Radio Script
1999

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Perceptions of Place
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INTRO: Picture in your mind a desert landscape. What do you see? How about a frozen sea, or imagine a windswept rocky island? Do you see natural beauty or wasteland? Today on Arctic Science Journeys, Doug Schneider reports on how people's perceptions of one landscape--Alaska's Aleutian Islands--have changed over the years, proving that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

STORY: It took the Alaska state ferry Tustumena three days to deliver researcher Annette Watson to Unalaska, a fishing town on an island with the same name, some 500 miles out on Alaska's Aleutian Island Archipelago--in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

Lush, green rolling hills rose beyond the fish processing plants and warehouses. Fog--something that is ever-present here--draped the landscape in mist.

But for Annette Watson, the wait was worth it.

WATSON: "Unfortunately, I've only been as far as Unalaska. But yes, I did take the ferry down, this summer actually, and got to really experience how large the distances are. You know, three days from Homer to Unalaska is just incredibly long. But it was just gorgeous. I loved it. I loved every minute of it."

Annette Watson came to see for herself the place once described as a wasteland by the U.S. military. To complete her master's degree in Northern Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she studied how people use perceptions of place to achieve their goals. To the federal government during the 1960s, the Aleutians were remote and worthless--perfect for underground nuclear tests.

WATSON: "The American government really saw the Aleutians, as well as a lot of Arctic areas, as a laboratory. They saw the Aleutians in particular as a wasteland--a place where they could conduct their studies. It was a strategic place but also a place that would allow them to conduct nuclear experimentation relatively isolated from human population."

Not surprisingly, Aleut Natives, whose ancestors had lived in the Aleutian Islands for some 9,000 years, had a different perception.

WATSON: "Well, of course. Yes, this was their homeland. This was their lives. It was a very different place, obviously, for Natives. They saw not only the beauty, but it was the source of their economy, and the source of their livelihoods. The landscape was a holistic, ecologically beneficial place for Native peoples, certainly nothing anything close to the wasteland that the government perceived it to be--or had wanted it perceived to be."

With the Cold War over and the military now largely gone, perceptions are changing once again. Aleut Natives seeking business and tourism are putting a new spin on the islands. Though 3,000 miles from Seattle, one web site, run by the region's Aleut Native Corporation, promotes Adak Island as a modern community--ideally situated between Asia and North America.

WATSON: "The distances are the same, but definitely the lenses have thickened in a lot of respects. I initially showed the map the Atomic Energy Commission used to show how isolated Amchitka was, and today Adak on their own Adak Island web site shows how their geographic situation makes them more accessible, and more convenient for commercial ventures. It's really how you look at things. What lenses you put on."

But that's just her opinion. Annette Watson presented her findings at a recent gathering of Arctic scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Denali National Park, Alaska.

OUTRO: With thanks to the Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, this is Doug Schneider for Arctic Science Journeys.

Annette Watson, Institute for Northern Studies
University of Alaska Fairbanks
907-474-6536
fsamw@uaf.edu

If you'd like more information about the Aleutian Islands, check out these websites:

http://www.adakisland.com/
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/navsecgru/adak/
http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/nuclear/amchitka/