Subsistence Living

Subsistence Living

Subsistence defines who we are as a people. We may think of the word broadly and generally as a generic term but subsistence is different things in each village in Alaska. There are different ways of doing things, different customs, and different ways of using natural resources. How we use them defines us. It is part of our identity and cultural heritage.

--Charles W. Totemoff, President and CEO, Chenega Corporation

Excerpted from We Are the Land, We Are the Sea

Subsistence is means of obtaining the necessities of life. For the Chenega people living in Chenega Bay at the time of this book, subsistence was a way of life. Click on the file below to see the subsistence calendar and learn about the food sources that are in season during different parts of the year. Then visit the recipes page to read about or make some traditional recipes. Click on the images below to see a subsistence calendar project completed in 2009. Each month of the calendar tells of the subsistence foods and activities for that part of the year.