The Spiritual and Physical Benefits of Preserving Endangered Recipes in Southwest Alaska

The authors worked from 2008-2013 with elders from 14 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska. Within the larger themes of preserving traditional subsistence and diet for the continued well-being of local people, we focus on “endangered recipes,” food preparations that are no longer often made. Local elders emphasized the spiritual aspects of preserving such knowledge, including: 1) the importance of eating traditional foods for maintaining Yup’ik identity; 2) relationship with the land and how to properly harvest plants; 3) dietary abstentions during pregnancy and other significant life events and 4) plants with specific uses for purification. They underlined the need to maintain knowledge of diverse plant and animal resources to guard against the possibility of future hard times. We also examine why some forms of knowledge may be more readily lost than others and reasons that various stakeholders have for wanting to more actively try to preserve recipes.