On a pristine island in the Bering Sea, inhabited mainly by reindeer and musk oxen, the Cup'ik Eskimo residents of Mekoryuk are staking part of their economic future on an innovative college biology program.

It began this summer with a 10-day concentrated biology course for 10 students. Over the next few years, the Nunivak Island Mekoryuk Alaska Corp. hopes the summer program and related jobs will lead to steady employment on the island, which lies within the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

The camp is operated through Nunivak Island Cultural Education and Adventures LLC, a subsidiary of NIMA. It is 35 miles west of Mekoryuk, at Nash Harbor, on the north side of the island.

"The main purpose of the camp was to create economic opportunities for shareholders on Nunivak Island," said camp manager Terry Don. "We are looking to expand our operations next year. We hope to double or triple that number" of students.

The program included lectures, day hiking, backpacking and sea kayaking to bolster classroom instruction. The academic staff included Native elders who supplemented scientific knowledge with local and indigenous knowledge of Nunivak Island.

The core curriculum of the course is a blend of Western academic and traditional subsistence sciences. Field projects are designed around real-time needs for data for the community and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as for long-term scientific efforts at the wildlife refuge.

"NIMA did a great job pulling the camp resources together," said Martin Leonard III, an associate professor at the Kuskokwim campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Bethel. Leonard is also the executive director of the outdoor center, which offers alternative education and village-based economic development.

"They are doing work force development at the village level, everything form computer training to hospitality, guide training, first aid and training for transportation specialists," Leonard said.

The university has received funding through the National Science Foundation for a five-year program to develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta.

Leonard said he hopes the summer biology courses will be a springboard for participants to attend college and work in engineering, mining and management of the wildlife refuge area.

"We are hoping they will get a good start on their four-year degrees," he said. "In the past, there has not been a lot of good science and math instruction in rural Alaska."

A Denali Commission report citing the serious economic problems on Nunivak Island prompted an exploration of creative economics.

"Our approach to education (through the subsidiary) emphasizes both the traditional Native way of knowing as well as the Western scientific approach," said Wayne Don, Terry's brother and program manager for NIMA's board. "Nunivak Island provides the ideal wilderness, historic and cultural setting for students to develop expertise in both disciplines."

Other participants in the education program included the refuge, Fish and Wildlife Service, the city of Mekoryuk and Nuniwarmiut Piciryarata Tamaryalkuti, the nonprofit cultural heritage organization for the village of Mekoryuk.

Anchorage Daily News Link - http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/5516344p-5454250c.html