| For thousands of years, living off the land was what everyone did. The land and the sea were grocery store and convenience mart, fast food restaurant and drugstore. Whether whale or walrus, berries or birds, menus varied depending on where and when hunting and gathering took place. The knowledge of where to find roots and greens and when to hunt bears and beavers was a part of the pattern for successful living that was passed from generation to generation. In "Living Off the Land," author Richard P. Emanuel examines how these cultural patterns manifest themselves today as he visits different regions of the state to discover the varied resources available to residents: marine mammals in the northern and western sections; moose and berries in the interior; salmon in the southwest, fresh greens in southeast. The subsistence lifestyle is explored through interviews with rural residents from Petersburg, Yakutat, Nikolski, Uganik Bay, the Kobuk River, and other small communities. Their first-hand accounts of hunting deer, picking berries, harvesting greens, digging clams, and other activities relate the extensive efforts needed to wrest food from the land. Short essays offer information about mushrooms, nutrients in caribou meat, the risk of botulism, and other knowledge gleaned from experience. More than 100,000 people in rural Alaska continue to derive much of their sustenance from the land, out of need, out of preference, or sometimes out of a sense of romance or adventure. In "Living Off the Land," Emanuel articulates a unifying truth underlying the motivations of people who choose this demanding lifestyle, "...the difficulties are more than offset by the freedom and satisfaction of a life well chosen and well made, and by the beauty of the people and the wild world all around them." |
