The ground is swallowing homes in this Native village in Alaska. Residents have no choice but to move | Alaska

Cchildren splash happily in the river while adults cast fishing lines or head out onto the Alaskan tundra to hunt. It’s a scene that has characterized summer days for centuries among the Yup’ik people who have long lived in southwest Alaska, where the village of Nunapitchuk is located. But with temperatures in Alaska warming nearly four times faster than in most parts of the globe, that way of life is about to change.

Nunapitchuk’s homes sank into the permafrost and residents decided their only choice was to move the entire village to higher ground.

When the permafrost beneath Nunapitchuk melts, it mixes with the soil, creating an unstable, mud-like substance that locals call “the quicksand of Alaska.” The phenomenon, associated with rapid coastal erosion, has dangerously damaged the village’s key infrastructure.

After a typhoon in October damaged power lines and raised the waterline even higher, Morris Alexie, Nunapitchuk’s former tribal administrator, said the village needed help more than ever.

“With global warming, life has become worse. It’s even worse for us trying to maintain our livelihoods,” Alexie said. “Everywhere you look you will see leaning houses filled with people. They are starting to touch the ground and the houses are getting very close to the banks of the river.”

Nunapitchuk is just one of 144 Alaska Native villages that will need to relocate due to infrastructure damage caused by the climate crisis, according to a 2020 report from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Edna Chase, a 60-year-old mother from Nunapitchuk, is one of about 750 residents whose homes have begun to sink into the ground, making her home of 53 years almost impossible to live in.

“There’s no foundation anymore, it’s underground,” Chase said, pointing to his ground. Every 15 minutes, a makeshift machine pumps water from under the house to prevent it from flooding.

Chase’s life revolves around keeping her house dry for herself and her 15-year-old son. She wrote Bible verses on her refrigerator, door and walls to keep her faith that one day everything will be better.

The village’s problems don’t stop with the leaning houses. Its ground is so unstable that the only way to get around is via boardwalks, which are in constant need of repair. Nunapitchuk’s only playing field, a basketball court raised above the ground, is full of holes.

Nunapitchuk voted collectively in 2023 to move to another location three miles away. Alexie is responsible for leading the relocation efforts and said the new location is on sand rather than dirt, meaning it could last for centuries.

“It would be a joy, it would be a relief because as you can see it’s dry and high here,” he said.

Estimates show relocating Nunapitchuk could cost about $230 million, but the village has only raised a fraction of that. In 2022, Nunapitchuk received $2.2 million to repair a police station and in 2024 the Bureau of Indian Affairs awarded him $250,000 to design a master relocation plan.

During his term, Joe Biden began to pay more attention to the issue of climate offshoring. From 2021 to 2024, the then-president hosted the White House Tribal Nations Summit, during which 574 tribes, including Nunapitchuk residents, met with the administration to demand action. In 2022, the Department of the Interior created the Community-Led Voluntary Resettlement Program to support climate resettlement and planning efforts for tribal communities.

The Biden administration set aside more than $560 million to help tribes address the climate crisis, including through relocation, but earlier this year the Trump administration froze $100 million intended for these communities before it was distributed.

“It seemed like we were taking a few steps forward and then it felt like a step back,” Alexie said.

Melissa Shapiro, a policy advocate and attorney at Woodwell Climate, said that while the Trump administration posed additional funding challenges for Nunapitchuk, the problem extends beyond this administration.

“It’s a systematic problem.” » said Shapiro. “The Trump administration is certainly not in favor of supporting climate adaptation. It has obviously destabilized and weakened a lot of that support, but it’s not like anything is in place.”

Besides the lack of federal aid, one of the biggest obstacles is the absence of a governing authority to coordinate tribal relocations, said Alfredo Gómez, director of the natural resources and environment team at the Government Accountability Office (GOA).

More than 20 different federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Bureau of Indian Affairs, Denali Commission, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Army Corps of Engineers and others, each have a different role to play in the resettlement process.

Since 2009, GAO has made numerous recommendations to Congress on how to address climate relocation, but none have been fully implemented.

“It’s a piecemeal approach and it doesn’t work well,” Gómez said. “Our recommendations are that a federal entity should be responsible for coordinating and assisting the community in taking these steps.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the administration’s funding cuts or lack of federal coordination on resettlement efforts.

Even in Alaska, climate relocation does not seem to be a concern in much of the political landscape. CJ McCormick represented Alaska’s 38th District in the State House of Representatives for two years. During his tenure, he witnessed strong political resistance to climate reshoring, both at the state and national levels.

“There are solutions to this problem that are being overlooked because of bureaucracy and, frankly, willful ignorance,” McCormick said. “Even the “best” administrations have only done the bare minimum. »

Meanwhile, thawing permafrost is creating a host of health problems, residents say.

Thawing permafrost has damaged the foundations of homes to the extent that gaps in walls and floors allow water and air to infiltrate, creating ideal conditions for black mold to grow. More than 15 percent of Nunapitchuk residents have asthma and more than 10 percent have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to a 2023 study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Additionally, due to unstable soil, residents cannot build new homes, even as Nunapitchuk’s population increases. According to the same University of Alaska study, about 70 percent of people live in crowded spaces, nearly 20 times the national rate.

Additionally, the banks of the sewage pond and landfill are eroding, allowing sewage to seep into the river. Both are upstream of the village. The waste flows downstream to areas where children swim and people fish for subsistence. Everything from battery acid to human waste is poisoning the river.

Not only the health of the village and its inhabitants, but also the entire culture of the Yup’ik people are in danger.

“What we want to preserve is the way of life that we have known since the dawn of time. It’s about retaining our indigenous heritage, our traditions and our culture,” Morris said.

For the Yup’ik people, moving to town is not an option, as it would require 700 people to abandon their community and the way of life that has sustained them for centuries.

“This is my home. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” said James Berlin, the village’s longtime mayor and Alexie’s uncle. “Unless we move to another place.”

In November, at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, Cop30, Alexie plans to address the international community on what it means to live in a sinking village.