David Walker
While Yukon River peoples forgo traditional ways of life to conserve wild salmon, trawlers continue with business as usual — bycatching a documented 141 million pounds of marine life on average each year. This bycatch includes king salmon, chum salmon, halibut, herring, squid, crab, whales and more.
Trawlers trail nets the size of football fields to catch everything in the water column. When they drag the bottom, they rip up seafloor habitat and crush bottom-dwelling species in a way that never comes up to the surface to be counted. And “midwater” trawlers, which are allowed to trawl in protected areas, drag the bottom up to 100% of the time.
Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association and SalmonState collaborated on sharing David Walker’s stories.
Photos by Jacki Cleveland
My dad had 16 kids, and they raised all of us on salmon. Generations before that, [my ancestors] used to have dog teams, and they were really connected to salmon, both for feeding dogs and their families. So it's been in our life forever. My wife’s family too.
My first memory was when we set a net out in front of our house on the bank of the Innoko. We were catching dog salmon. We looked forward to the Fourth of July, when they arrived.
One time, my wife and I were fishing and our net almost sank. We started pulling up and I think we got 100 in like a 10-minute drift. That was real exciting and a lot of work pulling that net. It was pretty heavy.
One year, the elders were fishing not far from us. They said their net completely sunk and they got 50 kings in one drift. That was back in the early ‘90s, I think. I miss it being that good.
But my dad predicted this. He knew the kings were going out, even back in the ‘80s. He pointed to that fish with his knife and said: “We can't eat money. There’s nothing, no money that could replace that fish.”
—David Walker, Holy Cross, Alaska
Photos by Jacki Cleveland
“We miss the fish at the potlatches—sharing salmon. It’s creating hardships for everybody. It’s almost a depressed area for jobs and shipping is so high. Our tribe is really helping us out, giving us credit at the store every month. But I don’t know how long that will last.
Over time, if we don’t get our food source, it’s going to be harder and harder. The majority of people want to feed themselves, they don’t want to accept handouts. We’re self-sufficient people. And now we have to depend on other resources to feed our families.”
—David Walker, Holy Cross, Alaska
Photos by Jacki Cleveland
“We hear stories that they’re regulating bycatch more, but I don’t really know if it’s happening. Distrust of the government is always an issue. Our people have been lied to for centuries. I wish they’d strictly regulate them or even cut some of them off.
In the state they say that subsistence is the priority, but it doesn't seem like that right now. There have been so many meetings now that they know all they need to know. It’s just whether they listen to us or not.
If they could see through all the money that’s being made, maybe they could have some compassion for poor people.”
—David Walker, Holy Cross, Alaska
Photos by Jacki Cleveland
“Salmon is our life. I’d like to see the stocks being rebuilt and strong again. I just hope it evens out for everyone and our Native people are eating. And there’s other good people who live along the Yukon. They’re trying to survive too.
An elder who died in spring of 2023, he was around 97. We really miss him. He told me, we’re getting Bristol Bay salmon, but he said he didn’t feel as good eating it. He would rather eat his own salmon that he grew up on, as far back as he could remember. So I wish those days would come back.
I was telling my wife last night: Our values are different. We live in two worlds. Our elders used to say a person’s real rich when they had a lot of fish and meat. But now in this Western way you’re only rich if you have lots of money. So it’s got to balance out with our young people.”
—David Walker, Holy Cross, Alaska