The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has announced a federal fuel cost assistance plan for Emmonak. Senator Mark Begich arranged the announcement during his trip yesterday to Bethel. The BIA’s Niles Cesar says the BIA has waived income guidelines so people can qualify for aid of up to $1,000. He said they have requested the waiver also be applied in 56 western Alaska villages and 11 villlages in the northwest Arctic.
In another effort to ease the economic crisis in rural Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin took off with the Reverend Franklin Graham from a Wasilla airstrip this morning to deliver 200 packages of food to the communities of Russian Mission and Marshall. Graham’s Christian relief group, Samaritan’s Purse, is planning to distribute hundreds more boxes throughout western Alaska next week.
Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage
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