The Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta is home to the Alaskan Native Yup’ik people who have inhabited this remote, subarctic tundra for over 1500 years. Today, their ancestral lifeways and cultural landscapes are at risk from severe climate change-related threats. In turn, we propose that remote sensing technologies, particularly with sensors mounted on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms, are uniquely suited for protecting Yup’ik landscape heritage. Based on collaborative, community-based fieldwork in Quinhagak, AK, we present evidence that cultural sites—ranging from historic fishing camps to pre-contact winter villages—exhibit predictably atypical vegetation patterns based on the local ecological biome. Furthermore, these vegetation patterns can be recorded and statistically quantified through the analysis of multispectral imagery obtained from UAV-mounted sensors with three different false color composite rasters and vegetation indices depending on biome type. Finally, we suggest how the Yupiit can combine these methodologies/workflows with local knowledge to monitor the broader heritage landscape in the face of climate change.

The following article outlines a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to remote sensing in Southwest Alaska's Yukon‐Kuskokwim (Y‐K) Delta that combines ethnographic inquiry and remote sensing to monitor, detect and preserve cultural resources for Alaskan Native communities. Because distinctive vegetation differences are readily visible on cultural sites during the summer months, the analysis of multispectral imagery obtained from remote sensing is particularly useful. In turn, we demonstrate the efficacy of this protocol on pre‐contact settlement sites along the Ayakulik River system on Kodiak Island using a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) raster of the study area. Here, support vector machine (SVM) supervised classification was highly effective at identifying spectral patterns associated with anthropogenic activity while ethnographic data helped rule out false‐positive cases. In addition, we provide the results of a 2019 archaeological prospection survey carried out in conjunction with the ongoing Nunalleq Project in Quinhagak, Alaska, to further highlight the value of ethnographic data collection, ethnobotanical surveys and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)‐based spectroscopy alongside SVM supervised classification. Finally, we propose three suggestions for future research on Yup'ik landscapes in the Y‐K Delta regarding citizen science, language preservation and the use of collaborative online maps for community‐based decision making.

The following article illustrates the impact of contemporary coastline change on Yup’ik subsistence practices known collectively as Yuuyaraq. We draw from an extensive archive (n = 490) of historic maps, aerial photographs, and surveying reports collected and digitized over the course of on-site visits to Quinhagak, AK from 2018-2021. In addition, our research team conducted numerous recorded (n = 7) and unrecorded (n = 42) interviews with community members about recent environmental changes near Quinhagak to study the impact of coastal erosion. Our aim is to demonstrate how archival maps can provide high quality, mobile-friendly visualizations so that Yupik researchers and community members can study the impact of climate change in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta.

After the United States’ purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, Alaska Native lands have existed in a legal state of aboriginal title, whereby the land rights of its traditional occupants could be extinguished by Congress at any time. With the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, however, Alaska Native individuals were given the opportunity to select and secure a title to ancestral lands as federally administered ANCSA 14(c) allotments. Today, though, these allotments are threatened by climate-change-driven erosion. In response, our article provides an erosion monitoring tool to quantify the damage caused by coastal and riverine erosion. Using the Yup’ik (pl. Yupiit) community of Quinhagak as a case study, we employ high-precision measurement devices and archival spatial datasets to demonstrate the immense scale of the loss of cultural lands in this region. From 1976 to 2022, an average of 30.87 m of coastline were lost according to 9 ANCSA 14(c) case studies within Quinhagak’s Traditional Land Use Area. In response, we present a free erosion monitoring tool and urge tribal entities in Alaska to replicate our methods for recording and quantifying erosion on their shareholders’ ANCSA 14(c) properties. Doing so will foster urgent dialogue between Alaskan Native communities and lawmakers to determine what measures are needed to protect Alaska Native land rights in the face of new environmental challenges.

Yup’ik Elder John Smith (Hooper Bay) recounts wise words (qanruyutet) about growing up during a time of rapid change in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta. His oral histories include instructions (alerquutet), prohibitions (inerquutet), and cautionary tales (neq’ayarat) regarding Yup’ik subsistence practices known collectively as Yuuyaraq. Taken together, these oral histories, represent a genre of performance sometimes overlooked in contemporary scholarship that explores the role that modernization and outside contact have on indigenous subsistence practices. While John’s qanruyutet discuss the plants, species, and practices of the Y-K Delta, his words – meant to be read aloud – also provide valuable insight for individuals interested in animal-human relations and posthuman performance.

Drawing from fieldwork conducted over several months at a small Appalachian goat farm, experimental prose is coupled with affect-based critiques of human exceptionalism to uncover the rhythmic and vibrant relations of human/nonhuman interdependence (Gruen 5). Taking seriously the posthuman call to reimagine animal, human, and material relations, we envision farming as a rhythmic and affect-laden atmosphere of habit, co-constitution, and vibrant materiality.