The fruits of a decade-old study, brought to a halt by a tragic boating accident in the Russian Far East, will live on at the University of Alaska Anchorage following a blessing ceremony held June 29.

 The 1995 accident near Chukotka claimed the lives of a team of U.S. and Russian researchers studying health, population growth and socialization in Alaska and Russia.

 The blessing ceremony, held at the UAA/APU Consortium Library, commemorated the researchers and prepared their collected data for use by other scholars.

Rita Blumenstein, a traditional healer with Southcentral Foundation, spoke and conduct a drum ceremony. She was joined by Father Michael Oleksa of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska; Dr. Brian Saylor, director of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies; Carl Hild, associate director of the Division of Health Sciences; Steve Rollins, dean of the UAA/APU Consortium Library; and Dr. Kathy Graves, a UAA psychology professor and project director for Alaska Natives Into Psychology whose doctoral dissertation (Resilience and Adaptation among Alaska Native Men [Smith College, 2003]) was based in part on the findings of the research team.

Background Russian and Alaska share a concern for the quality of life — including health care, poverty and the prospects for future prosperity — in rural, Native villages.

 To investigate these concerns, in 1992 the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs awarded a grant for an anthropological study of health, population growth and socialization in Alaska and the Russian Far East.

The study, titled Comparative Study of Social Transition in the North: Alaska and the Russian Far East, investigated a narrow set of sociological questions relating to human/environment relationships, community viability and rapid social change affecting residents of the Arctic.

 The investigators were especially interested in looking at resilient children and families “who weather [problems] effectively and then thrive. They can tell us a lot about possible solutions to demoralizing social and economic problems in rural areas.” The investigators hoped the project results would spur international collaborative efforts in areas of Native health and social change.

 Sadly, on the evening of September 7, 1995, the research team of Dr. Steven L. McNabb, Dr. Aleksandr I. Pika, Dr. William (Bill) W. Richards and Dr. Richard G. Condon died in a boating accident. That was the final year of data collection.

In 1996 and again in 1999, NSF awarded grants to the Alaska Native Science Commission to bring together the scientific data and results of the project, and oversee its completion. Late in 2002, the existing research documents and data were transferred to UAA.

 Under the auspices of UAA’s Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies (ICHS), the materials have been organized and inventoried. Sensitive documents and data sets have been secured at ICHS, where protocols are in place to provide limited access to researchers while protecting the confidentiality of study participants.

“We are happy to bring this important body of work forward and make it available for use by investigators,” said Dr. Saylor. “Our hope is that new researchers can build on the work of the original research team, bringing to light their findings and augmenting them with results of their own work.”