Health

People in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta seeking treatment for alcohol addiction now have a newer, more spacious facility to help them. And with the new building, there is renewed hope for treating a disease that has long affected many lives in the region. The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation celebrated the opening of the Yukon Kuskokwim Ayagnirvik Healing Center on Wednesday.

Stay off the river. That's the message from Bethel Search and Rescue President Mike Riley to Kuskokwim-area residents. Weeks of above freezing temperatures and rain have led to deep standing water and even a partial break up in some sections.

The rate of suicide and homicide in the Kusilvak Census Area, located along the lower Yukon River, more than doubled since 1980, a rate increase higher than anywhere else in the nation. That’s according to a study from the University of Washington which mapped how people in the U.S. died during those years. Their finding for the area is disturbing. To better understand it, KYUK talked with one of the study’s designers and with people in the region who are working to reverse this life-ending trend.

For most his life, local elder and traditional healer Paul Gregory roamed the tundra, gathering medicinal plants, subsisting, and mushing. Wednesday, after a funeral service at the Bethel Moravian Church, Gregory’s family and friends laid his body to rest in that tundra. Gregory died Saturday at the age of 85. KYUK went to the funeral and has this remembrance: