The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica spent two years investigating sexual violence in Alaska and why the situation isn’t getting better. The project, part of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, revealed systemic problems across Alaska — and potential solutions. The series was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for public service, along with many other national and regional honors.


A related collaborative series, "Unheard," was published in 2020, giving voice to survivors of sexual violence in Alaska. It was honored with a 2021 National Magazine Award for community journalism. 

Citizens hide from active shooters as Alaska fails to deliver on 2019 promise of village troopers

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy pledged to add state troopers to villages off the road system. Two years later, many communities are still waiting. “I’m very disappointed, obviously,” one village president said.

Kyle Hopkins

Alaska requires that DNA be collected from people arrested for violent crimes. Many police agencies have ignored that.

By failing to collect those DNA samples, law enforcement has left Alaska’s DNA database with crucial gaps, allowing at least one serial rapist to go undetected.

Kyle Hopkins

After 3 years and $1.5 million devoted to testing rape kits, Alaska made one new arrest

First of two parts: In the state with the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation, testing the backlog of rape kits may not be enough. Many were from cases where the identity of the suspect was already known, or were opened only to find no usable DNA.

Kyle Hopkins

Alaska’s ‘him too’ moment: When politicians and allies come with accusations of their own

As scandals force Alaska politicians to resign, nowhere have the accusations been more severe than a remote rural district where male leaders are proving to be part of the very problems they’re supposed to be solving.

Her stepfather admitted to sexually abusing her. That wasn’t enough to keep her safe.

More than 30 years after telling a teacher that her stepfather was molesting her, Sherri Stewart is running out of time to understand why he remained free, and why she was sent back to endure more harm.

A ‘blight’ of domestic violence deaths strikes Alaska villages

In an isolated and sparsely populated region of Alaska, there were five domestic violence homicides in 10 days. The pandemic has limited emergency services, and without shelters, many say, these deaths are no surprise.

Kyle Hopkins

The woman propositioned by Alaska’s former lieutenant governor tells her story for the first time

In 2018, Jody Potts was the target of misconduct from then-Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. He resigned two days later, but the details of what happened have never been publicly told until now.

Kyle Hopkins, Michelle Theriault Boots
Alaska has the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation. These women and men did not choose to be violated, but they now choose to speak about what happened.

By Adriana Gallardo, Nadia Sussman and Agnes Chang, ProPublica, and Kyle Hopkins and Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News || Photography by Anne Raup, Loren Holmes and Marc Lester, Anchorage Daily News

Giving voice to Alaska’s unheard sexual assault survivors

Here’s what experts say to do if you experience sexual assault in Alaska

Adriana Gallardo and Nadia Sussman, ProPublica

How photographers sought to redefine the image of Alaska’s sexual assault survivors

Anne Raup, Agnes Chang

How we worked with Alaskan sexual assault survivors to tell their stories

Adriana Gallardo and Nadia Sussman, ProPublica

For decades, she blamed herself for the abuse. Writing her story was an act of survival. Publishing it was an act of rebellion.

From early childhood, Tia Wakolee believed she was at fault for being repeatedly assaulted. Then she began to chronicle her abuse on index cards arranged on her kitchen table and decided to share her truth.

Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica / Anchorage Daily News

Her addiction landed her in a prison segregation wing. The man she says abused her lives free.

Ricki Dahlin turned to a life of crime and drug addiction after being sexually abused as a child. “We’re broken. We’re trying to fix ourselves.”

Kyle Hopkins

Her attacker was stopped in the act and arrested, but this assault was only the beginning of her trauma

Everything Mary Savage did in the hours after the attack was dissected on the witness stand, an experience so upsetting she vomited. But years later, she finds comfort knowing her testimony led to his conviction.

Michelle Theriault Boots

‘They were the authority and I didn’t argue with authority’

In an era before rape kits, Sue Royston decided to fight for justice even though the police doubted her, the prosecution discouraged her, and those around her dismissed her story.

Agnes Chang, ProPublica / Anchorage Daily News

The teacher who returned to the rural Alaska village where she was abused is not staying silent

“I’m not going anywhere.” Marie Sakar tried to treat her trauma with alcohol until she learned that silence only serves to protect those who hurt her. Now, she’s back, sober and teaching in her hometown.

Michelle Theriault Boots

She was trapped at sea alone with her assailant. He told her, ‘You’re mine for the week.’

Nearly seven years ago, Cathleen stepped on a fishing boat expecting a week of hard work and good pay. Within hours of leaving shore, the captain began to touch her.

Kyle Hopkins

An opportunity to learn as our ‘Unheard’ project becomes a museum installation

An outdoor installation at the Anchorage Museum will feature 27 sexual violence survivors who chose to tell their stories publicly. "Without the stories, there is silence," the museum's director says.

Michelle Theriault Boots, Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica

A Western Alaska school district repeatedly dismissed allegations against a principal. Then an FBI agent pretended to be a 13-year-old girl.

The principal for one of Alaska’s largest rural elementary schools, in a region with some of the highest sex-crime rates in the nation and a state with a history of failing to protect students, was allowed to remain on the job until the FBI got involved.

Anchorage Daily News 'Lawless’ series wins Pulitzer Prize for Public Service

The series, reported in partnership with ProPublica, is a yearlong examination of the failures of the criminal-justice system in rural communities across Alaska.

Anchorage Daily News

Can Alaska’s VPSO program be saved? A task force suggests big changes.

State legislators will propose giving village public safety officers more flexibility and independence.

Kyle Hopkins

Six ways to fix Alaska’s law enforcement crisis

More than a third of Alaska communities have no local police of any kind. Criminals have been hired as cops in some remote villages. A federal emergency has been declared and millions of dollars are promised, but here’s what else experts recommend.

Kyle Hopkins

We found 14 villages that hired criminals as cops. Here’s what the state is doing to change that.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found small Alaska cities have employed police whose criminal records should have prevented them from being hired. Now, the state board is working to ensure they meet basic hiring standards.

Kyle Hopkins

In search of solutions to Alaska’s law enforcement crisis

We spent a year investigating how Alaska’s sexual violence crisis is compounded by a lack of law enforcement. Now, we’re looking at the system and how it can be fixed.

David Hulen, Charles Ornstein

The last police officer

Days before his death in 2005, Simeon Askoak told officials how a key Alaska rural policing program was broken. His village hasn’t had another permanent cop since.

Kyle Hopkins

Looking for Alaska’s ‘rural’ state police force? Check the fast-growing Mat-Su Borough.

Many remote Alaska villages have no law enforcement at all. But state troopers can be found in some wealthier, mainly non-Native suburbs, where growing communities have resisted paying for their own police departments.

Kyle Hopkins

Why remote Alaska communities that need cops aren’t getting them

A tiny Alaska village got a police officer. He’s never had to make an arrest. Meanwhile, larger communities with more crime have often been left behind as the state’s two-tiered policing crisis gets worse.

Kyle Hopkins

‘We can make this a better place': Iowa police round up supplies and cash to better equip an Alaska village force

After reading that Savoonga officers don’t have bulletproof vests, guns or even Tasers, an Iowa officer reached out to help.

Tess Williams

Have you experienced sexual violence in Alaska? Help us report these stories.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica have teamed up to listen. Do you work with victims, in government or law enforcement? We need to hear from you, too.

Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica, and Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News

Dozens of convicted criminals have been hired as cops in rural Alaska. Sometimes, they’re the only applicants.

In one village, every cop has been convicted of domestic violence within the past decade, including the chief. Only one has received formal law enforcement training of any kind.

Kyle Hopkins

She leapt from a van on the Kenai Peninsula to escape her rapist. Then she waited 18 years for an arrest.

Anna Sattler’s rape kit sat untested for almost 20 years as Alaska’s backlog got worse. Now, an ex-Iditarod musher faces charges, and she’s speaking publicly about the attack for the first time.

Kyle Hopkins

‘I made a change in my life’: Village police say they make a difference despite criminal records

The seven officers in Stebbins explain their criminal records and what it’s like to serve as a police officer there.

Kyle Hopkins

Clergy abused an entire generation in this village. With new traumas, justice remains elusive.

Long before city officials said they had no choice but to hire criminals as cops, justice was elusive in the Norton Sound village of Stebbins and neighboring St. Michael.

Kyle Hopkins

Lawless: One in three Alaska villages have no local police

Special report: A first-of-its-kind investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found more than 70 Alaska communities — places with some of the highest rates of sexual assault in the U.S. — have no local police protection.

Kyle Hopkins

How we tallied Alaska communities without local law enforcement

The methodology behind our investigation.

Kyle Hopkins

Why we’re investigating sexual violence in Alaska

Something has changed in the way Alaskans talk about sexual assault. A yearlong partnership between the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica aims to highlight the stories of violence and survival in the Last Frontier.

Kyle Hopkins

'Enough is enough’: Alaska Native leaders ask U.S. attorney general for help, tribal authority to make up for lack of police

Alex DeMarban, Kyle Hopkins

US attorney general declares emergency for public safety in rural Alaska, freeing up $10.5 million to support police

Alex DeMarban

Discussing Alaska’s history of sexual violence is one step toward seeking solutions

Beena Raghavendran and Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica

‘No more silence’: The kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of a 10-year-old stunned an Alaska town and helped to spur a movement

Michelle Theriault Boots