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Getting Through a Pandemic: The Role of Cultural Values and Traditions in a Rural Alaska Native Community

Where this project came from:

This project arose from the Community Based Participatory Research process, and relationships Jacques Philip and his team built with Huslia community partners. The Huslia Community Steering Committee came up with the research question for the project and guided the research. Community members in Huslia expressed the desire to collaborate and participate in the project. They wanted to:

• explore the impacts of COVID-19 in their community, and
• examine how cultural values and traditions helped them get through it.

 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought great challenges to our world, including rural Indigenous communities like Huslia. Yet they also show strength and adaptability through connections to land, culture, family, spirituality, and community (Newman et al., 2019; Pomerville & Gone, 2019). Oral storytelling traditions have long been a cherished way to share cultural knowledge and values across generations in Alaska Native communities and continue to be important today (Newman et al., 2022). Digital stories can help celebrate and nurture cultural strengths and holistic interconnected relationships that provide wellness (Newman et al., 2022; Philip et al., 2022; Rivkin et al. 2020). Sharing these stories can expand their impacts.

What we did:

What we found:

 The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for the people of Huslia and altered ways in which Huslia residents functioned as a community. People could not gather for potlatches, funerals, or other culturally significant events. Disruption of culturally relevant social activities increased feelings of loneliness and loss. Youth were especially affected, and could not play basketball. Restrictions to travel and social activities negatively impacted access to health care, family, and community activities.

 Huslia community members shared stories about strengths that gave them hope and helped them through the difficulties. Community strengths lie in their values of coming together, and engaging in cultural activities and connections to combat isolation challenges. Connections to land, culture, family, and community provide strength in good times and bad. Fishing, hunting, trapping, mushing, taking care of dogs, connecting to family, and supporting one another helped community members thrive in the face of the significant challenges they faced. As people re-engaged socially, they appreciated one another, and the value of coming together even more.

We worked together to create a calendar showcasing key cultural strengths that helped community members through good times and bad. The calendars include the names of the month in Denaakk’e, along with illustrative quotes from participants, and pictures from Huslia (most of them from LeAnn Bifelt). We made Indigenous holidays a priority in the calendar, including Elizabeth Peratrovich Day, Alaska Civil Rights Day, George Attla Jr. Day, and Indigenous People’s Day. The community steering committee provided guidance for the creation and distribution of calendars. We presented them at the Huslia community dissemination gathering, and also brought printed calendars for every household.

Looking toward the future:

After sharing our findings to the community of Huslia during a scheduled dissemination meeting, participants shared their thoughts on potential future endeavors. Community members want to continue to share Huslia's stories and strengths, in an effort to promote Koyukon Athabascan history, culture, traditions, and values. Huslia partners expressed that continuing such work is absolutely essential because storytelling, intergenerational transmission of knowledge, and history compose the threads that are woven into Huslia and its people. In addition, they noted that such work will also benefit other Alaska Native communities, with Huslia leading as an example for the recording and preservation of stories and knowledge. Through our conversations with the community, the school’s educators have expressed the potential to create a database where Huslia’s youth can engage in recording and preserving these stories. It is important to note that such a place-based story database would be managed by Huslia itself.

 The results found through the interviews and stories were used to create tangible products, such as the calendar, which reaffirm and celebrate cultural strengths. Findings will also continue to inform additional resources which highlight the community’s strengths, in particular when it comes to living and surviving through difficult times. It is imperative that the knowledge and results should be used to promote Koyukon Athabascan culture and values, especially as it relates to supporting Huslia’s youth and future generations. Such protective factors need to be highlighted in order to foster a healthy future.

 We have learned so much through our collaboration with Huslia, and we hope that our contributions will support the future that Huslia envisions. 

 

“Every village has stories: You just have to talk to them.”

“Our culture and traditions help carry us through anything.”

 

Meet the team

References

• Newman, J., Rivkin, I., Brooks, C., Turco, K., Bifelt, J., Ekada, L., & Philip, J. (2022). Indigenous knowledge: Revitalizing everlasting relationships between Alaska natives and sled dogs to promote holistic wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 244. 
• Philip, J., Newman, J., Bifelt, J., Brooks, C., & Rivkin, I. (2022). Role of social, cultural and symbolic capital for youth and community well-being in a rural Alaska Native community. Children and Youth Services Review,137. .
• Pomerville, A., Gone J.P. (2019). Indigenous culture-as-treatment in the era of evidence-based mental health practice. In Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Wellbeing, edited by Matthew Manning and Christopher Fleming, Routledge. ISBN: 9781351051262
• Rivkin, I., Black, J., Lopez, E.D.S., Filardi, E., Salganek, M., Newman, J., Haire, J., Nanouk, M., Philip, J., Charlie, D., & Wexler, L. (2020). Integrating Mentorship and Digital Storytelling to Promote Wellness for Alaska Native Youth. Journal of American Indian Education 59(2), 169-193. doi:10.1353/jaie.2020.0014

Acknowledgments

Great appreciation for the stories, diverse perspectives and materials provided by Huslia community members. Special gratitude for LeAnn Bifelt’s contribution to community engagement and project realization within Huslia. Thank you to Laura Ekada, Janessa Newman, and Joe Bifelt for extensive help with the project and the interviews. We would like to thank our community steering committee members (Jeanette Williams, Doreen David, Josephine Derendoff, Danielle Dayton, Leona Starr, Teri Vent, Margie Ambrose, Audrey Bifelt), who provided critical guidance throughout the research and dissemination process.

 We thank the Huslia Tribal Council, the staff and faculty at UAF CANHR (Center for Alaska Native Health Research), UAF Center for One Health Research, UAF BLaST (Biomedical Learning and Student Training).

 Photos from LeAnn Bifelt, Jacques Philip, Inna Rivkin, Cathy Brooks, and Nikola Nikolic. Artwork by Laura Ekada.

 This project is approved by UAF Office of Research Integrity (#1703458): (907) 474-7800, uaf-irb@alaska.edu. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers UL1GM118991, TL4GM118992, RL5GM118990, P30GM103325, U54GM115371 and U54GM104944. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.