Friday, October 3, 2025

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Photo courtesy Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope / Facebook

A tribe on Alaska’s North Slope hosted an emergency management course in Utqiagvik last week.

Organizers say it’s the first for a tribe in Alaska and part of an effort to bolster coordination between communities in the Arctic during disasters.

Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more.

Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope is a regional tribe representing seven North Slope villages.

The tribe worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to host a course to prepare villages to respond to disasters.

Stephanie Nelson is the director of emergency management for the tribe. She says the training was important in light of increasing emergencies in the region and given the isolated geography of many North Slope communities.

“The outcome is enhancing the communication from all attendees and becoming better at being prepared to respond to different levels of incidences, emergencies that we face within the Arctic.”

The four-day Integrated Emergency Management Course brought together over 50 people every day.

Nelson says that two major discussions focused on scenarios similar to actual emergencies from 2022 – like Typhoon Merbok in Point Hope and a gas leak at Alpine oil field near Nuiqsut.

Participants used those examples to discuss how cities, North Slope Borough and tribal governments can work together in an emergency situation.

The course is a result of the tribe’s efforts to implement an official emergency management program. John Pennington is a professor of Homeland Security and Emergency Management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

“It’s using the strength of the Alaska Native communities that are the North Slope to improve emergency management through the lens of Alaska Natives, first and foremost.”

Pennington says that communities in the Arctic have been seeing intensifying storms and erosion.

The state of Alaska is responsible for a vast area where several communities can experience disasters at the same time. But Pennington says that the tribe’s new emergency program will also help North Slope communities to seek disaster declarations directly from the federal government when needed – which can speed up the delivery of assistance.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is operating as business-as-usual during the federal government shutdown, which started Wednesday.

The IHS says it has received advance appropriations.

Tribal leaders from across the country have been raising concerns about the shutdown.

This week, President Thora Walsh-Padilla of the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico updated her community in a social media post saying health services are operating normally. She says she’s concerned about other federal programs including Medicaid, food stamps, and Social Security, but assures the community the tribe continues its work.

“Tribal leadership has conveyed our concerns to our federal representatives and we are continually reaching out for updates as the federal budget is being developed. But please be assured we will get through this together. Our tribe will still stand strong.”

The National Congress of American Indians is also raising concerns about the government shutdown, and has posted a resources page online for tribes.

Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona sent his condolences on behalf of the tribe to the family, colleagues and friends of Dr. Jane Goodall.

The well-known primatologist passed away this week at age 91.

She spent time on the Gila River Indian reservation on Earth Day.

Lewis says she reached out to young people.

“To encourage them to be leaders, to be protectors of our water, of our land, of our wildlife, and of our planet.”

Lewis says the tribe looks forward to carrying on her legacy of conservation.

 

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