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Caleb Pungowiyi

Caleb Pungowiyi was a Siberian Yup'ik elder from Savoonga, Alaska, a small community on St. Lawrence Island. He was born in 1941 and was raised by his grandmother in a traditional subsistence lifestyle and learned traditional hunting and survival skills from his uncles. He left to attend high school at boarding school in Sitka, Alaska, and earned a college degree. While originally from Savoonga, Caleb lived in Nome for 20 years,where he was president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and was president of Kawerak Inc., the Native regional corporation. He then moved to Kotzebue, where he served as the city manager, executive director of the Norton Sound Corporation, and president of the Akalook Trust, which is the foundation for the NANA Corporation. He also served on the Advisory Committees of the National Science Foundation, the Marine Mammal Commission, the Alaska Native Science Commission, and the world’s largest marine-advocacy organization, Oceana. Caleb continued to live off of the land his entire life by subsistence hunting and fishing, and utilizing his expert observational skills and understanding of the environment. Caleb was always willing to share his traditional knowledge, whether it was with scientists, conservationists, governing agencies, his children and grandchildren, or with the youth of his community, like at Sivunivik (A Beginning), a camp in Kotzebue for youth ages 7 to 17. Caleb was known for his devotion to his cultural traditions and Native language, his subsistence practices, his humility, his passionate advocacy for sustaining Arctic cultures and environments, and his expertise in cultivating relationships between indigenous people and conservationists, scientists and governing agencies. Caleb passed away in 2011 at the age of 69, and since then the Caleb Scholars Program has been established to support young people to carry on his legacy in marine-related issues of the Arctic.

Date of Death:

Jul 25, 2011

Caleb Pungowiyi appears in the following new Jukebox projects:

Climate Change

Caleb Pungowiyi's Slideshow

Interview Title	Abstract	Archive #: Oral History	Project	Date of Interview
Caleb Pungowiyi	Caleb Pungowiyi was interviewed on December 2, 2001 by Bill Schneider with Sidney Stephens and Karen Brewster at Schneider's home in Fairbanks, Alaska. Willa Schneider was also present listening in during part of the interview. In this interview, Caleb talks about his growing up in Savoonga, Alaska on St. Lawrence Island, learning traditional skills and knowledge from elders, and the importance of passing that on to the younger generations. He also discusses his observations of environmental and climate variability, how people in coastal regions of northern Alaska are impacted by and adapting to that change, and the importance of integrating traditional knowledge and western science.	2001-113-03	Climate Change	Dec 2, 2001
Caleb Pungowiyi's Lecture on Climate Change	Caleb Pungowiyi gives a lecture about his observations of climate change to a climate workshop for teachers held on December 2, 2001 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in in Fairbanks, Alaska. The workshop was sponsored by The Global Change Education Using Western Science and Native Observations Project and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In this lecture, Caleb talks about his experiences growing up on St. Lawrence Island and learning from his elders, his observations of environmental change and effects upon the weather, sea ice conditions, vegetation and habitat, and birds, wildlife and fish. He also talks about the importance of understanding whole ecosystems and combining traditional knowledge with science. The last twelve sections are the question and answer portion of the lecture.	2001-113-01	Climate Change	Dec 2, 2001