A team with the Bureau of Indian Affairs made a rare visit to Newtok by snowmachine Wednesday, after meeting with tribal council members nine miles east across the Ninglick River in Mertarvik. They refused to answer questions about the visit. But those with knowledge say BIA is treading carefully as it implements experimental and pilot projects through its Tribal Climate Resilience branch.
One of the country’s first climate change-drive community relocations is well underway in Newtok. But, until this week, the steering committee that is overseeing the project had not met for two years.
“Coming out to a community and having a community meeting is so vitally important because it allows the community to see the faces and the people who are working to advocate on their behalf,” said Director of Climate Initiatives for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer.
Schaeffer has been working closely on the relocation project for years.
“When you gather, you reignite that relationship. This is vitally important. There is no price tag for it,” said Schaeffer. “It creates a synergy that allows movement and that’s what Newtok needs. We need to get them moved.”
For decades, the permafrost under Newtok has been melting. As the climate warms, the ground under the village has become unstable and waterlogged. Houses are leaning, their walls are damp and moldy. Critical infrastructure is showing signs of severe and irreparable damage.
Residents started moving out of Newtok to Mertarvik in 2019. But close to 200 people still remain in Newtok.
Newtok Village Council member Della Carl, a mother of five, said she is concerned about the division that creates for the community.
“I want to continue to feel like I am helping my community, to bring the community as one again, because this is all my family.” Carl added that the meetings are long overdue. “This coming back, it’s going to keep everyone together and everyone will stay informed.”
Newtok is one of America’s first climate-change driven community relocation projects. Last year, the BIA said it would give the community a $25 million grant to aid in what it calls “managed retreat.” The agency also announced a similar grant to help the village of Napakiak address climate change-related impacts there. The funding is the first of its kind form the federal government and the way it’s used could set the stage for at least a dozen other Alaska Native villages across the state are facing similar issues as a warming climate continues to alter the landscape.
“It is a drop in the bucket, but we’ve learned that you have to compartmentalize, make things into fundable projects and you bite off pieces you can chew. You know when we’re looking at $7-9 million to complete housing, that’s doable,” said Denali Commission Director of Programs Jocelyn Fenton. The commission provides support for infrastructure and utilities in rural Alaska.
Housing is in high demand in Mertarvik. At least six homes are slated for completion during this summer’s construction season, but the community needs 49 homes to fully house everyone who needs to move from Newtok.
After a full day of government-to-government meetings with federal agencies, members of the Newtok Village Council and the steering committee also met with community members who now live in Mertarvik.
Frieda Carl made the trip across the river to attend. In her Indigenous language, Yugtun, she raised concerns about the division that’s developing as people slowly move out of Newtok and into Mertarvik.
Carl said she is looking forward to the community coming back together as one again. “I’m asking for the sun to melt everything fast, so we can move,” she said.
Her husband Philip, a council member, reminded tribal leadership about their responsibility to use the latest infusion of federal funding wisely.
He also spoke in Yugtun and told the council they have the right to make decisions about how federal funding is spent. He urged council members to make decisions to prioritize sanitation and waste management to keep the new village site at Mertarvik clean and healthy.
