Close
KTAR.com
News
Shows
Blogs
KTAR News on 92.3FM

Climate migration: Alaska village resists despite threats

Bering Air agent Denis Sinnok shuts the door of a Cessna plane at the air strip after unloading the dozens of boxes of Eggo waffles and other goods in Shishmaref, Alaska, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Small waves crash into reinforced seawalls in Shishmaref, Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Wearing a seal fur hat made by his mother, Andrew Kakoona, 46, sits on an ATV with a hunting rifle secured on his chest as he and his relatives get ready for seal hunting in Shishmaref, Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The northern lights appear over Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Children play in Shishmaref, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Alfred Ningeulook, 61, hugs his granddaughter, Glenna, 6, in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The sun sets in the horizon as Ned Ahgupuk and his girlfriend, Kelsi Rock, piggybacking their 1-year-old son, Steven, stroll along the beach on the Arctic Ocean in Shishmaref, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) John Kokeok, 46, hangs a framed photo of his brother, Norman, back on the wall after an interview with The Associated Press in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. Norman died in 2007 after his snowmobile fell through ice that melted earlier than usual. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A polar bear's hide hangs on a rack near the village's airstrip in Shishmaref, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Dressed in a white cap and gown, Carmen Turner, 17, a senior at the Shishmaref School, sits for a graduation photo in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Students attend a bilingual class teaching Inupiaq at the Shishmaref School in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Shishmaref School cross country team members, Madalynn Snell, 12, from left, Elmer Elliott, 9, and Kenneth Itchoak, 11, train under coach Amy Eningowuk, who also teaches second grade at the school in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A homemade basketball hoop stands tilted outside a home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) With framed family photos hanging on the wall, 80-year-old Clifford Weyiouanna, a respected village elder and former reindeer herder, rests on a sofa in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Hunting rifles hang on a rack as 80-year-old Clifford Weyiouanna, foreground, a respected village elder and former reindeer herder, makes akutuq, an ice cream-like dish traditionally made by Alaska indigenous cultures from berries, seal oil and the fat of caribou and other animals, for his grandson's birthday in Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Molly Snell, center, says grace with her partner, Tyler Weyiouanna, foreground left, Weyiouanna's grandfather, Clifford, as they gather around a dinner table to celebrate Tyler's 31st birthday in Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. “For someone to say that climate change is not real kind of hurts a little bit because we’re seeing it firsthand in Shishmaref," Snell said. “”People who say that it’s not real, they don’t know how we live and what we deal with every day.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Seal hunter Wilbur Kuzuzuk, 53, drags a spotted seal, his only catch of the day, onto the edge of the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. They might be at the edge of the world, but elsewhere they would be far from some of the prime spots for subsistence hunting of bearded seals and other sea mammals or fishing and berry picking in the tundra that make up most of their nutrition. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A beluga whale carcass lies in the ocean water after it was carved for meat by villagers in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Helen Kakoona, left, and her in-law Dorcas Okpealuk skin a spotted seal by the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Seal hunters Thomas Pootoogooluk, left, and Anthony unload seals onto the edge of the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Two hunters prepare their boat for seal hunting in the morning as the sun peaks through the clouds in Shishmaref, Alaska, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022. Shishmaref sits on the small island of Sarichef -- just a quarter of a mile wide and about three miles long. Only about half of it is habitable, but hundreds of feet of shore have been lost in past decades. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Patrick Iyatunguk, a 31-year-old seal hunter, builds his boat outside his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Children play in Shishmaref, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Shishmaref sits on the small island of Sarichef -- just a quarter of a mile wide and about three miles long. Only about half of it is habitable, but hundreds of feet of shore have been lost in past decades. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Rev. Aaron Silco, who is a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, is seen through a church window as he tries to get his two-month-old son, Aidan, to sleep during choir practice in Shishmaref, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. They live next to the church and cemetery. “There’s still life happening despite all of the weight and the burden that climate change can cast upon this community.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Rev. Aaron Silco, center, who is a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, left, feeds their two-month-old son, Aidan, while getting ready for a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Seal hunting boats are visible in the distance as the Rev. Aaron Silco, a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, walks to the church to lead a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. They live next to the church and cemetery with their two-month-old son, Aidan. “There’s still life happening despite all of the weight and the burden that climate change can cast upon this community.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Janet Kiyutelluk, 57, center right, motions to her granddaughter to lower her voice during a singspiration at the Shishmaref Lutheran Church in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Janet Kiyutelluk, 57, wipes her tears while singing a hymn as her granddaughter, Lacey Barr, 3, watches during a Sunday service at the Shishmaref Lutheran Church in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Rev. Aaron Silco, center, who is a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna, gives Communion to church members during a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. They live next to the church and cemetery with their two-month-old son, Aidan. “There’s still life happening despite all of the weight and the burden that climate change can cast upon this community.” (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) The Rev. Anna Silco, a co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with her husband, Aaron, interacts with children while showing them mustard seeds during a Sunday service in Shishmaref, Alaska, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. The tight-knit, resilient community continues to maintain their traditions and celebrate birthdays, baptisms and graduations centered around their homes, the local school and one of the world’s northernmost Lutheran churches. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Rich Stasenko, 81, watches news of hurricane-ravaged Florida in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. The people of Shishmaref "are resourceful, they are resilient," said Stasenko, who arrived to Shishmaref to teach at the local school in the mid-'70s and never left. "I don't see victims here." (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Boats used for seal hunting are kept in the lagoon side of Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Climate change is partially to blame for the rising seas, flooding, erosion and loss of protective ice and land that are threatening this Inupiat village of about 600 people near the Bering Strait, just a few miles from the Arctic Circle. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Pulling a sled with fuel containers in the lagoon, Joe Eningowuk, 62, left, and his 7-year-old grandson, Isaiah Kakoona, head toward their boat through the shallow water while getting ready for a two-day camping trip in Shishmaref, Alaska, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)