This topic is fascinating in both subject matter and its methodological approach. The opening line impressively frames the fundamental goal of the project by highlighting the simple fact that oceans “resist political boundaries,” while foregrounding how a transnational historical approach can investigate the consequences of this fact. From what I understand, this project will examine how salmon fishing is regulated between profit-driven entities, legal boundaries, and Native Alaskan fishing traditions and seek to identify who has the right to manage salmon in Alaska.
The reckoning between native tradition and practices, and contemporary commercial establishments and practices is, from what I have observed, a topic still underexplored. However, it seems vital for not only understanding the impact of imperialism on Indigenous activity in a postcolonial context, but also for understanding how these complicated relationships continue to occur. By exploring transnational exchanges across the North Pacific and tying it to international relations, labour history, and resource governance, this topic fills a notable gap in scholarship concerning the relationship between commercial and Indigenous rights to fishing.
The range of sources, especially primary sources, is commendable. I also think the examination of other sources concerning Indigenous resource rights elsewhere will, as this proposal mentions, provide a helpful broader analysis by identifying patterns in these practices that are perhaps also transnational in nature. Additionally, I would suggest potentially looking into historiographical shifts concerning Indigenous fishing rights and the relationship between commercial drivers and Indigenous practices. I believe this could provide a wider contextual analysis of the historiographical patterns related to this subject and better emphasize the relevance of the project, especially relating to how it foregrounds Indigenous agency as opposed to just victimization, as well as its emphasis on how ecological commodities shape transnational political and economic systems.