DEED Spotlight on Learning through Subsistence, Lower Yukon School District

Lower Yukon School District (LYSD) is comprised of twelve schools in ten villages spread across 22,000 square miles. The purpose of the district’s learning community is to ensure tradition, culture, and a quality education for its students. LYSD believes in the importance of the Yupik values along with academic excellence. An important value is subsistence, which the Yupik people have been practicing for thousands of years.

LYSD has a fulltime Yupik Cultural Director who plans cultural and subsistence activities throughout the district. Subsistence activities occur in the first two weeks of school and are continued throughout the school year. Some teachers and community members take students to hunt for moose, seals, whales, birds, and fish as part of their curriculum. Teachers also bring their students to pick berries and other land food.

As we move into the 2020-2021 school year, the LYSD staff have been working hard to prepare their classrooms and develop new methods of instruction to ensure students continue making progress in reading, writing, and math as well as acquiring Yupik language and subsistence skills. Students returned to school in-person with some safeguards in place against COVID-19. Temperature screenings, masks, frequent cleanings, and social distancing are a few ways that LYSD are mitigating against the virus.

Take a look at LYSD’s video documenting their recent subsistence efforts, and welcoming students back to school! https://youtu.be/AxkjOcCkcdc  (Please note, this video includes Alaskan subsistence images. Viewer discretion is advised).

“We are a people of the salmon, of the whitefish, and pike. Of the moose, bear, fox, beaver, and lynx. Of the berries. Of family.”

Thank you, LYSD, for supporting Yupik values along with academic excellence!