"Nikolai"

Every tribe, even if it has just a few members and an administrator, was eligible for at least $2.64 million in American Rescue Plan funds.

Race officials have begun tracing who Johnson may have had close contact with over the last 300 miles of trail and multiple checkpoints.

Gunnar Johnson of Minnesota tested positive for COVID-19 at the checkpoint in McGrath, near race mile 310, more than a third of the way into the Iditarod.

There’s required testing and face masks, plus a shorter trail and a smaller group of mushers signed up to compete.

With temperatures plunging deep into the negatives on Tuesday, mushers and dogs sported a coating of frost when they pulled into Nikolai, a small village about a quarter of the way into the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Housing in Nikolai, a village of about 100 people on the south fork of the Kuskokwim River, is scarce. It’s expensive and difficult to get building supplies there.

Efforts to establish tribal co-management of Kuskokwim salmon are slowly progressing.