BIA to send $20,000 to aid Emmonak

The money is meant to help villagers who are struggling to pay for food and fuel after a poor fishing season in the Yup'ik community of 800 people.

Donations of cash and food poured into Emmonak in recent weeks after a local man wrote a letter describing his neighbors' plight, and the story circulated across the Internet and mass media. The Emmonak Tribal Council -- which has been handling donations -- will distribute the BIA money to local households, according to Murkowski's office.

Murkowski had asked a BIA official about federal aid for Emmonak at a Senate committee hearing in mid-January.

The next month, Sen. Mark Begich traveled to Bethel with BIA regional director Niles Cesar. There, Cesar first told village leaders in a video conference that money was on the way -- though it was unclear how much at the time.

High fuel costs this winter rocked Western Alaska, where least six villages had higher heating fuel and gasoline prices than Emmonak as of November, according to figures compiled by the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development.

Emmonak is the only village getting the emergency BIA money -- for now -- because it's the place that applied for it, said Murkowski spokesman Michael Brumas.

The bureau sends money to Emmonak every year, according to Murkowski's office, but the $20,000 represents a special infusion of cash.

Citing high heating fuel costs, the BIA waived income requirements to allow more people in the village to qualify for the payments of up to $1,000, according to Begich.

Cesar said in February that he was requesting a similar waiver for 56 villages in Western Alaska and 11 in the Northwest Arctic, according to Begich.

Begich and Murkowski say they both support the request.

No one at the Alaska BIA office returned phone messages.

Find Kyle Hopkins online at adn.com/contact/khopkins or call him at 257-4334.