the role of humans and some of the other non-human top predators in marine ecosystems as “hyperkeystone species” – those that affect multiple other keystone species across different habitats, and hence drive complex, potentially connected interaction chains. It is argued that effective management of salmon in Alaska will need to consider the practices of Alaskan Athabascans that are akin to the role of hyperkeystone species in ecosystems.
