Bertha and Wilson Twitchell stand outside their home in Kasigluk, Alaska. Wilson grew up here. He drew an image of what the land looked like when he was young: Grass and dry land surrounded the house, stretching at least 80 feet to the riverbank, where he remembers playing with toy boats. Now, when the water is particularly high, the house is nearly an island.Bertha and Wilson Twitchell stand outside their home in Kasigluk, Alaska. Wilson grew up here.
"It's a losing battle," Wilson Twitchell said."You can definitely see that the water is rising, the land is getting smaller."Like the Twitchells, families in Alaska Native communities across the state are in a race against time. Human-caused climate change is, warning that thawing permafrost and erosion threaten their ability to stay on the land where their families have lived for generations. Now, officials say, the issue has reached a breaking point.
The cemetery in Akiuk is no longer safe to walk in or maintain due to sinkholes and unstable ground. The community now lays its members to rest in a new cemetery in Akula . Soon, the living will need to move across the river, too.To get help, villages often have to apply for separate federal programs to fund housing, roads, or sanitation. They end up competing with each other for the same funding opportunities.
A tundra island near Kasigluk erodes, exposing thawing permafrost. Two months after this photo was taken, the opening collapsed completely.The Johnson River runs through Kasigluk, dividing it into two, even smaller, villages. The Twitchells live on one side of the river, called Akiuk. Across the river is Akula, home to the tribal office and a tiny airstrip. The deteriorating permafrost isn't evenly distributed beneath the landscape, which means some areas, like Akiuk, are thawing faster.
How the federal government navigates this issue in Alaska could inform how it helps tribes and other communities confronting similar issues in the rest of the country, Fenton and Schaeffer said.
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