Simuka Smith
Women in Alaska Fisheries
This oral history project focuses on Native Alaska women engaged in Bristol Bay fisheries. Women play a major role in maintaining set net permits and are critical to sustaining small-scale fisheries in Alaska and the communities who depend on them. Interviews were conducted with women of various ages who have participated in commercial and/ or subsistence salmon fisheries.
Anna Lavoie
Simuka Smith is a fisherwoman living in Dillingham Alaska who has participated in subsistence and commercial fishing for the past two decades. She is a retired commercial fisherwoman and skilled in many trades. She talks about her experiences and adventures commercial and subsistence fishing, and moose hunting as well as her overall life in Bristol Bay. This interview is part of the Alaska Native Fisherwomen of Bristol Bay oral history project, a partnership between NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Bristol Bay Native Association.
Capturing History and Forging the Future: Alaska Native Women in Fisheries. Anna Lavoie, Kim Sparks and Jean Lee (Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission), and NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). 2017-2018. Support provided by Bristol Bay Native Association. Funding provided by the NOAA Preserve America Initiative and AFSC. Interviews are accessed on NOAA's Voices from the Fisheries website at www.voices.nmfs.noaa.gov.
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