In late July 2022, the Orutsararmiut Native Council of Bethel organized another successful Culture and Science Camp for students from all over the the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Thanks to the tribe’s collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Kuskokwim Campus, the students earned high school credit and college credit at the same time. the course was developed by fisheries biologist Janessa Esquible and Dr. Shannon Atkinson, Professor for UAF Fisheries and Ocean Sciences to give students the opportunity to learn about relevant subsistence practices through the lenses of mainstream academia and Indigenous ways of knowing.
The course focuses on experiential, immersive learning and is taught by Indigenous Elders, other local experts, and college professors. Students engage in a variety of activities such as cutting fish, assembling a seal skeleton and conducting a necropsy on a sea otter. An entire section of the course is dedicated to ethnobotany, the study of human-plant relationships. Students learn about edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, how to make salves, hydrosols, infusions and how to draw plants. We are very grateful to our amazing team of Elders, instructors and students who made the ethnobotany section of the ONC 2022 camp a great success again!
