Rural participatory research in Alaska: The case of Tanakon village

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how participatory research metho dologies may be utilized to investigate the planning of improved sanitation services in rural Alaska. The village selected for this case study had a s trong tribal and municipal government, and was in the process of designing research to determine the feasibility of various options for upgraded sanit ation service. Establishing contacts early in the project ensured that a ne twork of support was in place prior to the field visit to the village. This was critical to the successful and timely completion of the field visit. K ey features of the participatory research methods included gaining permissi on from Native authorities and Elders to visit and conduct research, partic ipating in group interviews, community activities, and transect walks, deve loping seasonal and historic timelines, and conducting a secondary source r eview of city and agency documents and school district archives. The findin gs of this study confirm that flexible and personalized research approaches can reveal a body of local knowledge that exists regarding how best to add ress sanitation issues. Such information can be utilized in developing effi cient, cost-effective ways of providing environmentally sound waste disposa l in rural communities. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.