Anaktuvuk Pass Research Articles

Physical Activity, Sleep, and Demographic Patterns in Alaska Native Children and Youth Living in Anaktuvuk Pass.

Physical activity (PA), sleep, and weight are important factors for youth health. However, data about these factors are unknown in youth living in isolated Alaska Native communities. This study aims to assess PA, sleep, height and weight in elementary through high school students living in Anaktuvuk Pass. Fourteen children (<12) and 24 youths (12-20) volunteered to participate in this study. PA and sleep data were collected with actigraphy. Height and weight were assessed with standard procedures. Demographics were collected via survey. Results show that 10.53% and 18.42% of participants were overweight and obese, respectively. Average bedtime was 00:15 am and wake time 08:23 am. Total sleep time was 498.21 min. Participants averaged 477.64 min in sedentary activity, 297.29 min in light activity, 150.66 min in moderate activity, and 18.05 min in vigorous activity. Adjusted models suggest that high school students engage in significantly more sedentary activity, and significantly less light, moderate, and vigorous activity compared to those in middle and elementary school. All students engaged in less moderate and vigorous activity on the weekend compared to the weekday. Data suggest that as children age they become more sedentary. Future studies should focus on increasing daily PA in high school students while considering other obesogenic factors.

Exploring meat processing in the past: Insights from the Nunamiut people.

Improving our knowledge of subsistence strategies and food processing techniques of past societies is of prime interest for better understanding human cultures as well as multiple aspects of human evolution. Beyond the simple matter of food itself, a substantial portion of socio-economic behavior is expressed in what, how, when, and with whom we eat. Over the last few decades, diverse methodologies for the analysis and interpretation of cut marks have progressively provided new insights for past butchery practices. For example, a recent study of the production of antelope biltong in South Africa concluded that the drying of meat generates high frequencies of longitudinal cut marks. This paper presents a cut mark analysis of faunal remains recovered by Lewis Binford from 8 campsites occupied by Nunamiut groups from the end of 19th to middle of the 20th century in the area around Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. The preparation of meat—primarily from caribou (Rangifer tarandus)–varied at these sites according to the season of occupation and was, depending on the site, either immediately consumed, processed after being stored in ice-cellars, or dried and stored. These faunal assemblages therefore provide a unique opportunity to explore the material traces of different meat preparation and preservation techniques in order to identify whether specific patterns can be identified and subsequently used to explore subsistence practices in the past. Binford’s Nunamiut faunal assemblages, which were produced by individuals using traditional techniques and methods, were analyzed in order to 1) further test the hypothesis that meat drying produces high frequencies of longitudinal cut marks, 2) explore the common assumption that skilled butchers leave smaller numbers of cut marks on bones compared to less experienced individuals, and 3) test whether cut mark patterns vary as a function of the processing techniques employed. The introduction of a %cutL index represents a quicker alternative to geo-referencing cut marks on bones when exploring meat processing techniques and methods and can easily be integrated in zooarchaeological analyses. While the results obtained support processing techniques linked to meat drying to leave high numbers of longitudinal cut marks, they are inconsistent with cut mark frequencies varying as a function of the butcher’s skill and experience. Analyzing cut mark patterns is therefore a reliable means for exploring food processing by past human societies and, by extension, their methods for safeguarding against unfavorable seasonal variations in both the abundance and condition of prey species. Identifying food storage in the archaeological record equally provides a unique window on to the social dynamics and potential inequalities of past societies.

A zooarchaeological study of Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Croxton site in Brooks Range, Alaska, and implications for utility analysis

This paper focuses on the identification and interpretation of a sample of vertebrate faunal remains from the Croxton archaeological site, located at Tukuto Lake, on the north slope of the Brooks Mountain Range, Alaska, in which caribou (Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)) dominate. Bone modifications are assessed to inform selection and processing, and skeletal part frequencies are analyzed with utility indices developed for this species among the Nunamiut at Anaktuvuk Pass. Results confirm the accumulation of faunal remains resulted primarily from human subsistence activities in the middle to late Holocene that included nutritional uses for meat, marrow and grease as well as technology manufacturing. Statistical utility analyses point to a deposit of marrow and grease processing debris at an activity area and support these as enduring subsistence practices in this region. A previous study on a larger faunal sample from the site also indicated a range of economic uses of caribou but did not find significant results with utility indices. To explain this difference it is suggested that the faunal aggregates chosen for analysis in this and the previous study have influenced statistical outcomes. The results of this study hold implications for utility analysis as well as for interpretations of caribou use at archaeological sites in arctic, sub-arctic, and alpine tundra areas of the Northern Hemisphere where this species has been abundant.

Explorer, Nobel laureate, astrobiologist: things you never knew about Barry Blumberg.

Baruch S. “Barry” Blumberg, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and founding director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), passed away suddenly of a heart attack at age 85 on April 5, 2011, during a conference at Ames Research Center. That Barry spent his last day conceptualizing an International Research Park on the Moon befits the unflagging curiosity that characterized his life in general and his scientific career in particular. In this paper I trace Barry's scientific career, including his early formative years and the unexpected path that led to the Nobel Prize. I also show that Barry's perspective and approach to science in general made astrobiology a natural area to attract his attention after he had retired from medical research. Indeed, his priorities as NAI director reflect directly things that were important to him throughout his career.

Anaktuvuk Pass goes to town

The Nunamiut of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska have been going to town, one way or another, even before they relinquished their nomadic life in 1949-1950 to become settled in a village 100 miles from the nearest road and 250 miles from Fairbanks. Some years before they ever set foot in town, a few had credit accounts at the city’s Northern Commercial Company. In the mid-1950s a few village men were recruited as human subjects for cold adaptation experiments carried out at Ladd AFB outside of Fairbanks. This was their first plane ride and their first taste of city life. Medical emergencies—a flu epidemic, TB, and other illnesses that demanded medical treatment were the other ticket to Fairbanks in the 1950s, and then one typically had to wait to be flown out until the monthly mail plane came in. But by the 1960s the Native health care system saw to it that Anaktuvuk women came to town to deliver their babies in the hospital. Today Fairbanks is not only the doctor’s office but also the shopping mall and supermarket for outlying villages like Anaktuvuk Pass. It is many other things as well to the Nunamiut—site of the annual World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, the University of Alaska’s annual Festival of Native Arts, and the summer Tanana Valley Fair. It is Second Avenue with its string of dingy bars. This paper looks at more than 50 years of going to town, the significance of “town” in villagers’ lives, and the varied associations Fairbanks holds for the Nunamiut.

Upside down: seasons among the Nunamiut

In the roadless Brooks Range Mountains of northern Alaska sits Anaktuvuk Pass, a small, tightly knit Nunamiut Eskimo village. Formerly nomadic hunters of caribou, the Nunamiut of Anaktuvuk now find their destiny tied to that of Alaska's oil-rich North Slope, their lives suddenly subject to a century's worth of innovations, from electricity and bush planes to snow machines and the Internet. Anthropologist Margaret B. Blackman has been doing summer fieldwork among the Nunamiut over a span of almost twenty years, an experience richly and movingly recounted in this book. A vivid description of the people and the life of Anaktuvuk Pass, the essays in Upside Down are also an absorbing meditation on the changes that Blackman herself underwent during her time there, most wrench-ingly the illness of her husband, a fellow anthropologist, and the breakup of their marriage. Throughout, Blackman reflects in unexpected and enlightening ways on the work of anthropology and the perspective of an anthropologist evermore invested in the lives of her subjects. Whether commenting on the effect of this place and its people on her personal life or describing the impact of progress on the Nunamiut - the CB radio, weekend nomadism, tourism, the Information Superhighway - her essays offer a unique and deeply evocative picture of an at once disappearing and evolving world. Margaret B. Blackman is a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York College at Brockport.

Social dimensions of geographic disorientation in Arctic Alaska

A recent study of the wayfinding techniques employed by Inupiat residing in the communities of Barrow, Wainwright, and Anaktuvuk Pass, suggests that the incidence of disorientation episodes has increased in recent decades, despite easier access to maps and compasses and other aids to navigation and wayfinding. A general model, which focuses on the environmental and cognitive sources of disorientation, is introduced to help understand this apparent deterioration in Inupiat travel skills. Some social consequences of disorientation are also discussed, including: (a) the community reaction to individuals who get lost; and (b) resolution of spatial conflicts during group travel. Finally, questions are raised concerning the nature of "traditional knowledge," and its role in the Inupiat wayfinding system.

Climate Change and the Ecophysiological Response of Arctic Lichens

Under field conditions of optimal water hydration, lichen photosynthesis is primarily light-limited and nitrogen fixation is temperature-limited in both Peltigera canina and Stereocaulon tomentosum at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Thus, where duration of optimal hydration conditions remains unchanged from the present-day climate, the anticipated temperature increases in the Arctic may enhance nitrogen fixation in these lichens more than carbon gain. Because nitrogen frequently limits productivity in Arctic ecosystems, the results are potentially important to the many Arctic and subarctic ecosystems in which such lichens are abundant.

Climate change and the ecophysiological response of arctic lichens

Under field conditions of optimal water hydration, lichen photosynthesis is primarily light-limited and nitrogen fixation is temperature-limited in both Peltigera canina and Stereocaulon tomentosum at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Thus, where duration of optimal hydration conditions remains unchanged from the present-day climate, the anticipated temperature increases in the Arctic may enhance nitrogen fixation in these lichens more than carbon gain. Because nitrogen frequently limits productivity in Arctic ecosystems, the results are potentially important to the many Arctic and subarctic ecosystems in which such lichens are abundant.

Climate change and the ecophysiological response of Arctic lichens

Under field conditions of optimal water hydration, lichen photosynthesis is primarily light-limited and nitrogen fixation is temperature-limited in both Peltigera canina and Stereocaulon tomentosum at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Thus, where duration of optimal hydration conditions remains unchanged from the present-day climate, the anticipated temperature increases in the Arctic may enhance nitrogen fixation in these lichens more than carbon gain. Because nitrogen frequently limits productivity in Arctic ecosystems, the results are potentially important to the many Arctic and subarctic ecosystems in which such lichens are abundant.

An Analysis of an Arctic Lichen Community with Respect to Slope on Silicious Rocks at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska

Lichen community structure was examined on silicious rocks in the Brooks Range of Alaska near Anaktuvuk Pass. Rocks with 0* slope were the most variable with respect to crustose, foliose and fruticose growth forms. Foliose lichens were the most common growth form of 0 slopes, with Parmelia stygia accounting for about 14% of the cover. Foliose lichens also dominated the 30 slopes, with P. stygia accounting for 23% of the cover. Crustose and foliose lichens were equally common on 60 slopes, with P. almquistii accounting for 32% of the cover. Vertical surfaces were dominated by crustose species of which Sporastatia testudinea, with 8% cover, was the most common species.

Diurnal gross photosynthetic patterns and potential seasonal CO2 assimilation in Cladonia stellaris and Cladonia rangiferina

The daily, in situ gross photosynthetic patterns of Cladonia stellaris (Opiz.) Pouz. &amp; Vězda. and Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Wigg. were monitored during portions of the 1977, 1978, and 1979 growing seasons at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. Photosynthetic activity in both species closely paralleled atmospheric moisture status, where peak photosynthetic rates were attained during or following sporadic summer rain. In addition, thallus absorption of moisture during extended periods of high atmospheric water vapor content gave rise to short periods of minimal photosynthetic activity. During late evening and early morning hours moistened thalli exhibited minimal or no photosynthetic activity, coinciding with consistent attenuation in solar radiation during these periods. Photosynthetic activity was not homogeneous throughout the thallus. The greatest activity occurred in the apical regions and decreased progressively into the basal regions. The apical 10-mm regions of C. stellaris and C. rangiferina thalli accounted for approximately 50% of their photosynthetic capabilities. The potential gross CO2 assimilation of the apical 10-mm regions over 72 days of the 1978 growing season was estimated at approximately 35 g CO2∙m−2 and 16 g CO2∙m−2 for C. stellaris and C. rangiferina, respectively.

Photosynthetic recovery in arctic caribou forage lichens following a long-term field sulfur dioxide fumigation

The gross photosynthetic response of Cladonia stellaris (Opiz.) Pouz. &amp; Vezda., Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Wigg., and Cetraria cucullata (Bell.) Ach. was monitored during three growing seasons subsequent to a long-term, in situ SO2 fumigation conducted in 1978 at Anaktuvuk Pass, AK. The lichen vegetation which had experienced the greatest SO2 stress during the 1978 fumigation remained photosynthetically inactive. Significant photosynthetic recovery was discovered in the test species which had experienced sublethal concentrations of SO2; however, their photosynthetic capacities remained less than controls.

Prediction of 90Sr body burdens and radiation dose in Anaktuvuk Pass Alaska Eskimos due to fallout.

Strontium-90 concentrations in skeletons of Eskimo residents of Anaktuvuk Pass. Alaska during 1954-79 were predicted from two models based on (1) Sr kinetics in human bond and (2) estimated annual 90Sr ingestion rates via caribou meat. Predicted skeletal burdens of adult Eskimos gradually increased through 1961 and then rapidly achieved maximal values during 1964-66, reflecting fallout 90Sr levels in caribou meat which contributed 80-97% of dietary 90Sr intake. Concentrations of 90Sr in male Eskimo bone samples were similar using either model. Predicted values in vertebrae of adult Eskimo males were slightly lower than values reported in New York City adults until 1980 and subsequently declined by 9% per yr, while samples from adults in New York City and San Francisco declined by 6 and 5%, respectively. Predicted skeletal burdens in Anaktuvuk Pass residents born in 1954 and 1959 achieved maxima in 1971 and 1974, respectively; concentration in children born in 1964 were still increasing in 1979 but had achieved a lower level than older age cohorts. Estimated radiation dose rates to adult skeletons during 1964-66 were 13-15 mrad/yr based on predicted vertebrae 90Sr concentrations. Those dose rates were less than or equal to 1% of recommended ICRP limits for general populations.

137Cs concentrations in northern Alaskan Eskimos, 1962-79: effects of ecological, cultural and political factors.

Concentrations of worldwide fallout 137Cs were measured in the lichen-caribou-Eskimo food chain of northern Alaska during the period 1962-79. Pronounced inputs of fallout occurred after major nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere and 137Cs was transmitted through the food chain to Eskimos with about a 2-yr delay due to environmental parameters. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) meat sampled during spring harvest contained 4 times the 137Cs concentration of lichens obtained from their winter range. Calculated caribou meat ingestion rates of Anaktuvuk Pass Eskimos during winter ranged from approximately 1 kg/day in 1964 to 0.16 kg/day in 1977. Several environmental factors affected seasonal patterns and amounts of 137Cs transferred through the food chain. Maximum 137Cs concentrations of approximately 20 nCi/kg body weight in ESkimos occurred in 1964 and have now decreased to approximately 0.5 nCi/kg, largely because of cultural and political factors. Radiation doses from 137Cs body burdens during the study period ranged from 60 mrad/yr in 1962 to approximately 140 mrad/yr during the 1962-64 maxima and decreased to 8 mrad/yr in 1979.

Effects of a long-term field sulfur dioxide fumigation on Arctic caribou forage lichens

The gross photosynthetic response of Cladonia stellaris (Opiz.) Pouz. &amp; Vezda., Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Wigg., and Cetraria cucullata (Bell.) Ach. to a continuous, long-term, in situ SO2 fumigation was monitored during the growing season at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. The photo-synthetic capabilities of the test species were either destroyed or significantly reduced depending upon the SO2 stress gradient over the fumigation plot. Additional sampling of the plot 1 year after termination of the fumigation revealed no significant recovery in photosynthesis, and chlorophyll contents of the test species were significantly less than the controls.

Lichens of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, with Emphasis on the Impact of Caribou Grazing

Anaktuvuk Pass in the central Brooks Range of northern Alaska provides a major migration route for the western arctic caribou herd. A por- tion of the herd overwintered in the Anaktuvuk Pass area 8 years prior to sampling. Caribou grazing resulted in the almost complete removal of mac- rolichens in grazed areas and this has been followed by the invasion of crus- tose and squamulose species. An analysis by species biomass composition for grazed and nongrazed areas on both north and south slope exposures revealed a lichen composition of 31 species, with Cladonia stellaris, C. rangiferina, C. arbuscula and C. mitis being the most common and present in almost equal abundance on both exposures. In addition, 288 species in 71 genera are re- ported for the Anaktuvuk Pass area. Aspicilia plicigera (Zahlbr.) Thoms. is reported as a new combination and new to North America. Tundra occupies approximately 15% of the earth's land surface, principally con- fined to the northern portion of the Northern Hemisphere (Bliss, 1971). These vast treeless expanses are dominated by prostrate shrubs, short-stemmed herbaceous pe- rennials, lichens and mosses (Billings, 1973). The lichens are particularly important in upland portions of tundra systems where they form extensive mats (Thomson, 1972) that are utilized by caribou and reindeer as a winter food source (Hanson, 1966a; White et al., 1975). Although lichens are more diverse than higher plants in the arctic, most ecological studies have been conducted on higher plants. Lichens are capable of existing in this heat deficient ecosystem, in part because they are highly resistant to frost injury and can survive long periods of inactivity while in a frozen state (Kap- pen, 1973). Consequently, lichens are opportunistic species which are capable of efficiently using favorable conditions present during the brief summer period for pro-

Photosynthetic patterns of Cetraria cucullata (Bell.) Ach. at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.

The daily photosynthetic patterns of Cetraria cucullata were followed over the 1976 summer period at Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska. With the exception of rainy peroids, the lichen exhibited a strong diurnal pattern with peak photosynthetic activity occurring between 0300 and 0700 h. This correllated with periods of maximal lichen water retention and the presence of direct solar radiation. When the lichen was moist, a strong gradient in photosynthetic activity was observed with no activity in the lichen bases and maximal activity in the lichen tips.

The Breeding Distribution of Smith's Longspur in Alaska

On the basis of previously published data, Smith's Longspur (Calcarius pictus) is known to breed in only two areas, both of which are north of the Arctic Circle. In the Brooks Range it has been recorded as breeding in Anaktuvuk Pass 68008' N 151045' W (Irving 1960). He noted that the species frequents wet, grassy areas and nests on hummocks slightly raised above the wet or damp surroundingsThe elevation of the floor of this valley is in the range 2000-2200 ft. The only other recorded breeding area is on the south side of the Brooks Range, where it has been reported nesting on the valley floor of the upper Sheenjek River 69000' N 144000' W at about 2200 ft (Kessel and Schaller 1960). Nests were found in the tussock-heath tundra habitat where they were hidden in moss hummocks and Eriophorum tussocks. The species has also been reported from above timberline between the Tanana and Yukon rivers (Blackwelder 1919, Kemsies 1961) who listed specimens from Indian Creek 64011' N 145042' W and Summit 64030' N 143030' W in the Tanana-Yukon highlands. In June 1970, in the course of working on the north side of the Brooks Range, I found these longspurs breeding in three valleys between Anaktuvuk Pass and the Sheenjek. These observations concerned a total of six pairs, four singing males, and four nests. The location of the relevant localities is as follows:

Simon Paneak

A well-known and distinguished Eskimo, Simon Paneak, who has been foremost a guide and instructor of scholars in interior arctic Alaska, died in September 1975. Simon Paneak extended a hospitality and guidance to scientists that enabled them to become acquainted with conditions and life in the arctic mountains of Alaska, where without his aid and that of his family and many Eskimo friends, especially in the Nunamiut village of Anaktuvuk Pass, existence along would have been most difficult for the visitors. Simon was born in 1900 in the Killik Valley of the central Brooks Range. ... In his childhood, practical use of the ancient implements was still familiar, and Simon could reconstruct the ways of life in the ancient families and small villages with delightful vividness. His stories have been important sources of accounts of the social anthropology of the inland Eskimos. His understandings of ancient ways enabled him to guide archaeologists to sites productive of artefacts revealing the prehistory of men in the Arctic over some 5,000 years. Simon's influence in anthropology, biology, and geology has affected scores of scientists. Their personal recollections of his aid and instruction in the ways of arctic life bear witness to his contribution to science. The agreeable memories of his genial society testify to the fact that pursuit of scientific information offers a social enterprise in which strangers with a formal education can communicate most agreeably with native residents who are not educated by conventions foreign to their locality, but who are wise in knowledge and appreciation of their own country. Simon collaborated with the writer of this tribute in publishing three articles on the avifauna of arctic Alaska, and was acknowledged as an important source of information in over a dozen other works in the same and related fields.