Human Ecology, Vol. 32, No. 4, August 2004 ( C  2004) Implications of Fire Policy on Native Land Use in the Yukon Flats, Alaska David C. Natcher 1 Through a process of participatory mapping, this research assessed the im- pacts of the 1984 change in Alaska fire policy from one of exclusion to one of management on Native land use in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Findings suggest that while the change in policy has had little mea- surable effect on community land use the continued suppression of fire on Native owned lands is having a direct impact on the current availability of wildlife resources to the point of necessitating territorial expansion among Native resource users. However, given the complexity of human nature, the impacts associated with the 1984 policy change should not be reduced to a simplistic cause-and-effect relationship. Rather this analysis demonstrates the interaction as well as the contradiction that occur between policy, cul- ture, and ecology as these factors together have come to influence Native land use. KEY WORDS: indigenous land use; fire policy; Alaska; adaptation. INTRODUCTION Wildfire is a key environmental component throughout the subarctic and is recognized for its regenerative capacity (e.g., Martell, 1982; Whelan, 1995) as well as a major contributor to maintaining ecological integrity (e.g., Reice, 2001). Although fire performs an essential ecological role, it can also pose a significant threat to human life, property, and valued re- sources. It is this duality that fuels much of the controversy surrounding fire 1 Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada A1C 5S7; e-mail: dnatcher@mun.ca. 421 0300-7839/04/0800-0421/0 C  2004 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.