alaska native

What the collapse of salmon populations means for one Alaska family

7:42pm March 20, 2024

by Kavitha George

For Alaska Native communities along the Yukon River, fishing for salmon has always been a central part of life. But climate change is driving a massive collapse in salmon populations.

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Pins are pictured at a display counter during a cultural meeting at the Comanche Nation fairgrounds in Lawton, Okla., on Sept. 30.

Sometimes overlooked by campaigns, Native voters could decide major elections in 2024

10:43am November 20, 2023

by Ximena Bustillo

A voting bloc that hasn't gotten as much national attention, Native voters are an influential constituency in several swing states, making them a group to watch in 2024.

More than 91,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2020. There were sharp increases among certain racial groups, a new report finds.

Health & Safety

U.S. death toll from drug overdoses is rising fast among Black and Indigenous people

5:00am July 20, 2022

by Rhitu Chatterjee

Drug overdoses are killing more people than ever in the U.S., and a new CDC report finds growing racial disparities among those who have died — with the largest increase among Black Americans.

Seventeen-year-old Bradley Westlock receives his second COVID-19 vaccine shot. He and other teens in Sitka, Alaska, are eligible now that higher risk populations have already received the vaccination.

Alaska Town Now Vaccinating Everyone 16 And Older

7:00am February 28, 2021

by Katherine Rose

Everyone in Sitka, Alaska, who's age 16 or older can get the COVID-19 vaccination. The tribal health service there has been so efficient, they've already vaccinated those at higher risk.

Sarah Lind, a nurse with Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., Southwest Alaska's tribal health care provider, vaccinates James Evan in December. They're standing on the tarmac in the village of Napakiak, where Evan works for YKHC at the clinic.

'We Don't Feel Forgotten At All': Alaska Fires Up COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

1:10pm January 11, 2021

by Nat Herz

In Alaska, the coronavirus vaccine is heading to tiny villages on small planes and snow machines. The massive undertaking echoes previous efforts to get vaccines to remote corners of the state.

Rising temperatures in Alaska are melting permafrost, widening rivers and eroding homes in the remote village of Newtok, where about a third of residents relocated to higher ground last year.

Climate Change Complicates Counting Some Alaska Native Villages For Census

9:39pm February 10, 2020

by Hansi Lo Wang

Rising temperatures are speeding up erosion in some Alaska Native villages and making traveling on ice roads more dangerous, threatening the Census Bureau's plans for an accurate count.

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Basketball hoop near boats buried in the winter snow. Shishmaref is just a few dozen miles below the Arctic Circle, and in the depths of winter the sun rises close to noon.

National

Alaska Native Tannery Is Bringing Seal Back

8:14am July 01, 2018

by Zachariah Hughes

Federal regulations largely put an end to the luxury trade in seal pelts decades ago, but a reopened tannery in Alaska has created a new market for sealskin garments made by Alaska Natives.

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Arctic sea ice is seen from a NASA research aircraft on March 30, 2017, above Greenland. A top Interior Department scientist who tracks Arctic conditions says he was demoted by the Trump administration for speaking out on climate change.

Climate Scientist Says He Was Demoted For Speaking Out On Climate Change

11:13pm July 19, 2017

by Nathan Rott

Joel Clement, who was director of the Interior Department's Office of Policy Analysis during the Obama administration, says in a newspaper op-ed that he was reassigned to an "accounting office."