KNBA Newscast for September 22, 2015
Walrus Investigation
By the Associated Press
The federal government has opened a criminal investigation into the death of 25 Pacific walrus found on an isolated northwest Alaska beach.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Crystal Leonetti says agency investigators have not returned from the site at Cape Lisburne but that the case is now in the hands of the U.S. Attorney office.
Initial reports last week said the walrus had been shot but the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to speculate on the cause of death until agency personnel had examined the carcasses.
A person connected to an Air Force radar station at Cape Lisburne spotted the animals and notified the agency Wednesday.
The dead animals included 12 pups. Some walrus' were missing heads and tusks.
PFD Announcement
By Josh Edge, APRN
A record-breaking Permanent Fund Dividend was announced this morning [Monday], not from the Governor, but instead from 12-year-old student, because, according to Governor Bill Walker, the fund is really about the next generation.
Shania Sommer , a 7th grader at Palmer Junior Middle School, is involved in the Alaska Native Science and Engineering program.
"The amount is, $2,072,” Sommer said.
Without adjusting for inflation, this is the largest amount received by Alaskans in the history of the Permanent Fund Dividend.
The previous record was set in 2008, when dividend checks came in at $2,069 dollars.
Governor Walker says this is the first time in Alaska's history the earnings of the Permanent Fund have exceeded the earnings from oil.
"So we're in a bit of a dilemna this year, given that with the price of oil...half our income went away, and we're in about a $3 billion deficit. So, this year, we'll be looking at ways of balancing the budget with a plan going forward. We'll work with the legislature on that."
Permanent Fund Dividend payouts are based on a 5-year's average of the fund's income.
Housing Grant
By the Associated Press
Three Alaska Native organizations are receiving grants totaling $1.6 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for efforts to eliminate mold in homes.
HUD officials say the Cook Inlet Tribal Council is receiving $800,000, the Craig Tribal Association is receiving more than $553,000 and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe is receiving $200,000.
According to officials, the Alaska awards announced Monday are among grants going to 18 tribal communities in 13 states. The federal grants being awarded total $12.4 million.
Ancient salmon
By Ellen Lockyer, KSKA
Researchers in Alaska have found the earliest known evidence that Ice Age humans in North America used salmon as a food source. A new paper published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences asserts that chum salmon have been harvested in Alaska for 11 thousand years.
The findings are based on analysis of 11,500-year-old chum salmon bones found by University of Alaska Fairbanks anthropologist Ben Potter and colleagues at the Upward Sun River site in Interior Alaska.
"So, when we found these fish remains, we were able to identify them to some level of specificity, but what this paper does, really nails the species through ancient DNA analysis, with is chum salmon, and also isotopic analysis lets us say that they were anadromous, that is sea run. They are just like modern salmon they spend part of their life in the sea and they spawn in fresh water streams. So one of the I guess, implications of this are quite surprising. We really had no evidence that people were doing this, or that salmon were even there,” Potter said.
Excavation of the site has revealed human dwellings, tools and human remains, as well as the salmon bones.
"The site is quite exciting, it's a multi-component site, and by that I mean that we have evidence of different cultures occupying the site at different times, all the way from over 13,000 years ago into the Middle Holocene, so maybe about 5,000 years ago. Because it is well, very deeply buried and well stratified, we can get information about specific occupations, different peoples that were at the site over time, and look at how their lifeways varied. "
The ancient chum salmon migrated upriver near where the mouth of the Yukon River now exists. These analyses indicate that modern salmon migrations may have ancient roots, dating back to at least the end of the last Ice Age.
The findings also suggest that salmon spawning runs were established much earlier and much farther north than previously thought. The upward sun site is located between Delta Junction and Fairbanks
The salmon were found in an ancient cooking hearth in a residential structure. Fish remains pose a challenge to archaeologists because their bones are very small and fragile and typically do not preserve well. Because of these challenges, their remains are likely underrepresented in global archaeological studies and findings.
The findings show that Ice Age humans used complex strategies and specialized technology to obtain their food, Potter said. “This suggests that salmon fishing may have played a role in the early human colonization of North America,” Potter said.