The traveling breast cancer screening unit that serves Southeast Alaska won’t be visiting small communities this year , due to COVID-19. For some communities, that means some women won’t receive their annual breast exam. The whole point of the Breast Cancer Detection Center’s mobile unit is to give health care access to rural women who are unlikely to travel for preventative care. So, CEO Odette Butler said the decision to suspend service to Southeast for the rest of the year was hard—last year

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act , congress appropriated $100 million earlier this year to help tribes cope with housing and sanitation issues during the coronavirus pandemic. The funding will help some Southeast Alaska communities combat existing issues that the pandemic has only made worse . Finding affordable housing in Southeast Alaska is a challenge even during “normal” times. “You know there’s such extreme overcrowding, which is our way of dealing with

Northwest Arctic Borough residents have dealt with reductions in air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to a bankruptcy of the bush air carrier Ravn Alaska. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines also saw economic trouble which impacted their established passenger service to Kotzebue. Some Alaskans might have never considered the intersection between air travel and child custody . However for Kotzebue resident Maija Lukin, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how linked these aspects of

A community online forum asked residents for their opinions about the future of the Carlson Center. The contract with the current management company is ending. The Fairbanks North Star Borough will review options for the big arena and convention space on the riverbank in Fairbanks. The dominant user of the Carlson Center has been the University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team, whose scheduling of the ice for practices and games has determined much of how the facility has been used. That

On July 27, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it will open its first office dedicated to investigating cold cases in what has been called an epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People. There will be seven of these offices nationwide. Alaska’s office will be in Anchorage and opens in August . In a related effort, the U.S. Justice Department has appointed a former Tribal judge and educator, Ingrid Cumberlidge, to be the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Coordinator on

At a time where virtual platforms are largely becoming the norm, many Alaska Natives are entering a new era of content creation. I recently sat down with Alice Qannik Glenn and Jenna Kunze to talk about their new Indigenous-centered project on climate change. You may know Glenn from her podcast “Coffee & Quaq,” but she’s recently partnered with Kunze, who is a journalist by trade, to create an audio-and-print collaboration that investigates climate change on the North Slope. “Jenna and I

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut much of the country down in mid-March, domestic violence shelters saw fewer people seeking sanctuary from abusive partners. In Southeast Alaska, trends have varied by community . These past few months, those facing domestic violence have been stuck choosing between living with strangers amidst a pandemic and an abusive home. Recently, fewer people than usual are spending the night at Women in Safe Homes’ shelter in Ketchikan. “Where, where is everybody?" asked

The 2020 annual convention of the Alaska Federation of Natives will go virtual out of safety concerns over coronavirus. The decision was announced Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020, in a news release from AFN. According to a statement from AFN president Julie Kitka, “It was a really tough decision -- but the health and safety of our delegates, participants, and attendees comes first. The high risk factors of holding a large, indoor meeting, with lots of Elders and delegates coming in from across Alaska,

It’s been almost a year since a third of Newtok's residents moved away from their eroding village. Nine miles away in Mertarvik, they’ve gained more than just stable ground. Many say that they are healthier, and living a more traditional Yup’ik lifestyle . A slight breeze blows in Mertarvik most days, carrying fresh air from the Bering Sea. Katherine Charles, who moved here last October, says that her kids are breathing easier. “When we were in Newtok, seems like their lungs were always chunky

In Washington State Supreme Court, an Alaska Native Tribe and others are challenging a decision in a child custody case . According to court documents, in June of 2018, authorities took two young brothers -- Zacharia, who was just 21 months old, and Michel, two months old -- from a Washington, home, and put them into protective custody. In the report, the police cite “ concerns of neglect or unsanitary living conditions .” That sparked a legal battle led largely by the parents fighting for