Negotiating Salmon

Ontologies and Resource Management in Southwest Alaska

Abstract

Current environmental crises disclose power hierarchies, such as within the negotiation of how to distribute natural resources. This paper focuses on the importance of acknowledging human-animal relationships and lived realities within the co-management and conservation of resources. The research draws on conflicting ontologies that can be found around salmon conservation in Southwest Alaska, especially around returning king salmon in the Kuskokwim River, which has seen a decline in numbers over the last decade. It illustrates the importance of considering the ontological constitutions of animals as beings, which renders the understanding of how human-animal relations can be maintained throughout crises. Rather than perpetuating the assumption that salmon are ‘natural’ objects, but understood and known differently by indigenous communities, the ontological approach enables us to recognize that salmon are not one entity but constituted beings in enacted worlds.