A Tradition of Sustainability

Protecting Our Heritageyukon river boys watching the net

“Fishing to live, living to fish.” 

For more than 10,000 years, this philosophy has been the cornerstone of the Yu'pik people who live off the salmon of the Yukon River.  For the Yup'ik people, fishing is still a family activity that often involves several generations of working together.  The tradition of harvesting only what is needed is a deeply held tradition among Yup'ik Eskimos, who have worked to preserve their salmon resource long before Alaska became a state and long before management authority was passed on to government agencies.