The Nome Static, September 2018

In the near future, reindeer may play an increasingly important role as both a subsistence and commercial food source in Western Alaska. The region “could become Alaska’s reindeer capital,” one local leader told KNOM listeners this summer.

“Don’t just give up. You got to keep trying harder and harder so you can achieve what you want to be — your goal in life.” A recent episode of KNOM’s “Caught Doing Something Good” profiled the positive outlook of rural Alaska student Demi Levi, whose determination has led her to success in the Native Youth Olympics.

In the St. Lawrence Island community of Savoonga, winter isn’t just when it gets colder and snowy: it’s also “when the Bering Sea locks up.” But in 2018, the solid sea ice upon which untold generations have depended never came. It’s a threat to food security and the subsistence way of life, says local tribal chief Delbert Pungowiyi. Into his later years, the threat of environmental “disasters” has filled Delbert with a new sense of purpose.

Just how remote is Western Alaska? As KNOM News recently reported, one local telecom provides internet to the region by using repeaters in the wilderness, powered by diesel generators that can only be refueled by helicopter.