"Gambell"

The fall whaling season in Utqiagvik didn’t happen last year — veteran whalers said they had never gone that long without seeing a bowhead whale near Point Barrow during that time.

So far, the community has gotten three emergency fuel deliveries via airplane at 3,900 gallons a piece. But, it’s expensive.

Since late October, KNOM has reported on four incidents in which Alaska State Troopers responded but did not post an online public dispatch. A spokesperson cited trooper workload as a reason.

More than 50 years after the federal government forced hundreds of Native Alaskans into boarding schools, their descendants are haunted by — and trying to overcome —residual trauma.

Families and community members on St. Lawrence Island will be eating bowhead whale this week after a local hunter caught Gambell’s second whale of the season Monday night.

To many, ivory means dead elephants wasting away in the sun. “What they don’t see is walrus ivory, legal harvest, food on the table, economic benefit to rural Alaskans,” says biologist Gay Sheffield.

“It concerns me and it frustrates me that I’m seeing a number of cuts targeted toward rural Alaska. I think things are shaping up to be a real showdown here. It’s not going to get any prettier from here on out.”

The focus of the talks across the Norton Sound are broad, but discussions at Nome’s Pioneer Hall brought local providers face to face with the heads of major state agencies, forcing many to confront uncomfortable truths.

This summer 16-year-old Wallace Ungwiluk has a decision to make: stay home and try to win Gambell its first championship in 30 years or move to Seattle and get seen by college scouts.

Four communities affected by this spring’s poor walrus harvest will soon receive 10,000 pounds of halibut from a nonprofit that supplies seafood to hunger-relief efforts.