Rural Alaskans are expressing concerns with the counting process as the 2020 Census begins January 21 in Toksook Bay. Some fear there will be repercussions if they share details about their cramped living conditions, but census leaders say accurate data could reduce overcrowding throughout the state.

A new study reveals previously unaccounted for economic and cultural benefits of herring. The extensive report also highlights threats posed by the current state management plan to the subsistence herring roe fishery in Sitka Sound.

Tom Thornton, a dean and vice provost at the University of Alaska Southeast, authored the study, which was designed and funded by the Sealaska Heritage Institute.

John Lawrence is a cultural interpreter for the Sealaska Heritage Institute visitor center. His father was Tlingit, and his mother was Haida. Those two groups, along with the Tsimshian people, make up the three major Alaska Native groups of Southeast Alaska.

As a cultural interpreter, Lawrence tries to answer any questions visitors might have. Questions like, “What’s that thing on the wall?” or, “What kind of paint did they use on that thing?”

Ten years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers released a report that detailed the impacts of erosion in Alaska Native communities.

Don Antrobus is the Program Manager for the Village Infrastructure Protection Program at the Denali Commission, and helped guide an updated report that documents erosion and other environmental threats facing the communities: erosion, thawing permafrost, and flooding. Antrobus says that all are made worse by climate change.

A large Alaska Native non-profit in Anchorage is suing its insurance company for million of dollars in what it alleges are unpaid claims over damages from last year’s earthquake.