ATCEM Awards 2002
| Bering Straits region | Russian Mission |
| Chignik Bay area | Savoonga |
| Eek | St. Paul |
| Emmonak | Togiak |
| Goodnews Bay | Twin Hills |
| Hooper Bay | Ugashik |
| New Stuyahok | Venetie |
| Quinhagak |
Tribal Environmental Staff Bering Straits Region
This region's villages are faced with many challenging environmental issues. The remoteness, limited resources, and harsh arctic conditions compound these issues. A few examples are: Diomede in working to remove old heavy equipment from their island, Brevig Mission in conducting a Traditional Foods Diet survey, Elim in identifying and financing the local youth to participate in "Seven Generations Training," Stebbins in assisting with the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the local clinic/washeteria, Shishmaref in facing relocation measures due to extreme coastal erosion, Koyuk in implementing a resolution banning the use of retail plastic bags, Savoonga in receiving a 9.6 million dollar federal appropriation for old military site cleanup, Unalakleet in traveling to South Africa to participate in international environmental politics, and Wales in the publication of a local environmental newsletter.
These tribal staff members held meetings to organize as a group to unite in their efforts to identify, prioritize and address the environmental health issues of the region. This will greatly assist the regional tribes in expanding and improving the tribal capacity in environmental planning with an emphasis in being results oriented. The village environmental staff is an integral part of the preservation and maintenance of the traditional and cultural way of life that is so important to the villages of this region.
The Norton Sound Health Corporation nominated the following Tribal Environmental Staff of the Bering Straits Region:
Johnee Seetot, Environmental Coordinator — Brevig
Mission
Patrick Omiak, Jr., Environmental Coordinator — Little
Diomede
Carol Nagaruk, Environmental Coordinator — Elim
Fred Daniels, Environmental Coordinator Assistant — Elim
Clifford Daniels, AmeriCorps member — Elim
Kathy McCann, Environmental Coordinator — Koyuk
Abraham Anasagok, Jr., Environmental Coordinator Assistant
- Koyuk
Jeanette Iya, Environmental Coordinator - Savoonga
Morgan Annogiyuk, Alternate — Savoonga
Jennifer Demir, Environmental Coordinator — Shishmaref
Nellie Weyiouanna, Secretary — Shishmaref
John Pete, Environmental Coordinator — Stebbins
Henrietta Tom, Environmental Coordinator Assistant — Stebbins
Thomas Kirk, BIA Water Resources Technician — Stebbins
Art Ivanoff, Environmental Specialist — Unalakleet
Winton Weyapuk, Environmental Specialist — Wales
Toby Anungazuk, Environmental Specialist — Wales
back to topJeanette Carlson, IGAP Environmental
Specialist
Sally Hill, Community Health Aide
Chignik Bay, etc.
(Population 434)
Jeanette Carlson and Sally Hill were nominated for their efforts in establishing a Remote Water Laboratory in Chignik Bay. Their work on this pilot project will ensure that drinking water for the communities of Chignik Bay, Chignik Lake, Chignik Lagoon, and Perryville is tested for bacterial contamination in a timely manger. Historically, adverse weather has consistently prevented drinking water samples from being analyzed on a monthly basis in accordance with the State of Alaska's Drinking Water Regulations. Local analysis also provides a quicker public health response to water quality problems. Additionally, failure to conduct monthly tests results in a lower scoring for funding of sanitation projects.
Jeanette Carlson and Sally Hill clearly recognize the value of this project for their region. Their work may also lead to the establishment of other remote laboratories in the state. Finally, their collaboration with personnel from the Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation, EPA, and the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation demonstrates their professionalism and commitment to excellence. Continued success!!!
Sandra Petluska
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Eek Traditional
Council
(Population 280)
Sandra Petluska has been a strong backbone for the Eek recycling program. She has sent cans to the recycling center collected from her current and previous year. Sandra held two drawings to motivate people to turn in cans. When other community members heard of the first drawing, more households started recycling their cans. If the community didn't bring in cans, Sandra went house-to-house asking people to recycle their cans or if they already did, she collected them. The recycling program provided youth a way to work off their community service hours and with that she considered them as volunteers. When other youth heard about it, they consistently came in to ask if there is anything they can do to help. There was always something to keep them busy.
Sandra visited the school every week to talk to students and play environmental games provided by the AmeriCorps program. When school let out for spring break, she continued to keep in contact with the kids and set up two activity days per week. During these activity days kids made crafts with environmental messages. The Eek Traditional Council Gaming Department donated money to buy craft supplies and snacks for the kids to use. After talking to kids and community members, many other hopeful environmental projects were born.
In a community support team project sponsored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation and RurAL CAP, Sandra and other AmeriCorps members painted two homes. On one side of each house they painted a colorful mural with animals promoting a clean earth. Sandra also gathered old, but in good condition 55-gallon drums and with the leftover paint had the kids paint them with environmental messages. She transformed them into trash bins, placing them in various places to help reduce the litter in Eek.
Before the spring barge arrived, Sandra also prepared for lead acid batteries to be shipped out by contacting several businesses to find the proper way to send them out. She didn't end it there. She is building a recycle shed to store cans to be shipped. Sandra has also completed the Energy Savings Initiative and visited homes that are receiving energy assistance. She has provided energy saving light bulbs, weather-stripping, surge protectors and provided homeowners with energy savings information. Even though she began taking full-time college courses via teleconference in late August, she has continually been taking care of environmental business and GETTING THINGS DONE!
"Sandra has been a great asset to the community of Eek. The village is definitely cleaner and most of all of the community members are environmentally aware," says Charlene Wuya, Sandra's supervisor and bookkeeper for Eek Traditional Council.
Martha E. Kelly
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Native Village of
Emmonak
(Population 767)
Since joining the AmeriCorps program in January 2002, Martha Kelly has done a tremendous job enlisting the help of the community in making Emmonak a better place to live. Her projects include:
- In three days Martha and two other volunteers cleaned the north side dump, once an embarrassing eyesore. People no longer throw their trash on the north side, instead they use the trash bins which are provided by the City of Emmonak.
- With the help of 50 volunteers, Martha cleaned the south side road and the bank/beach.
- Martha and two young boys from the village have gone house to house collecting batteries. They also went along the banks of the Kwiguk River to collect batteries that were sitting along the bank for a number of years. She has four totes waiting to be shipped out of Emmonak.
- The Emmonak School has resurrected its aluminum can collection project with Martha's help. The project is going strong with over 50 bags of cans collected!
- In a partnership between RurAL CAP and the Alaska Conservation Foundation, Martha and a team of three other AmeriCorps members, a RurAL CAP coordinator, and a representative from the Alaska Center for the Environment improved the home of a 92-year old elder. They built her a ramp and replaced windows that were about to fall out. Although the elder has lost most of her memory, you can tell she is very happy for the ramp and her new windows.
Thanks to Martha, "villagers of Emmonak now know where to place their used batteries and can bring their aluminum pop cans to the school for recycling," says Albert Westlock, Environmental Technician, Village of Emmonak.
Alice Julius
EPA Coordinator
Native Village of
Goodnews Bay
(Population 230)
Alice has been nominated to recognize her excellent efforts helping her community as follows:
- Annual Village Clean-Up – Alice coordinated a clean-up by the youth and residents of the village. She obtained prizes and organized a picnic at the conclusion to reward everyone's efforts.
- Banishment of Plastic Shopping Bags – One of the most noticeable things occurring within our area was wind-blown white shopping bags from the landfill being deposited in the surrounding area. The banishment of plastic shopping bags greatly reduced this environmental hazard and eyesore.
- Landfill Issues – Applied for and obtained land-fill grant to address our dump problems.
- Lead Acid Batteries – Shipment of batteries outside of the village instead of the dump.
- Aluminum Recycling – Shipment of aluminum pop cans to recycling facilities.
Bruce Gump RAVEN AmeriCorps
Member
Native Village
of Hooper Bay
(Population 1,014)
Bruce Gump started Hooper Bay's first lead acid battery collection and recycling program. First, he had to find a safe storage space for the batteries, then he had to find a way to ship them out. Bruce conducted a community presentation during a public meeting about his program, emphasizing the dangerous effects lead acid batteries have on humans, animals and the environment. Now people call Bruce to have him pick up their batteries. This is a positive thing for the community of Hooper Bay because of its large population. Previously a large amount of lead acid batteries were dumped in the local dump site. Now they can be shipped out safely.
William "Chuck" Peterson,
Jr.
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
New Stuyahok Village
Council
(Population 471)
In his second year enrolled with the AmeriCorps program, Chuck has been doing a great and tireless job working for the community of New Stuyahok. He has collected lead acid batteries and aluminum cans for shipment. Chuck goes to the school to educate the children about environmental issues concerning the village, the dangerous use of tobacco, and household chemicals. Not only does he teach school children, but Chuck also attends meetings in the village to talk to the community about needs to be addressed and how we can solve them. Chuck's latest accomplishment for the village is getting a burner for the landfill.
"We in the community of New Stuyahok hate to lose him as an AmeriCorps member for no one can replace him for what he has done for us," says his nominator Nicholas Gust, IGAP Coordinator.
Abe
Cleveland,
Elder Village of Quinhagak
(Population 580)
Abe Cleveland is a 70 year old Yup'ik elder of Quinhagak. In his younger days, he was a trapper, commercial fisherman and a national guardsman. He has also been an usher for the local Moravian Church since the early 80s. Abe Cleveland is a model senior citizen for any household. Every year when spring arrives and the snow melts, he is always the first to clean his yard. He is one of the elders that keeps his yard clean and tidy. His subsistence equipment and supplies are kept neatly organized in his yard and his boat storage area is always kept clean of litter and unsightly piles of subsistence gear. Abe shows traditional respect for the environment by keeping his belongings and yard clean and tidy. He sets an example as a model that all households and people should follow.
5th & 6th Graders
of Russian Mission
School
Russian Mission
(Population 296)
The 5th and 6th graders of Russian Mission Schools deserve to be recognized for their dedication to keeping our village clean. This group of 11 students along with their teachers, Emily Herring and Mary Belkoff-Peters, has volunteered their time each Friday by picking up the trash in and around our community. They not only recognize the importance of the local environment, but also of letting the whole community become aware of the importance of keeping our environment clean. And they are also starting a collection of recyclables in the elementary school.
Native Village of Savoonga
(Population 643)
In the new millennium, the Native Village of Savoonga identified the importance of having their own Tribal Environmental Agreement tailored to village needs and traditional way of life, and had their TEA signed in 2000.
The Village gave the directive for a community survey to identify three priorities, which are: 1) hazardous and/or toxic materials left in dump sites; 2) concern of the village dump and landfill; and 3) fuel oil contaminated soils in and/or around the village. The survey is complete and the Village is continually working on all three priorities.
The Native Village of Savoonga volunteers to attend Restoration Advisory Board meetings on an on-call capacity.
The Indian General Assistance Program formed an Environmental Committee of five members and they have been actively participating in decision-making policies. The Native Village of Savoonga as well as the Environmental Committee advocate to clean up the formerly used defensive site of Northeast Cape. The community of Savoonga requested that the Army Corps of Engineers seek a grant through Alaska Community Action on Toxics to interpret scientific language into lay terms as our Elders do not know the language of scientific terminology for the contaminants left at Northeast Cape.
Opening communication doors in a positive tone with this government-to-government relationship with traditional language and knowledge has proved to be a tool to advocate for environmental concerns and issues. The Native Village of Savoonga claimed ownership of all environmental issues and concerns and works cooperatively with all involved.
Phillip A. Zavadil
and
Aquilina Debbie Lestennkof
Co-Directors Ecosystem Conserv. Office
Tribal Government
of St. Paul
(Population 532)
Two individuals have been the driving force behind the development of the tribal government of St. Paul's Ecosystem Conservation Office. Over the past four years, Aquilina Debbie Lestenkof and Phil Zavadil have worked tirelessly to improve the environment, the health of the wildlife, and the lives of the people of St. Paul Island. What started as a dream for greater tribal involvement for the protection of the fur seal population has today expanded into one of the most capable and proactive local
environmental programs in the State of Alaska. Today the work of the ECO Office not only touches all corners of St. Paul, but is also providing a model for positive tribally-driven environmental and natural resources management.
In 1998, with the help of an EPA IGAP grant, Debbie and Phil opened the Tribal Ecosystem Conservation Office and began evaluating environmental conditions on St. Paul. Today they manage over a dozen programs performing environmental assessments and planning, disentangling sea mammals, researching local traditional diet, managing reindeer populations, performing research, monitoring military site clean ups, managing solid waste, and collaborating with various researchers, educators and agencies in protecting the ecosystems of the Pribilofs and Bering Sea.
They have been patient, but persistent, and always innovative in their approach to addressing the challenges of guiding progressive change in a remote Alaskan community. They incorporate education into all phases of their work, and often can be found with local school children combing the beaches of St. Paul, cleaning up beach garbage or disentangling a seal or sea lion.
They are as comfortable on the beach or in the classroom as they are with the computer, employing sophisticated GIS technology to map local conditions, and video to develop public educational pieces or to document changes to the rookeries. When you talk to Debbie and Phil, you get a sense of the pride that they share in their work and their community. You also walk away with a sense of the remarkable potential that exists when people who have energy, initiative and vision set their minds on accomplishing a worthy goal.
If you go to St. Paul (and everyone should at some point in their life), visit the St. Paul Ecosystem Conservation Office and look for these two helpful smiling faces. They will show you the beauty of the Pribilofs and a vision for how locally driven environmental management can be the future across Alaska.
Mary Blue
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Traditional Council
of Togiak
(Population 809)
Mary Blue has found a very important way to communicate the importance of minimizing Togiak's current environmental issues. As we approach the new millennium, we are faced with changing ways of living. Mary has taken on the following challenges: coordinating recycling, doing door-to-door visits to teach energy conservation, and educating community members and students about hazardous waste and pollution prevention. She has been instrumental in organizing a beach clean-up. "The energy that Mary has is very visible because at times with limited volunteers she never gives up. Instead she takes on another avenue that is more interesting to understand and realizes the importance of clean and safe environment," says her nominator Peter Lockuk, Tribal Environmental Program Manager.
Peter Lockuk Sr.
EPA Program Manager
TEP Manager, Tribal Environmental Program
Traditional Council of Togiak
(Population 809)
Peter Lockuk has accomplished many projects in a short time. Since he began the IGAP Program for the village of Togiak, Pete has secured funds for the landfill project. The new landfill project was completed for use along with a new burn box; the burn box was featured in the Bristol Quarterly published by Bristol Environmental & Engineering Services. The following year, the old landfill was cleared of old dormant hazardous materials, transferred to the new landfill, and buried. The more serious hazardous material such as old batteries were collected, containerized, and shipped out to larger facilities for recycling. The used oils were collected, containerized, and taken to the City of Togiak's maintenance shop to be used as fuel for the waste oil heater. This was no easy task but successfully completed.
Pete has been very successful in implementing the collection of lead acid batteries and getting them out of the village. He has made our community more aware of environmental issues through meetings, and more recently through our first TEP newsletter. Togiak has a recycling program where the Traditional Council of Togiak is the dropoff center. Mary Blue, our RAVEN AmeriCorps member, boxes them up and has them shipped out through a local air carrier.
Through his hard work and dedication, Togiak is cleaner and more environmentally aware.
Walter Kuku
RAVEN AmeriCorps Member
Twin Hills Village Council
(Population 69)
Walter Kuku has made a positive difference not only in protecting the environmental health of the community, but also improving the general outlook of the entire village. His involvement with village activities was a factor in his winning a seat on the Twin Hills Village Council in the October elections. Here are the reasons for his nomination. Walter has:
- Worked with and alongside the youth involved with the summer youth program. They collected old drums, transferred used oil to a "main tank," did clean-up work around the village removing junk 4-wheelers, snow-goes, washing machines, etc. This resulted in a cleaner looking village.
- Worked with the school and lectured on safe environmental practices.
- Worked and has contact with other ACMs to accomplish goals. Mary Blue, ACM from Togiak, helped him build the new Twin Hills Recycling Center. The center is near the salvageable section of the landfill. This will house old phones, batteries, aluminum, bicycle parts, small engines and any other recyclable things.
- Installed energy saving devices throughout the village.
- Collected a lot of lead acid batteries and some have already been shipped.
- Personally improved and learned a lot about environmental safety practices.
Hattie Albecker
Environmental Coordinator
Ugashik Traditional
Village
(Population 11)
In making Ugashik a more environmentally safe place to live, "it is much cleaner than many places that I've seen with landfills where folks can take their garbage," says Tribal Administrator Roy S. Matsuno. Hattie's efforts include:
- Completing landfill ordinances so that the planned landfill will be managed accordingly.
- Helping obtain the used oil burner for Ugashik, so that oil can be used to heat the equipment building.
- Working on the ANHB grant to rid Ugashik of over 400 55-gallon fuel drums, which were crushed and sent to the Naknek landfill.
- Helping to set aside an area for the recycling center, which will be used to collect batteries (lead acid and household), fishing web, old metal, aluminum cans and old appliances. Hattie is looking for funding to get these materials shipped out of Ugashik.
- Coordinating with the Lake and Peninsula Borough to find funding to rid Ugashik of the "WinRay," a derelict old ferry that is sitting on the banks of the Ugashik River.
Lance Whitwell
Tribal Energy Manager
Native Village of
Venetie
(Population 202)
Lance Whitwell has been very active in assisting our community to develop and implement environmental strategies and increase public responsibility and ownership of environmental concerns within the village.We have learned not to wait for outside intervention to fix our problems, but to take local action to solve local problems. Just to mention a few of the achievements Lance has done:
- Battery backhauling
- Youth recycling
- Used oil collection
- Landfill access
- Water/wastewater compliance
- Energy conservation
(And that was in his spare time!)
"Lance has been a great resource for our community for many years, and we would like to have him recognized for his assistance to the community and to our people," says Bobby Tritt, First Chief, Venetie Village Council.
Marjorie John
EPA-IGAP, Native Village of Venetie
Marjorie John has gone out of her way to revitalize community awareness of environmental concerns in Arctic Village. Her efforts through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NVVTG Tribal Energy programs, and now the EPA-IGAP program are a benefit and inspiration not only to her home community, but to all tribal members of the Venetie Indian Reserve and beyond.
Her commitment, dedication and confrontational concern for the environmental wellness of our land makes her a leader, a mentor, and a fine example for the young people, as well as other community leaders to follow.
Marjorie's concern and commitment are surpassed only by her enthusiasm and dedication to create a self-sufficient, healthy, and traditional environment for the many generations to follow.