A Cry for Help from Rural Alaska. Where Is Sarah Palin?

Four days ago, a cry for help went out from rural Alaska via the Bristol Bay Times. Many of us have known that residents of Alaska's rural villages are having a hard winter. The weather has been unusually cold this year, and prices of heating oil and gasoline have been astronomical. Add to that a disastrous collapsing salmon fishery in Bristol Bay that left residents in that area heading in to winter with less than usual, and you have the makings for a humanitarian crisis.

So in desperation, Nicholas Tucker, from the Village of Emmonak (eh-MON-eck) sent out a cry for help. With 21 days left in the month, Mr. Tucker had only $440 left to feed and keep his family of nine warm, with heating oil at $7.83/gallon. As Emmonak runs out of fuel, it will have to be flown in, potentially raising the price to $9/gallon or more. While contemplating his own plight, he wondered how many other families of the 800 living in his village were having similar hard times. So he sent out a message on his VHF radio, asking his neighbors how they were doing. Twenty five answers came. Here are a few:

G. & K. F.: Young couple with family of five. Wife is unable to sleep and stressed out not knowing when they will be able get their next heating fuel. A 100-lb. bottle of propane gas that usually lasts four months is now lasting only two months because they use it to heat water. This costs them $200 every two weeks. They do not have hot water heater. Wife has very little income and uses $375, the one-half of her gross income every two weeks, to get heating fuel. She has no food for her family sometimes, because, she has to split the rest of what little is left for water/sewer and electricity. Gasoline for her 4-wheeler is very expensive. Her parents help her with food and firewood. They cannot afford a snowmachine or a boat to get logs. Heating fuel and propane is taking her food money away. Her added worry is that the village native corporation is running out of heating fuel and is being airlifted in. New cost is expected to be near $9 - $11 per gallon or higher.

P. R: Single, separated, with five children. (He chokes occasionally, holding back crying.) He and his children are staying in the same household with his brother's family. Cost of fuel is so high and everything else and we're able to get just a few things at a time. We have no other subsistence food left. Only thing we're surviving on moose meat alone and it is almost gone. Everything is so high - only able to get little bit. We can't catch up on our bills. We're really hurting even we are given some from other people. Right now, we can't eat during the day, only at supper time. And, it is still not enough. If there had been no school lunch, our kids would be starving. It is going to get worse in two weeks when our new heating fuel supply is airlifted in. Price of fuel will go way up again. I am lucky that the Women's Shelter is able to give me some coffee.

A. & L. M.. Middle-aged couple, family of eight. Family is buying heating fuel over food all this winter. They have no choice. Wife has a part time job. Husband's health, including a bad back, is preventing work - had lost his last job due to health.

T. U., boyfriend and children: Having hard time getting food and pampers and is on-call work. Getting food from elderly parents. Buying heating fuel over food. No food once in a while and having to cook whatever is on hand like rice. Sometimes, having to cook only moose for a whole week because there is nothing else to eat. There are days when there is nothing for breakfast and lunch and have to eat only one dinner meal a day.

Hearing these stories from his friends and neighbors, Nick Turner sent a letter to the Bristol Bay Times; a message in a bottle, asking for someone to help.

It is easy when we sit hundreds or thousands of miles away, to feel detached from the troubles of a small Alaskan village. If we were able to imagine ourselves living in such an isolated rural setting with these challenges, and were to imagine that we had five children whom we loved, and whose care rested upon us, what would we do? And if we were able to feel the desperation of these parents when the choice came to decide whether to keep their children warm or keep them fed, knowing that they couldn't do both, and that there was no end in sight, what would we do? In his letter, Nick Turner says:

I am reaching out for these families. Help is needed and cannot be delayed. I cannot imagine so many in this village are in hunger, without fuel, and other essentials and uncertain about their future. What is mind boggling about the whole situation is that they have remained silent, anonymous, suffered, and cried. The four villages in this region are in close proximity to each other and the demography is the same. Is this going on in your village?

This is not the time for any debates or questions. The winter-long anomaly in the weather, conditions, and the situation are beyond our control.

There are approximately 200 households of the 847 residents here. In just a day and half, I was able to reach only 25 households. Are as many as 175 more remaining silent? In appearance, the heads of these 25 households look normal. I am devastated from the revelation of these few houses contacted. Additionally, how many of those who are able to work are without jobs? Easily, staggering 400 plus! Some other households are still calling, but I have few hours to print this report for my testimony during today's fuel summit.

Though it may sound absurd, a massive airlift of food in the months of January, February, March and April will help our people. Any peoples, churches, organizations, associations, and government agencies ought to sent money to our native corporations to offset both the current fuel prices and the airlift presently underway. For over thirty years, we have witnessed in our region that our native corporations are just like people. They have limited income and their expenses have always been high. Why? Our Wade Hampton district has always been the most economically depressed than that of both our nation and state. We are in the most remote area of our state.

So, what is the state of Alaska doing to help its citizens as they face these conditions of scarcity that are beyond what many of us can imagine? The answer is, nothing. According to Mr. Tucker the lack of heating oil and food and the resulting threat to life did not count as an emergency to the State of Alaska.

A question. Where is our Governor? What are her priorities? I have heard her concerns about anonymous bloggers, about media coverage, about the legislature, and the gas line. I have seen a press release come out saying "There you go again" to the Anchorage Daily News. I haves seen lots of time and energy focused on how Sarah Palin feels mistreated by the media. But I have not heard one, single, solitary word about Emmonak. I have seen no press releases about what my state's government is doing to help its people in harm's way who are cold and hungry. I have heard big talk about a Rural Subcabinet headed up by our Attorney General, Talis Colberg, and I've heard that they're busy evaluating.

Colberg stated that so far the subcabinet has been in preliminary meetings to look at programs that are already in place and discussing how to gather information, what topics should be focused on, how the group will be structured and what support they could rely on. The group has no fixed meeting time and the date of their next meeting is unknown.

So, if our governor can't seem to get her eyes off the mirror, and her head out of 2012, and if the State of Alaska doesn't consider this an "emergency", then what is to be done?

The answer lies, where many answers lie, with us.

For information on how to help, click HERE.

Comments

[RayinAlaska]

I see that most of you have no idea about what the State of Alaska has done to help those who need help heating their homes, including Alaskans living in remote locations, so I will try to shed some light:

In 2008, Governor Palin and the Alaska Legislature came to an agreement to provide every Alaska resident, regardless of age, with a $1,200 energy rebate to help with the high cost of fuel. This sum of money was received by every Alaskan last year. Also, every Alaskan resident received a Permanent Fund check for the sum of a little over $2,000. The Permanent Fund Dividend had nothing to do with the energy rebate, however. So, lest say that there was a "poor" (or rich) family of four in a village somewhere. In this case, this family received over $12,000 by October last year, which should have been plenty for paying for heating fuel and such. And yes, the Federal Government took a portion of this money in the form of a tax :)

But that's not all. In Alaska, those who qualify can receive monetary assistance to aid with the high cost of fuel. All a person has to do is to apply for it here:
http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dpa/programs/hap/

Ray

[ak girl 79]

Yep, got the PFD and the rebate, thanks! HOWEVER, that was 5 months ago (The PFD was released in August for most), and that $12K for a family of four doesn't go as far as you would like to think it does!

Fill oil tank for 5 months @ $11 a gallon - check
Buy food for five months - check
Buy medications for five months - check
Fill oil tank @ $11 a gallon again - wait, I'm out of savings!

Keep in mind that in the villages, a gallon of milk can cost upwards of $10! (That's just one example of higher cost necessities!)

Oh, and the heating assistance provided by Public Assistance, got that too! Thanks! But you can only qualify for so much, and when that's gone, it's gone.

Emmonak- The citizens of the capital city (Juneau) hear you and we sympathize. I'd ask her what she was going to do for you, unfortunately Sarah isn't here, she's in Wasilla, collecting per diem for staying at home!

[Little Angel]

ok. so we got some money in 2008, and thanks - it DID help. Please keep in mind the majority of us don't live in energy efficient homes and burn close to FIVE gallons of heating fuel per day... I must say that I can't speak for others but my home burns 5 gals a day!!! NO LIE!!! Heating fuel here is over $7 per gal. SO basically, in ONE month alone I'm spending well over $1000 to keep my kids warm. My light bill - which is separate from the heating fuel - is $300 a month... NO LIE!!! Water and sewer bill, $80 a month, rent - $300. And all this AFTER I have done ALL I can to conserve. ie. keeping thermostat low, scheduling bath/shower nights on certain days of the week, using power strips so I can have all electronics off during the night, etc. The list of bills don't include food, water, diapers, gas, etc. Your right about the monetary assistance offered by the state of AK - there IS assistance out there. I have applied before and the amount of assistance would be enough to last a week and is a ONE TIME ONLY deal. So your right that helps too. Just not as much as you think. Granted everyone is able to apply every year for the assistance, it still just isn't enough. Thanks for your opinion though, one has to laugh at the ignorance of some to keep a sane mind. Thanks

[2008CaliforniaFan]

ADN also mentions Palin may have as much as a Bill ion dollar State budget deficit.
Way to govern Guv.
http://www.adn.com/news/government/legislature/story/658642.html

[WenJ]

In today's ADN article it appears Palin still has little or no interest in the dire plight of these people. She is off to have her big premier on the Glenn Beck show and, well, she just doesn't have time to let a starving few Native villages mess up her big spotlight interview with softball questions. Please, will someone who reads this get it to the major news organizations. I'm another one of those pajama wearing bloggers (I don't have a basement) or as Palin says 'anonymous annoying bloggers'. This woman, whose job it is to protect and care for her constituents, is blinded by the mirrors in her house and is probably sitting on her couch, warm and well fed, while watching recordings of all her 'magnificent' (ugh) rally speeches. I wonder if her arms are long enough to pat herself on the back. Emmonak, we are doing what we can to step up to the plate, since the dreadful governor says "let them eat cake".

[Struggling in Nunam Iqua]

It’s not just Emmonak that is struggling it’s the entire Yukon Delta.

I live in Nunam Iqua, a village that is 25 miles south of Emmonak. Not only are we faced with the same issues as Emmonak but also our crisis is harder because we no longer have a store here. Our trading post colapsed several months ago, so we have no place here to get groceries.

So not only are we struggling between choosing heating fuel or food but also we have to spend even MORE MONEY to buy gas to travel upriver to Emmonak or Alakanuk to even get food. Which is very expensive when you have pay $7.20 a gallon for gas. It takes atleast 6 gallons of gas just to travel by snowmachine to Emmonak or Alakanuk to even get groceries.

So that takes that much more money away from what we have to spend on heating fuel and food. We try to reduce our heating fuel costs by using our wood stove but then are we really saving money? because we still have to spend money on gas to go and get wood for our wood stove.

Everyone, especially Govenor Palin, needs to realize that it’s not just Emmonak residents that are suffering! We need help in all of the YK Delta villages!

[Struggling in Nunam Iqua]

I complied a list of everyone here in Nunam Iqua. I spoke to every household here and Have a list of what is needed. I got permission for my Youth Center to receive/distribute any donations that come in.

So they can be mailed to:

Ann Strongheart
Nunam Iqua Program for Youth
c/o City of Nunam Iqua
101 Mudd Street
P.O. Box 26
Nunam Iqua, AK 99666

OR if you would like to send boxes directly to needy families I have a list of families including their family size and needs and their PO Box #’s you can email me at [e-mail] if you would like a copy.
Here is a list of things that are desperately needed, since we have no store here in Nunam Iqua we are really struggling to get food and groceries here.If you would prefer to send a check you can make it payable to:

City of Nunam Iqua
and send it to the above address.

Here’s the list:

Diapers Sizes 1, 3, & 6
Similac Advanced Formula Powder
Canned Evaporated Milk
Dry Powdered Milk
Baby Cereal
Baby Food
Powdered Eggs
Crackers ( Sailor Boy Pilot Bread unsalted tops are the most used here)
Rice (minute rice)
Noodles
Peanut Butter
Honey
Jam
Juice
TOILET PAPER (everyone is running out)
Flour
Sugar
Coffee
Cereal
Crisco
Coffee Creamer
Pancake Mix
Tea
Canned Vegetables
Dried Fruit
Instant Soups
Ramen Noodles
Cup a noodles Just basic pantry staples. Even salt, pepper, etc.

[Struggling in Nunam Iqua]

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. We greatly appreciate it. Again if you have any questions or what more information please feel free to contact me at [e-mail]

I know there have been references to scams so please feel free to look us up online. Nunam Iqua Program for Youth. I was featured on NAC, Native America Calling last year addressing underage drinking in the Bush. And we are listed with the State of AK as one of their grantees. So you can verify the mailing address and email adress I provided.

Sincerely grateful,

Ann Strongheart
Project Director/Supervisor
Nunam Iqua Program for Youth
[phone]

[Struggling in Nunam Iqua]

ok b/c it was so big it posted that backwards, so please read from the bottom reply up to this one. Sorry new to blogging :-D Ann

[kylennblack]

I called Emmonak and made a donation yesterday. The people at the office up there are very nice and very charming.

I'm upset by this and so are my Alaskan and Alaskan-adjacent family and friends (my dad is particularly upset about the neglect of the natives).

It's sad that one anonymous blogger in PJ's armed with only a keyboard and credit card has done more in five minutes to help those people than Palin and her $200,000 wardrobe have done in two years.

[Bodie P]

I've been following this story since I first read about it on the Mudflats blog. I must say I am utterly appalled. It's indecent, that in a rich state in a rich nation people are having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children, living on one meal a day, and relying on school lunch programs to keep their children from starving. While it's wonderful that Venezuela has provided some heating oil to the villages, does no one else see the irony? Alaska produces oil. Lots of oil. And to stay warm, rural Alaskans must rely on foreign aid from South America? (As I said, I've been reading newspapers today.) And in spite of the fact that the villages are facing a terrible, degenerating situation, they do not qualify for disaster relief? (I discovered this was because apparently the high oil costs and the failure of the King salmon fishery don't qualify as "natural disasters.­) I wonder why the anomalous cold-since­-September weather doesn't qualify?

[KayJay90]

Alex DeMarban of The Tundra Drums wrote:
http://www.thetundradrums.com/news/show/4595

January 16, 2009 at 10:25AM AKST

State officials are discussing ways to help Emmonak Friday morning but state disaster assistance may not be available for the village, a state official said. “There’s just too many details to be talking about...di­saster relief,” said Tara Jollie, head of the Division of Community and Regional Affairs. “The message needs to be that what we’re trying to do is...find out what options are available and we’re assessing the information,” Jollie said in an interview this morning, Jan. 16. Officials with state agencies are holding a teleconference meeting that will launch their effort to study the situation and look for ways to help, she said.

The meeting has been promoted and directed by Gov. Sarah Palin, and will include members of the rural affairs subcabinet Palin created, Jollie said. Jollie could not say whether Emmonak could qualify for disaster relief. The rules are complicated. Bristol Bay fisheries in the 1990s were declared an economic disaster, but only after a year of debate by experts, she said. [there MAY be help in a week].

Jollie also said she is troubled by media coverage that Gov. Sarah Palin is sitting idle despite the cry for help in the...vill­age of 800. Palin has been engaged in mobilizing staff and orchestrated the response, Jollie said. “It’s a priority for her,” she said. “She’s been asking for updates and information, all week..."

[KayJay90]

I would have put a disclaimer at the bottom of this story saying I don't believe for a minute that Sarah Palin has been promoting and directing the teleconference meeting, that she's been engaged in mobilizing staff and orchestrating the response -- in fact, reading through that report, one might ask, WHAT RESPONSE???

Nah, what I think really happened in this past 3 days when the "lazy pathetic anonymous bloggers" raised $6,500 to help Emmonak, she blew her stack again and ran around her Anchorage office alternating packing her stuff to leave for Juneau and screaming, "wherethehell is that Rural Advisor? Oh....that­'s right...we haven't filled the position yet....oh, yeah, I hired some more PR people to line up more conservative talk-show interviews­...(oops)"

[stella801]

This is just pathetic and I'm hoping the MSM will pick up on this. Where are they????

[hopefullee]

I wish this story was still in the headlines. As of now, it doesn't look like the state of AK is doing anything. I just called and made a very small donation (all I could afford) so I hope anyone else who can donate will do so. This is the number:

City of Emmonak, [phone]/1249 (They will take donations by credit card. Please specify the donation is for heating oil!)

Every little bit helps.

[stella801]

Thanks for the number. I will be sending my donation tonight.

I tried donating at the mudflats link but it didn't work. It kept kicking me out and said I couldn't use my # as it belonged to a paypal member. I AM NOT A PAYPAL MEMBER, so I don't know what that is about. I tried 3 times, so now I will call this number.

Thanks again...

[stella801]

I just sent an email to Palin at the governor's office asking her why her office is not doing anything about this. Do you think I'll get a reply?

This really needs to bubble up to the top of the headlines. Spread the word and email this story to all media that you can!

[Reg Guard]

I've sent an e-mail to Palin when the story first broke and I haven't received a reply. She's too busy giving interviews, I guess...

To make a donation, please visit

http://www.themudflats.net/2009/01/15/alaskas-rural-villages-in-crisis-update/

[stella801]

Has this story received any national attention? Unbelievable! Sarah Palin is showing her true leadership qualities and compassion.

[Anare]

I read about this days ago and I thought this would be all over the MSM. What can we do to spread the word that there are American citizens freezing and starving in Alaska and all they are getting from their perfectly coiffed governor is stony silence. This needs to be in the headlines!

[maninthebooth]

I just sent a check to: Emmonak Tribal Council PO Box 126 Emmonak, AK 99581attn:Christine Alexie. How about my fellow HuffPostites joining me?

[18wheeler]

Just checked ADN.com and nobody from the AK guv. office giving straight answers about this emergency.­.. "Don't know, not sure, studying, watching..­. blablabla.­.." Geez! They knew about what was coming back in October... Mavericky way of caring for your own...

[clamperken]

"I'll have to get back to ya on that one. Ya betcha by golly" *wink, wink*

[lslusher]

sarah palin doesnt care about native alaskins. they can change that in the voting booth.

[okaasan3]

Actually the majority of Alaska Natives are democrats and in this 2008 election rural Alaska voted for Obama. Unfortunately we only account for 20% of the Alaskan population.

[Raleigh Dave]

Sarah is spending all of her time whining about losing the election, I would imagine the Sarah doesn't think Emmonak is real America.

When did you ever see a losing candidate spend more time in the spotlight than Sarah Palin, she has absolutely no moral compass what-so-ever. It was one thing to derail Obama's popularity a day after his nomination, that is just politics, but to try to take the spot light away from him after you lost to him, that is downright pathetic.

[OB08]

Could someone email this to Rachel and Olberman

[18wheeler]

It's been done. Check out themudflats.net, AKM has the newest on this situation, including Rachel calling a local radio station this a.m. Bravo to the bloggers!!! (In my PJs, no basement thou...)

[indy girl]

Wow--finally TODAY Alaska's government is starting to wake up to the disaster that is Emmanak. In the meantime we "pathetic bloggers" have already provided thousands in disaster relief, and we didn't have to form a study group and analyze reports to do it, either.

Sarah "2012!" Palin needs to get her priorities straight. Her job is to serve the people of Alaska, period. Not to jet-set around the lower 48; not to do interviews whining about her children have been called dropouts (okay, honey, sure! WHATEVER); not to rehash an election in which a door was most definitely slammed in her face, and not to work on her Delusional Presidential Candidacy Campaign for 2012. The woman needs to Govern Alaska, and do a ***really good job of it*** for the rest of her term. Anything else she does is just making her look more desperate and clueless.

[mbh78213]

SP loves running for office, but she is not interested in actually doing the job that comes with the office. As soon as the election is over, she sets her sights on a higher office to run for. She is so busy preparing her 2012 presidential candidacy that she seems to have forgotten that she still has a job to do.

[inmyopinion]

Truer words never spoken, or I guess written.