Progress 12/01/23 to 11/30/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this work are the residents and Tribal members of the Pribilof Island of Tanax Amix(St. Paul). St. Paul Island is located 300 miles from the Alaska mainland in the Bering Sea. This project addressed a key problem for residents, 82% of which are Alaska Native. Unangax(the People of the Sea, or the Aleut Peoples) connections to marine resources predate written historic records. The marine waters around St. Paul Island provide food, income, knowledge, community, personal health and well-being, and Unangaxcultural heritage. From an Unangaxperspective, natural resources are a highly complex living network of "relatives." Unangaxcannot be separated from these components of the larger network, and the people of St. Paul Island have always lived with and stewarded the wildlife that live on and around the islands. Traditional use of harvested resources (or "subsistence") continues to be a cornerstone of Unangaxculture and livelihood, as is characteristic of Indigenous cultures across the Arctic. As has been true for millennia, seals, birds, sea lions, halibut, crabs, and other marine resources are the cornerstone of life, including food, economy, and culture, on the Pribilof Islands. As such, St. Paul Island's culture, economy, food safety, and food security are inextricably tied to the health of the overall ecosystem and everything within it. Currently, Unangaxcommunities are directly experiencing a rapidly transforming marine ecosystem, including harmful declines of fur seals, sea lions, seabirds, fish, and invertebrates. These changes are having real costs to wildlife, human and ecosystem health, local economies, and culture. In addition to the community and UnangaxTribal member audiences, work completed during this reporting period directly focused on developing workforce training and capacity for D. Roberts, a resident of St. Paul Island who is leading on-site project efforts, as well as undergraduate and graduate students enrolled through University of Alaska and Ilisagvik College. Changes/Problems:Summary of minor delays/changes for BRAIDED Food Security Project 12/1/2023 - 11/30/2024 Minor delays in funding approval changed the original start date from October 1, 2023 to December 1, 2024 Further delays in establishing funding and sub-awards to community partners were incurred due to awaiting IRB approval through the university process. This was the primary basis for our requested, and approved, no-cost extension. Change in Co-PIs: After being appointed Bering Sea Research Center Chief Science Officer, Padula took on the role of Co-PI on the project for ACSPI; Divine is still collaborating and participating on the project. UAF Co-PI switched from Barst to Rea following Barst's move to University of Calgary (he is still involved, but as an unfunded collaborator). Full infrastructure construction of the Bering Sea Research Center was delayed from summer 2024 to Winter 2025 due to shipping chains and availability of contractors This delay didn't directly impact project progress, as we were still able to set up a temporary mercury analysis station; as construction progresses instruments will be moved temporarily and set up in an alternative place on the island for continued use. Once construction has been completed, we will complete the final set-up of the instrumentation in the fully outfitted bench-space early spring 2025, in time for key summer harvest activities and analyses. ISN Delays:The Indigenous Sentinels Network (ISN) was undergoing a significant software revamp at the start of this project, an investment made separately by ACSPI. This modernization effort, while critical for long-term functionality, presented challenges for project implementation. Specifically, delays occurred in staff training on the ISN platform due to the continuous testing and innovation process required for software updates. Moving forward, the enhanced ISN software will offer greater functionality and user-friendly tools that will strengthen the program's capacity to handle data securely and efficiently. These improvements are expected to significantly benefit ongoing and future monitoring activities, aligning with the project's goals for robust, community-driven environmental stewardship. Despite these challenges, the project team took proactive measures to ensure progress was not hindered. Data collection protocols were adapted to safeguard the integrity of observations and sample information, utilizing interim solutions where necessary. Community coordinators were also provided supplementary training to familiarize themselves with revised data entry workflows. These efforts ensured the continuity and reliability of project outputs, even amid software development disruptions. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?By braiding Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, as it relates to food safety and ultimately food security, this project provided entry points into western scientific endeavors regardless of backgrounds and prior experience in western science, and promoted diverse voices, community engagement, skill transfer, and knowledge sharing without historic gatekeeping. BRAIDED Workforce Training and Community Engagement Throughout our project, we centered our activities on incorporating an inclusive understanding of the St. Paul Island ecosystem, grounded in Indigenous, Traditional and Local Knowledge and empirical Western science. This was exemplified in our One Health training course offered for college credit to community members through Ilisagvik College (free to Tribal members). Over ten (10) community members, elders, and project participants on St. Paul Island attended one or both of the workshop days that braided together Indigenous Knowledge and Western scientific approaches for understanding and monitoring food safety. Curriculum for the course included classroom and experiential learning, and covered the potential adverse effects of mercury to animals and humans, how contaminants move through food webs, traditional practices of harvesting, and balancing the risks and benefits of consuming traditional foods. To respond to the requests of ACSPI and previously identified community needs, participants gained experience conducting biosampling and analysis of traditional foods including following established protocols for sample preparation and processing. Lesson plans (n = 5) for the course include student learning objectives grounded in ecotoxicological concepts (e.g., biomagnification), cultural Unangan values (e.g., Live with and respect the land, sea, and all nature), and Alaska standards for culturally responsive schools. Students worked together to develop a final infographic that emphasized place-based learning. We also provided educational outreach activities for K-12 (n=55) children on St. Paul Island focused on the themes of food safety and healthy ecosystems as part of the Bering Sea Days educational event. Curriculum materials are available digitally for the Tribe for use in perpetuity. In addition to working with community members during the reporting period, we mentored and trained Alaska Native undergraduate researcher--Orlin Gologergen--through UAF. Gologergen received training in mercury laboratory analyses, data analysis and statistical testing; he presented findings at national conferences. Gologergen's anticipated graduation with a BSc is Fall 2025, and he has expressed interest in pursuing graduate studies in Arctic food safety and security. Our team also provided mentoring and training for two part-time graduate students in science communication, project management, and outreach (June - Aug 2024). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Throughout the project, our community, university and Tribal partners have held in-person communication events, and provided digital and print products to share the progress and results of the project with the community of St. Paul Island. In-person dissemination has been conducted at an initial community kick-off event (sharing results of prior university-led research on mercury in traditional foods), meeting with Elders for lunch, and K-12 student outreach activities. Project updates and initial data findings were presented to Tribal Council. We also have utilized several digital pathways to share information including radio interviews on the local station, newsletters, and creating a project Facebook page. Planned future activities include sharing project successes and efforts with communities across the broader Bering Sea region through local conferences and workshops. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we will focus efforts on our longer-term goals of enhancing community resilience by ensuring that the Pribilof Islands are able to readily and quickly adapt to changing environmental and economic conditions; and improving trust between community-university partnerships. To accomplish this, we are focusing on refining draft protocols for sharing the results of the food safety monitoring data generated by this product with the community. The SOP will follow best-practices to reduce delays, but also provide a balanced understanding of the benefits and risks of consuming traditional foods for locally adaptive decision-making. In the Spring 2025, approximately one year after our kick-off, we will host an in-person community event to disseminate results, progress, and solicit feedback on how to progress forward or improve the program into the future. We also plan to offer the One Health course again to St. Paul community members, modifying the delivery to target a broader cross-section of the population including high-school aged youth and elders. Final design/approach will be based on feedback solicited from community members on delivery modality (online vs. in person) and interests. Metrics of success will include the number of participants, and participants' improved self-efficacy in braiding Indigenous and western ways of knowing to make informed decisions related to safety of traditional foods. Results from our project will be prepared for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Finally, we will continue efforts to sustain mercury analyses and expand the scale of food monitoring conducted on St. Paul island in response to community needs and concerns. This consists of writing grants and seeking partners through regional Tribal organizations, state and federal agencies, and Universities. For example, the SOP being developed for communicating results of mercury testing on St. Paul Island will also be highly applicable to rural and Indigenous communities across the circumpolar Arctic and beyond, particularly in cases where access to nutritious food is significantly constrained by living in store-bought food deserts. Successful completion of these goals will result in community outcomes including: (1) Increased resident access to, understanding of, and engagement with western science contaminant data (Change in Knowledge), (2) Reduced delays between data collection and information dissemination to the community (Change in Action), (3) Increased use of food safety monitoring data, braided with Indigenous Knowledge, in decision making related to consuming traditional foods (Change in Action) and (4) Improved trust in external research partnerships with Tribe (Change in Action).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the first year of our pilot-project, we have made significant progress toward our goals by investing in physical, personnel, and data infrastructures in the community of St. Paul Island, AK and developing and delivering a workforce training curriculum. Together this has promoted the community-identified goals of enhancing Tribally-led ecosystem monitoring and created a foundation for collaborative problem definition processes. As efforts initiated during this reporting period continue, residents will have enhanced access to and engagement with contaminant data for informed traditional food safety decision-making that balances potential risks with the health benefits of traditional foods and their importance for cultural continuity and community well-being. Tribally-led traditional food monitoring In April 2024, we established the mercury testing station within the Bering Sea Research Center (BSRC) on St. Paul Island, AK, where researchers and community members collaborate on Tribally-led research. This included purchasing and installing cutting-edge instrumentation for mercury quantification as well as supplies for sample collection, preparation, and archival within the BSRC. This met our metric of success, which included equipment purchased and installed. Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were generated for data collection and management, laboratory analyses, quality assurance, and results storage. In parallel to the infrastructure and protocol development, we trained an employee of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government (ACSPI) and tribal member--Dallas Roberts--to collect and analyze samples from harvested animals. This included off-site training at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and on-site training at the established mercury testing station. Roberts was fully integrated into all aspects of the project, and was a large reason for the successes in our first year: from inventorying supplies, setting up equipment, data collection, and analyzing samples, to serving as a liaison to hunters and harvesters within the community about the project. Our success is demonstrated by Roberts' efficacy in analysis skills and ability to work independently on all aspects of data collection to analysis. From July - Nov 2024, we analyzed the total mercury concentrations in over 80 samples of traditional foods provided voluntarily by community members. Samples ranged across a wide variety of wild foods including northern fur seal, halibut, cod, crab, reindeer, and seabird eggs. This meets and exceeds our metric of success, which was estimated at 10-20 samples per month. Data generated from this project are stored, archived, and accessible within an app-based, data dashboard within the Indigenous Sentinels Network (ISN) program. The creation of a project-specific database and dashboard ensures that approved and registered users (i.e., the project team and community administrators) can access contaminant data for transparent and community-led decision-making. Any sensitive or confidential information, including the identity of individuals who provided samples, is not publicly available to safeguard privacy using existing standard operating procedures and protocols. A task-force of project team members is working to develop a communication plan for sharing the data and information. Data sovereignty is maintained by Tribal partners. Further, the project has facilitated meaningful cross-generational learning opportunities including hands-on training in ecosystem monitoring, emphasizing the integration of Indigenous Knowledge with empirical science to address food safety challenges (n=10 participants). It has also engaged youth, students, and community leaders in discussions about the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, further strengthening local capacity for collaborative problem-solving. See Training below for more information. Finally, our work in this first year has set a strong foundation for continued Tribal leadership in ecosystem monitoring. Through the collaborative development of SOPs, community-centered training, and public outreach events, such as the Community Kickoff in April 2024 and Bering Sea Days, we have fostered broad community engagement, ensuring that the BRAIDED Food Security initiative remains grounded in the priorities and values of St. Paul Island residents. These efforts are just the catalyst for future community-driven research. Evaluation During the project's first year, an evaluation plan was developed to provide guidance to evaluation activities. The external evaluator, Shaffer Evaluation Group LLC, designed and conducted a mixed methods evaluation for project monitoring and improvement and assessment of effectiveness. During a monitoring visit conducted in April 2024, the evaluator observed the establishment of the mercury testing station, which was set up within the Bering Sea Research Center; the training and coaching provided to the community program coordinator, who is responsible for processing samples collected from St. Paul community members; and the community kick-off event. During the same visit, the evaluator with the support of the project team surveyed thirty St. Paul community members to gain their perceptions of the BRAIDED project. The survey found that overall community members had positive perceptions of the project. The most commonly stated concern was that some community members may not be willing to participate in the initiative or have their traditional foods tested, while some respondents expressed concern about the availability of resources for those interested in taking their harvested samples in for testing. Some community members expressed concern about wildlife--ranging from sea life to birds--in terms of variety, the seasonal nature of food, and interests in stopping the decline in all wildlife. Tribal sovereignty and independence in research and data collection were raised as points of concern. Survey findings were shared with team members to inform project implementation, in particular the design of the college credit course, Braided One Health. Metrics of success for the Braided One Health course were established to assess the project's short-term outcomes: Knowledge, Skill, and Confidence Gains. Key evaluation methods included pre- and post-training assessments, hands-on laboratory exercises, and peer-reviewed observation by course instructors. Course participants in Braided One Health, held on St. Paul Island during July 2024, were surveyed both before and after the course. The survey found positive change for participants across domains of knowledge covered by the course; the survey also found increases in confidence in completing activities covered by the course. Instructor observations confirmed improved skills in biosampling and analysis of subsistence foods. Community-Led Implementation: Following the course, trained community members have been observed successfully applying laboratory skills to analyze traditional foods for mercury concentrations. Data collected reflected a high degree of accuracy and adherence to standardized protocols, signifying effective skill transfer. Community-led implementation will continue to be monitored during the project term. During the final evaluation period, the evaluator will repeat the community survey administration to reassess community members' perceptions of BRAIDED and in particular their trust of external research partners. Interviews with course participants will yield rich data on members' engagement with laboratory testing and interpretation of results to inform local decision-making. Finally, ISN data will provide quantifiable evidence of community members' data collection efforts. These findings will help the team assess the degree of change in Tribal-led stewardship of traditional food resources.
Publications
|