• Population: 357

• Location: The Bering Sea coast, on the bank of the Ninglick River, 94 miles northwest of Bethel.

• History: The Newtok people’s ancestors have lived in the Nelson Island region for at least 2,000 years. As late as 1936, people lived in small, semi-subterranean sod houses, using seal oil for cooking and heat. Local leaders say the village was relocated from the nearby community of Old Kealavik in 1940s and 1950s to escape flooding, and because the federal government needed a site closer to the ocean in order to ship materials for a school.

• Newtok today: Nearly 97 percent of the population remains Alaska Native. The village has retained many Yup’ik Eskimo customs and traditions because of relatively little outside influence compared to other parts of the state. Families rely on subsistence hunting and fishing for food and Yup’ik is spoken in a majority of homes.

The city government was dissolved in 1997. There is a tribal council. The sale or importation of alcohol is forbidden. There is cell phone service and cable television but no cars, roads and — in all but a few buildings — no indoor plumbing.

The move: The swelling Ninglick River is eroding the Newtok shore at an average of at least 72 feet a year, threatening homes, the school and the water supply. Erosion has swallowed coastline that served as natural protection from sea storms, exposing the town to floods.

The Newtok barge landing and landfill have already eroded, with the river expected to reach village buildings between 2012 and 2017.

Village leaders and government planners hope to move the entire town as soon as possible to a new site, nine miles across the Ninglick River on Nelson Island.

Cost: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates the move could cost $80 million to $130 million.

Source: Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development and Newtok Tribal Administrator Stanley Tom.

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