Drumbeats of Progress: Our 2024-2025 Impact

April 2, 2026

For over two decades, the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium has served as a transformative force across communities across Alaska, weaving together the profound wisdom of Indigenous knowledge with the rigorous tools of Western science. Rooted deeply within the UAF College of Indigenous Studies (CIS), Drumbeats is more than an educational program; it's a vital bridge designed to serve Alaska Native communities and build a new generation of leaders. By prioritizing academic programs that are culturally grounded and place-based, our courses ensure that students are not only graduating but are also equipped to manage their lands, reduce energy dependence, and govern their communities with autonomy.

This enduring mission has been made possible through the sustained support of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). For over 20 years, the Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNH) Education Competitive Grants Program has provided the essential funding required to sustain our work. As we look back on the 2024-2025 grant year, it is clear that the consortium’s impact has never been more vital to the people and institutions we serve. 

A Year of Extraordinary Impact

The 2024-2025 academic year was defined by substantial growth. During this period, Drumbeats provided $463,237 in direct financial assistance for students, effectively removing the most significant barrier to education—cost. This support facilitated 1,834 student enrollments and the creation or update of 41 courses designed for both the classroom and the community.

Our reach is vast, uniting five unique UAF campuses to serve approximately 166 remote communities and villages from Dillingham to Kotzebue. By merging academic training, mentorship, and financial support grounded in Alaska Native values, Drumbeats is cultivating a skilled workforce and Tribal stewards for future generations.

Drumbeat's Principal Investigator, Professor Carrie Stevens, has long championed this approach, emphasizing that the program’s strength lies in its responsiveness to the real lives of students. Under her leadership of over 12 years, we have continued to honor Alaska Native wisdom as a legitimate form of academic inquiry. As Drumbeats continues, we remain committed to the principle that tribal sovereignty and community health are inseparable.

Innovating Curriculum for Alaska Native Ways of Life

Recognizing that standard academic calendars often conflict with the realities of rural life, 100% seasonal alignment of course delivery with traditional harvesting seasons, such as berry picking, hunting, and fishing is essential to honoring our students' cultural traditions. This ensures that students do not have to choose between their education and food security.

This year's curriculum was organized into four primary pillars of self-determination:

1. Energy Sovereignty and Workforce Development: Hosted primarily by the Bristol Bay Campus, the Sustainable Energy Program focuses on energy efficiency and renewable energy. In 2024-2025, new courses like ENVI F120: Home Energy Basics taught students how to use infrared cameras for home heat-loss testing and how to convert waste to electricity.

The impact is best seen through students like Jacob, who, after completing solar train-the-trainer intensives, was hired as an adjunct professor to teach Photovoltaic Systems in Bethel. This directly builds the local capacity needed to power fish camps and villages safely and affordably.

2. Tribal Governance and Policy Leadership: Offered through the Troth Yeddha’ and Bristol Bay campuses, these courses equip leaders with management and advocacy tools. The curriculum, developed in close partnership with Tribal Governments, covers Federal Indian Law and self-determination.

A standout achievement this year was the 10th Annual Tribal Governance Symposium in October 2025, which saw over 200 Elders, youth, and leaders gather to explore the theme "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow." The symposium underscored that true governance transcends policy, manifesting as the lived resilience of ancestors adapted for modern values. 

3. Food Security and Ethnobotany: The Ethnobotany Program at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel provides a unique space for students to "walk the land" with Elders. By blending Indigenous plant knowledge with Western scientific methods, students learn about medicinal plants and ethical wildcrafting. 

Similarly, the High Latitude Range Management (HLRM) program at the Northwest Campus in Nome combines reindeer husbandry with modern business logistics and meat production. In 2024-2025, students learned the complexities of modern meat production alongside traditional subsistence harvesting and leather crafting.

4. Cultural Preservation and Applied Arts: Traditional arts are vital skills for community resilience. We fully funded courses in Skin Sewing and Birch Basket Making as strategic entry points for non-traditional learners into higher education, strengthening local economies and ensuring the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.

Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders

Drumbeats is deeply invested in the youth of Alaska. Through Summer Intensives residential camps, aka "Culture Camps," youth ages 13-17 engage in programs that blend biology and fisheries with Traditional Ways of Knowing.

To further this mission, in 2025, we launched the LIFE (Leaders in Indigenous Food & Energy) Scholars Program, selecting 13 scholars for intensive mentorship, full tuition, and travel funding to attend two intensive courses for a total of six credits. This initiative creates a pathway to continuing education while ensuring that dual-students are mentored by academic and cultural leaders, creating a continuous cycle of success.

Elders as Co-Educators

In the Drumbeats model, Elders and Knowledge Bearers are active co-educators and partners. They guide the curriculum and preserve wisdom for future generations.

A prime example of this is the One Health Research project, which engaged post doctoral students to interview Elders to define health through an Indigenous lens that links human, animal, and environmental well-being. 

Additionally, the Gwich’in Legacy Project produced video and documents to preserve traditional skills, such as willow usage, while providing recording gear to Elders for self-documentation.

Preserving their knowledge helps inform our curriculum, guiding the creation of new courses for UAF and community students. 

Removing Barriers through Flexible Learning

Drumbeats is committed to accessibility. We meet our students where they are. By offering a significant portion of coursework through asynchronous and distance formats, we ensure that full-time and non-traditional students can access high-quality education regardless of their location. The use of "stackable credentials"—such as Occupational Endorsements—allows students to earn employable certificates that count toward future degrees while maintaining their subsistence lifestyles.

This flexibility, combined with comprehensive scholarships that cover tuition, travel, and supplies, ensures that financial barriers do not impede sovereignty or educational attainment.

A Legacy of Sovereignty

The achievements of the 2024-2025 grant year are a testament to the power of place-based education and the strength of the partnership between the UAF College of Indigenous Studies, USDA NIFA, and the 166 communities served.

For those interested in a more detailed look at these accomplishments, the information highlighted in this article is available across four detailed one-pagers. These documents, which feature campus-specific highlights, impact reports, and curriculum success stories, can be downloaded and shared directly from our website. We invite you to explore these resources and join us in celebrating the students, Elders, and leaders who are drumbeating the path toward a more sovereign and resilient Alaska.