Economy

For decades, Napakiak has been picking up and moving its buildings further from the encroaching Kuskokwim River. The City of Napakiak, the Napakiak Tribe, and the Napakiak Village Corporation have worked together to fund and coordinate the effort. Now, the erosion is accelerating and threatening critical infrastructure that’s too big for the community to move on its own. The community is seeking outside funding to help.

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta has a housing crisis. Three-thousand new homes are needed, but less than 30 houses are built in the region each year, according to a statewide housing assessment. Meanwhile, nearly half of the region’s existing homes are overcrowded, and the population is growing. One regional fisheries organization is hoping to close the gap with a tiny project that could make a big difference.

A national climate report says what many Alaskans already know: the state is warming twice as fast as the rest of the country. Rural and Alaska Native communities are the first to feel those impacts, and the stakes are especially high for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta because the region is home to the greatest number of tribes in the state.

Crooked Creek, located on the Upper Kuskokwim River, is the closest village to the proposed Donlin mine. The signs of Donlin Gold are everywhere in town, but the local community is conflicted about the mine. Some residents see the potential for much needed economic development, while others see the possible disruption of their subsistence lifestyle.

Two men who grew up in Crooked Creek worked for Donlin Gold in the past. Both see its development as inevitable, but disagree on whether the mine should happen at all. 

Canadian company Barrick Gold is the biggest gold mining company in the world. A proposed merger with another large gold mining company in South Africa, Randgold, would make it even bigger.

Barrick Gold also wants to build one of the world’s largest gold mines, the Donlin gold mine, in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. This merger could have future implications for the project. 

The overall population of Alaska has remained steady over the past five years. But in certain areas of the state, it’s on the rise. Some of those areas are Alaska’s smallest communities.