U.S. 2020 Census Begins in Remote Alaskan Town

The U.S. 2020 census begins this week in rural Alaska. The first count will be conducted Tuesday in Toksook Bay, located on Nelson Island just off Alaska's western coast.

The census always starts in remote parts of the nation's largest state out of tradition and necessity. It's easier for census workers to travel on frozen ground than after the thaw.

Plus, they are likely to get more residents, who tend to leave for hunting and fishing grounds after the thaw.

The decennial U.S. census has started in rural Alaska, out of tradition and necessity, ever since the U.S. purchased the territory from Russia in 1867.

The frozen ground also allows easier access before the spring melt makes many areas inaccessible to travel and residents scatter to subsistence hunting and fishing grounds.

The mail service is spotty in rural Alaska and the internet connectivity unreliable, which makes door-to-door surveying important.

The rest of the nation, including more urban areas of Alaska, begin the census in mid-March.

Lizzie Chimiugak has lived for 90 years in the windswept western wilds of Alaska, born to a nomadic family who lived in mud homes and followed where the good hunting and fishing led.

Her home now is an outpost on the Bering Sea, Toksook Bay, and she is about to become the most well-known woman in the tiny town, where at 90 she is considered an elder.

She will be the first person counted in the U.S. Census, taken every 10 years to apportion representation in Congress and federal money.

"I'm still happy I'm alive and I appreciate that I'm going to be the first person to be counted in the census," Lizzie Chimiugak said, speaking Yup'ik language of Yugtun, with family members serving as interpreters.

On Tuesday, Steven Dillingham, director of the census bureau, will conduct the first interview. Because of federal privacy laws, the bureau won’t even confirm Chimiugak will be the first person counted, even though it’s the worst kept secret in her hometown.

Chimiugak was born just after the start of the Great Depression in the middle of nowhere in western Alaska, her daughter Katie Schwartz of Springfield, Missouri, said. Lizzie was one of 10 siblings born to her parents, who lived a nomadic lifestyle and traveled with two or three other families that would migrate together, her son said.

Lizzie and her 101-year-old sister from Nightmute, Alaska, survive.

After the count in Toksook Bay, a celebration is planned at Nelson Island School, and will include local Alaska Native dancers and traditional food, which could include seal, walrus, musk ox and moose.

Robert Pitka, tribal administrator for Nunakauyak Traditional Council, hopes the takeaway message for the rest of the nation is of Yup’ik pride.

“We are Yup'ik people and that the world will see that we are very strong in our culture and our traditions and that our Yup'ik language is very strong,” Pitka said.

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