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Topic

Umingmak/dachan dachan tat gwi'aak'ii on the Yukon North Slope: A Community Directed Future for A Reintroduced Muskox Population

School of Environmental Studies

Date & location

• Thursday, November 12, 2026

• 1:00 P.M.

• Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Trevor Lantz, School of Environmental Studies, ������Ƶ (Supervisor)

• Dr. Mike Suitor, School of Environmental Studies, ������Ƶ (Member)

• Dr. Brian Thom, Department of Anthropology, ������Ƶ (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Susan Kutz, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Hokulani Aikau, Department of Indigenous Governance, ������Ƶ 

Abstract

Muskox (Ovibos moschatus), or umingmak in Inuvialuktun (Uummarmiutun dialect) and dachan tat gwi'aak'ii in Gwich’in (Teetl'it Gwich'in dialect), are large-bodied herbivores that live on tundra landscapes in the circumpolar North. Muskox were present in the Yukon and Alaska until their extirpation in the mid to late 1800s. Since their reintroduction to Alaska (1930s), and their subsequent spread to the Yukon North Slope (1980s) communities that utilize these areas have expressed concerns about the impacts that muskox may be having on the local caribou population. The Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Committee, the Wildlife Management Advisory Council (North Slope), and the Yukon Government are working to co-manage this species. They recently published a management framework and research plan outlining the goals and priorities for muskox across the Yukon North Slope. As a part of these strategies, co-managers set a priority to engage with community concerns, perspectives, and knowledge of muskox to inform future management practices. This thesis will firstly share results based on the community knowledge sharing about muskox based on semi-structured interviews. I will discuss the findings from the interviews that investigated the community’s perspectives and knowledge of muskox, as well as the impacts that muskox may be having on the community’s use of the Yukon North Slope. Secondly, I will discuss a GIS analysis of muskox space use on the Yukon North Slope and their interactions with community land use activities and Indigenous knowledge of species habitat. A particular focus of both the interviews and GIS analysis is the ways in which muskox may be interacting with the Porcupine Caribou Herd and community’s access to them for harvest. The overarching goal of this thesis is to present options to the local wildlife co-managers that hold the voice of the community at the forefront of the discussions pertaining to the management of their territories and culturally salient species.