Mindfulness, gratitude and sharing are central to berry harvesting practice, sustainability and adaptation in rural Alaska

Berries are the most harvested and valued plant food in Arctic and sub-Arctic communities and are cultural keystone species in the North. Despite deep cultural significance and sustained use across generations, the relationships among berries and people in Arctic regions continue to be underexplored in published research. In this paper, we consider the ways in which people relate to berries and promote berrying in ‘cold’ places using a case study from a sub-Arctic community: Dillingham, Alaska. We posit that the environmental elements of cold climates and the ways that climate extremes shape plant stature and growth ultimately shape the ways people steward plants and landscapes. Interviews with 42 berry pickers identified 29 different practices of berry stewardship. We found the ways Yup’ik people express and enact care and responsibility towards berry plants is different from other Indigenous communities that have been widely documented in the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States. Stewardship is enacted through a deep respect for the bounty that landscapes naturally provide, cultural values of mindfulness on the landscape, sharing and reciprocity, spirituality and tradition, sustainability and access, and individual acts of biophysical stewardship and adaptation. We show how stewardship and berry relationships are shaped by the climatic and ecological conditions of a specific place, and we identify aspects of berry stewardship and relations unique to northern and cold regions.