A Cry for Help from Rural Alaska. Is Anyone Listening?
14 01 2009Four days ago, a cry for help went out via the Bristol Bay Times. Many of us have known that residents of Alaska’s rural villages are having a hard winter. The weather has been unusually cold, and prices of heating oil and gasoline have been astronomical. Add to that a disastrous collapsing salmon fishery in Bristol Bay that left residents in that area heading in to winter with less than usual, and you have the makings for a humanitarian disaster.
So in desperation, Nicholas Tucker, from the Village of Emmonak sent out a cry for help. With 21 days left in the month, Mr. Tucker had only $440 left to feed and keep his family of nine warm, with heating oil at $7.83/gallon. As Emmonak runs out of fuel, it will have to be flown in, potentially raising the price to $9/gallon or more. While contemplating his own plight, he wondered how many other families of the 800 living in his village were having similar hard times. So he sent out a message on his VHF radio, asking his neighbors how they were doing. Twenty five answers came. Here are a few:
G. & K. F.: Young couple with family of five. Wife is unable to sleep and stressed out not knowing when they will be able get their next heating fuel. A 100-lb. bottle of propane gas that usually lasts four months is now lasting only two months because they use it to heat water. This costs them $200 every two weeks. They do not have hot water heater. Wife has very little income and uses $375, the one-half of her gross income every two weeks, to get heating fuel. She has no food for her family sometimes, because, she has to split the rest of what little is left for water/sewer and electricity. Gasoline for her 4-wheeler is very expensive. Her parents help her with food and firewood. They cannot afford a snowmachine or a boat to get logs. Heating fuel and propane is taking her food money away. Her added worry is that the village native corporation is running out of heating fuel and is being airlifted in. New cost is expected to be near $9 – $11 per gallon or higher.
P. R: Single, separated, with five children. (He chokes occasionally, holding back crying.) He and his children are staying in the same household with his brother’s family. Cost of fuel is so high and everything else and we’re able to get just a few things at a time. We have no other subsistence food left. Only thing we’re surviving on moose meat alone and it is almost gone. Everything is so high – only able to get little bit. We can’t catch up on our bills. We’re really hurting even we are given some from other people. Right now, we can’t eat during the day, only at supper time. And, it is still not enough. If there had been no school lunch, our kids would be starving. It is going to get worse in two weeks when our new heating fuel supply is airlifted in. Price of fuel will go way up again. I am lucky that the Women’s Shelter is able to give me some coffee.
A. & L. M.. Middle aged couple, family of eight. Family is buying heating fuel over food all this winter. They have no choice. Wife has a part time job. Husband’s health, including a bad back, is preventing work – had lost his last job due to health.
T. U., boyfriend and children: Having hard time getting food and pampers and is on-call work. Getting food from elderly parents. Buying heating fuel over food. No food once in a while and having to cook whatever is on hand like rice. Sometimes, having to cook only moose for a whole week because there is nothing else to eat. There are days when there is nothing for breakfast and lunch and have to eat only one dinner meal a day.
Hearing these stories from his friends and neighbors, Nick Turner sent a letter to the Bristol Bay Times; a message in a bottle, asking for someone to help.
It is easy when we sit hundreds or thousands of miles away, to feel detached from the troubles of a small Alaskan village. If we were able to imagine ourselves living in such an isolated rural setting with these challenges, and were to imagine that we had five children whom we loved, and whose care rested upon us, what would we do? And if we were able to feel the desperation of these parents when the choice came to decide whether to keep their children warm or keep them fed, knowing that they couldn’t do both, and that there was no end in sight, what would we do? In his letter, Nick Turner says:
I am reaching out for these families. Help is needed and cannot be delayed. I cannot imagine so many in this village are in hunger, without fuel, and other essentials and uncertain about their future. What is mind boggling about the whole situation is that they have remained silent, anonymous, suffered, and cried. The four villages in this region are in close proximity to each other and the demography is the same. Is this going on in your village?
This is not the time for any debates or questions. The winter-long anomaly in the weather, conditions, and the situation are beyond our control.
There are approximately 200 households of the 847 residents here. In just a day and half, I was able to reach only 25 households. Are as many as 175 more remaining silent? In appearance, the heads of these 25 households look normal. I am devastated from the revelation of these few houses contacted. Additionally, how many of those who are able to work are without jobs? Easily, staggering 400 plus! Some other households are still calling, but I have few hours to print this report for my testimony during today’s fuel summit.
Though it may sound absurd, a massive airlift of food in the months of January, February, March and April will help our people. Any peoples, churches, organizations, associations, and government agencies ought to sent money to our native corporations to offset both the current fuel prices and the airlift presently underway. For over thirty years, we have witnessed in our region that our native corporations are just like people. They have limited income and their expenses have always been high. Why? Our Wade Hampton district has always been the most economically depressed than that of our both nation and state. We are in the most remote area of our state.
So, what is the State of Alaska doing to help its citizens as they face these conditions of scarcity that are beyond what many of us can imagine? The answer is, nothing. According to Mr. Tucker the lack of heating oil and food and the resulting threat to life did not count as an emergency to the State of Alaska.
A question. Where is our Governor? What are her priorities? I have heard her concerns about anonymous bloggers, about media coverage, about the legislature, and the gas line. I have seen press releases come out saying “There you go again” to the Anchorage Daily News. I haves seen lots of time and energy focused on how Sarah Palin feels mistreated by the media. But I have not heard one, single, solitary word about Emmonak. I have seen no press releases about what my state’s government is doing to help its people in harm’s way. I have heard big talk about a Rural Subcabinet headed up by our Attorney General, Talis Colberg, and I’ve heard that they’re busy evaluating.
Colberg stated that so far the subcabinet has been in preliminary meetings to look at programs that are already in place and discussing how to gather information, what topics should be focused on, how the group will be structured and what support they could rely on. The group has no fixed meeting time and the date of their next meeting is unknown.
So, if our governor can’t seem to get her eyes off the mirror, and her head out of 2012, and if the State of Alaska doesn’t consider this an “emergency”, then what is to be done?
The answer lies, where many answers lie, with us.
To help, please call:
City of Emmonak, (907) 949-1227/1249 (They will take donations by credit card. Please specify the donation is for heating oil!)
Emmonak Tribal Council, (907) 949-1720
or send a check to:
Emmonak Tribal Council
P.O. Box 126
Emmonak, AK 99581
Attn: Christine Alexie
********************************************
Previous Mudflats coverage of rural/Native issues:
The Status of the Rural Subcabinet – 1/05/09
Would You Rather Freeze to Death or Be a Socialist? – 11/28/08
Energy Emergency in Rural Alaska – 10/26/08
A Tour of the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention – 10/23/08
Another Alaska – 10/7/08
January 15th, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Gee, the natives lived out there for centuries without the benefits of oil, propane, ATVs or cash.
If you can’t stand the cold, get out of the freezer.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:38 AM
The natives have also lived there for centuries without needing my help. This is an extraordinary situation. Get your head out of your ass.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:40 AM
gdwyer – Sarah is going thru her 150k RNC clothing loot to see what she and her posse are taking on the trip in Feb. She can’t piddle with the welfare of the people of her Queendoom……….
January 15th, 2009 at 10:50 AM
Yeah thats right – but back in those “centuries” the white man hadn’t raped the land and water for said oil and propane and run off the abundant food sources……..read some informative history before you pop off.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Jo Dawson is in charge of the Federal food Commodities in Alaska and can authorize Federal Foods to be shipped to Emmonak. Email her and ask her to Authorize The Food Bank of Alaska to Release TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program) foods.
Also call the Food Bank of Alaska and ask how you can help Emmonak.
Jo Dawson
Specialist
Child and Adult Care Food Program
801 W. 10th Street, Ste. 200
PO Box 110500
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 907-465-8711
Fax: 907-465-8910
E-mail: Jo_Dawson@eed.state.ak.us
The Food Bank of Alaska
2121 spar ave.
907-272-3663
or email info@foodbankofalaska.org
January 15th, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Gee, the natives lived out there for centuries without the benefits of oil, propane, ATVs or cash.
If you can’t stand the cold, get out of the freezer.
I see ‘austintx’ has answered your assholish response.
Just to reiterate:
January 15th, 2009 at 1:53 PM
[...] For information on how to help, click HERE. [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 2:18 PM
I live in Hawaii. I found out about the extreme, life-threatening conditions faced by the people of Emmonak. And surely, many people nearby. Hawaii? You might say I have it great in comparison, right? Nope. Over-population, poverty, lack of support for food and medical care. Yes, a lot of people are living “homeless” on the beaches now and are not in danger of freezing to death, but we are facing slow extinction from neglect while the state further reduces funding for human support programs.
Rents and electricity are extremely expensive. Extinction of native human habitat is the cost of corporatism and politking bridges to nowhere, government mansions, pet projects for Wasilla, etc., development projects funded and subsidized by the state that force people into further poverty on the westside of O’ahu, the most populated island. That’s Hawaii’s dirty secret.
Hey, Visitor! Move, you say. Nope. This is our home. “The Gathering Place.” It is Spirit to us.
And now I know more about Alaska. The Aloha of traditional, tribal Hawaii is much the same as that in your land of tribal ancestry. It is being ignored and it’s extinction continues to be encouraged by corporatism and the inequities that come with it.
The time for that “immediacy of now” is here. A redistribution of monetary wealth. Not for the sake of money, but for the sake of the sanctity of well-being for all life. Not something for nothing, but a change in philosophy, in the way we are. I have very little money. I send what I can. You will be helped as the power of the internet moves the energies and resources of others to you.
In Spirit
He punawai kahe wale ke aloha
January 15th, 2009 at 2:44 PM
@kuhioboy
Pehea ‘oe! I’m from Hawaii too. Actually, there are a lot of keiki o ka aina up here. I left Hawaii to come to Alaska because I was, in fact, living on the beach. Mokuleia specifically. Most of us that transplant here do so because of the lousy economy back home. Lot’s more work up here.
Anyway, I’m glad you spoke about ancestral lands from another tribal point of view. Some non-natives just don’t understand ancestral ties to the land. I try but my words aren’t as eloquent as yours.
Aloha no!
January 15th, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Just curious, what they did with their big $3200 checks for each individual? Did the family of 9 really blow through $30,000 of fuel and food in three months?
January 15th, 2009 at 3:01 PM
@A. Cold Day (10:33:36) :
Gee, the natives lived out there for centuries without the benefits of oil, propane, ATVs or cash.
*************************************************
Other unenlightened Alaskans have used this argument for years. They say that Natives shouldn’t have a priority right to hunt and fish when there is not enough to go around for everybody, regardless of need (and SP agrees with this). They also say that Natives shouldn’t be a able to use guns, ATV’s and other modern tools if they want the priority. An elder wisely replied: “We will return to those methods, just as soon as you leave on the boats you sailed in on”.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:14 PM
@CRFlats (15:01:23) :
An elder wisely replied: “We will return to those methods, just as soon as you leave on the boats you sailed in on”.
That is a great statement (though I really don’t want to leave and I came on a plane anyway but then again I don’t think the Natives need to go back to using spears and atl atls either!).
January 15th, 2009 at 3:33 PM
My daughter lived in Alaska (Wasilla/Palmer!) and it is the most godforsaken place you can imagine. I went up there in the winter(!) of 2000. It’s dismal, depressing. The bars in Palmer are open 23 hours a day because there’s nothing else to do in the winter but drink. I get real sick of hearing it romanticized.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:35 PM
@ElleninBigD (15:33:27) :
THANK GOODNESS most of the rest of the state isn’t as godforsaken! At least it isn’t here. (I rather have that opinion of most of the Anchorage/MadZoo area anyway though…).
January 15th, 2009 at 3:37 PM
New thread alert!
January 15th, 2009 at 3:51 PM
@ A. Cold Day
Native Hawaiians, while no longer likely as big in number in regards to purity of bloodlines as the Native peoples in Alaska, agree with the reply from the elder as recalled by CRFlats. Hawaii is currently illegally occupied by the U.S. government. We would face extreme challenges as they sailed out of here. But time takes care of everything and has no relevance with regard to ever-living spirit and ancestry.
This state of connectedness, not only to tribal ancestry and its current remnants, but to all things universally without time, has been subverted so deep within so many for so long. This state of loss, this subversion, manifests in the ennui, hate, corruption, disassociation, and need for power which brings us to our current state of the world.
Life is but a dream, my friend. There is help available to you for your nightmare. Your Hobbsian habitude. You are a part of everything. Get your head re-connected.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Yes. We’re listening. All the way down here in Memphis, Tennessee.
I am sending this out on Facebook, too. Hopefully, this will go viral and you will get all the help you need and more.
Please, please, please… know help is on the way. We’re doing everything we can. We’re all battling high heating costs and there is little to spare… but we will do what we can.
Laura in Memphis
“Another one of those bloggers”
January 15th, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Hi I came here from MargaretandHelen where people are warm ,eating soup and want to help. Count me in; check is in the mail. No such thing as a G-D forsaken place if it is your home.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Wow, sounds like things are really bad up there. You’d think those Real Americans up there in Red Country could just pick themselves up by their bootstraps. It’s strange to see them being subjugated by some dizzy-headed broad from Idaho. Try to keep warm yall.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:15 PM
The argument that Alaska Natives should go back to traditional hunting & fishing methods is blatantly stupid. The Inuit and Dene’ have always incorporated new technology as fast as they could get their hands on it. If you look in the middle of the book, “Crossroads of Continents,” you’ll find a map of the trade routes that folks up here used before the white guys sailed up. Copper nuggets from the McKenzie River would find it’s way to Siberia. White reindeer hides from Siberia ended up way up into the Upper Yukon Valley. Salmon from the Tlinget went up the “grease trails” to the Interior. Not just goods, but technology was traded around like crazy.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Maybe somebody needs to find out why Calista, one of Alaska’s most successful regional Native corporations, is not doing more for it’s own people.
Those of you that do not know what the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act is should do some research. The very nature of this Settlement was supposed to provide for the welfar of these people. Where is the millions of dollars of profit that Calista has made? Why are they not helping.
There is absolutely why no reason any Native village in Alaska is living in poverty when their corporations had of 5 BILLION dollars in revenue in 2006. http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/171812428_1.html
That’s the bottom line.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Thank You to the Margaret and Helen blog! I knew the good folks over there would come help us get this on the front pages!
January 15th, 2009 at 5:08 PM
@ Bottomline (16:30:57) : Calista is a for-profit corporation and has many shareholders, not just those that live in the villages. I know from experience they will do what they can, and have (this story broke in a local newspaper owned by Calista, and they immediately sent it out statewide–they also set up a donation site at the headquarters of the newspaper office). Corporations are governed by state and fed rules. They can only do so much. It is a flaw in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and the shareholders have done many things to help remedy the basic flaws. It would help to do some research on the Act itself. You would find that the return of the land came at a heavy price. The Natives gave up much for what they were able to retain, and the state and feds and oil companies got to go after the oil under those lands that had been in question. The really great story is not how much the Native corps haven’t done, but that they have (at least some of them) done well and are returning dividends to all of their shareholders. At the time of the Act, it was not widely expected at all, that the corps would exist beyond 20 years. That was December 18, 1971.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:11 PM
I forgot to ad….you said Calista had 5 billion in revenue. So what? Anyone in business knows the top line has little bearing on the bottom line. Their revenue largely comes from contracts, and the Gross Revenue is the contracts value, not what they get to keep. Usually ranges 2-10%, and much must be retained to further the business of being in business. So if you want to talk bottom line, then talk BOTTOM LINE.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:51 PM
This is heart-wrenching and saddening. I’ll be sending help ASAP. I don’t have alot, but I hope what I can send will help with *something*.
This is atrocious. Palin needs to be hit upside the head with a cast-iron skillet. Or locked up. ‘Cause she’s CRAZY.
Also, I thought the idea of someone bringing this to Barak’s attention was excellent. Can we get someone to maybe compile a list on how to go about that, so that people have a network of resources to fall back on for it?
Hang in there, Emmonak. Your governor might not be listening, but other people are, and they’re sending what help they can. These are hard times, for everybody. My heart goes out to you.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:02 PM
While America is fortunate to be getting rid of the arrogant narcissistic ignoramus George W. Bush in 5 days (after 8 LOOOOOOOOOOONG years), I feel sorry for Alaskans who are stuck with the arrogant narcissistic ignoramus Sarah Palin for another 2 years. I wonder if Palin is trying to get rid of poor rural people in Alaska by ignoring this situation in the same way that Bush got rid of poor black people in New Orleans by ignoring Hurricane Katrina?
I don’t have a lot of money but I can donate a few dollars. Would it be better spent to send a check to the Emmonak Tribal Council or a PayPal to send Dennis Zaki to Emmonak?
January 15th, 2009 at 7:05 PM
I hate reading these sorts of things on a full stomach. I feel so guilty! I wish I could help but things are tight right now. I hope this gets the press it deserves.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:19 PM
@Just me and ecotopian: By all means send some $$, any amount helps. DZ aparantly has enough for his trip, and excess with be handed over directly to the tribal council in Emmonak. I called the city yesterday afternoon and the phone line was busy for hours. I called the tribal council but they didn’t have a credit card machine, so I gave them my number anyway and they will give it to the city for processing. I spoke with a nice gal there who said they were so awe struck by the response. She said they had been trying for months to get help from the Governors office and have heard NOTHING. They were feeling pretty alone. Meanwhile, another big help is the HuffPost feed is getting 500+ comments, so keep that going, and it will keep it on the front page (mention Mudflats):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/akmuckraker/a-cry-for-help-from-rural_b_157997.html
January 15th, 2009 at 9:10 PM
I just donated through Paypal…I found your plea through Margaret & Helen’s Blog which had a plea from a person called ‘empish’. I do not know how to take this plea further, but will continue to try to get donations from friends and family. God bless all of you who care about your ‘neighbor’ no matter where he/she lives. P.S. Empish said to be sure that you mark your donation for ‘heating oil’. My prayers are with you all.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:48 PM
It is bad in rural Alaska, true enough. What is less considered is that it is bad pretty much everywhere outside of Anchorage. Cheap(ish) natural gas heats Anchorage homes. On the Kenai and in other places on the road system, it is still fuel oil. This is a bigger systemic problem for Alaska. It is all very well to say “move” (I can’t help but thinking of the late Sam Kinneson, who said “don’t send aid, send luggage”) but we Alaskans need to keep in mind the bigger problem, which is that there isn’t much by way of jobs anywhere outside of Anchorage. It has been so for lots of years, and it is so now. Moving is not the answer. Making the Legislature start to do its work, rather than just wrangling about money and wacky bills like the death penalty, would be a good start.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:54 AM
Well, y’all jumped all over Visitor and all he’s doing is being realistic. He was in the same situation as them and changed the circumstances to something manageable and feasible. Sure we can all help out with donations right now (and I encourage anyone who can to do so), but what about the rest of the winter? And next year and the year after that and the year after that? Permanent problems require permanent solutions and Visitor is bang on that the people that can and should be doing something about this aren’t. And that includes the Governor, the rest of the Alaskan government, the Native Corporations and the affected natives themselves. The natives are finally banding together, and hopefully with our help the Governor and the Native Corporations will listen. People need to help themselves first by making these institutions listen. My congratulations to Nick Tucker for his advocacy on behalf of himself and his village. The word is out and action has been taken. But again, permanent problems need permanent solutions. This is just a band-aid if it goes no further than some donations for the time being. The Natives need to get mobilized and empowered so their voices can no longer be ignored by Governor Palin or the Native Corporations that have the power to assist in an out of the ordinary time of emergency such as this. Shame on Sarah Palin!
January 16th, 2009 at 1:25 AM
For clarification, I do not think that moving is even an option for the Natives, however it was for Visitor. Their ancestral lands are sacred and that’s the end of that. So the Natives need to look at what their realistic options here and act upon them. They need collective, grass roots organization and communication. If it wasn’t for a single individual, Nick Tucker, nobody outside of Emmonak would even know about this. He proves that one person CAN make a difference. And the one person that can make the most difference here, besides Sarah Palin, is YOU! Spread the word, you anonymous blogger, you. Make your donation to help out in the meantime, but so this doesn’t happen again in 2 months or next year, or the year after that for time immemorial, then things have to change at the executive level. Write letters to anyone in state or federal government that you can find, tell your friends, spread the message on blogs and find a permanent solution to this permanent problem. Palin must be held accountable for this (and many other things)!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 16th, 2009 at 1:50 AM
My money’s on the way. This is NOT the time to talk about the future. People are freezing and starving, for god’s sake! Send money. The future is best settled by folks with food in their bellies talking together in a warm room.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:57 AM
hOW IRONIC. The governor gave all the people of Alaska extra money of about 1200 bucks this fall so they could pay for the high cost of fuel.
Many of them who are addicted to whiskey and beer did not buy oil but did have full bars. So because they have no individual responsibility and are drunks the whole world should come to their rescue.
The native corporations of Alaska raked in hundreds of millions of dollars cutting down all the trees in the Tongass National Forest when Congress gave them 280,000 acres of old growth forest.
Why should the public be hoodwinked by this swindel by one village when a lot of the other villages are doing just fine?
Why? Because the media loves to Bash Sarah Palin.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:02 AM
Children are not drunks. Shame on you, Sourdough.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:01 AM
@alan stein—soughdough alaskan(01:57:35)
The media doesn’t bash Palin — they give her face time in front of cameras and she does herself in. She just doesn’t know when the STFU. (And I have told her exactly that myself.)
January 16th, 2009 at 4:35 AM
The Governor of Alaska may not hear their plea, but some citizens of Georgia do. Help is coming.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:22 AM
It’s not just Emmonak that is struggling it’s the entire Yukon Delta. I live in Nunam Iqua, a village that is 25 miles south of Emmonak. Not only are we faced with the same issues as Emmonak but our crisis is harder because we no longer have a store here. Our trading post colapsed several months ago, so we have no place here to get groceries. So not only are we struggling between choosing heating fuel or food we have to spend even MORE MONEY to buy gas to travel upriver to Emmonak or Alakanuk to even get food. Which is very expensive when you have pay $7.20 a gallon for gas. It takes atleast 6 gallons of gas just to travel by snowmachine to Emmonak or Alakanuk to even get groceries. So that takes that much more money away from what we have to spend on heating fuel and food. We try to reduce our heating fuel costs by using our wood stove but then are we really saving money? because we still have to spend money on gas to go and get wood for our wood stove.
Everyone, especially Govenor Palin, needs to realize that it’s not just Emmonak residents that are suffering! We need help in all of the YK Delta villages!
January 16th, 2009 at 11:47 AM
I just called the Governor’s office and asked what they are planning to do before these villagers freeze to death and starve to death or which ever comes first. I told them this is more important than Palin’s wardrobe scandal and her mistreatment from the press and that children are starving and will not have heat soon. The Govenor’s office reported that they were at that moment in a meeting to address the issues and have called in the military to help and another agency of the government that I cannot recall. I hope they actually do something. Is there anyway to get an update? I wish I could send some money but I only have $300 to live off of for the next week or so and I am a single mom. It is hard right now and I am grateful I have a job and at least we have an option of a food shelf and our heat is paid for the month.
-Lynn
January 16th, 2009 at 12:02 PM
@Lynn Brave Heart (11:47:53) :
Lynn, sometimes giving of your time and your heart is more important than any $ could ever be. Thank you for calling the Gov’s office and keeping the fire under their feet! And bless you and your family as you, too, struggle through hard times.
Check the more recent thread on Alaska’s Rural Villages for updated info.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:12 PM
Call the Venezuelan Embassy in DC.
Chavez has an oil program for US citizens facing hardship.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:17 PM
I, like so many here, was moved to tears reading this. How can this possibly be? Weren’t the signs and pleas for help there, out in the open last November? Why has nothing been done to help these people? Is it because they are first nation rather than Anglo? There is no answer that is acceptable here.
I don’t have much. Certainly no money anyway. I can however manage to scratch up some canned and dry goods to send. I’ve got a lot of cloth diapers my little one has out grown that I could also send. (I’d read one family was having a hard time getting disposable diapers for their baby)
January 16th, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Visitor haven’t we as Americans been down this trail before, maybe you would like to start a new trail?
Cherokee Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears lives as one of the darkest episodes of American history. Called “Nunna daul Tsuny” or “Trail where they cried” by the Cherokee, more than 4,000 men, women and children perished as a direct result of the events that occured .
http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html
January 16th, 2009 at 10:38 PM
[...] SOURCE: http://www.themudflats.net/2009/01/14/a-cry-for-help-from-rural-alaska-is-anyone-listening/ [...]
January 17th, 2009 at 7:56 AM
This was posted on another site’s discussion about this:
Remember the email that Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan sent out on 07-12-2008 after Governor Sarah Palin fired him?
“…Given the gathering storm of a questionable fishing season and the escalating price of fuel in our state, there will be serious stress placed upon communities and residents who will struggle with the coming winter’s challenges. Last week I had asked our Troopers and Fire Marshals to outreach both to these communities and to your departments in a cooperative effort to mitigate issues that will arise like: theft; domestic violence; substance abuse; suicide; and, accidental death; that all can come from sinking reserves of fuel, money, and hope.”
Monegan warned her.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:11 PM
I posted earlier (two days ago) and thought I’d check in. We just met a couple from Alaska. They said Anchorage was not a great place to live. They chose to live way out in the country. I told them about this situation. They said it happens a lot up there. They said that during the warmer seasons, their village (sometimes they lived in places where there were less than 10-15 people, and sometimes up to 500 or more) would collect wood, cut it, and store it for times just like these. They had oil as well, but it was not reliable and was costly.
They insisted that small villages in remote areas need to always use extra time in preparation for the winters. I read one comment above describing how they would burn up expensive fuel to go out and get wood for their wood burning stove, thereby taking money away from food and heating oil, etc. I told the couple from Alaska (husband is Native from Alaska) about this comment and they said that the village needed to be more organized. They needed to put a foodbank together with storable food for the community. That’s what they did. They had a hard time believing that this current crisis just “happened.”
While they agree that aid is necessary right now, the people in remote areas need to be even more vigilant and prepared than those in larger towns. They also had their “general store” collapse, more than a few times. They did have to take a few snowmobiles to a nearby village to get some supplies, especially food. But after the one time, they prepared for the winter during the good weather times of the year.
He was curious as to how the people were able to produce an income for living and other necessities and, if they didn’t work, what they did to share in the responsibility of winter preparedness.
Don’t count on politicians for a permanent fix. The people need to come together and ensure their village’s survival through local gathering of resources as well as bought goods. They are also the ones who’s responsibility it is to link up with others and apply for government aide, programs, grants, etc.
He, being Native Alaskan, also said that he still feels connected to his ancestral roots as he has family there and returns each year to visit. But economic necessity brought him to the lower 48. And now that his own children are grown (and live here in Hawaii and in Alaska), he is content to live a simple yet “wealthy” life here in Hawaii.
I, having never been to Alaska (we hope to visit soon), can’t speak for anything that is happening up there. But I can speak for similar conditions that are happening here. Again, while we don’t have the life and death struggle of your winters, there are so many in the small town I live in who can not afford to even get out of sight.
Leaving is not an option. There is an extremely high incidence of diabetes, alcoholism, other drug use, especially “ice.” It seems endemic in these areas where most live with little hope. 80% of the people are on public assistance of one kind or another and the beaches are filling up more and more with families without a traditional roof over their heads.
Yet the government does very little. O’ahu is not a big island and it might surprise you to know that clearly 80% of the one million people on this island have never been out here. We get the landfills, but not infrastructure improvements. I walk to the store and even though I’ve lived here most of my life I still will get robbed every now and then by meth’ed out kids. I know who their families are and they pay me back and apologize, but so many of the kids are so hooked on drugs that they’re out of control. THEY HAVE NO HOPE FOR THEIR FUTURE.
Clearly, your state government, the one that can keep the money for a bridge to be built to nowhere, with federal assistance, can help the remote, lower income areas in Alaska. I was always under the impression that Alaska gave their citizens a lot of money each year. Shows ya how little I know.
Surely things are looking up more by now. As the couple we met on the beach this morning said: go after it and don’t stop until something is in place that will ensure your survival as a village and be ready to go to work to get it done. He’s hard core all the way.