Building a Lifeline ~ Salmon Life

Nourishment Stewardship

On September 25, 2015 a small group gathered in Spernak Airways’ building at Anchorage’s Merrill Field for a flight to Tyonek. We loaded in promptly at 7:30 a.m., the sound and feel of the Cessna 207 living up to the name “Skywagon.” The sun was just rising over the Chugach Mountains, bathing everything in a lemony-gold light as we taxied and took off. A near-lifelong resident of Anchorage, I’d never taken off from Merrill Field, seen the city or inlet from this perspective, and never been to Tyonek.

“I’ve walked all over this land,” said Native Village of Tyonek president Al Goozmer. “Mostly on snowshoes.” He told me this as we stood, with a dozen and a half people, on the side of a gravel road somewhere between Tyonek and Shirleyville. Beneath us was a new, 28’ wavy steel culvert built to prevent terrible, driver-stranding washouts and, as Goozmer had announced to the gathered group, to “enhance our ability to harvest salmon.” It was the reason for my first plane trip to west Cook Inlet, and our day’s celebration.

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To understand the importance of this culvert, this creek, and the salmon that may one day spend their first and last days in it, it helps to know the king salmon story that Tyonek historian Nickefor Alexan passed to Goozmer, who shared it with me at the tribal center

You see, at one time at the end of the fishing season, everybody’s smokehouse was full. All the barrels were full with salt fish and there were so many that there were some fish lying on the beach, rotting. Waste. And there was a little boy and a little girl playing a the edge of the water and the king salmon came and turned that little boy and that little girl into king salmon. He said “I’m going to take you everyplace where I went, all the perils and dangers and toils and snares that I had to go through in order for us to come back and feed you.” So that king salmon took that little boy and girl he’d changed into salmon, and he took them all the way through the North Pacific and everywhere the king salmon go to – avoiding seals, whales, all the predators of the salmon. He took them all over and showed them just how hard a life a salmon has in order to come back and feed us. And after they got back, he changed the little boy and little girl back into the boy and girl and he said, “Now go tell the chief what you’ve seen, where we’ve been, all the hardships and tell the chief not to waste anything and we will always be plentiful to you.”

Goozmer went on to tell me “So, you go to the smokehouses you’ll find that you not only find the strips, you’ll have the backbone, the tail, the fins, the heads and everything else. Nothing is wasted. And so that was the practice and the story of our conservation efforts for us to remain the recipients of the blessing of the salmon. That’s the story of the salmon and who we are and what we are.”

A small crowd gathered at the tribal center while Goozmer told the king salmon story in front of a wall of historical photos and plaques. Soon after he finished, the convivial bunch piled into trucks and SUVs and drove over wide gravel roads, passing unmarked turnoffs sprouting off into the woods. I rode with Connie Downing from Tyonek Native Corporation (TNC), some project partners, and Donita Slawson, a culture-bearer and teacher and recent tribal administrator. Her drum rested against her legs.

A wall of historical photos and plaques at the Tyonek tribal center.

Harriet Kaufman of Tyonek

“Tebughna,” which translates as “the Beach People,” is the name for the people from Tyonek.

Christy Cincotta, Executive Director of the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District

CLEARING THE WAY

Harriet Kaufman lives in Tyonek. She grew up there, was on the tribal council for more than 30 years and has worked with the village for 25 years. Her father was Robert Standifer, who also served on the village council, and who, as a commercial fisherman, brought her aboard his boat to fish when she was just four years old. After her mother, Jane, died, he also taught her how to prepare fish – to cut, prepare, preserve. Throughout her life she’s taught everyone she can – her daughter, grandsons, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, kids at the youth camp – so that they know what she knows. She said, “I teach them and I tell them – no matter what, if you feel like you don’t have any foods and you go fishing, you’ll know what to do and you’ll survive.”

Kaufman is on the board of directors of the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District (TTCD). Founded in 2005 and staffed in 2011, TTCD’s mission is to “conserve, enhance and encourage the wise use of natural resources in our District.” Its executive director, Christy Cincotta (who also flew into Tyonek that morning for the occasion), credits Kaufman with being the first person from the community to talk with her about the importance of addressing barriers to fish passage.

Decades ago a timber company putting in roads installed an undersized culvert that prevented fish from going upstream – most weren’t able to make it through the constricted, fast flow, or to jump up over its raised edge. Above that spot, there are ten miles of sweet, fresh, perfect stream for salmon to spawn in; they just had to be able to get there.

The community identified fish passage and habitat as one of their priorities, so, TTCD launched a culvert replacement program. Improving fish access to the creek can help positively affect salmon populations in Cook Inlet, and the Old Tyonek Creek – also known as Robert’s Creek – was known to be home to several types of salmon, plus hooligan. Shepherding the project began in 2013, cost $1.13 million, included many partners, and reached its successful conclusion in early fall of 2015. We were in Tyonek to celebrate this collective accomplishment.

Cincotta addresses the individuals and agency representatives who worked to complete the Robert's Creek culvert replacement project.

Native Village of Tyonek president Al Goozmer blesses the culvert

"I am really humbled by the scope of what we have all accomplished together."

BLESSINGS

Standing just off the side of the road, the trees all golden and the autumn air both chilled and scented with the seasonal funk of rotting leaves and berries, Downing began the blessing ceremony by welcoming us to Tyonek land. Then she turned it over to Cincotta.

“Thanks for coming out to celebrate the successful completion of the Robert’s Creek culvert replacement. Each person here played an absolutely vital role in making the project happen and I am really humbled by the scope of what we have all accomplished together.”

She then went on to thank everyone individually and as representatives of their organizations or agencies, starting with Tyonek Native Corporation, the landowner, and the Native Village of Tyonek. Others included the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, ConocoPhillips, PacRim Coal, Cook Inlet Region Incorporated, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, and Aurora Gas.

“This partnership that is here today, and this project, are a perfect example of why TTCD was formed and we hope to continue working with each of you for years to come, for the benefit of the land, resource, and people,” Cincotta said.

Village president Goozmer then began the blessing of the culvert. “I would also like to express my gratitude and appreciation to each and every one of you through this program of enhancing our ability to harvest the salmon here. This stream is one of the most important streams for salmon on the west Cook Inlet.” Then, as though channeling Elvis Presley, he raised his voice in the Lord’s Prayer, the a capella singing accompanied only by the sound of the creek shushing by. Art Standifer, vice president of the village council, blessed the crossing with a prayer, and Slawson and the TTCD program assistant, Tonya Kaloa sang in Dena’ina, the beat of the drum reflected in the gentle bounce of their knees.

Engineers and supporting partners walk around the site. The culvert arcs 28' across the creek.

The culvert arcs 28’ across the creek, and a group of people standing midstream look a bit small. Some of the engineers and supporting partners walked around the site, following the stream, pointing at the new trees coming up around it, and nerding out on technical details. Bob Jones with the USDA said it was the largest culvert project they’d been part of in Alaska. An engineer, Jeff Ripka, from his agency had been on site every week during construction.

As I listened to the creek running by, I thought of Kaufman telling me salmon was probably her first solid food when she was a baby and that when she has no salmon, it feels like she hasn’t eaten anything. While some call this creek Old Tyonek Creek, locals call it Robert’s Creek, after her father about whom she said “It didn’t matter who the person was, they walked out of his house knowing they’d made a friend.”

EATING LOCAL

While we’d been honoring years-long partnerships and the re-opening of Robert’s Creek to fish, Chef Rob Kinneen had been making a fantastic meal of local foods. The salmon came from Kaufman, who had caught it at the mouth of Robert’s Creek, and the brilliantly colorful vegetables were grown in the community garden managed by TTCD.

"I catch salmon to eat it. The fish make me healthy."

Just after lunch Slawson told me “One of the things the elders always told us is that if we eat the food from our area we’ll always be healthy, and that’s what we can pass on to our children.” So when we walked over to the school to talk with students about salmon, I asked them “what does salmon mean to you?” They replied “food” and “work.” Some of the youngest kids had written and illustrated super short stories about salmon that they shared with me. A little boy named Rory wrote, “I catch salmon to eat it. The fish make me healthy.” Tommy wrote, “I catch salmon at Aunty Katherine’s fish camp. I cut it up, fry it and eat it with family.”

Tyonek people call themselves Tebughna – “the Beach People.” Salmon are integral to their culture and they’ve found committed partners to help them do right by the salmon that do so much for them.

When you fly overhead, as we did on the bouncy flight back to Anchorage, you trace the beach and can see where creeks cut through, connecting the inlet and the land. It’s not hard to imagine the king salmon story taking place there along the salt water and gravel: children returning from their salmon-guided adventure to remind adults to care for the salmon.

Salmon Life

Building a Lifeline

Clearing the Way, Blessings, and Eating Local

Salmon Love: It's a Process

To Give and To Get

Building a Lifeline

Clearing the Way, Blessings, and Eating Local

Salmon Love: It's a Process

To Give and To Get

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