Kuicuat Sustainability Forum: Building Power Through Collaboration
“Sustainability was not in the Yup’ik language the way it is in English,” says Nalikutaar Jacqueline (Jacki) Cleveland. “It was how you lived, it was how you behaved, it was the culture. You were meant to be there for thousands of years.”
Jacki lives in the community of Quinhagak, population 750, in the rich lowland tundra at Alaska’s western edge. She is a subsistence hunter, fisherwoman, and gatherer, and a Tribal Council member for the Native Village of Kwinhagak. Jacki is also a project manager at Alaska Venture Fund, where she works to build local strength through collaboration.
In February, Jacki and other organizers convened leaders and tribal members from Quinhagak, Goodnews Bay, and Platinum for a conversation exploring shared goals and opportunities to work together. About 30 participants joined the inaugural gathering of the Kuicuat Sustainability Forum in Bethel. Over two days, the group shared ideas and learned from each other about fish management, data control, wildfire safety, and other projects in Native communities across Alaska. The aim was to learn more about how to strengthen self-determination over their land, resources, and future.
“Together, our voices have more power,” Jacki says. The Kuicuat (Kwee-chuat) Sustainability Forum is part of a nascent movement in Alaska to bolster local Indigenous self-determination by strengthening collaboration between neighboring communities. The time together was centered in culture, with a presentation by a local Indigenous dance group, harvested foods, and time with Elders to gain intergenerational wisdom and knowledge. Conversation flowed from Yup’ik to English.
Four hundred air miles from Anchorage and the continental road system, these communities are not connected to each other by road, but their ties run deep. “We have shared traditional territories, shared hunting and fishing grounds. And we share our mother language, Yupik,” Jacki says. “We have strong family ties between our villages.”
In a place where the land and waters shape everything, the communities also share a geologic quirk: they are situated along alpine lake-fed rivers filtered through gravel, making the water clear and potable. The gravel is also valuable for construction.
The communities face similar challenges as well, including jurisdictional webs that have little connection to natural features or traditional demarcations. For example, in the subsistence areas used by Quinhagak residents, state waters are managed by an office in Bethel, while federal waters are managed by an office in Dillingham. Situated on the margins of two broader regions, the three communities are far from any hub community, and are served by different Alaska Native Corporations.
Jonella Larson, a partner at Alaska Venture Fund who helped facilitate a discussion on Native nation building, explained: “Even though from a cultural standpoint the three villages are so closely related, they are divided by these larger institutions. The Kuicuat approach aims to spark opportunity focused on the community members as opposed to the institutions.”
Jacki said what most moved her was seeing the group connect with Elders, speak freely in the Yup’ik language, and share openly—creating a foundation of trust to tackle shared challenges and opportunities.
By the end of two days, participants affirmed their desire to work together and identified three areas of focus for collaboration: prevention and response to environmental threats like erosion, permafrost melt, and wildfire; infrastructure and housing; and protection of subsistence resources. Next steps include outreach from participants to others in their communities, follow-up visits with each community to share findings and gather feedback, and a fall gathering to advance specific priorities.
Lou Adams, a Platinum Tribal Village Council member who participated in the February meeting, expressed appreciation for the approach: “The organizers included the Elders because they’re knowledge keepers. They involved all the entities from the community – normally it’s only the City Council or the Tribe, but this was geared for all the entities in the community to try to work together.”
What does it mean to Lou? She loves her community of Platinum: “That’s where I was born and raised. Game is easily got here. I have a wood stove, and we gather wood in the spring. Food is readily available – we have salmon, ptarmigan, geese, ducks, walrus, seals, herring, island birds. I love fish. I dry it, I smoke it, I salt it, I can it, I freeze it.”
But Lou says she is concerned about food security. Prices for store-bought food are exorbitant, and many subsistence foods are at risk.
These shared challenges and shared love of place fuel Jacki’s belief in the power of collaboration. She jokes that Kuicuat – Yup’ik for “little rivers” – means “the little rivers that could.” For those who call this often-overlooked corner of the world home, it is everything.
Nalikutaar Jacqueline Cleveland is a Native Village of Kwinhagak Tribal Council Member and project manager for Kuinerraq Sustainable Future Project at Alaska Venture Fund. She also serves on the Yukon-Delta Regional Advisory Council and the Central Bering Sea Advisory Council.
We believe the path to a thriving Alaska begins in place, with the people who know it best. Alaska Venture Fund invests deeply in several areas of the state to support locally driven collaborations like the Kuicuat Sustainability Forum to advance community vitality and self-determination.
Written by Rebecca Braun, Senior Writer and Policy Advisor
Photos courtesy of Nalikutaar Jacqueline Cleveland
Map by Colin Shanley Published: May 2025
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