Rebalancing Native Diets with Subsistence Foods in Cordova, Alaska

The Eyak Athabaskan people have lived along the Copper River Delta and eastern Prince William Sound for the last 3,500 years. They migrated from the interior of Alaska over the glaciers to the Gulf of Alaska coastline, where retreating glaciers formed a thin green strip of habitat and rivers near Yakutat, an Eyak word meaning lagoon behind the sea, where the canoes rest.

The Eyaks are the wild Copper River salmon people and the traditional ancestral stewards of the Copper River Delta region. Their identity and name come from where they established their subsistence villages. Eyak means the throat of the lake, where the lake becomes the river.

For thousands of years, families from the Native Village of Eyak in Prince William Sound were deeply connected to Nature through their ocean way of life. Their diets followed the seasons as they fished, hunted, and gathered berries and herbs. Traditionally, they did not distinguish themselves from their environment, and so served as ancestral stewards of the land. 

Then colonization, forced assimilation, and the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill drove these families from their local food resources toward a reliance on processed foods flown in from the mainland. As a result, their once rich in nutrients diet is now as impoverished as the community itself. In the 1800s, Cordova was built as a coal and copper terminus on top of the ancient village of Eyak. Later, it became the site of corporate canneries where the Eyaks are hired seasonally. In this context, the community endures a high-cost food desert where non-traditional food is expensive and traditional foods are out of reach.  

According to Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium statistics, between the early 90s and late 2000s, obesity rates rose 63%. Alaska Natives are 2.3 times more likely to have diabetes compared with Caucasians. Therefore, improving access to traditional foods, which are much healthier and more sustainable than the processed foods brought in from the mainland, is critical for the health and well-being of this People and the environment where they live.

The Native Conservancy

Native Conservancy was established in 2003 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit to defend Alaska Native self-determination in Prince William Sound and across Salmon Nation territories. As a Native-run organization, NC is revitalizing the Indigenous Knowledge of Alaska Native coastal communities, empowering Alaska Native peoples to permanently protect and preserve endangered habitats on their ancestral homelands and striving to maintain and secure titles to Native lands in conservation trusts to strengthen their inherent rights of sovereignty, subsistence and spirituality.

Rebalancing Native Diets with Subsistence Foods in Cordova, Alaska

This project is a step toward mitigating the profoundly negative impacts that the extractive industry has had on the community of the Native Village of Eyak and recovering their ocean way of life. It will do so through the administration, outreach, preparation, and delivery of traditional foods to Eyak Elders and their families.

"The ultimate goal of this project is that Native families who have been in Cordova for thousands of years can stop eating canned creamed corn and reunite with their ancestral diet." 

by Eyak Native Jim Smith, Restoration and Elder Subsistence Program Manager for Native Conservancy

This project protects Alaska Native ways of life that are in harmony with Nature. It reduces the community's exposure to highly-processed foods flown in from mainland Alaska, bringing families together through food to share culture and enhance the community.

When The Native Conservancy first delivered 500 pounds of traditional frozen food to Eyak Elders in Cordova, they followed Alaska Native tradition and tripled the impact of the Native Conservancy food security system by sharing it with family members and their households. With the support of this grant, the Native Conservancy will: 

1. Expand its Subsistence Program to help Native Elders and their families access locally sourced healthy foods. 
The program will incorporate a calendar of seasonal foods, including seafood, kelp, fish, fresh meat, berries and medicinal herbs, into monthly deliveries. The Native Conservancy will also conduct Elder family member surveys and other outreach, including a Facebook page with menus, to ensure program success and flexibility according to tastes and suggestions.

2. Foster Indigenous community connection among Native Elders and Community members.
Every month, the project's team will meet face-to-face with at least 50 elders to build rapport and conduct surveys about what traditional meals and foods they most need and would like. Families will be invited to add recipes and suggest local providers for traditional food delicacies. In addition, the program will continue to engage youth in the community to participate in food gathering and processing via traditional methods.
 
The Native Conservancy's Subsistence Foods Program has grown substantially in the community over the last three years despite Covid. It encompasses harvesting and food preparation, as well as outreach and administration. It strives to reach hospitals and homes where elders sometimes cannot pick up their food. 

The project will also recruit local Native American cuisine experts – from those who make the best traditional jellies and jams from local berries to those who make the best fry bread in town – to help prepare once-a-month supplements for the deliveries of fish, meat, berries and herbal medicines.

Don't miss out on our captivating interview with Dune Lankard, Founder and President of Native Conservancy. This rich conversation delves deep into the Ocean Way of Life of the Eyak People in the Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound, emphasizing the significance of reintegrating traditional subsistence foods into Native Diets: