Let My People Go Hunting and Gathering: How Alaskan Employees Create Sustainable Careers Balancing Traditional Heritage Work and Wage Employment

Abstract

Born to “walk in two worlds”, Indigenous employees in Alaska sit at the intersection of dominant U.S. culture and Alaska Native culture. Drawing from in-depth interviews, a month-long ethnographic participant observation in rural Alaska, and archival data from employees and employers, I explore how workers conceptualize modern and traditional careers and sustainably navigate multiple possible livelihood strategies amid rapid change. From my analysis emerged two diverging individual approaches: In “cultural modeling ”, workers view traditional work as an inherited right, prioritize subsistence hunting and gathering, and engage in employment for financial needs; in “cultural translating”, workers view heritage practices as privileges to be earned, put wage work first, and only prioritize subsistence seasonally. I illustrate the importance of organizational and communal support in maintaining this balance, as well as the individual and societal consequences when the balance fails. This research advances theories in tradition, sustainable careers, culture, and Indigenous management literature by developing a theory to explain how workers balance traditional and modern work approaches. It examines how individuals leverage temporal, ecological, organizational, and social resources to create sustainable careers that fulfill obligations across multiple domains, and demonstrates how societal culture shapes individuals' conceptualization of careers and daily domain prioritization decisions.