Our COVID-19 Research Continues in Kodiak, Alaska: Part 1

By Dr. Kristin Drexler
Faculty Member, School of STEM

with Dr. Michelle Watts
Associate Dean, School of Security and Global Studies

and Anthony Caole
Student, Doctor of Global Security

Note: This article is part 1 of a research trip involving travel to Kodiak, Alaska, to study the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indigenous communities in North and Central America.

In late July and early August, we traveled to Kodiak, Alaska, to continue the next segment of our research project examining Indigenous peoples’ experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anthony Caole, a student in the University’s Doctor of Global Security program, joined us there. He has been a part of this project since the research project began during the pandemic, having conducted interviews previously in Perryville, Alaska.

Anthony is well qualified academically and professionally to assist us in our research. Also, his children are Alaska Native (Yup’ik) as well as being enrolled tribal members of the Native village of Kwinhagak and Alaska Native shareholders with the Calista Corporation and Qanirtuuq, Inc.

In addition, Anthony is the CEO of a Native corporation. He has more than 30 years of experience working in Native communities throughout Alaska.

Anthony flew into Kodiak from a family trip to Vietnam to participate in this research. Unfortunately, he contracted COVID-19 somewhere en route and was unable to conduct the interviews in person.

He did, however, participate over FaceTime^® for our last interview. After Anthony’s self-quarantine ended, we met with him (at a distance) outside the Kodiak History Museum on his last day in Kodiak.

Michelle conducting an interview in Kodiak, with assistance from Anthony (via Facetime). Images courtesy of Kristi Drexler. 

Interviews Hosted by the Kodiak Area Native Association

We were invited to interview residents on Kodiak by the Kodiak Area Native Association (KANA), a nonprofit that provides a multitude of services to the local community. KANA’s employees were instrumental in helping us arrange interviews from people who serve the community in the fields of health, elder services, children’s services, legal services, emergency services and education.

According to its website, KANA serves “the Alaska Native people of the Koniag Region, including the City of Kodiak and six outlying villages: Akhiok, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, and Port Lions.” This nonprofit is governed by a 10-member Board of Directors and offers healthcare, wellness, and other community services within the region.

Many of our interviews were conducted in KANA’s beautiful facility. We had several interviews with government leaders, business operators and Village Public Safety Officers; we also conducted some interviews before our trip via Zoom for those people who were unable to meet us in person.

Michelle interviewing participants in the Kodiak study at KANA. Image courtesy of Kristi Drexler.

A Continuing Study of Pandemic Impacts to Indigenous Communities

Over the years, our COVID-19 research has examined a variety of impacts to Indigenous communities, including cultural, economic, health, education, environment, governance and other impacts. We are using the asset-oriented Community Capitals Framework, which was used in Kristi’s recent publications in the Climate Journal in November 2022 and Advancements in Environmental and Engineering Research in July 2024.

The purpose of our study is to learn about the experiences of diverse Indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to learn about their resilience and how they coped, adapted, and worked together to protect and provide for each other during the pandemic. We also seek to add to the existing academic literature about the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, we have interviewed over 130 Indigenous community members on their lived experience during the pandemic.

Here are some of the other communities we visited and conference presentations we made in the past three years of this study:  

• Pandemic Research and Presenting at the LASA Conference in Bogotá, Colombia (June 2024)
• Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) Conference in Antigua, Guatemala (March 2023) 
• Panajachel and San Jorge La Laguna village at Lago Atitlan, Guatemala (2023) 
• San Antonio Village in Belize with a separate feature on Mayan healer Silverio Canto (March 2023) 
• Metlakatla Indian Community in southeast Alaska (August 2022) 
• Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico (April 2022) 

An Interview with Anthony about the Kodiak Research Experience

We interviewed Anthony outside the Kodiak History Museum about his Kodiak research experience. We were particularly interested in Anthony’s perspective because of his close ties to Alaska and Indigenous peoples.

Kristi: How valuable is this field research in your perspective?

Anthony: I think it’s really important that we’re doing this research. We’re talking to people and finding out how they experienced the pandemic, with a particular focus on the Indigenous lived experience.

Throughout our interviews, we heard many Indigenous stories of resilience. We discussed how tribal governments and Native nonprofits worked proactively to take advantage of the many state, federal, and tribal resources that were available to them for the pandemic response.

We also heard about the latent social and economic effects that the infusion of these resources and the community response to the pandemic had, both positive and in some cases negative. Communities worked through the politics and administrative challenges of implementing health mandates emanating from the federal level down to the local level.

Kristi: Is there one particularly memorable thing you’re hearing from participants?

Anthony: One thing we heard that sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart from past pandemics was the role the Internet and social media played in terms of confounding the cohesiveness of the pandemic response. That was due to the Internet’s and social media’s ability to rapidly disseminate misinformation. Long-term trust in the government was eroded in the eyes of some respondents.

At the social level, it was particularly poignant hearing from one young woman. She described how COVID-19 exacerbated fault lines in the family over differences in opinion about health mandates, which contributed to not only to her parents’ divorce but also friction in her personal networks.

In terms of the latent economic impacts, we heard varying perspectives on how COVID-19 and the response impacted businesses and the economy, with some businesses still struggling to recover. On the other hand, some Native communities have leveraged COVID-19 resources to make once-in-a-generation improvements to health and other critical infrastructures.

So, yes, getting that first-hand account has been exceptional. I think people are going to learn a lot from the interviews and the research that’s being done not only here on Kodiak but in the other Indigenous communities we’ve visited.

There really has not been sufficient research of the lived experience of Indigenous communities experiencing the pandemic or any after-action review of the local, tribal, state and federal response anywhere else. We’re only covering a fraction of what could be covered, especially considering that Indigenous communities in the Americas span such a diverse array of geographic, climatic, cultural, and political regions.

Documenting this lived experience of Indigenous people is essential to prepare for future pandemics.

Kristi: You are a doctoral student. Can you give us your perspective on this research, how it relates to your proposed dissertation topic and why the history of Kodiak is important to this research?

Anthony: Yes. Just being back here in Kodiak, the original capital of the Russian conquest of Alaska, is significant.

From a historical perspective, we see that the forces of colonization and the drive for resources here in Alaska really that haven’t changed much over the last few hundred years. In the 1700s, the Russians colonized Alaska, pursuing sea otter pelts for the lucrative Chinese market. They hunted sea otters nearly to extinction with devastating impacts on Alaska Natives.

This brings me to my research interest. Today, we see the same actors – Russia and China – collaborating militarily in the Bering Sea. China has expanded its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into the Arctic to improve its access to resources in what it has dubbed the “Polar Silk Road.”

This expansion is driving an increase in shipping traffic through the Bering Straits of primarily hydrocarbons coming from Russia, heightening the potential for another devastating oil spill in the Arctic. It has also impacted fisheries as well; the Chinese demand for fish is driving the expansion of the Russian industrial fishing fleet in the Bering Sea.

As in the past, Alaska Native and Indigenous communities are bearing the brunt of this drive for resources. Salmon fisheries in western Alaska continue to fail. They are victims of not only climate change, but also the indiscriminate and unregulated fishing practices of the industrial trawler fleets plying the Bering Sea and their bycatch. 

Indigenous communities in Alaska are among the most remote communities in North America. But as we learned with COVID-19, they remain vulnerable to external geopolitical, economic, and global health threats.

Through our research, we are learning that Indigenous communities also have significant agency in terms of mitigating those threats. They are substantial actors not only locally in their own communities, but also on the global stage.

Getting Involved in Indigenous Studies at the University

If you’re interested in Indigenous and Hispanic/Chicano activities, please visit the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) website. This student organization was awarded the University’s Outstanding New Organization for 2023, and we are two of the faculty advisors.

SACNAS promotes diversity in STEM in the contexts of social connections and sense of belonging, academic development, and professional development.It also offers a great place for networking with like-minded individuals.

If you are a graduate student interested in becoming involved in this research, please contact Dr. Watts at Mwatts@apus.edu.

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About the Authors

Dr. Kristin Drexler is a full-time faculty member in the Space Studies and Earth Sciences Department. She teaches geography, environmental science, conservation of natural resources, earth and planetary sciences, and sustainability for the School of STEM.

Dr. Drexler holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication from New Mexico State University and a master’s degree in Latin American studies with an emphasis in natural resources management from Ohio University. She earned her Ph.D. in educational leadership at New Mexico State University with research in socioecological systems, sustainable agroecology, and community education. 

Dr. Drexler earned the Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award for the School of STEM (2020) and the Dr. Wallace E. Boston Leadership Award (2021). Dr. Drexler has conducted numerous community surveys in Belize and Guatemala regarding agroforestry, conservation, sustainable agriculture, and COVID-19 impacts and is a co-investigator for the multi-year research study, “A Case Study Comparison of Pandemic Experience of Indigenous Groups in the Americas.” 

In the late 1990s, Dr. Drexler served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Belize; she co-founded Full Basket Belize, a 501(c)(3) and has served on its Board of Directors since 2005. Drexler produced the award-winning short film Yochi; she also founded “Science Talks with Dr. Drexler and Friends” to assist teachers during the pandemic. Dr. Drexler also co-directs the Gila Film School and has produced seven documentary films sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service to celebrate the centennial of the Gila Wilderness this year. She also serves as a faculty advisor for the University’s wSTEM, AWIS and SACNAS chapters.

Dr. Michelle Watts is the Associate Dean of the Department of Security and Global Studies, where she also teaches in the doctoral program. She has a bachelor’s degree in international studies from American University, a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in international development from the University of Southern Mississippi.  

Dr. Watts has collaborated with colleagues on nine research grants encompassing a wide range of topics. Her work includes “Bomberos, Maestros y Psicólogos: Guatemalan Civil Society Response to the Volcano of Fire Disaster,”“Making Sovereignty Mean Something: Native Nations and Creative Adaptation,” “Drugs, Thugs, and the Diablos Rojos: Perils and Progress in Panama,” “Seguridad del Canal de Panamá: Una Década Después de la Salida de Estados Unidos” (Security of the Panama Canal: One Decade after U.S. Departure), and “Game of Norms: Panama, the International Community, and Indigenous Rights.” She is the principal investigator for the research study, “A Case Study Comparison of Pandemic Experience of Indigenous Groups in the Americas.” 

Anthony Caole is a doctoral student in Global Security at the University. He serves as President/CEO for Three Star Government Solutions, owned by Oceanside Corporation, the ANCSA village corporation for the Sugpiaq village of Perryville, Alaska.

Mr. Caole is a former Tribal Administrator (Native Village of Kwinhagak), and former Senior Management Consultant at Northern Management, a Division of CE2 Engineers, Inc. He has spearheaded millions of dollars in rural infrastructure development projects for remote communities in Alaska.

From 2011 until 2019, Mr. Caole served as Regional Director (Contractor) for the Alaska Region T/TA Center, a Resource of the Administration for Native Americans. He was responsible for overseeing statewide training and technical assistance in support of the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) competitive grant programs, which focus on social and economic development as well as language preservation and maintenance in Native communities both in Alaska and nationally.

In 2021, his firm was awarded two major federal contracts to provide national training and technical assistance to SAMHSA Native Connections Grantees as well as operate the national SAMHSA Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Center, addressing substance misuse and suicide prevention for Native youth. Mr. Caole has more than 30 years living in and working for indigenous communities.

He completed his B.A. in rural development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and subsequently completed a master’s degree in International and Intercultural Management from the School for International Training (SIT). He is currently a doctoral student in the University’s Global Security Program, focusing on Arctic maritime security issues impacting Bering Sea indigenous communities, with a particular focus on East Asia’s Arctic ambitions.