KYUK's Evan Erickson spoke with Northern Journal reporter Nat Herz, who traveled to Hooper Bay as part of a broader look at what leaders describe as an unfolding crisis that threatens barge-dependent communities in Western Alaska.

Very few tribes in Alaska have authority over land, so they haven’t had a way to open reservation-style casinos like tribes in the Lower 48. Many, like Tlingit and Haida, have sought to assert authority over Native allotments — like this one — owned by individual tribal citizens.

The House vote was overwhelming and bipartisan, 404-14. The no votes were all Republicans.

The Kigluaik Mountains are home to wildlife and is a hotspot for subsistence users. But buried within it is also graphite, a key ingredient for batteries.

The Alaska Native Language Center published a novel on June 1 that adapts a story from Rudyard Kipling's famous "The Jungle Book." The story is the only one from Kipling's collection that takes place outside of India, set in part on a beach in the middle of the Bering Sea, on St. Paul Island.

The fire, which started Thursday in Ambler’s landfill, had burned around 500 acres by Friday.

Regulators also decided to close the harvest for non-local hunters.

Robert Nick, a respected Yup’ik elder and leader, is remembered for a lifetime of service following his death at the age of 84. He helped modernize rural Alaska through work in electrification, education, and regional leadership while preserving Yup’ik traditions.

Every other June, more than 100 paddlers arrive in Juneau to kick off Celebration, a gathering of Alaska Native people celebrating cultural revitalization.

Following reporting by KYUK, ProPublica, and NPR, lawmakers tripled the funding the state would allocate toward school construction and maintenance. The budget increase would still only cover about 13% of what school districts requested.