Portraits from Shishmaref: Alaska village still home despite climate threat (Photos and stories by jaethephotog and LuisAndresHenao of AP)
Ned Ahgupuk and girlfriend Kelsi Rock, stand for a photo with their 1-year-old son Steve Rock-Ahgupuk while strolling along the beach on the Arctic Ocean in Shishmaref, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022."We've been here all our lives," said Ahgupuk. He said climate change is a concern but he won't leave the island."Everyone is like a big family caring for each other."
Her home and the traditional lifestyle kept for thousands of years is in peril, vulnerable to the effects of climate change with rising sea levels, erosion and the loss of protective sea ice.So much has been lost over time that residents have voted twice to relocate. But Shishmaref remains in the same place. The relocation is too costly. In this Inupiat village of 600 residents live mostly off subsistence hunting of seals, fishing and berry picking.
“I know we gotta move sometime,” Mary said about a relocation that at times seems inevitable. “Water is rising and this island is getting smaller.”Shishmaref is located on an island that is a quarter mile wide and about three miles long. It is one of dozens of Alaska villages that are under threat from climate change.
“It’s really sad to see our native land go and disappear into the ocean,” she said. “I want to stay here where we were raised and born -- and we know how to survive.”The Rev. Aaron Silco, and his wife, Anna, who are pastors at the Shishmaref Lutheran Church, stand for a photo with their two-month-old son, Aidan, in a cemetery next to the church. Sitting on their ATVs, seal hunters John Kokeok, right, and Ralph Olanna share a light moment before pulling a boat into the water.