Playing role in national policies

Professor Deanna Kingston works with villages making relocation decisions

By: Candice Ruud

Posted: 4/29/08

OSU may be more of a political mover shaker than it would appear at first glance.

As one of 73 universities worldwide with a land grant program, according to the Higher Education Research Hub's land-grant institutions list, and one of only two U.S. universities that is a sun, space and sea grant designated institute, OSU has the potential to make a great impact on public issues.

One example is how Oregon State has become a central locale for the upcoming presidential election.

Both Democratic candidates Clinton and Obama have added campaign offices in Corvallis to cater to the college-aged voting population and to push students and community members to register and vote in Oregon's May 20 primary.

There are also several OSU faculty members who, through research, education, involvement and advocacy, are changing the course of public policy in the United States.

One such faculty member is Deanna Kingston, an associate professor in the anthropology department, who has been an important part of a group project called the "Collocation Cultural Impact Assessment: Coastal Erosion Protection and Community Relocation, Shishmaref, Alaska," in which decisions were made on whether or not to move the residents of Shishmaref from their hometown due to its quickly eroding coastline.

As a part of this group, Kingston performed interviews with King Islanders who had moved to Nome during the 20th century. She wants to determine what might be the effects of relocating an entire tight knit village of people to an area foreign and unfamiliar to them.

"In general, moving to Nome was detrimental to King Island culture and health," Kingston said.

"As a result of moving to Nome, the children were no longer learning their Inupiaq dialect, they had lost a sense of closeness and community that they had enjoyed previously, they lost access to various subsistence resources that they had at King Island, namely sea mammals and sea birds, and had increased access to alcohol."

After these interviews, a formal argument was made to not move the Shishmaref to Nome or Kotzebue because of the heavily weighted downsides involved. To Kingston's knowledge, the community has moved farther inland to avoid the consequences of the eroding coastline.

Kingston is now coauthoring a paper that addresses the issue of coastal erosion, rising sea levels and the immediate danger that many indigenous villages face.

While the residents of these villages need to be relocated, Kingston and coauthor Elizabeth Morino are urging government figures involved to work closely with and engage the citizens of these villages in these discussions and transfer plans.

Her work interviewing and providing testimonies to the negative aspects of transferring local communities has shaped the way the government deals with the issue of relocating indigenous peoples in order to save their villages.

"We're hoping that this will influence public policy in terms of allowing local communities to call the shots, rather than having dictates from 'on-high'- from the movers and shakers in the political arena," Kingston said.

Candice Ruud, senior reporter

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