Continued grant for Alaska Native food, energy sovereignty

Oct. 5, 2021

snowmachine leading to building on snowy tundra
Photo by Greg Finstad
A snowmachiner heads toward a portable meat processing classroom in Savoonga, Alaska. The classroom is part of the the UAF Northwest Campus' high-latitude range management program.

CRCD was awarded $1 million to continue the work of the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium and to implement the Invigorating Alaska Native Food and Energy Sovereignty program.

The ÌÀÄ·ÊÓƵ College of Rural and Community Development was awarded $1 million to continue the work of the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium and to implement the Invigorating Alaska Native Food and Energy Sovereignty program. 

The grant comes from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program. CRCD has been operating USDA NIFA ANNH awards for over 15 years, working through the rural campus to provide meaningful education in food and energy sovereignty for Alaska Native communities. CRCD also currently maintains the Investing in Sustainable Stewardship award of $1.5 million.

The goal of IANS is to invigorate Alaska Native community practices to enhance food and energy systems, security and sovereignty through educational equity, through the following objectives:

  1. Enhanced wild and cultivated food systems, including Alaska Native stewardship and traditional and customary practices, through place-based education; 
  2. Increased sustainable energy system development through place-based education; 
  3. Strengthened Alaska Native student and participant leadership in community food and energy systems; and
  4. Incubated partnerships and coordinated use of resources expand educational equity in food and energy educational programming.

IANS works to enhance educational equity in underserved Alaska Native communities by bringing higher education and experiential learning in sustainable energy, ethnobotany, high-latitude range management, tribal governance and stewardship, and food security and sovereignty. 

CRCD campuses employ place-based Indigenous and Western knowledge to design and deliver curricula that engage students and improve student recruitment and retention in food, agriculture, and natural resource sciences. Together, CRCD’s five federally recognized Alaska Native-Serving Institutions will collaborate to enhance local food sovereignty and energy sustainability in communities served, while connecting academic classroom experience with leadership roles and organizational activities.

Visit the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium programs for more information, or contact Carrie Stevens at cmstevens@alaska.edu.